Okay, this book was super predictable yet super cute, and I really enjoyed reading it. I flew through it! I really like Sadie’s POV and understanding from her side how this diagnosis affected her and her life/livelihood. I loved her found family with the Kims and how they loved her and helped her. Getting to see the relationship with Joe blossom was sweet.

I knew I’d enjoy this story because I enjoyed The Bodyguard, and I loved how different this story was that I am used to.

Why oh why did I put off reading this book? It was an absolute delight! Katherine Center is definitely one of my favorite romcom authors and HELLO STRANGER is my new favorite.

First of all, where can I buy a Pajanket? Because I need that in my life. Second, this story was full of so many emotions but it was still lighthearted and fun. I loved every page.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center. ⭐⭐⭐

This is a slow burn which builds up to the final.
Sadie who has face blindness must rely of her other senses, which only gets her in trouble. The message I got from this book is this... Don't judge a book by its cover. Get the full story before making judgement.

I received Dan advanced copy of this book for my honest review from NetGalley

“Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness.”

This book was a DELIGHT.

I might have liked it even better than The Bodyguard, which is saying something.

The characters were fantastic, the plot of prosopagnosia was clear, and interesting, without being tedious, and THERE WAS A DOG.

Was the ending predictable? Sure, but it was also SATISFYING – exactly what I wanted.

My only complaint was that I do wish the step-sister got more of a karmic b!tch-slap.

8/10

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for this gratifying ARC.

Another knock out of the park for Katherine Center. Getting lost in Sadie’s world was such a cathartic dose of reality that everyone can relate to in some capacity from money woes, career crisis, to finding out about a her medical emergency! This isn’t my first Center book and I can see why; her books are light and easy reads. Overall this was joy to read and I can’t wait for more!!

This was super cute! I love Katherine Center books, but I’d say The Bodyguard and Things You Save in a Fire are still my favorites. This one was a delight to read, although I think the ending was broadcast from a mile away. If that could have taken me a little more by surprise, I think it would have been a 5 star!

I think this is a unique read that is a great beach read if you are looking for something light that will make you smile!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the copy in exchange for my honest review!

I had not heard of prosopagnosia before reading this book. It provides for a very different plot device and brings awareness to face blindness. Sadie is a portrait artist and just found out that she is a finalist in an important contest. After having a seizure while crossing a road and being saved from being run over by a good samaritan, it is discovered that she has a life threatening lesion in her brain. Swelling after the surgery leads to Sadie having face blindness. I was really intrigued by this storyline and the affect that this has on how you interact with people. It kept me reading to find out how it all worked out between the contest and other people in her life.

I received a copy of this book to review through NetGalley and thoroughly enjoyed it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61884987

Grateful for the opportunity to read this new book from one of my favorite writers prior to it being released. Hello, Stranger is another great one from Katherine Center. The thing I appreciate the most is that her books will give you not only a love story but also a story about personal growth. The secondary characters are also always interesting.

I enjoyed this book - learning about face blindness in particular. The growth by the main character was really nice to see, and I was happy for her to find happiness and love.

Katherine Center, she knows how to write a book. I’ve read 5 and they are all hearteyes to me. I want sure about this one but I experienced an audible gasp at one point, and cried more than a handful it years toward the end, and ended with a smile on my face. Big yes from me!

I’m giving it three stars because two is too harsh and it doesn’t represent my rating.

I’m going to start off strong. Go read the blurb and come back.

First of all, I really, really, really, really freaking hate love triangles. Second of all, I really really hate when everything and everyone in the heroine’s life is bad. Not one thing goes her way and that makes my blood boil. If I had know it would be like that, I probably wouldn’t have read it in the first place. I know it’s not for me so why bother. But I loved Katherine’s previous book so that.

This is a cute romance and everything, if you like the blurb then try it out. That’s all I’m going to say about the romance.

Face blindness is one of the interesting and weird things a brain will do. After a near accident, this is what Sadie is diagnosed with..... Right before she has to get a PORTRAIT of someone done for a prize winning contest. Hard to do when you can't "see" faces.

But during this she also became attracted to two men.

Her dog's vet, Oliver and a guy from her building Joe.

Sadie had a difficult time with this but she also persevered more than I thought I would. She knew her art wouldn't be as good but she still tried it. I figured a little twist early on but it was fun to see that play out. I was SO UNCOMFORTABLE with Sadie's family though.... Especially step-sister Parker. She was a trash bully!

I felt this was another Center hit! I'm a big fan of this (auto-buy for me) author!

Book Review: Hello Stranger by @katherinecenter publishing July 11th! I always enjoy Katherine’s books, and this one was a fun one. If you need a nice, feel good romance with depth, check out any of her books. Hello Stranger has an interesting and unusual situation that affects the main character Sadie who is a portrait artist. I won’t give any spoilers here, but like any good romance this one has ups and downs and it all ends in love. Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the free arc and thank you to @katherinecenter for such a fun read!

If Katherine Center writes it, I WILL read it! She surprised me with The Bodyguard, and I will happily be picking up the rest of her books.

This was a refreshing read, and felt different than any book I’ve read before. The best thing about this book was the character development. It was absolutely brilliant!!

I can’t wait to read the rest of Centers’ books!

Katherine Center can do no wrong! I haven’t given one of her books less than four stars, and this one was right up with The Bodyguard as a new favorite of hers.

This book follows Sadie, a portrait artist who, after brain surgery, finds herself suffering from face blindness. Obviously, this is difficult for her to process since it means she cannot paint portraits which is the only thing she has ever wanted to do.

I loved the themes of this book, and as always the characters were absolutely stellar. Even the characters that weren’t terribly likable were still well developed.

And the romance!!!! Top tier as always!! I love Center’s male characters and Joe was no exception. I loved him. Any scene he was in, he stole the show.

I also found Center’s Author’s Note at the end sweet and interesting.

I just loved everything about this. It made me laugh and it made me tear up a bit. It was a powerful read and I know it will end up being one of my favorite reads of the year.

Oh, and I’m off to read more of Katherine Center’s backlist.

Just do yourself a favor and pick this one up! It is not to be missed!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC! When Katherine Center writes something, you read it! This was an easy and interesting read as most of her books are. The condition that Sadie, the main character, is left with after an accident is something I’ve never heard of before. It was refreshing to read about something new! I enjoyed the ending to the story as it tied up loose ends. I really enjoyed reading Hello Stranger!

Sadie, a struggling portrait artist, just got her big break as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition. She is on her way to celebrate with bottles of wine in hand, but the next thing she knows, she is in the hospital. A horrifying side effect of surgery is face blindness (a real thing: https://www.faceblind.org/). A portrait artist who needs to paint the best portrait of her career in the next six weeks, and every face is a chaotic blur of features. As she struggles to gain footing in this new reality, she unexpectedly falls for two very opposite men with whom she crosses paths.

Sadie is an adorably quirky character with a ton of depth born from heartbreak, struggle, and loss. She has a profoundly loving found family that counterbalances a horrific stepsister and complicated parents. 

Bigger than the romance are important themes of how much we rely on faces to frame identities, confirmation bias, that it takes less energy to be kind than cruel, how hard it can be to ask for help, and the harm we can do to those we love when we try to protect them. I highly recommend you also read the author’s note at the end.

Thank you to Katherine Center, Netgalley, and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

First off, thank you to NetGalley for sending me this e-arc! I'm going to give this book a 2.5/5 stars - I did enjoy this book but there were some aspects of it that I found didn't really make sense. I'll try to keep this mostly spoiler-free!

I liked the romance, although I did see the big reveal coming a mile away. I didn't really like the main character, Sadie, too much. I found her to be super judgmental and irrational. You find out you have a potentially fatal brain condition and actively choose to forgo surgery? Seems like a terrible idea. You eavesdrop on a stranger's conversation and from the one-sided responses, you opt to think the worst about the person? Yeah, I'm not her biggest fan.

The relationship between Sadie and her stepsister, Parker, I didn't really understand where the contempt came from from Parker's side. Parker did all of these terrible things to Sadie and other people, and just seems like a shitty person in general, but WHY? A villain isn't a good villain unless there's a solid backstory for why they do what they do. I get that there was a need to have an antagonist, but it just seemed unnecessary.

Overall the book fell flat for me. The central message was cute, but the journey to get there was not without some big bumps in the way.

I had high hopes for this book given how perfect The Bodyguard was last year, but this was just a let down. The poor communication, and even plot were problematic. I just needed more from it in terms of character development, plot development, and plot holes. I enjoy Katherine Center overall, but this one was just a bit of a miss.

Once again, Katherine Center has written a fantastic book with lots of complicated personal relationships. She does this so well because her books always have heart and humor.

I was fascinated the idea of a portrait artist dealing with face blindness. It's not a condition I was really familiar with so I liked learning more from the resources in the author's note. I also like how that was contrasted with confirmation bias and leaning on other senses and how everyone does that regardless of if they have prosopagnosia or not.

* Thank you for the advance reader copy of this book from St. Martin's Press and NetGalley. I am required to disclose that in my review in compliance with federal law.

This was probably my most highly anticipated rom com in 2023. I loved The Bodyguard so much I couldn’t wait to pick this one up. And well, it was..cute!

I had no idea there was an actual condition that causes face blindness. That part of the story was fascinating. And what I love about Katherine Center novels are her characters tend to experience some kind of adversity which makes them not feel so one dimensional. And if you love a quirky character you will adore the MC in this one. But really, the character that stole my heart in this rom com was Peanut the dog. What can I say, I am a dog lover. And any rom com with a dog in the cast usually scores points from me in the get go.

A story about family dynamics, dealing with loss, pursuing your passion, believing in yourself, and taking a leap of faith.
I will say, at the end when you start to connect all the dots, it takes a lot of mind stretching to do so. I found myself thinking, “really?”
Not that the story was necessarily predictable but rather teetering on unbelievable. But to be fair, I think with rom coms it is more about the journey than the plausibility. So with that being said, it may not have been the love I was hoping for but still enjoyable read. And the early reviews I see coming in are glowing so I think this one will be a crowd pleaser.