4.5⭐️

Portrait artist Sadie Montgomery finally lands a spot as a finalist in a competition after years of struggling to find success. When she has to have unexpected brain surgery, she wakes up with acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia, meaning she cannot see faces. This makes painting portraits near impossible, and now, Sadie has to find her new normal, including navigating a love triangle.

Katherine Center's books are reliably wonderful, and they have the perfect balance of substance and swoon. Her choice to feature such a unique condition makes Hello Stranger quite memorable. I continue to be drawn to Center's books because there is always a personal growth component, and she depicts her characters in such realistic and relatable ways. This was no exception-- Sadie is an easy to fall in love with FMC, and I'm confident readers will love her as much as I did!

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.

Thanks NetGalley for providing an ARC.

Every Katherine Center book seems to get better than the last. The bodyguard was one of my favorites and this book did not disappoint.

I loved this bill! I’d never heard of face blindness and it was a really interesting concept! I was rooting for the characters the whole time and I liked that it’s clean enough for me to recommend to my high school students.

I LOVE every book Katherine Center has written, I've read them all, but Hello Stranger was my favorite Katherine Center book thus far! I was fascinated by this book, and had never heard of face blindness. I learned so much, and Katherine does a beautiful job as always with character development and writing a story that is so fun to read, but also has depth and leaves you thinking about so many things!

I'm calling it now -- Hello Stranger will be on lists as the best romance/rom com of the year!

Last night before bed, I picked the book up thinking I could get a few chapters in, fall asleep, and have something to sit with on a rainy Saturday. Did that happen? Nope. I could. not. stop. reading. I saved myself the final five chapters, only because I didn't want the story to end!

Rom Coms (Am I allowed to call this book a rom com?) seem to have really hit their stride in the book world over the past few years, making the market quite saturated. It's rare to find one that not only introduces unique characters and story, but also a completely engaging and surprising plot -- yes please! This love story created fantastic anticipation. (You'll know what I did there if you read the author's note.)

Usually, I'm completely satisfied to hit the end of a romance and wish the characters a happily ever after. At the end of this one, I wanted a sequel, or ten, to follow them into their golden years!

I read another review that called the protagonist, Sadie, many negative adjectives. While she had a lot of miserable traits to work through, every single one were sensible and justified based on her past and present. I never once felt any sort of "disgust" with Sadie, or any of the other characters.

While there are some obvious tropes (romance..amiright?), they were written in a captivating way. Overall, this is an adorable, adult rom com that will probably teach you a things while you read. It's also non-steamy, but still sexy -- which is pretty difficult a feat to pull off.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Publishing Group for an advanced copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed the newest Katherine Center. She is a wonderful storyteller. This book has a fascinating concept, and takes us on a ride with the main character as she copes with her “hot mess” life. It will make you laugh and cry.

Prosopagnosia. Face Blindness. Have you ever heard of it? I had never heard of this condition until this book, Hello Stranger by Katherine Center.

The main character, Sadie, a struggling portrait artist, suffers from this condition after having a seizure and then surgery. She is a finalist in an upcoming and very important portrait art show. How can you paint a portrait, a face, when faces are all jumbled up in pieces and not recognizable?

The romance part of the book involves veterinarian, Dr. Oliver Addison and her annoying neighbor, Joe. Who of course she can’t see their faces. The story also encompasses her estranged father and the loss of her mother when Sadie was a teenager. And I can’t forget to mention her “evil” step-sister, Parker, who is just plain mean!

Hello Stranger was an enjoyable read and the twisty part at the end was so fun!

For more information on Prosopagnosia, go to faceblind.org.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for offering this complimentary digital e-book. All opinions are my own and honest review. #HelloStranger #NetGalley

I have loved every book by Katherine Center so I was very excited when I saw this new release. Just like in her other stories, the main character, is a strong female named Sadie. Her entire world as she knows it gets turned upside down. We take the journey with her as she uses this unforeseen turn of events to look deep within and find herself. She confronts years of deep hurt, grows, and heals wounds. All with a cute romance sprinkled in. Some parts I found to be a little predictable, but in the best way. I really enjoyed this read and would definitely recommend, especially if you love Katherine's other stories.

I loved this feel good story. At it's core it's a love story but it's so much more. We meet Sadie as she's become a finalist in an art show that could change the rest of her life. When she faints in the street, she learns that she needs a minor surgery but it ends up leaving her face blind. Sure, she meets someone, two someones actually, but really this is more about falling in love with herself and her life. I enjoyed her journey to realize what she wants out of life. There's a lot of miscommunication in this. As a trope that doesn't bother me, but if it bothers you then you probably won't like this. One simple correction could have brought about the conclusion much faster...but then you wouldn't have a story. Her interactions with Joe were fun and really felt like the beginning of a relationship. Her interactions with Dr. Addison were odd and presumptive. Parker is the perfect villain. There were times that it got long and repetitive but over all I loved the feel good vibes of this story. In Center's authors note she talks about the anticipation of romance novels and feel good stories. That they run on a sense of things getting better and this book definitely pulls all of those feelings.

Katherine Center seems to know exactly what I want in a book. I was absolutely obsessed with The Bodyguard, so I couldn’t wait to read Hello Stranger.
Sadie, a struggling artist, who specializes in portraits get the opportunity of a lifetime and BAM, she gets hit with face blindness. What then ensues leaves the readings feeling every possible emotion. I was laughing out loud, on the edge of tears and really wanted to yell at Sadie to make better decisions!
Katherine Center does such a brilliant job in all of her books making her characters feel so real with their flaws but also gives you such a great sense of hope that everything is going to be okay, even when you think it can’t!
Truly couldn’t put this book down!

3.5 stars - I would honestly read Katherine Center’s grocery list because I love everything that she writes. This book however was very predictable. It was clear from the start where it was going, but her writing keeps it interesting.

I love Katherine Center! This book is definitely not for everyone but it was everything to me! I loved the characters, the writing and just everything. I really liked this book! This book was filled with sooo much lightness and it just made me so happy! Would definitely recommend!

Sadie is a portrait artist, who after an important surgery develops face blindness, meaning people’s faces that she see look more like a puzzle or a Picasso painting than a face.

I believe lovers of character driven stories will enjoy this one. Sadie takes center stage in this one and the story follows how she is dealing (or not) with her face blindness, while interacting with those around her. This one was giving me Cinderella vibes with the stepmother and step sister. The romance is more secondary in my opinion, and while it does take a bit to get into the romance portion of the book, I love how Sadie’s story evolved and end.

"Hello Stranger" by Katherine Center is the perfect summer read! Sadie is a portrait artist who finds herself suddenly unable to see faces. Overwhelmed and without her best friend by her side she finds comfort in a helpful neighbor. "Hello Stranger" is a sweet and fun rom com that also has substance.

Oh my god 🥰😍🥰😍 I love everything Katherine Center writes. How to Walk Away was the first ever book I read of hers and honestly, it has held the candle up until now. Hello Stranger was so cute and emotional. Katherine writes about real problems, real life obstacles and set backs and GROWTH. Her books feel like a therapy session and a warm hug and I love them for that reason. Her Author’s Note at the end just completed the whole experience for me. This book filled me with anticipation 😉 and HOPE and healing and all the good warm fuzzy vibes. I would recommend this and any other Katherine Center book.

the reveal is sooo obvious that it’s frustrating and also the mc’s family is just too evil for no reason but it was a very fast read

I couldn't wait to pick this one up after reading The Bodyguard last summer! I've adored Center's strong female characters in the past, and unfortunately this one was entirely different than the five-star read I was anticipating.

Center's novels are normally an engaging experience - I find myself quickly enthralled and rooting for the main character, comforted by the romance and satisfied with the substance included in the story. I struggled to want to continue this one, and I kept putting it down. Sadie was self-centered, whiny, and incredible at pushing my buttons. There's a difference between being a strong, independent female and acting rude, stubborn, and immature. I felt for her situation, but she wasn't reacting well. Her character took a compelling synopsis and made it difficult to bear.

I also found myself disappointed in the narration and dialogue, which came off as lazy and lacking a deeper purpose. The plot provided serious potential and character development, and Sadie's immaturity and mindset fell short.

My favorite part of this novel is the adorable cover - bonus points for that!

This book has some redeeming qualities, but it just wasn't for me. It's a bummer, but I'm still looking forward to see what's to come from Katherine Center in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review my first ARC!

Sadie is a down on her luck portrait artist living in her studio. She has a bad relationship with her father and stepmother and has a truly evil stepsister. Here luck seems to be changing as she becomes a finalist in a national art competition. Her life falls further into disaster as a sudden medical emergency requires brain surgery. This ends up leaving her with face blindness. While struggling to cope with her new reality Sadie becomes close with her neighbor Joe and her dog's vet Dr Oliver Addison.

I enjoyed a lot about this book. Sadie is a sweet but messy character. The outcome of the love story is a little bit predicable but still good. My favorite part of the book is Sadie's relationship with the Kim family. Found family is one of my favorite things in story. Their kindness and love really made this book shine.

Sometimes the biblio stars align and the right book finds you at the perfect moment. The last time this happened for me was with Poston’s ‘The Dead Romantics’ and the fates recently struck again with ‘Hello Stranger’. I had just finished learning about prosopagnosia (face blindness) at university and was awestruck when I realized it was covered. I have never read another book like this one and I had so much fun following the diagnosis and making sense of the main character’s world from her new pov. I also loved the other elements of life that were addressed such as difficult family relationships and finding your place in the world. The romance was amazing, especially because it did not go in the direction I expected, even though I guessed the twist.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.