Katherine Center is probable one of the few romance writers I really enjoy. I loved The Bodyguard and Things We Save in A Fire. I’m this latest center romance, the reader will find all the typical Center comedy. She always makes me laugh- I feel like we have a very similar sense of humor.

In this romance, Alex, a portrait artist, has to undergo brain surgery. Postoperatively she suffers from face blindness, which definitely complicates her dating situation.

I found this entertaining but it wasn’t my favorite Center book. I know romances are predictable but when I “figured this out” halfway through I did start to lose a bit of interest. I’d still recommend though.

Pick this up for a good romantic beach read without the steam.

This was a cute book. I probably won't remember much about this book because it was pretty forgettable but I enjoyed reading it while I was doing so.

AGAIN, I’ll say it loud for those of you in the back, it’s Katherine Center! You’ll like it! Read it! Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for review

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions!

This was my first book from Katherine Center, and it was such an enjoyable read. I enjoyed reading about Sadie as she struggled to work through her recent medical condition, and how her relationships evolved as she struggled through it. I look forward to reading more from Katherine Center.

This book was such a quick binge read. As always Katherine Center made an emotionally engaging novel filled with romance and difficult circumstances the characters must over come. I absolutely loved Sadie’s neighbor Joe, he was such a sweet guy and their friendship/ growing relationship was so adorable to watch come together. Sadie definitely has a lot to overcome with her recent medical issues, but also the healing and coming to terms with her mothers death made for an emotional read. I loved Peanut so much, he was such a great touchstone but also add a dog to a book and you got me. This is definitely one I would recommend to a friend who wants a sweet emotional read.

Ahh I adored this. I went back and forth between audio and reading and couldn’t get enough.⁣
I think I’m a little biased because I love medical romances. They are always a little extra special to me. ⁣
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Sadie is a struggling artist who finally gets a break only to end up in the hospital needing surgery and waking up with Face Blindness. ⁣
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When she finally goes to pick up her dog Peanut from the vet, she immediately falls for the gait and swag of Dr. Oliver Addison.⁣
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But then she also runs into Joe in her apartment building who is so kind and always helpful. She slowly with time falls for him, after he saves her several times. ⁣
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Not being able to see faces is teaching Sadie how to find other qualities and emotions in people and it’s truly a wild journey for her but also very thought provoking. ⁣
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This was so sweet and such a warm hug. I absolutely adored it and couldn’t wait to see what happened at the end and then was so happy with the ending.⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Sadie is a struggling artist in need for a big break. But after a minor brain surgery, she wakes up and is no longer able to see peoples faces. When her dog, Peanut, gets sick, she meets a veterinarian , and she is pleased when he asks her out. But she doesn't want him to know about her face blindness. Least of all her annoying neighbor, Joe... even if they are fast developing a friendship that could maybe turn into something more?
Katherine Center is one of my autobuy authors and this was really cute! A sweet friends to lovers closed door romance. It was very predictable (I know, romance usually are, but I saw the twist coming just by reading the blurb) and the explanations about the disease were somewhat redundant at times. Also, I don't understand her motivations of not wanting anyone to know about it. And once again, misunderstanding/overreaction is the cause of the 3rd act break-up... I hated it. All in all, it was good, but not her best. I read the ebook and listened to the audio book. The narration was great.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
Genre: romance
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Format: ebook (eARC)

I’m not posting a synopsis of this one, because I highly suggest you go into it blind! Sadie’s main struggle is something I’d heard about, but I didn’t what it looked like in real life. It made this story so unique!

I’d recommend this one if you like…
💛 Katherine Center
💛 unique premises
💛 sweet rom coms (no spice)
💛 romances with a twist
💛 heartfelt, hopeful stories
💛 cute dogs

I saw one of the minor twists in this story coming, but the main twist left me with my mouth hanging open, giggling, and squealing. Which I think is the reaction we all want when reading a romance novel. Katherine Center writes romance in such a heartfelt and beautiful way. You’ll fall in love with these characters! Also Sadie planning her wedding and trying on her new last name after only briefly meeting someone is one of the most relatable things I’ve read 😂

The author’s note in this book was wonderful 🥺 the way Katherine Center talks about the romance genre is perfect! The hope and anticipation they build can’t be beat.

I’d highly recommend this one! It’s a perfect summer read. I read it on vacation in less than 2 days!

Thank you SO much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review!

I've enjoyed several of Katherine Center's books so I was glad to pick this one up. It's an interesting romance with an artist suffering from face-blindness (which I had never heard of) who falls in love with two different men. Such a dilemma! She's a portrait artist and a finalist in a competition when she is afflicted with face blindness. How will she ever paint a portrait when she can't see the face?

Description:
Sadie Montgomery has had good breaks and bad breaks in her life, but as a struggling artist, all she needs is one lucky break. Things seem to be going her way when she lands one of the coveted finalist spots in a portrait competition. It happens to coincide with a surgery she needs to have. Minor, they say. Less than a week in the hospital they say. Nothing about you will change, they say. Upon recovery, it begins to dawn on Sadie that she can see everything around her, but she can no longer see faces.

Temporary, they say. Lots of people deal with this, they say. As she struggles to cope―and hang onto her artistic dreams―she finds solace in her fourteen-year-old dog, Peanut. Thankfully, she can still see animal faces. When Peanut gets sick, she rushes him to the emergency vet nearby. That’s when she meets veterinarian Dr. Addison. And she’s pleasantly surprised when he asks her on a date. But she doesn't want anyone to know about her face blindness. Least of all Joe, her obnoxious neighbor who always wears a bowling jacket and seems to know everyone in the building. He’s always there at the most embarrassing but convenient times, and soon, they develop a sort of friendship. But could it be something more?

As Sadie tries to save her career, confront her haunting past, and handle falling in love with two different guys she realizes that happiness can be found in the places―and people― you least expect.

My thoughts:
I was rooting for Sadie the whole way through this book. She faced some tremendous hurdles and there were many emotional moments. I loved her relationship with Joe, the guy from her apartment building. I also enjoyed the relationship she had with her dog Peanut. She had great support from her best friend Sue and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kim. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good romance.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on July 11, 2023.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
Rating: 4.5 stars
Narrator: Patti Murin
Pub Date: 7/11

Sadie Montgomery has just gotten her big break. She has been asked to paint a portrait and submit it to the North American Portrait Society’s competition in six weeks with a grand prize of $10,000. Right after she gets the good news, she has a non-convulsive seizure, which reveals a bigger issue in her brain that she needs surgery for. The surgery goes well, but it leaves her with a condition commonly known as face blindness, which may or may not be temporary. As a professional portrait artist, it’s essential to be able to see faces, and now that Sadie no longer can, she has to relearn how to see the world and the people in it.

On top of all this, she has family drama to deal with, and she’s involved in a love triangle between her dashing veterinarian and her obsessively helpful neighbor, neither of whose face she has ever seen.

While this all looks pretty messy, Center manages to keep it from getting into “this could never happen” territory. There were a few moments that had me raising an eyebrow, but ultimately, it all came together, and I found myself rooting for Sadie the whole time 🥰.

This is only my second Katherine Center book, and I enjoy her brand of wit and humor, the way she builds relationships, and the emotional depth of her characters. Her FMCs seem so relatable; it’s like I know them personally, regardless of their situation or occupation. Sadie is no different, and with her quirky personality, her drive to be the best in her profession, and the way she handles the cards she’s dealt, she’s a character I won’t soon forget 💕.

I feel like I need to mention that this book contains the mother of all miscommunication 😂. It is the most complicated (yet understandable considering the circumstances) case of miscommunication I have ever read, and I really had to suspend some disbelief while reading. That’s all I’ll say so I don’t spoil anything, but IYKYK.

Patti Murin did a fantastic job narrating this book, and I feel like she brought all the characters to life! I’m definitely going to search out other audiobooks that she’s narrated in the future.

Minor issues aside, this was wildly entertaining, and I really enjoyed it! It's a must-read if you’re looking for a fun escape.

Read if you like:
*A well-done love triangle
*Unique plot
*Single POV
*Swoony romance
*Family drama
*Laugh-out-loud hilarity


Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ALC and to St. Martin’s Press for my ARC. Hello Stranger comes out on 7/11.

Another wonderfully written book that will have your emotions all over the place. You can’t help to want good things for Sadie. She is a smart, kind and desperately in need of a break. She’s a talented portrait artist who, due to circumstances is now illegally living in her art studio. That she isn’t truly homeless is a result of the kindness of her BFF’s parents who own the building. Sadie misses her beloved mother who passed away suddenly when she was 14 and since then has been emotionally abused and abandoned by her father and treated abysmally by her step monster and sociopathic step sister. On the cusp of getting the very break she needs her world again is upended with a frightful diagnosis requiring surgery only no one tells her about the potential side effects. The surgery leaves her with “face blindness”. Not optimal for a portrait artist who is about to enter a piece in once in a lifetime and the most important contest of her life. This is make or break for her and she is….broken. Every single person she meets is a virtual stranger and creating an actual face is virtually impossible. She refuses to tell anyone about the result of the surgery she needed as she doesn’t want a pity party or to feel less than she already does. She fumbles through the next few weeks faking she has a clue and of course finds her way and her own strength, but wow, its a tough road for her. I was impressed by the detailed research that the author did about Sadies health issue and how she really just rolled with everything that came her way no matter how terrible. If not for her beloved pup Peanut, the only living thing that showed her unconditional love she’d have been truly lost. She was never petty or vindictive, which is the only thing I found slightly unrealistic, or maybe I wanted her to fight back a little bit against those who were supposed to care for her so much and yet treated her so deeply abominably. As always a wonderful read or listen that has me already awaiting whatever comes next.

Wow. There are really no words for how much I loved this story. I absolutely adore Katherine Center’s books and was overjoyed to receive an early copy. This book is so sweetly romantic and hilarious. It’s heartbreaking and yet patches up that heartbreak. The story is so intriguing and inspiring that it makes me want to try to make changes in my own life. I laughed out loud so much while reading this that my cat kept glaring at me that I was disturbing his sleep. But seriously all of Katherine’s books are amazing and just keep getting better and better. I’m always a little sad when I finish one because now there’s no new book of hers to read. But Katherine you are definitely a one-click author for me and I cannot wait to read what you write next!!

Another winning story from Katherine Center!

Sadie Montgomery lives on her own, with her tiny geriatric dog Peanut, in a small hovel of an apartment at the very top of a high end building owned by her friend Sue’s parents. Sadie is a “starving artist” determined to make her artist career work. Partly to get back at her surgeon father for not believing in her, partly to carry on the legacy of her late mother who also was an artist.

Sadie has an unfortunate accident that results in the discovery of an issue with a blood vessel in her head that requires surgery. She’s nervous about the surgery as she’s preparing her submission for a once-in-a-lifetime portrait art competition, but realizing it is serious, proceeds. Unfortunately, a side effect of her recovery is a rare condition where she is face blind. She navigates the effects of this face blindness while preparing for the competition, has a disturbing run-in with a guy in her building named Joe, deals with an absent father, an evil stepmother and stepsister, and develops a huge crush on Peanut’s new handsome veterinarian.

The story had me turning the pages in anticipation. It was obvious that the author did her research about face blindness, and it was fascinating how she weaved the story around it. There was some good laughs and some spicy romance.

I loved Katherine Center’s last book, The Bodyguard, and would also recommend this one! Do not miss reading the author’s note at the end. And I must mention the cover! It is so pretty.

Hello Stranger comes out July 11, so get those preorders in.

I rated this 4.25 stars.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the electronic advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This one missed the mark for me. I just didn't get the facial blindness plot, but I did like that Center shed light on this condition. I wasn't connected with any of the characters, well the main characters anyways. Not my favorite Katherine Center novel.

Sadie, a portrait artist, needs to have brain surgery to fix a life threatening genetic condition. Her surgery goes well but leaves her with a [hopefully] temporary case of face blindness, where she cannot see any human faces. She has to navigate her life without being able to tell who she is looking at, while also trying to figure out what to do about her flailing career.

What I liked: Katherine Centers writing always draws me in and I was engrossed from page one. I really liked this beginning of this one and Sadie's development of face blindness. There were some laugh out loud moments and Joe was a great love interest. Also Mr. and Mrs. Kim need to be protected at all costs!

Despite the above, this book really didn't work for me and I will do my best to explain why. I liked the idea of face blindness but at the same time I feel like it became monotonous and took away from the actual love story. I also felt that things were overexplained and the multiple explanations were repetitive, especially at the end of the book - it felt like the author was trying to convince us that Sadie's face blindness and preconceived notions were valid reasons why she didn't realize what was going on the entire book, but there were 80000 clues she ignored throughout, so I didn't really buy it. The miscommunications were just too unbelievable - ask a single question... have an honest conversation.... and you will get to the bottom of everything.

I also couldn't feel connected to the love story (either of them, honestly) because Sadie knew literally nothing about Joe and yet she fell in love with him? It felt like Katherine Center was so focused on teaching us about face blindness and preconceived notions that the actual love story took a back seat, so it was hard to root for them. Sadie kept the most important part of what was going on with her from Joe and dodged all of his questions, while also not learning even the basics about him... like his job. I don't mean to include any spoilers but honestly you will figure it out so fast anyway. Sadie just felt very immature to me and that was evidenced by her insta love (twice), how she approached her face blindness, her lack of stability and career (you can have one and still paint...?) and even how she handled her messed up family.

The broken family storyline did add a bit of flare to the book and I do think it worked, but I still think Sadie forgave way too easily. Parker was SUCH a villain and I would have also loved to see her face some karma at the end, but I won't totally hold it against the book.

I have loved Katherine Center's prior books and will continue to read and root for her books, but I just prefer for the love story in a romance to be the main focus of the book, and I don't think that was the case here.

This is my first Katherine Center book, and I was very happy with it! This is the story of Sadie Montgomery who is on a mission to prove to her dad that she is a successful artist and that she is thriving on her own. In reality, she is living in a rooftop "hovel" as her stepmom calls in her best friend's parents building. She has just been accepted into a very prestigious art contest for her portrait that she submitted which is her regular genre of art. She does portraits on Etsy by commission. She ends up in the hospital after a near death experience in which a good samirtan saved her to find out that she has a rare brain tumor that is recommended be removed immediately. Being Sadie, she puts it off and says that she will wait to do the surgery after her art show.

Her dad comes to visit her to discuss this operation that is needed. To back up, Sadie's mom died unexpectedly when she was little, and her and her dad's relationship is strained to say the least. She hasn't seen him in 2 years when he just shows up to explain that the tumor that she has it also how her mother passed away. He implores her to get the operation and let's her know that he has scheduled the surgery for this week. Saide ends up doing it and is recovering wonderfully until the day that she can't see faces clearly anymore which is essential for her as once again she is a portrait artist. She meets with her doctor who informs her that her brain is going through a lot right now and that she needs to know that everything may not be as it seems. Her doctor suggests she learn to recognize people in other ways- how they walk, what they smell like etc.

Right after her surgery she starts recognizing more people in her building, particularly her neighbor who she assumes the worst of based on her observations. She also ends up having to go pick up her dog Peanut, who she has had since her mom died, at the vet where she instantly falls in love with her vet and even plans their wedding all without seeing his face.

This is the story of a woman who tells everyone that she is fine and that she doesn't need anyone's help because she has been hurt and left behind (intentionally and unintentionally) by people she loves. Sadie is now torn between her feelings for Joe (her neighbor) and her vet Dr. Oliver Addison. I loved how Katherine made it obvious that everything is not how it seems whether you have a brain operation or not. We make assumptions about observations that we make without having conversations and sometimes think the worst of people because of that. I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED how the end of this book came together. Bravo Katherine on making me smile and giving Sadie and her person their HEA.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! I truly enjoyed reading this.

Have you ever read a book that makes you wish you were more conservative with your previous 5 star reviews because you’d found a TRUE 5 stars? Well, that’s this one for me. I absolutely loved this book, even despite my hatred for the miscommunication trope. The characters are so
well written. You’ll laugh, feel the warm fuzzies, and want to be Sadie’s best friend.

This was the 55th book I’ve read this year, and the best hands down.

3.5 stars

“Hello Stranger” tells the story of Sadie, a portrait artist, who after having brain surgery, loses her cognitive ability to recognize faces. This is a problem for Sadie, who is in the process of a very important portrait competition that could change her life, while also getting to know two new men in her life (without seeing their faces).

Overall, I felt ambivalent towards this book. I adored the concept and how unique it was, but I felt that it was just a bit lacking. Almost as if it was rushed, but still dragged out all at the same time.

The FMC was a bit whiney, and I felt like the MMC was a bit of a shell of a character. Compared to some of the other romances I’ve read lately, they had a very shallow relationship and didn’t get deep as so would have liked. I just felt like I didn’t really know either of them, and the chemistry wasn’t there. In fact, I felt like all of the characters were pretty one-dimensional, and I had a difficult time caring about the outcome for any of them.

All in all, I don’t think that I would recommend this on any given day, as it wasn’t my personal cup of tea. However, it looks like I’m in the minority of people, so if you’re excited for this one, definitely check it out for yourself!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions!

"Hello Stranger," by Katherine Center is a romance novel with a twist. It questions how one might navigate the world without the abiwlity to recognize faces? Sadie Montgomery is a young artist who shockingly loses this skill after a "minor" surgery. The result is that she finds herself in several challenging situations that cause her to: confront old, unresolved family tensions, question the future of her career, and develop new personal and intimate connections. It is a light, easy read for the summer.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Hello Stranger was wonderful! It’s not my favorite of her books but still very good and the whimsical heartwarming vibe you expect from her books. Definitely would recommend!