It took me a week to come back and write this review, but I keep thinking about this book. To be honest the premise was one I went into with little belief or investment. However, the story quickly captured my attention and I truly enjoyed it. Great main characters and good lessons learned.

Highly recommend.

Hello Stranger is a delightful and sweet book. Some laugh out loud moments, some ugh moments, and some I can’t imagine moments. Sadie M. is a struggling artist. Her art style is parallel to her mothers, whom she misses very much since her sudden passing when Sadie was 14. She has family issues, EVIL step sister, struggling to make ends meet, and a questionable bff. However, Sadie dreams are about to come true. A piece of her work has made it to the final and grand prize and recognition could change her life. Sadie passes out and rushed to the ER to learn she needs immediate brain surgery. Only to wake from surgery with face blindness. Yep, everyone’s face is jumbled like a puzzle.
The story progresses as Sadie struggles to paint her final piece and has become torn between two men. Her step sister cruelty intensifies, her bff elopes, and her stepmom is befriended her for some odd reason. She is whinny and self absorbed. I struggled with her constant me me me. I did enjoy the surprise at the end and her companion Peanut the dog. Easy read which I enjoy for summer reads.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press foe ARC

I loved this book!!! Everything about it was so cute and it was the perfect love story. There were so many elements of it that gave me a range of emotions. My heart broke, felt sad, and burst from love and happiness. Sadie, the fmc, is such a likable character. I was her little cheerleader throughout the book and you cant help but be constantly rooting for her. The love interest is the PERFECT book boyfriend. Literally a perfect human. This book brought light to grief and loss, coming to terms and working through life struggles, family relationships, and so much more. This book had a great romance story that delivered an outstanding reader experience.

This was my second Katherine Center book and the second one that I loved. So now I need to go back and read her back catalogue and preorder everything else she writes!
What I love about Center's books is they have such a feeling of joy as you read (except a couple of tension parts), and especially when you finish. These are books you want to hug after reading the last page.
In this book, we meet Sadie. She is a portrait artist who is trying to find success on her own to prove her father (who is rarely on her side of things) wrong. Unfortunately, she has an accident that leads her to having temporary (hopefully) face blindness. Not a good predicament to be in if you are a portrait artist. And Sadie is a strong individual, and does not want to rely on help from anyone. Which can be difficult to do when a certain male in the apartment building is very willing to be helpful. And meanwhile, Sadie can't help to fall for her beloved dog's vet. But the vet may also be leading her on. And meanwhile, her doctor is letting her know that her brain may not be the most helpful in all situations right now while she recovers. Lots of problems and I loved how everything came together!
I found myself devouring this book and losing track of time while reading. Plus the main male character looked like Chris Evans in my mind, which helped with the enjoyment of reading ;)
Katherine Center has given us another delightful summer read and I hope you get lost in this story too!
Thank you to netgalley for the advanced e-galley of this wonderful book!

the premise for this book was fantastic! I will say that I don’t feel this is a romance but instead literary fiction, this story focuses on Sadie’s struggles and the romance is a sub plot. The story is heavily dependent on miscommunication - her dad doesn’t tell her about a hereditary tumor, she doesn’t tell anyone about the face-blindness, and other things I won’t be spoiling.

The character of Sadie was split for me, miscommunication bothers me to no end because I personally am huge on communication HOWEVER I understand Sadie is used to having no real support system and having to do things for herself. Her back story really pulled at me and I found myself tearing up a bit at certain parts. The supporting characters were fun! Parker is the villain of villains; bestie Sue is supportive albeit forgetful, Dr. Nicole was informative and no nonsense and Joe was swoon worthy!

All in all I really enjoyed this book! It’s a fun read with some cute twists and turns! It’s a light book that covers some heavy issues and has a great lesson learned by the end!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this ARC and to Katherine Center for a fun story with a different premise!

Hello Stranger will be published on July 11, 2023

I wasn’t a huge fan of this one. I found the face blindness issue tedious and I struggled through the storyline. I wasn’t particularly interested in the characters and I felt they lacked chemistry. My favorite Center book is How to Walk Away and, to be honest, I haven’t really found any that live up to that one.

I am such a Katherine Center fan! She writes such delightful romances that always incorporate elements of seriousness, yet satisfactorily drive toward an uplifting, hopeful ending.

I loved learning more about face blindness through this light-hearted story. I always appreciate developing a new understanding of a topic I know nothing about through an enjoyable piece of fiction. Sadie is an incredible character, and her backstory with her parents and evil stepsister makes the reader root for her from page one. Center does an incredible job of setting up a couple of fantastic twists in this book that were difficult to predict and hard to reconcile without her explanation. I love it when a book surprises me!

I think there are a few other Katherine Center books that still top my list over this one, but I loved it all the same. I won't ever miss a new KC book at this point!

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

This book was constantly surprising me. The premise is so unique it made for such an interesting story. Although I do have some negative thoughts about it, I feel it is important to note that despite the things I didn’t like I was fully engaged the whole time and flew through it.

First, this is not a romance book, I would call it contemporary fiction as the romance was definitely the sub-plot as the book mostly focuses on Sadie’s own journey dealing with the grief of losing her mother, navigating the world without a family to lean on, and being a portrait artist with face blindness.100 pages into the book I wasn’t sure who the love interest even was. I also never got the chance to like this love interest because their very first interaction is a huge misunderstanding that paints him in a very bad light and does not get resolved until the very end, making it impossible for me to root for them.

This book also relies heavily on miscommunication, it seems like every relationship/interaction that Sadie has is fueled by these misunderstandings, a large reason for that being she refuses to tell most people about her face blindness which leads to many awkward encounters. Sadie is having a really hard time in most aspects of her life (family, career, love life) and it can become frustrating to read about, seeing a character be so powerless for so long is not enjoyable for me to read.

All this to say I wish I had had a better idea of what this book was about so I could have managed my expectations better, I am a big fan of “The Bodyguard” also by Katherine Center and this book is very different from that. Ultimately the over the top writing style mixed with my least favorite trope didn’t work for me but I can certainly see the appeal for other readers!

3.5 stars rounded up. Great premise- a portrait artist loses her ability to see faces, which results in a multitude of events both good and bad. I liked the main characters but wished for more depth on the secondary characters and their relationships. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I loved The Bodyguard and was ready to devour Katherine Center’s newest novel, Hello Stranger. Sadie is a struggling artist, hell bent on proving herself to her dad. A life altering accident leaves her not knowing if she actually will be able to paint ever again. The premise was fine. The characters were fine. The plot was fine. It wasn’t the magic I’ve come to expect from Center. It was all fairly predictable and fine.

What an enjoyable read! The writing style engaged me from the first page and had a hard time putting the book down. Story about Sadie, who has an unexpected turn of life events that throws her life upside down when she thought things were on the right track - and when things might not be going your way at first glance, they could be truly headed the best direction in the end. Loved it! Big thank you to St. Martins Press and Net Galley for the ARC - I can’t wait to read more books from Katherine Center!

I have always been fan of Katherine Center. My favorite of hers as been Happiness for Beginners but I think Hello Stranger might top it. I really enjoyed this book! I devoured this book in a day on a reading funk. I'm not going to lie the main character got on my nerves at time but that shows the excellence of Katherine's writing that I could despise this character at time. Joe, on the other hand, was such a joy to read!

Thanks to #NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book early.

I love Katherine Center’s books and will always purchase anything she decides to put out. How ever, this one just didn’t do it for me. The plot was intriguing but Sadie was not a like-able character. At times where I should have felt sympathy for her, I just felt annoyance - which really changed the whole feel of the book for me.

Sadie is an artist who is barely making ends meet. She thinks she has finally gotten her big break when she is asked to submit a portrait for a big competition. Before she can celebrate, she is hit by a car, hospitalized, and undergoes brain surgery. When Sadie wakes up, she has a new condition prosopagnosia (face blindness). As Sadie tries to figure out how to submit a portrait for the competition and overcome her condition, she has to overcome obstacles and find her own way.
This novel was a beautiful story of resilience and perseverance, as are Katherine Center's other novels.

3.25 stars.

First off, big thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this adorable book. It took me all of one afternoon to read this delightful little story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Is it a literary masterpiece? No, not even close. It's a formula-following, cliche-riddled, fun, easy summer read that makes for an entertaining few hours while you sip a glass of something fruity and refreshing while you dangle your feet in the pool or listen to the ocean (or just imagine it).

I liked the message the author tried to convey throughout this book: You only see (or find) what you're looking for; but I feel like it was overstated. As in, the message was indeed spelled out and repeated multiple times to the point I wanted to shout "YES, I GET IT!"

As for the story itself, the premise was very promising and original. I mainly found fault with the characters and their lack of depth. For example, Parker (the villainous evil stepsister): She's literally terrible and has no redeeming qualities. In fact, most of the main characters (including Sadie) fell a bit flat. Sometimes I think this happens, for me, when heavier/more emotional issues are tackled in typically lighter genres like RomComs.

HELLO STRANGER is a solid offering from Katherine Center that uses a strong narrative voice to combine comedy and romance in an engaging identity-search story (what some might call a late-20s coming-of-age story). The novel begins with a charming meet-cute, then takes a darker turn as Sadie (the portrait artist-heroine who lost her mother as a teenager) finds she has the same condition as her mother and requires brain surgery. The surgery is successful but leaves Sadie face-blind. The novel's description of the disorienting condition is fascinating, a compelling look at the world from a different perspective. The novel's twist (involving Sadie's misfiring brain and critical misidentifications) is relatively easy to spot from a long way off, but the strong character development and witty banter keep readers' interest.

This book may not be as strong as Center's stellar novels "The Bodyguard" or "Happiness for Beginners," but fans of Center will find lots to enjoy, and those looking for an absorbing beach won't be disappointed.

After loving The Bodyguard last year I was excited to pick up Katherine Center's newest release this year and it definitely did not disappoint! The term "rom com" gets thrown around entirely too easily by marketing teams these days, but I think Hello Stranger actually nails it and deserves that descriptor. It has just the right amount of zany elements to feel like a true rom com without being over the top, and she manages to weave in some more grounded pieces of the story that hit right as well.

I thought this whole premise was a fascinating one and Center really nailed the execution of it. As someone with no expertise in neurology or the art world it definitely to me felt very well researched and believable. I was really rooting for Sadie as she faced her new reality and I liked the way everything ended up resolving in the end.

I enjoyed both potential love interests as well and liked Sadie with them. I think the romance in this book also resolved in a way I really liked and thought the conflict in the book was the most logical miscommunication conflict I've ever read. So if you're someone who hates miscommunication as the root of a conflict, I'd say don't let that steer you away from this on because I thought in this case it made absolute and total sense (for once).

After two winning books by this author I'm definitely intrigued to try some more of her backlist and excited for whatever she puts out next!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Could you imagine being a portrait artists and suddenly suffering from acquired face blindness? That was what happened to Sadie. Due to swelling following brain surgery, Sadie was unable to recognize faces. Not only did this pose great difficulties in her professional life, but it also presented some challenges in her personal life.

If this story wasn't told with Center's signature humor and warmth, I may have spent a lot of time shedding tears for Sadie. It's that double edged sword where I understood this surgery was necessary to save her life, but at the same time, it robbed her of such a vital resource.

While Sadie was wallowing (a bit) and trying to figure out how to get her contest entry completed, she met some men who brought a bit of brightness and welcomed distractions to her days. Luckily, she had support from her neighbor, her best friend, Sue, and Sue's parents. They were all so fabulous with great quirks that endeared them to me. Most importantly, they gave Sadie the affection that was lacking from her own family.

Even before her post surgery issues, Sadie was struggling. She had lost her mother in her teens and it had rippled through her life. Sadie tried hard to embrace pieces of her mother's life, and in the midst of it all, she failed to really find herself. Losing an ability that was always part of her had Sadie taking a harder look at herself. She had to figure where her mother ended and she began. This led to many important discoveries for Sadie, and I appreciated her personal journey.

Overall, this was a wonderful and heartwarming tale. A sweet romance, a fierce friendship, and some self discovery made this a fun and feel-good read.

This was a very cute, feel-good romance! I definitely had to suspend my disbelief a few times and ignore a couple plot holes but that didn’t hinder my overall enjoyment much. I loved the unique premise and it’s something you don’t read about all the time, so that was fun to learn about something new. I also loved The Bodyguard by her so Katherine Center is quickly becoming one of my go to authors

I received an ARC of this book for an honest review. Loved it! I am always drawn to books that are full of humor, hope and joy and I appreciate that Katherine Center focuses on these qualities in her writing. Add in a splash of romance-it's perfection.