I really enjoyed Katherine Center’s first book The Bodyguard, so I was really eager to read this one. The plot was definitely something that drew me to reading it and even though it did deliver, I wasn’t very pleased with the overall book. It was a lot slower paced than even the previous book which was already a slow burn, but even then the humor and dialogue in her stories usually keeps me coming back. However, this time the book included some problematic content regarding body shaming & fatphobic commentary without any mention of trigger or content warnings and I feel like in 2023 that was just not acceptable to me as a reader and was very inconsiderate of readers that are not straight sized and/or have struggled with EDs in the past. I would’ve appreciated a heads up or for the content (which served no purpose to the plot other than for comedy which is an entirely other issues) to just been removed entirely.

Thanks to NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for the ARC! This certainly had some charm to it and I loved the overall message regarding confirmation bias. I also thoroughly enjoyed learning about prosopagnosia (face blindness) and thought it was a unique plot device for a romance novel, however; the foreshadowing for the “twist” etc, while I’m glad seeds were planted it was painfully obvious and just a drawn out miscommunication trope.

The fat phobia at the beginning was striking and highly off putting, even though ages later it turned out not to be actual fat phobia, what a weird and just plain bad way to move along a plot twist. The character of Parker was a caricature and highly unnecessary - that entire plot point was a little too glossed over and didn’t fit.

Finally, while parts of this were good, the characters were underdeveloped, the various threads didn’t quite fit together and I wasn’t loving it.

Amazing book, she did such a wonderful job creating amazing characters with a good storyline. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.

After brain surgery leaves her unable to interpret facial features in context, Sadie can’t even recognize her best friend. Which would be terrifying for anyone, but especially for a portrait artist - one who is a finalist in a prestigious painting competition to boot. And her face blindness doesn’t discriminate - everyone, from her evil stepsister to the objectively gorgeous veterinarian (even the weasel butt from the elevator who fat shamed his one night stand!) is a total mystery. She can’t paint like did pre-surgery, but she can’t let this opportunity slip by - but can you paint a face if you can’t even see it?

This book was ADORABLE AS HELL. This concept works so well as a book, because the reader is also left without the ability to see each character’s face.

Can we just give it up for Mr Kim?? From his nicknames, and his support, he’s a gold star supporting character.

The relationship dynamic between Sadie and her family is so interesting - the evil stepmother and stepsister keep her at arms length from her father, and the loss of her mother as a child made her feel so isolated. I liked how her relationship with her stepmother evolves slowly throughout the book.

The romance was also so much fun! The anticipation of how it was all going to turn out had me speeding through this book with reckless abandon.

This book also had the audacity to point out how valid the miscommunication trope is, and have me kinda agreeing.

To avoid spoilers, I’ll leave it there, but her therapy sessions after brain surgery had so many incredible bits of wisdom - one being “You don’t see what you’re not looking for”. Mic drop.

I would highly recommend picking this one up!

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was shocked and thrilled to receive Katherine Center's newest due out this summer - I've given every single one of her books I've read either 4.5 or 5 stars, and this one was no exception. Sure, it's a romance, but it's something so different, and I can honestly say I've never read a book like this one - our main character Sadie ends up having a brain injury that results in face blindness, and as an artist, this is challenging for her to navigate the world. I will say as I was reading it, I kept thinking - I hope the author didn't make something like this up, so I was thrilled to see an author's note at the end with all of the resources she used. What an interesting layer to add to character building! Naturally we see Sadie start to fall for Joe, and then we realize that some of the people in her life may not be as they seem, and Sadie has to rely on other senses to communicate and interact with people.

I ate this one up - it was so interesting to keep reading, and I was rooting for Sadie and Joe the entire time. The supporting cast of characters added such great connections to Sadie, and I loved the spin on a traditional romance storyline. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who's read Center's works before - they're very similarly written and easy to read.

Thank you again NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this one - publishing date is coming up this summer, July 11th 2023!

Genre: contemporary romance

Sadie Montgomery has followed in her mother’s footsteps to become a portrait artist, specializing in hyper realistic portraits. She’s definitely on the starving artist range of the spectrum, and renting a not-quite-livable studio space/apartment from her best friend’s parents, but still feeling like she’s only one break away from better luck. She thinks she’s found it when she’s invited to enter the same portrait contest that her mother participated in before she died. But a nonconvulsive seizure reveals an underlying lesion that Sadie needs to have removed from her brain. A bit of routine brain surgery leaves an unfortunate complication - Sadie develops prosopagnosia, more commonly known as face blindness. Sadie is bereft, unsure how to process the loss of her livelihood (even if the doctors assure her it *may* only be temporary), until she meets the absurdly handsome veterinarian who helps rescue her dear elderly dog Peanut.

I hadn’t yet read a Katherine Center book, but had heard so many great things about her heartwarming love stories. I’m really glad I picked this up! Hello Stranger is told from Sadie’s POV, giving us insight into the confusion, depression, and terror she feels at the lack of recognition of people she’s known forever, from her best friend to her evil stepsister. Working with a neuropsychologist helps Sadie cope and learn some tricks, but it isn’t enough to help her feel less alone.

I don’t tend to read many contemporary love stories that aren’t totally bonkers, but when I do, I love ones like this that are wholly heartwarming with rich multi-dimensional characters who struggle with navigating their lives and find love in both the expected and unexpected places.

Thank you to St Martin's Press, MacMillan Audio, and Netgalley for an eARC and ALC for review. Hello Stranger is out 7/11/23, and I can’t wait for you all to read it, because there’s not much I can talk about in this review…

Katherine Center books are like a hug... and this one is no different! This book drops us into the world of Sadie, a portrait artist struggling to make it professionally despite painful family situations... that we learn about in fits and starts throughout the book. As Sadie deals with medical issues that lead to face blindness (obviously a problem for an artist), she has to reckon with what success means and how she can persevere and survive through pain, both present and past. She has a great friend network (that even grows throughout the book). There are some great twists and turns, and the wildness of her circumstances make this book truly something special. I loved the characters and did not see all the drama coming!

This book was a great mix of romance, friendship, and women's fiction.. with the lovely writing, great characters, and warmth you expect from Katherine Center. I also liked reading her author's note at the end where she talked about her goals for writing and how she likes to use her work to create hope and (a bit) of predictability in a challenging world.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

This book was so sweet and different then others. I really enjoyed it. I loved reading about the main characters journey throughout.

This was such a unique story. The characters were sweet. and funny. Sadie Montgomery is such a relatable character battling her insecurities and need to find herself. I loved her journey and her determination.

Thank you netgalley for the ebook and audiobook arc of this amazing book!!!

Katherine Center has such a warm way to write tragic things with a dash of humor. I love her tone and wit. The charm that oozes from these pages just melted my heart.

Katherine Center is an auto read author for me until the end of time!!!

Thank you St. Martin's Press arc. I adored it. Romance really feel me so good and this one was a special one. I adored everyone even the evil character but it has to be there. Maybe I needed a little more to fall in love with the book but when I did I could not let it go. So much passion, not all perfect made me feel everything so real. A story when the main character has to learn to live in a different way and build new connection. After a brain surgery she is not able to recognise faces and for an artist like her is essential. But she made it to make a sense of everything. And the ending melted me down for real.

Katherine Center's other book: The Bodyguard was fantastic! And this one y'all!!! So good! I loved the humor and the romance so much! I can't wait to read more books by this author cause so far her books are hitting!!

Katherine Center is, at this point, an auto-buy for me. She is a reliably fun author who will always bring a smile, some real life laughs and warm fuzz. Hello Stranger hits every beat and came with the unique and cool bonus of teaching me a lot about a rare medical condition, face blindness, that I admittedly was not very familiar. I had intended to savor this audio book over the weekend but, alas, it was too good and I devoured it in one day while running errands and doing chores around the house. Thank you to MacMillan for the early listening copy, it was the best Friday treat!

Read for:
-Reliable Rom Com
-Fuzzy feels
-Hopeful
-Hilarious
-Informative

4/5 stars!

Overall an enjoyable and unique read.
For me - the main character read very young to me & that kept pulling me out of the story. It felt as if I was reading a YA main character rather than adult woman. I did really enjoy the plot and romance aspect! Definitely an interesting read and I look forward to reading more from Katherine Center!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

5-stars This book is fabulous! I loved everything about it! Witty, romantic, quirky, heartwarming. The storyline was wonderful, unique. Couldn't stop reading it...ended up binging overnight. :)
I particularly liked the H...hot, kind, dreamy...definitely in the BBF category.
I have a feeling this will be Center's best book yet.
Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with a galley of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I struggled at first to get into the story, but once I did I really enjoyed it. I didn’t see the twist at the end coming which was fun!! Cute little fun heartwarming read! Also enjoyed the bit at the end about prosopagnosia!

*I received an arc of this book for review. This is my honest opinion. Thanks to Netgalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for the arc!*

A portrait artist who can't see faces? What a fun concept!

I have a lot of feelings about this one. I really liked the concept, even though I expected the "twist" from the beginning. (It's romance though, we read romance because it IS predictable--so that's not a negative! I was looking forward to seeing how that played out!)

I really liked Joe's character! He was sweet and funny, but as the love interest, I would have loved to see him a little bit more. For me, Sue really only serves as an inconvenience, and I almost wonder if she and Parker couldn't have been combined, which leads me to my third thing:

The whole mean girl as plot device/conflict thing is something I really, really dislike. I like to think that Future Parker got therapy and got better and apologized. Not that she and Sadie could be friends after all the shit that happened, but still.

Anyway, back to the positive! Overall, I really enjoyed this! I loved Sadie's connection to her mother, and reading this felt like being in Sadie's little rooftop hovel penthouse with her. I could see all the colors and feel the sunshine and hear the music.

**I give this 3.5 stars rounded up.**

This was an absolutely delightful romance. I was simultaneously laughing out loud and crying happy tears. Sadie's story of having Face Blindness, while trying to navigate a new (to her) world and the crazy family she's part of make for a very compelling story. I wish I could read all about Sadie again for the first time.

I absolutely loved this book. Every time I pick up a book by Katherine Center I know I'm in for a good read. I don't know how she does it, but each book is just better than the last. How does she do that?

Gah! Okay, five stars, just to tell you up front.

This is the story of Sadie, who suffers from something called Face Blindness (common term, not science-y at all) after some elective brain surgery. Is any brain surgery actually elective? That's another book. The kicker is really that Sadie is an artist, who has just been chosen to show a new piece of art in six weeks. She is a portrait artist. Ruh roh.

Then there's her best friend Sue, who was sitting for said portrait and then was kidnapped so she could elope. Sadie is forced to ask for help, not her strong suit, from her neighbor who doubles as a mutton muncher. In case you don't know that term, look it up. Laughter will follow.

Did I mention that Sadie has a difficult relationship with her family? And has fallen in lust with her senior dog's veterinarian?

This book is swoony but not steamy, but in the best of ways. I do not have enough ways to write good things about this novel, trust me. You want to read it.

I love Katherine Center and her romantic stories. I was so excited to get my hand on an early copy of this book through NetGalley.
Hello Stranger was classic Center. It was tender and genuine, lovely and heartbreaking. There is a guy and a girl and a lot in between. I thought Sadie’s issue was so interesting. I had never really considered face blindness and its consequences. Center used this to twist a little suspense into the story and keep you guessing. And it felt believable! At the end, when things are resolved, you breath a sigh of relief!
What I did not enjoy very much was the bit about Sadie’s dad, Lucinda and Parker. The scene at the art show felt a little forced. And it resolved too quickly. That’s the only thing I didn’t really care for. Other then that, I this book continues my love affair with Katherine Center books. I will buy whatever she writes!