Another beautiful Katherine Center book that deserved its rightful place on my shelf!

First, allow me to say thank you to St. Martin’s Press via Netgalley for the e-arc and MacMillan audio for the audio file in exchange of my honest review. So, here it comes.

With KC’s (Katherine Center’s) books, I always learn something different and new every time and gets to experience another story aside from my own. Never had it occurred to me, that there are people out there suffering from prosopagnosia (face blindness) and that some acquired it later in life and other just had it ever since. Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist and she is just finally getting the big break that she has been waiting for in her life. To be a finalist in the Arts Award and proving to her dad that she could be something with her art, until a random seizure on the sidewalk ended her in a hospital room, a diagnosis of cavernoma and the supposedly routine brain procedure she had endure resulted to her not recognizing people’s faces. A dilemma, if you are a portrait artist hoping to snag the first place in Arts Award that is happening in six weeks.

The term struggling artist is literal in every sense in this book. Sadie was taught all the coping skills to get by with her new situation and who would have thought that people’s gait can be such a define and specific characteristic not to mention sexy? So, now I’m going to add that new hobby of watching people’s gaits as they drag their suitcases and rush themselves in the airports! Thank you KC!
True to KC’s fashion, the characters are always well developed, have the exact amount of intrigue to keep us all hanging, have the perfect stubbornness that would make us want to pull all our hair, the excruciatingly annoyance and bitchiness of the characters who are antagonists to our MCs and the loving, warm and supportive relations of the side characters who will never leave or MCs alone making this book truly humanity focused! Just as KC mentioned in her notes, the feeling of hope drives the romance genre and I am all for it because this is a truly a feel good book and I highly recommend! And if any case listening to the audio is possible? Do it! It was just as amazing as flipping the pages!

When I saw there was a Katherine Center book coming out, I knew I just had to get it. Hello Stranger, I was hoping going to keep me entertained from start to finish.
Sadie is a promising portrait artist, and she has finally gotten the chance to show her work. Just before her chance she ends up having to have brain surgery due to an accident. The result of her surgery was temporary prosopagnosia (face blindness).
The plot line of this book really made me think as I was reading.
The story was good, but I had a very hard time connecting with the characters.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy to read.
This is my personal review.

First of all, this is my first Katherine Center book and wow, she did not let me down! I will be reading more from her! I loved this book so much. Highly recommend!

About the book:
Sadie Montgomery has just placed in the North American Portrait competition as a finalist - one of the biggest achievements in her life! Unfortunately, tragedy strikes and she has to get brain surgery - yes, brain surgery! Which leaves her with a temporary condition (she hopes) called face blindness. Not so great for a portrait painter…

Sadie now sees jumbled features for faces, so she must cope with this new reality while dealing with family drama, her lovely dog Peanut’s health issues, and also… boy drama?! Sadie meets not one, but two men that take an interest in her! One, a dreamy veterinarian who helps to save her dogs life and two, an annoying tenant in her apartment building that may or may not be a womanizer. How will she choose between the two, or will she?

My thoughts:
Oh Sadie! She is so funny and has such a running imagination… it made me not want to put this book down. The way her thoughts spiral and jump from one thing to the next was funny and relatable, as she learns to deal with a very unique situation that seems at odds with her entire lifestyle.

The romance in this book, can I call it a love triangle? It’s meet cute, funny, endearing, heartfelt… and most of all it is surprising! 💜

There were a couple twists to this book that had me anticipating what was going to happen next, and I couldn’t put the book down until I knew! It left me with all the good feelings. 🎨🦴🛼💜💗

I hope this becomes a highly anticipated read for everyone! 💜💕🛼🐕

🛼Also, please read the authors note at the end of this book! It is so well written, especially for romance book fans!

thank you netgalley for the arc !

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 2.5/5 stars *ੈ✩‧₊˚

read if you like:
♡ love triangle (with a crazy plot twist)
♡ super cute senior dog called peanut
♡ miscommunication galore


ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ after reading the man who mistook his wife for a hat many years ago i recall being fascinated with the condition of prosopagnosia - dubbed more often as face blindness - for a significant amount of time. my terminal opinion of hello stranger notwithstanding, katherine center has authored a singularly unique story orbiting around a neurological condition affecting more of the population than you might suspect. the sheer creativity required to have concocted the foundational plot is absolutely and insanely commendable.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ sadie, a portraiture artist has scarcely begun celebrating being initiated into the finalist round of the North American Portrait Society competition when she’s prone in a hospital bed and slapped with a diagnosis of prosopagnosia that may or may not be permanent. all this to say, her career as a portrait artist (naturally hinging on her perception of faces) and the competition is now categorically up in the air. struggling to piece her life back together with this newfound way of seeing the world around her, she’s caught up in comedic misunderstanding after misunderstanding, bent on not sharing with anyone the news of her face blindness. unable to judge others with as much shrewdness when their expressions are but in absentia, she’s now seemingly getting her poor neighbour joe’s number all wrong who seems intent on helping her, falling head over heels for a veterinarian she can’t see and just generally muddling her way forward till the day she’s told whether or not this change in her life is going to stick.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ this is my second center novel and much as i maintain that this was foundationally brilliant, to my disappointment, the overall effect dims in the comparison. sadie came across immature, pathologically whiny and dare i say it… stupid. she initially seeks to defer her surgery for a potentially life-threatening condition and takes one too many pages to give in. riddled with prepossessions regarding both love interests, she cuts a rather narrow-minded figure. at least the relationship between her and peanut redeems her greatly in my eyes and for all her unpleasantness she is immensely humorous. that’s one element you can always count on with center, her comedic timing has been honed to a keen-blade - this book is seriously funny. joe on the other hand is more likeable if not a bit hallmark in his lack of foibles and same goes for the veterinarian. all told, the characters here are not doing too many favours in service of the story. the pacing is pretty fast which would have been fine on its own if not for the insta-love. the romance is a little heavy-handed and rushed in its development which is something i personally tend to veer clear away from so my opinion of that is coloured by a personal distaste. in any event, the writing was witty even if it repeated turns of phrases a bit too frequently for me.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ conclusion:
hello stanger is an eccentric spin on a prevalent but little-known neurological condition which will lure you in with its humorous timing - or rather, in the case of poor sadie, its mistiming - and you’ll find yourself paging through this one rather quickly (so long as you’re not ill-disposed towards a more childish romance), if not having a blast.

I absolutely loved The Bodyguard so when I had a chance to read Hello Stranger early I was ecstatic! It did not disappoint. It had one of my least favorite tropes — miscommunication but it was done in such a new, interesting way. I wanted to keep reading and enjoyed every second of this book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC.

When I read The Bodyguard I had rather lukewarm feelings about it. So going into this one I knew roughly what I was going to get, but this book turned out to be so much more than I had anticipated.

This book had heart with interesting characters. It had (to my knowledge) good representation of something I was only vaguely aware of but didn’t know much about. And as everyone knows, I love a golden retriever love interest and this book has Joe, which is basically the same energy.

I really liked the dissection of Sadie and Parker especially. I loved the layers getting uncovered and watching more and more of them becoming known to the reader and helping to explain more of the “why” (although Parker is the worst). And even though I typically don’t enjoy the “mean girl” trope in books this has an interesting twist on it and it kept me engaged in the story instead of pulling me out.

All in all this is a phenomenal read. I would definitely recommend this to people who are new to reading romance and don’t want explicit sex scenes in their books. This author definitely focuses more on the connection between her characters instead of the lust being the motivating factor. Which is nice to see in a really “smut” saturated market.

I just adored this book!

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist who is just reveling in the fact she made the top ten finalists for a prestigious art competition for portrait artists. However, quickly after she finds out she needs brain surgery due to some neurological issues.

I will say I spent the last year undergoing testing for my own neurological issues and while she does express fear/anxiety I almost feel it’s underplayed as I can confirm—it’s fucking scary.

Anyway, Sadie’s brain surgery is successful, however, it has left her with facial blindness that her doctor says is “probably temporary.” Which as you can imagine as a portrait artist (and human being) is horrifying.

The plot from there is very easy to see where it’s going with her two romantic interests: her dogs cute (she thinks) veterinarian and Joe from her apartment building but it doesn’t make it any less fun or enjoyable! A really fun and sweet read.

5/5 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sadie Montgomery's life takes an unexpected turn when she is diagnosed with face blindness, leaving every face she sees as a perplexing puzzle. While navigating this new reality, she grapples with family issues, pursues her artistic aspirations, and finds herself entangled with two very different men. Amidst the chaos, Sadie's search for clarity becomes elusive, yet unexpected connections and alternative perspectives offer a glimmer of hope. In this delightful tale, Center focuses on the most meaningful discoveries — about yourself and your place in humanity — often happen when we least expect them.

Such a heartwarming and charming novel, which feels like a promise from Center at this point, that harkens back to my pre-teen reading days of diving headfirst into the Sweet Dreams series of books.

While there were so many little conveniences that happened during this story, and Sadie was more than a little slow on the uptake at times, I'm willing to put all that aside and acknowledge that Hello Stranger is every bit as adorable as it needs, wants, and tries to be. Sometimes it takes work to set aside the snark and admit that these little conveniences are funny and allow for just the right amount of balance and anticipation that keeps me turning these pages.

I often turn to lighter books like this (I had a long stretch of relying on Kasie West books here) for mental breaks between harder books. The exact right kind of rom-com that Nora Ephron or Nancy Meyers would whip up into a movie with a great interior somewhere, and I can't help but picture Sadie's studio as a wonderful amalgamation of a beautiful Ephron-Meyers-esque production.

This was truly a unique storyline and I don't know of anything that comes close to this plot!

Sadie Montgomery finds her life completely turned upside down. She was almost hit by a car when she suffered a brain injury. As if that is not enough, she is a struggling artist who just made it aa finalist to a huge competition that could jumpstart her career. The problem is that after her brain surgery, she ends up having face blindness preventing her from seeing faces.

As she is navigating her new life she meets a vet she is attracted to, and her next door neighbor. Things are challenging for her as she navigates a world without being able to recognize anyone.

This story weaved in a lot of elements including that of dealing with grief, finding one's own path, learning how to lean on others and let people in for support. I enjoyed the comedic elements that Katherine always puts into her books. I also thought the storyline was super creative.

There is a twist and I was patting myself on the back for realizing it very early on!

"Joe" was a true cinnamon roll and he definitely has a huge heart of gold. I enjoyed how much support he had for Sadie and how much pining he really did without her every realizing it. These two really had lives that intertwined and were meant to be with one another!

Thanks you to St. Martin’s Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a wonderful story! Sadie is a starving artist and gets her first big break….only to suffer a life-altering experience. When Sadie becomes unable to continue her art, she thinks her life may be over, when actually it is just beginning. I love how Katherine Center weaves a story that grabs at your heart! I found myself unable to put this book down!

I requested this book after having read The Bodyguard, but this felt like a completely different genre. Gone was the easy, flirty romance. This book was too slow for me, I really couldn’t get into the story.

I was thrilled to get an ARC of HELLO STRANGER (thank you, @netgalley!) and I really loved it. This book was as sweet and fun and enjoyable as THE BODYGUARD. As always with Katherine’s books, it tackles some hard themes, but as always, with a thread of hope and joy. This one also featured a unique and interesting challenge that the MC was dealing with (and which I couldn’t help but tell my family about). She was a delightful character, and I loved the other characters as well.
✨
One theme in this book that really stuck out to me was the main character trying to find her own way while also trying to live up her beloved mother’s legacy- both of the book explored this in a beautiful way.

Katherine Center has the ability to write romantic comedy that takes things a step further, meaning her books may be rom-com but they aren’t too fluffy. This one is no different! Reminiscent of How to Walk Away, Hello Stranger confronts a medical emergency and the influence/toll of recovery on our protagonist. This one is full of lovable side characters and interesting family and friendship dynamics, all in addition to our main character’s romantic woes. I particularly love Sadie’s interaction with her best friend’s parents who are also her landlords. Like any book of the genre, were there moments that were unrealistic? Sure. Did it take away from the story’s charm? Not one bit. Katherine Center does it again!

3.5 stars. I know I am in the minority on this one, but this was not my favorite Katherine Center novel. It's taken me a bit to collect my thoughts on why that is. There are so many positives, including the portrayal of a main character with prosopagnosia and tense family dynamics. I think where it falls short for me is the lack of emotional depth. I think that Center did such a great job portraying the MC's difficulties with face blindness and explaining it that I didn't get the same depth of swoony feelings as I read this one. I was not as invested in the relationship coming to fruition. And.....I could see the twist in this one very early on. I was frustrated in some of the choices that Sadie made in terms of communicating about her condition, and that also made the book move more slowly for me. This isn't a bad romance, but it's not my favorite.

This is a refreshing romance novel that I didn't guess the ending of! It was very well-paced and a great story overall! Perfect summer read!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Oh Katherine Center, you’ve done it again. I absolutely adored The Bodyguard when it read it so when I got approved to read Hello Stranger, I was beyond excited. I was not disappointed.

I loved this book! The concept itself was so new and not something I’d ever seen before. It was so interesting to read about and I absolutely adored Sadie’s character. She was relatable, sassy, fun, creative and I really liked reading about her.

**SPOILER AHEAD**
I also really liked Joe/Dr. Oliver Addison/Good Samaritan/Weasel etc… as soon as Sadie wondered why the vet didn’t text to say sorry for standing her up on the date I knew it was him, knew they were one in the same.

What a fun, heart warming, complex, feeling inducing story of a woman finding her way back to herself after life decides to challenge her. The love story was pretty great too.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center releases on July 11, 2023.

Super cute & happy read. A little slow to get into but once you get to about 40-50% it starts to get interesting. Joe gives off golden retriever vibes. It’s wildly predictable, but still a cute story. It definitely spiked my curiosity about Prosopagnosia (or face blindness which I had no idea was a thing). I wish we got more of why Sadie and Joe fell in love because it doesn’t feel like there was quite enough to be head over heels in love with each other in just a month basically. I think it’s a great story of judging people not off of their looks, but their warmth and personality. I love the woman in the beginning that looked at Prosopagnosia as a gift and how she treats every interaction, even with people she might not know, with warmth and love.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. I really enjoyed this!

Katherine Center does it again with this whimsical yet substance- packing romance. Sadie Montgomery, a struggling portrait artist is left with acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia after brain surgery for an inherited cavernoma. The timing couldn’t be worse, she’s a finalist in a competition that could make her career but now she can’t see, or paint, faces. And she needs this win, to validate her choices and herself to her family.

But as much as Sadie wants to stay home and mourn her before operation life, she can’t. Her beloved fur-sibling Peanut becomes sick, she has a hopeless love at first sight crush on her vet, Dr. Addison even though her neighbour Joe is working his way into her heart, and she’s determined to still submit a portrait for the competition even though she can't paint faces anymore.

It’s a lot for a woman to manage. But yet somehow she does, in her own imperfect way. I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t go further into the plot but it’s a delightfully sweet romp with moments of heavy, yet tender emotion. The twist was delightful, if somewhat predictable but that's what romance is about.

Katherine Center fans are going to love this one. I certainly did. And as someone who works in Neurology, I greatly appreciated all the research that Katherine Center put into prosopagnosia.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is such a cute story and a very interesting set of complications to get to her current predicament. The family medical history and her discovery that she also has this possible fatal condition. Only to have surgery that results in her not being able to recognize faces, hopefully temporarily. Since she does face portraits and just got selected for a contest. This is literally how cruel timing can be sometimes, so suspend your disbelief if things always go right for you.

I loved the relationship with Joe but there might be some miscommunication just cause she can't see him. And loved all the talk about the brain and the senses. Cause it's true that your brain can have you believing certain things to be true based on certain metrics. I would be so upset if faces were all mixed up.

This was so cute and def shows that people have different sides they show with work and personal. And dang evil stepsister hope she to rots in.. h3l1

Thank you stmartinspress for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

I fell in love with Katherine Center when she wrote “The Bodyguard”. I am not a big Romance reader but I love and enjoy her books so much.
This book is such a unique premise. I loved the love story. I want to be friends with Sadie the main character.
This book was such a great read. Highly recommend reading it!