Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the eGalley of this book.

Solid 3 stars. This was a cute, quick read of a rom-com and scratched the itch of needing some bubble gum for the brain (so many dark, sad books lately!) I could see the twist miles and miles away, but I still enjoyed getting there.

Story centers around our protagonist, Sadie, (lots of internal banter)- she has to get brain surgery and results with temporary face blindness, where she’s unable to see anyone’s face. Love story combined with face blindness = high jinx ensues. Face blindness sounds so wild and hard to even imagine what that must be like. I was trying to picture this book as a movie, and it is hard to fathom being able to clearly depict that experience on screen- I struggled imagining it as a reader.

Funny, heartwarming, romantic, triumphant…Sadie’s life had all of these feelings in her roller coaster life for 2 months. It was a very unique premise but it gave me all the feels, just like every other Katherine Center book. I felt like I devoured the book but had to pace myself because I didn’t want it to end too quickly. A winning book again.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Sadie paints portraits, and has just been accepted as one of ten finalists for a prestigious competition sponsored by the North American Portrait Society. Unfortunately, as she heads home to celebrate, she has a slight seizure, and nearly gets run over by a car. It turns out she has a lesion on her brain that needs to be taken care of soon, or it could rupture and kill her. Her father is a surgeon and gets it scheduled rapidly, but when it is finished, she has some brain swelling that causes her to have a case of Prosopagnosia, which is a form of face blindness. This is heartbreaking for a portrait artist! Sadie has to come to terms with her new reality, and she doesn’t want others to know about it. Along the path of this journey she must face, she meets a vet who saves her dog, and one of her neighbors—who she has a distinctly negative impression about. She quickly learns that jumping to conclusions can be dangerous, and that confirmation biases are real.

This enlightening story is a true feast for the senses! When we can no longer rely on visual queues to give us information about people, we have to get that information in other ways. Ms. Center shares Sadie’s journey in a beautifully creative way with readers. We feel Sadie’s frustrations and struggles as she copes with this new reality. We watch as she begins to trust both her neighbor and her vet, and we are with her when she makes her choice between the two, and we see the ramifications of that choice. This book is captivating and compelling. Readers will laugh and cry and cheer and get angry. The ending may surprise many readers, but is delightfully original and well-crafted. There is wisdom and beauty in these pages!

Katherine Center has become my go-to author for heartwarming contemporary romance with realistic characters struggling with the demands of life. Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist with a challenging family. She finally has the opportunity to present her portraits in a prestigious competition when an unexpected health complication turns her life upside down.

This story was funny and touching and I loved the message about how our unconscious bias shapes our lives. While the story may have been somewhat predictable, the journey was joyous. And Center's essay at the end about the power of romance novels was wonderful. As a librarian and reader who loves romance, she articulated so well the hope romance novels provide. My favorite romance read of 2023 so far. Highly recommend.

I'm struggling to articulate my thoughts with this one, but it wasn't my favorite Katherine Center book that I've read, and I've read a lot. I felt like it was just a little too "inspirational" for me. Like the narrator was giving too much life advice and thr advice seemed cliche and I couldn't connect to the narrator for a large chunk of the book. I don't think it was a bad book, it was fine, parts were cute and I enjoyed them. Simply put, it just wasn't my favorite, but I will continue to read Katherine Center books.

I swear only k center could make me love a book about face blindness.

When I read a book by KC I remember to find joy in reading. To escape and fall in love.

By the end the anticipation was too real! Everything was playing out and connecting and ugh. I can’t think of the words!

This post/review is so choppy. Usually I’m better w my words but I don’t know. This choppy and notreallyareviewbutalsoareview is what we’re getting.

Takeaways:
Love is nourishing.
Look for and see the good over all else.
Ask for help.
Offer help.

Please read the authors note! I love this book. I love this author. I love what she stands for and how she writes. I love why she writes romances. I love how her characters come alive. I love how he weaves things together in a way that feels so real yet so perfect.

Star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve read most of Katherine Center’s novels, and they never fail to be fun and entertaining. Hello Stranger didn’t disappoint. Wonderful, interesting and likable characters just blended to create an interesting look into a medical condition, that as a nurse, was a new one for me. I’ve never heard or seen someone that is completely unable to see or recognize faces. But Sadie Montgomery barely misses being hit by a car, saved by a stranger, only to end up in the hospital with this strange, little known condition, which affects her life completely.
Sadie’s encounters with faceless people she can no longer recognize, new acquaintances that can be described every way but facial, complicate her messy life. Thankfully she can see the face of Peanuts, her precious dog, who is having medical problems of his own, and consequently she’s attracted to his faceless Veterinarian while repelled by the faceless Joe the Weasel, who everyone else seems to love.
Sadie’s life just becomes more complicated, and it difficult to see any solution, but as usual, Katherine’s knack of tying things up neatly and to the reader’s delight , it makes for a wonderful read. It’s 4 stars for me.
My thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press fir the ARC. As usual, I loved it!

I absolutely loved this book! Katherine Center never fails to disappoint and this is no exception. I blew through this in 2 days and found that I couldn’t put it down!

All in all this was a sweet, unique romance that was quite enjoyable! I really appreciate the author doing her research on prosopagnosia.

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as The Bodyguard, because it leaned a bit too heavily on the miscommunication aspect, which can annoy me past a certain point. I wanted to yell “just talk!!” at the characters sometimes!

Still, this was funny and cute and I think definitely worth reading! Also, I love when there are dogs in books so that will pretty much always cause me to enjoy a book that much more!

Great book, very unique story and take. Love the character grown and how it learn to surpass the situation were it was put. Not big on the romance but still very enjoyable

Katherine waves a beautiful web throughout the story with the characters and events. While you think you know where the story may go you can't stop turning the pages to find out how it unfolds... And if you're right.
It was magical, heartbreaking, and full of intriguing family drama and a sweet slow-burn romance.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's
Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An artist looks her facial recognition ability after a potentially life-threatening tumor is removed--just as she's getting ready to create a portrait for an art contest in which she's a finalist. Sadie is very anxious about her future, the contest, and her health--and her ability to recognize her canine companion!--but post-surgery, her inability to identify people she knows becomes an opportunity for her friends to come up with creative ways to be recognized. During her physical healing, her evil stepsister messes with her but it's a chance for her stepmother to support her in ways she couldn't when was a teenager; and an opportunity to get to know the hot new veterinarian and the cute but fratty guy in her building.

Center's novel is a great read for fans of Lisa Genova, blending medicine, psychology, family dynamics and light romance with a well-paced, not overly dramatic story, replete with humor and pathos.

I received a free advance reader's review copy of #HelloStranger from #NetGalley.

Hello Stranger was a sweet read! Took a bit to get into but I enjoyed it! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

If you want a romance novel that's a bit out of left field - look at Katherine center. In the beginning I definitely asked myself where the book was going. I thought it was a little slow to start, but as you started connecting to the characters it becomes more engaging. I don't know if I've ever yelled "just talk already" at a book so hard until this one came along. In the end I really loved where it went and how it got there. As crazy as the premise sounds with the brain surgery and facial recognition issues, it really didn't seem unrealistic and it was definitely different than your typical meet cute standard romance.

A sweet and fun read with likable characters. Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Hello Stranger is such a charming read. I was interested in the concept and was so excited when I was approved to read this via NetGalley. Its a great book. If you like Center's others you'll love this one too.

Thank you NetGalley.

I am such a big fan of Katherine Center and this book really did not disappoint. This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2023 and oh my goodness, I could not put it down. I was so immersed in the story and felt so relatable to the characters. I went into this book blind and honestly, I'm very happy I did that! PLEASE read this! Highly, highly, highly, recommend.

Hello Stranger -

This might be my favorite read of 2023 so far. It was such a comforting read, one that felt like coming home. I'm an avid romance reader and I feel like recently all books have the same themes and feel so repetitious. This storyline was unlike one I have read before and I felt drawn to the main characters because of the uniqueness of their situations.

The story follows Sadie Montgomery who is a struggling portrait painter. She has finally got her big break in a notable portrait contest when she has to undergo brain surgery. Upon waking up she realizes that she has experienced a side effect of the surgery known as apperceptive prosopagnosia, which causes an inability to perceive and process facial recognition. A portrait artist who can't see faces. Throughout Sadie's struggles in continuing her attempts at completing a portrait for the competition, she forms an unlikely friendship with another tenant in her apartment - Joe. Also during this time, Sadie's dog, Peanut, becomes ill and during a vet visit she meets Dr. Addison, who she falls for quickly. He is confident and sure of himself and despite her being unable to see his face, she believes it is love at first sight. But, her friendship with Joe grows and as he helps with her portrait, Sadie decides that she has fallen with not one, but two men.

The story is a beautiful reminder that beauty is more about what is on the inside than the outside. She becomes more confident in who she is as a person and not just a portrait artist. It also follows her struggles with family and her willingness to open up. It was raw and real and beautiful and the relationship between Joe and Sadie is also a masterpiece of literary work. I loved every piece of this book and know that I will come back to it over and over again.

Although this book had me at "Katherine Center", it certainly earned its five stars. Hello Stranger carries a bit of weight to it - a story about a portrait painter unable to "see" faces - but this is counter-balanced by the quirky characters and budding romance. A book with "all the feels", I highly recommend it.

This is my second read written by Katherine Center. I enjoy her style of writing and was interested to read more from her after having read The Bodyguard. Yes, this is a closed door rom-com, but it has a unique story to it. Sadie, the MC is chasing her dreams as an artist against her father’s wishes. Just when life is about to give her a break, she has a malformed blood vessel in her brain that needs to be fixed before it causes death. She reluctantly has the surgery but has now developed face blindness. She cannot recognize people by their facial features anymore. Whether or not this issue will resolve itself in time or if it’s permanent is yet to be determined. This poses a problem because she is a portrait artist, so she must learn new methods of creating her art.

While she attempts to navigate her life, anxiously hoping she will be resolved of her new impediment, she encounters multiple people whom she doesn’t recognize when they are upon her: A charming veterinarian who takes a liking to her (and her precious pooch), a neighbor who appears to be a weasel of a man with multiple lovers in her building, and her evil step-sister, Parker who is aware of her issue and torments her deliberately, whether out of jealousy or just being rotten to the core. I think it’s the latter. I really hope Parkers do not exist in our world, but I’m afraid to find out.

As Sadie learns to interact with all of these people, she develops a rapport with her neighbor. I love the way their relationship comes together. He’s charming and caring. They pull off a few scenes together that I really enjoyed “witnessing”. I wish that Sadie's family relationships would have been explored more. There were some main issues that were unresolved and I would also liked to have had some more understanding of why Parker was such a HORRIBLE individual. Anyway, this is definitely a unique read that I would honestly recommend.