"This love story really created fantastic anticipation."

Sadie, an artist that is struggling so much she is living in her studio hovel, gets amazing news when she is chosen as a finalist for a portrait competition that is conveniently being hosted in her town. Sadie prides herself on being able to take care of herself and pretending to be fine. Her mother passed away when she was 14 years old and her father remarried fairly quickly to her "evil stepmother." Lucinda (ES) came with a horrible stepsister for Sadie.

As Sadie is heading home from picking up wine for the celebration her friend Sue insists she have to commemorate placing in the contest, she has a seizure and a good Samaritan pushes her out of the way of a car. Unfortunately, her tests come back showing that she needs to have brain surgery. They say it isn't a big deal and recovery shouldn't take too long. She wants to put it off until after the contest, but her father, a cardiologist, disagrees and insists she do it now. It will cut into her portrait time, but she will still have time after the surgery. She wakes up with face blindness, which really hinders her ability to draw the portrait required for the competition. And not being able to tell people apart by their faces is pretty inconvenient. Her neuropsychologist works with her to discuss other ways to distinguish people and also wants to help her resolve some issues from her past.

When her favorite face in the world, her dog Peanut, becomes ill, she meets the handsome (she can just tell) Dr. Oliver Addison who saves Peanut's life. Sadie does not want anyone to know about her problems with having surgery and the resulting face blindness so she does her best to keep it a secret. Her family and best friend know and she finds that to be more than enough people. While she prides herself on not needing help, her neighbor Joe is a person who helps too much. And he is always there when Sadie needs help but is scared to be weak.

I loved this book SO much! At first, I felt like Sadie was a bit ridiculous with her desire to not need help (seriously, a guy offered to pay for her items when she realized she left her purse at home and it was a huge ordeal). The exaggeration of it was funny and helped her grow on me, especially once you learn a bit more about her past. The ways she related to her mother were sweet and fun. A quote from the author's note at the end (a must read!) summarizes why this book was such a joy for me to read: "I think the ways we take care of each other matter just as much as the ways we let each other down. That light matters just as much as darkness. That play matters as much as work, and kindness matters as much as cruelty, and hope matters as much as despair. More so, even."

Another great read by Katherine Center! It was twisty, entertaining and lighthearted. You really cannot go wrong with this romance. I really enjoyed reading (and learning!) about facial blindness and the struggles she endeared.

Hello Stranger, by Katherine Center

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5

This was such a sweet and unexpected novel!

I adored that the focus was mostly on Sadie Montogmery. In a romance, it's really easy to have the relationship be the core focus of the book, but I didn't feel that way with this one.

One sentence summary:
Hello Stranger is about Sadie's recovery and finding herself again after going through a traumatic experience — the fact that she falls in love along the way is a bonus.

Stand out quote (from the author note, not the book!):
"Romance novels, rom-coms, happy love stories — they all run on a blissful sense that we're moving toward something better. The clues writers drop in romance novels don't give you something to dread. They give you something to look forward to. This, right here — more than anything else — is why people love them. The banter, the kissing, the tropes, even the spice ... that's all just extra."

What I liked:
The plot was really interesting and unique, and kept me hooked the whole time. I enjoyed the journey of figuring out along with Sadie what a portrait artist was going to do now that she couldn't see faces! The love interests were also really great and totally swoon-worthy. Mr. Helpful, indeed.

I also enjoyed Sadie's creativity and resilience in going after her dreams. While they didn't play out how she expected, I think the outcome was a lot stronger for her.

I did guess the twist, but I still had a blast reading it to see how it would play out. As Katherine explained in her author's note, the anticipation was great and I couldn't wait to see how it would unfold.

What I didn't:
Katherine does a great job in her novels of bringing the characters to life.

That said, I didn't totally understand the need to have Parker be SUCH a bitch. Having a mean stepsister is one thing, but Parker was essentially a psychopath with no redeeming qualities. I found it hard to believe that Sadie's dad or stepmom wouldn't have noticed. While her dad wasn't totally present for her after her mom died, it's another thing entirely to have this terrible of a person not have anyone notice how terrible they are.

And honestly, Sadie was having a hard enough time without an evil step sister!

Overall thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book. It kept me hooked, it surprised me, it made me laugh, and it made me feel all the things. It really is such a heartwarming and touching love story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To begin, I need to mention (to brag?) that I received an advance copy reader in exchange of my opinion through Netgalley.

Someone obviously didn’t to their job fine because… have you met me? I don’t even speak english and I’m literally nobody! Well, tough shit! THANK YOU, whoever you are: I read the book (in advance, mind you) and I really liked it!

I requested the book because it was written by Katherine Center! I didn’t even care about the plot. Rookie mistake! I realized quickly it was a "medical" romance (Is that a thing? I feel like it should be!) and sadly these aren’t my favorite. Oops! Thank God it wasn’t the amnesia trope, it was in fact super interesting! I learned about prosopagnosia (yeah, I had too Google it to spell it right) and I even researched it afterwards because it really is fascinating! Prosopagnosia is face blindness… which is kind of dramatic for a portrait artist such as Sadie (the FMC).

What I loved the most about this book was Sadie’s evolution. She starts as bit grumpy, a lot defeatist. And when life throws the absolute worst at her, she actually learns to trust herself, to accept the challenge and she thrives! It was beautifully done IMO.

Also, I snorted way too many times. I enjoy Katherine Center’s humor, but I knew it from the star (dixit the request without even knowing the plot). Everything was sometimes a bit over the top. While I loved books that are too grand to be real, I feel like some (boring) people might not enjoy its lack of realism. Between you and I: their loss!

I gave Hello Stranger a well deserved 4 stars. I really enjoyed my read but I had two minor deceptions. First, I didn’t really understand why we needed the mean Cinderella-esque step-family. Second, the ending was too obvious. I would have liked to be thrown off guard but I guessed where we were going from the start.

PS- I think I’m in love with Mr. Kim more than I was with the MMC! Mr. Kim’s character was *chef’s kiss* marvelous!

Overall it was a great book true to Katerine Center’s talent!

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center (Coming out July 11, 2023)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🔥🔥/5

Sadie’s life is finally looking up. She was accepted into a portrait competition as a finalist, but the notification came at the same time she was told she would need to have brain surgery. They say it’s minor, but is brain surgery ever minor? She wakes up from surgery without the ability to see faces. Will she be able to save her career, or start a new relationship, even if the face blindness is permanent?

I loved this book. I felt like Sadie was such a sweet and relatable character and Joe is absolutely precious. The storyline was very gripping, and I didn’t want the story to end. I loved how the ending was a type of happily ever after, even if not everything was absolutely perfect.

Katherine Center is my favorite romance author. Her stories are always filled with emotions. This novel is no different. I loved Sadie's crazy, mixed up life. She's definitely the underdog that you are constantly rooting for throughout this story. The book is amazing and did not disappoint. I give this book five stars!!!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced readers copy. What can I say. I loved this book. Katherine Center is one of my auto-buy authors and will continue after reading 'Hello Stranger'. Sadie was such a relatable character with a very unrelatable circumstance of face blindness. I loved how she 'found herself' when she was in the most difficult situation anyone could be in as an artist. Thank you again. This was awesome.

I did not like this book at all. I loved the bodyguard, so was hoping for a similar frothy read- this lacked substance. Sorry. Thank you for the arc! I’ll give the author props for handling a disability well.

Katherine Center never fails to amaze me. She is one of my must-read all-time favorite authors and for good reason. I always like to say that sometimes I'm in the mood to read a book that makes me "feel something." And Center is perfect at achieving this.

I have to admit it started slow for me, I had a hard time getting interested in the story and the main character until the second love interest, Joe was introduced. From there, I was on a whirlwind tear to get through this book. I loved it, the banter between characters, her relationship with the Kim's, her little pup and his love for Pad Thai. This book was a delight and had me guessing right until the end. This book did as Center's books always do for me, they made me feel something.

This isn't my first book by Center and as long as she keeps writing I will keep reading.

Thank you, NetGalley, publishers, and author Katherine Center for an eArC of Hello Stranger.

My first review: I have no words yet. My heart is still processing this hugely hopeful, beautiful story.

Updated after processing: I loved absolutely everything about and everyone in (even the villains, because they were just awful, yet leant to the storyline) this book. It may be my BOTY and I feel honored to have gotten the privilege of reading it early. I still think about it. Do NOT miss this book!

Sadie is trying to find her way as an artist, while also keeping up a brave face in front of her father and his family. She’s finally gotten her big break when a freak accident and subsequent surgery render her talents useless. She has 6 weeks to figure it out, all while she’s reconciling a multitude of past family issues and while harboring a crush on her new veterinarian. Can she learn to rely on herself and figure it out??

This book is so incredibly heartfelt. My heart ached for Sadie and her situation. Sadie is just so relateable, too. She is just a girl trying to get her life sorted, repair relationships, get her big break, and find love. Aren't we all? She has a super supportive best friend, Sue, who is her biggest supporter, and a dog, Peanut, she would do anything for. That is the thing about Katherine Center. She hits you

Sadie Montgomery is about to, maybe, have her big break with her art when an accident causes her to be diagnosed with face blindness. Which might not be totally dilapidating but she is a portrait artist. The doctors tell her it could be temporary but Sadie is scared that this is her new normal. As she struggles with her new life, there is awkward family moments to deal with and a potential romance with two men.
I found Sadie's face blindness very interesting. I have never read a book that had a character with this and I could tell Center did her homework on the diagnosis. I understood Sadie's family dynamic. However, I don't like when one of the main conflicts in a book can be helped by the characters just having a conversation but they don't.

Thank you St. Martins press for the arc of this book! The following thoughts are mine and mine alone.

Katherine, YOU DID IT AGAIN! What a fascinating story about the struggles of confirmation bias. We all have it but she expanded on it tenfold. Have you ever told yourself “I’m not a fan of that person” at one point and then consistently find things that fit your first assumption? Yes, yes you have. It’s human nature but how can we shift and be better?
This book is not simply about confirmation bias but it is a story of a struggling artist who has faced pain, loss and a lot of minor inconveniences. By the end of this book, I sat there thinking “well crap, I need to adjust how I move through life”
Sadie Montgomery isn’t your typical young thriving artist, she has hit wall after wall and is hoping her big break is right around the corner. Throughout this book you will follow along through Sadie’s many hurtles. Biggest hurtle being acquired face blindness, you know that Picasso painting? Ya, that’s how she sees people. It is an adjustment to say that least, when you are a portrait artist losing the ability to see faces can pose a big ol’ problem. Read this book and take the ride with Sadie while she navigates her new normal.

Sadie Montgomery is a starving artist finally getting her big break. After years of trying to gain her stoic celebrity surgeon father's approval, Sadie shortlists for a prestigious portrait national portrait competition. She has just weeks to paint a new portrait for the round that could win her $10,000. The only problem? An emergency brain surgery leaves her with acquired prosopagnosia, the inability recognize faces. And as the cherry on top of her unfortunate circumstances, her best friend, and muse, Sue abandons her to get married in Canada. One subject down, Sadie finds herself torn between two men: Her dog's handsome vet who's already asked her out and her playboy neighbor subject, Joe, who she's slowly falling in love with.

Katherine Center, as usual, has come through with a likeable main character, with her own trials, who gets the happy ending readers need but maybe not in the way that we expect. Although Hello Stranger has her flair for well-written drama and a well-written world, it's missing the usual maturity and magic that she's known for in her other bestsellers like The Bodyguard and How to Walk Away. Sadie's tragic flaw is her refusal to ask for help, but that is, perhaps, my own cross to bear. (I'm a single woman living in New York. How would I even get by without the help of family, friends, and the occasional handsome but probably emotionally unavailable man?)

Still, I don't know that I would have it in me to skip this book entirely: I'm a sucker for her swoon-worthy line-up of love interests, a list I would gladly put Oliver and Joe on. While Hello Stranger begins as a lukewarm read for me, I did devour it in one day. Okay, two – I may have stayed up well into the wee hours of the morning reading. And did I cry at the signature Katherine Center ending? Yes.

In short, don't write off Hello Stranger, but proceed with caution. And a bonus note for former psychology majors like myself: You'll be pleasantly surprised at how much information you've retained from your college days.

What a great book! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am thankful to have gotten to read it before it’s been released. The storyline kept me interested and I enjoyed the ending.
She covered many different issues- grief, traumatic event, strained family, disability and good relationships and intricately knit them together in a great storyline! I enjoyed this book!

Fast, easy read that can be completed in one sitting or somewhere on a beach !! I really loved the ending and it all wrapped up really nicely ; however , it took me a good 60% to get there . This was my very first @katherinecenter book && I will DEFINITELY give her other works a shot (Things We Save In A Fire has been on my TBR forever) . Overall , it kept me entertained and I really enjoyed the dynamics between all the characters && I really appreciated that the author didn’t shy away from the hardness of family relationships (the Sadie/father relationship had me in 😭) .

Hello Stranger will be available July 11, 2023 - if you love Katherine Center , you’ll love this one !

From @goodreads :: Sadie Montogmery 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?

#netgalley #hellostranger #katherinecenter #bookstagram #tbr #thingswesaveinafire #arcreview #bookreview #booktok #bookreview #jennielikesbigbooks

I love Katherine Center books. Filled with characters you can’t help but love who find themselves in these rare predicaments and you always know in the end, things will work out right. I come out of my comfort zone sometimes reading about things that seem a little too unbelievable - like a vet allowing a dog to eat things like French crepes and pad Thai! - but then again it doesn’t hurt the story, adds some sweet humor and allows for the reader to maintain hope throughout. And I always learn something reading her books - in this case about face blindness. And of course what better occupation for this character than being a portrait artist! This one might be one of my favorites of hers. It comes out July 11, 2023 and will be perfect for the beach or a vacation.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you for the ARC Netgalley & St. Martin's Press. Count me in for everything that Katherine Center writes. She is one of my favorite happily ever after authors. This book was a lovely. The characters are complex and warm and while I guessed the twist early on it was still a delight to read. There is something deeply satisfying to have everything work out. Fans of other Katherine Center novels will not be disappointed.

I did not read Hello Stranger through an educator lens.

Katherine Center has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Hello Stranger was a beautiful book filled with bigger lessons that weren't didactic, humor, and romance. I loved reading this one and couldn't put it down. The character development was strong and drove the story as much as the plot, which I greatly appreciated.

There was something so brutally honest about this story, something that poked at humanity’s knee jerk to judge and perceive things the way we want, creating our own reality to align with our biased worldview. And goddamn if it didn’t break me.

Fiercely independent Sadie is a (begrudgingly) struggling artist on the brink of success when a teeny tiny medical emergency takes a turn for the unexpected. Coping in the aftermath proves harder than she thought, making doing her art (and living her life) challenging. After all, a portrait artist needs to be able to see faces, and all Sadie sees now are a bunch of mixed up features.

I really liked how Katherine Center explored Sadie’s onset of face blindness and how she navigates the neurological disorder, providing a brilliant commentary on the realities of invisible disabilities. It felt authentic and informative without bogging the story down with complicated medical explanations, providing just enough to carry emotional weight and also educate the reader.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Katherine Center novel without a healthy amount of chaos. Our girl Sadie is a romantic, and her daydreams and attempts to cope are painfully relatable. I, too, fall in love with strangers and make up elaborate futures of possibilities in my head as a form of escapism (sorry Bobby lol). But what I really loved here was the gentle reminder that our perceptions aren’t always reliable, and sometimes we have to challenge our own ideas and (mis)conceptions to be true to ourselves.

The love story here was brilliant, and even though I called the plot twist, I was eagerly anticipating the confirmation and CACKLED when I got it. Absolutely brilliant. Also ngl the author’s note made me cry.

5⭐️ this one’s a gem

**sincerest thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC**

This story is about appreciating what’s in front of you and trying to rewire your brain to new thinking when faced with adversary. The realizations at the end of the book about how blind the main character had been to everyone around her, especially to the man that had literally saved her life, made the book special when everything came together. The banter between the two main characters kept the book entertaining throughout, but unfortunately the book wasn’t for me. The beginning was too wordy, every time she met a new person the amount of time spent describing the face and proportions was too much for me. The end saved the book for me, once she was able to see everything again and put everything together but otherwise it dragged.

Thank you Netgalley, Katherine Center and St. Martin’s Press for the arc!