Fantastic book! Katherine Center did it again. What a unique premise for a book. It seemed far fetched when reading the synopsis, but she has a way of writing about the characters to lure you in and be hooked!

This was a fun contemporary romance. I enjoyed my time reading it but it probably won’t stick with me.
I’d recommend to anyone who enjoyed her other books.

This was such a sweet read and perfect for bookclub. It held my attention from start to finish and absolutely love her writing. Loved the little twist at the end too.

I love Katherine Center! She is one of my favorite authors ever. Hello Stranger, quite honestly was not my favorite,
As always I enjoyed Center’s strong, authentic female lead and the importance she plays to the plot. Her books always read as women’s fiction to me and not just romance.
Out of Center’s recent works I like The Bodyguard much better..
The face blindness angle was different but I just did not enjoy it that much.
I would give Hello Stranger 3 and a half stars. Center’s fun personality and lovely writing saved the book. I did not enjoy either main character.

This story is so original and unique, I was so blown away once I figured out what was happening! I loved that it was a romance that also encompassed deeper issues in the main character, Sadie’s, life.

This book was definitely a bit over the top and felt a bit unrealistic to me but once I got over the outlandishness of it all, I really enjoyed reading it! There were some bits to Sadie’s ailment that seemed to not fit with the narrative but I was able to move past them. Sadie was a great multi-dimensional main character, although I found her to be a bit clueless overall which made for some frustrating miscommunication.

I highly recommend to go into this book with an open mind and some suspense of disbelief - the overall writing and story are so enjoyable!

Read this if you:
* Are interested in learning about the difficulties of acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia (or face blindness)
* Love a love triangle but hate the drama that comes with it
* Have ever struggled to work on your passion

Sadie is ready to pursue her dreams of fame in the art world after becoming a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition. Before she can even start thinking of what she will create as her final submission, she finds herself in a hospital bed diagnosed with face blindness - she can’t make out the features on the faces of people around her. While she tries to make sense of her new world, she finds herself in a complicated relationship with two men who she has a hard time deciding between.

One of the most unique and clever romances I've ever read!

The heroine is a portrait artist who develops face blindness. I know! Crazy right? Sadie is one of the most lovable heroines who is just trying to get her life together but things don't seem to be working out in her career or her love life. I found her inner monologues hilarious and her tenacity to grow through her struggles so inspiring. She learned to see people beyond faces and discovered some great things about herself in the process.

The sort of love triangle in this plot was done SO FREAKING well! I can't explain without spoilers but I was a bit blown away by how amazing this story came together.

This is definitely a sweet, feel good romance that's low on the steam. While the overall feel of the book is light because I was constantly smiling or laughing, the underlying message is so uplifting.

I highly recommend this beautiful romance!

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

Hello Stranger is one of those NetGalley ARCs that I've had sitting on my kindle for almost a year that I've been pushing off to meet one deadline or another, and I'm sorry that I didn't get to it sooner because I absolutely loved it, and Katherine Center's quick writing style. It was funny and witty while also grappling with serious issues like surgery and it's aftermath and grief, and while predictable in that way romances are, going a little heavy handed on the foreshadowing, there is a comfort in that too.

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling portrait artist, who finally gets her big break, placing as a top ten finalist in a national portrait contest. A few weeks prior to the event, she suffers a non convulsive seizure in the middle of a crosswalk, narrowly missing being hit by a car, if not for the intervention of the handsome Good Samaritan she met in the grocery store just before. The cause was determined to be a congenital blood vessel defect in the brain, the same condition her mother passed from. After getting the necessary surgery to repair it, she finds that she is now suffering from "face blindness", a condition where facial features appear like jumbled Picasso portraits instead of a recognizable face, and she can no longer paint portraits accurately. Struggling to cope with the difficulties in her life, she becomes slightly unhinged in her obsession with her new, faceless veterinarian, while also trying to keep her creepy neighbor Joe at bay. As she gets to know Joe better, she realizes he may not be as bad as he initially seemed, and falls in love with him, without ever having seen his face. Her self imposed love triangle implodes, leaving her wondering what went wrong, when she breaks things off with Dr. Addison but Joe pushes her away as well. As her condition slowly improves, the puzzle pieces of not just faces start to come together. There was a heavy dose of miscommunication in this one, with Sadie's refusal to admit to anyone that she was suffering from face blindness, which would have resolved a lot of problems, but it was necessary to advance the plot. The story kept me engaged and was easily bingeable in a few sittings, and it's been a while since I've read a book that kept me saying "just one more chapter."

Katherine Center’s romances are just the SWEETEST. I jumped at the opportunity to read this one and I’m so glad I did. The plot wasn’t like your typical romance and I really liked that.

Thanks SO much for the opportunity to read this one early.

🎨 HELLO STRANGER by Katherine Center 🎨

★★★★☆

📖 About: Diagnosed with face blindness, Sadie grapples with a reality where every face becomes a jumbled puzzle. As she navigates her artistic dreams, family challenges, and cares for her beloved dog, Peanut, Sadie finds herself entangled in a complex web of love and temporary obsessions with two very different men.

🍹 Drink Pairing: Crack open an EXTRA big can of Peach High Noon, and get sipping. You’ll need it for all the ups and downs Sadie's dealing with. 😅

🌟 Review: I was a HUGE fan of “The Bodyguard” so I was so so so excited to be gifted a copy of Katherine Center’s next novel “Hello Stranger”. This story was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, after the world becomes a bit blurry for our MC Sadie.

I actually really enjoyed myself while reading this story - it was so cute, silly, but also tender and emotional. We all know what it’s like to chase after our dreams, and then have roadblock after roadblock get in our way (some bigger than others!). I don’t want to give too much away with the love interests, but the romance was equally adorable and frustrating as well.

Overall, this book was a very sweet exploration of love, family, and self-discovery and I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a feel-good romcom!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book. I could predict the direction the plot was going in very early on, so it felt boring to me from that point onwards. I enjoyed the overall message though and did like the inclusion of the main character having prosopagnosia. I felt like I learned a lot about this medical condition that I had known nothing about prior.

I think a lot of people would like this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

I really liked this book! Katherine center has been a great author to read when I’m wanting to come out of a slump.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center was a delightful journey following Sadie through her newfound face blindness after a medical procedure. Since Sadie is a portrait artist, a great deal of the book deals with her navigating the new normal she has to deal with every day. This book felt a little redundant at times; however, in the end, Sadie ends up with a lovely little happily ever after.

This was a quick read romance that explored a unique perspective of facial blindness and navigating some challenging relationships.

i really enjoyed the author’s previous book, so i was very excited to pick this one up but unfortunately it just fell a little bit short for me in comparison. it took me much longer to get into the story and the characters weren’t as memorable! it was still an enjoyable book but i don’t know if i’ll ever recommend it as it was just okay to me.

4.5 ⭐️.

I love Katherine Center books and anything she releases is always a must read for me. This was one of my favorites that she has written so far. I truly felt for the main character, Sadie, and was really proud of her for the journey she went on throughout the book. She felt like a person with flaws going through a really terrible situation, and I was really rooting for her. All in all, I think it was a lovely story of hope and romance, with some lighthearted fun along the way. (Also, the cover is beautiful!)

It was overall a fun, easy read, but I did miss the depth of characters that I feel like is a hallmark of Center's other books. It was still a pleasant way to pass a few hours, but I think that the emotional depth was lost in service of the plot.

It was a very cute/ interesting storyline, I enjoyed the entire book other than the major miscommunication between the love interests. To me it doesn’t seem believable that you wouldn’t be able to tell that they are the same person or that one of you would say your names/ professions at some point. Overall well written, good story line and characters, very cute, 3/5 stars

I've read three of her books and am starting to think none of hers will ever come close to Happiness for Beginners. As much as I wanted to love this one, I just didn't enjoy it like I wanted to. The romance seemed forced and way too fast, which made it unbelievable. The story brought more awareness to a disease not many know about, and I learned a lot. I'm glad to hear she did her research on this, because I'm always a little wary of reading books about illnesses the author has no direct experience with. Hopefully there were some sensitivity readers involved.

3.5⭐️
Katherine Center’s books are always a joy to read!

This one was a cute closed door story with the added mystery of the main character experiencing facial blindness.

This one wasn’t my favorite, but I still enjoyed it. I thought the storyline with the sister was a bit extra, but I liked the other parts of the story! I will continue to read all her books. How to Walk Away remains one of my all time faves!

Y’all. So KC is the author of my favorite book of all time (Happiness for Beginners) so every book of hers is an automatic read for me. Imagine my elation when I received an ARC from the publisher. The “it factor” Katherine Center has is every single book feels relatable despite not being anything close to my real life. The character development and depth of writing is unmatched. This book is so good! I say that about all of them but seriously, it’s true. They are all so unique and the characters are so well written. Do yourself a favor and add this to your TBR for Summer!