Katherine Center writes the best prickly characters where you understand their defensiveness and want them to get to be happy. The main character in Hello Stranger is no exception. Having lost her mother at 14, dealt with a difficult step family, and now losing the ability to see faces, Sadie has walls upon walls that need tearing down. Joe comes into her life when things are at their bleakest and circumstances force her to accept help, allowing some of these defenses to crumble. I loved watching their love story develop and some of her issues from her teen years and young adulthood begin to heal as well. Her best friend Sue and Sue's family are excellent side characters. This book made me smile, tear up slightly at times, and melt in a rush of happy endorphins at the end.

In Hello Stranger, Sadie is a portrait artist poised for her big break in a competition that will set her up for financial and career success. However, she has an accident requiring surgery, which leaves her with the rare condition of prosopagnosia or face blindness, which affects both her personal and professional life. Sadie has a difficult time asking for help and her neighbor Joe has a difficult time not jumping in to save the day. Sadie relies on her best friend's support and guidance and leans in to the support Joe is offering as well, but her condition causes confusion, miscommunication, and conflict.

Overall, Hello Stranger was an enjoyable and quick read. I liked the exploration of asking for help, reframing situations, and how your perspective and experience is so influenced by your thoughts. Sadie, her best friend, and Joe were well developed and likeable characters. It definitely requires the suspension of disbelief in parts. In particular, I didn't find her evil stepsister, Parker to be a particularly believable character. I didn't see her motivation in being so consistently cruel. If you've previously read Katherine Center books and liked them you will very likely like this one, too. It delivers on hopeful anticipation, but the conflict can be frustrating.

I always read the author's note and acknowledgements and Hello Stranger affirmed that choice. The author's note was wonderful and I appreciated her thoughts about the genre and how romance books are constructed. Definitely don't skip it!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing the digital copy to me for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I love Katherine Center's books and her latest was no exception.

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist who has finally landed her big break. Unfortunately, it happens at the same time she's told she needs brain surgery. Her doctors told her it'd be a simple procedure and she'd be back to normal within a week or so. After the surgery though Sadie discovers she can no longer see peoples faces. She's face blind.

As Sadie struggles to cope she soon meets Dr. Addison and then Joe. Sadie develops a friendship with Joe while fantasizing about Dr. Addison. She must learn how to confront her past, handle her future and learn to trust herself.

I cannot even imagine what it would be like to not be able to see people's faces. I feel like Katherine really dug into the emotional aspect of what it would be like to lose that sense. While this is probably categorized as a romance story it's also a story of learning to trust yourself and ask for help. Overall I devoured this story in a day and would recommend it.

Another solid, entertaining contemporary fiction novel from Katherine Center! 4 stars!

Sadie needs brain surgery and the surgery leaves her face blind. But she happens to be a portrait artist and faces are kind of important.

I learned a lot about prosopagnosia. I read the notes section and it seems like the author did her due diligence with research. I smiled at the quote shared from Lauren Billings.

As a veterinarian, I give this book 1 star! Do not feed your pets this diet! They will get pancreatitis and die!

I wish there was more character resolution with Parker. She was such a nasty character! She just disappears and that left me feeling like she got away with her horrible, horrible behavior.

I enjoyed the unfolding of this story. “This love story really created fantastic anticipation.” (See what I did there, Katherine? 😉)

Overall, I liked the themes of people are doing the best they can and it’s okay to ask for help when needed.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced reader’s copy.

Hello Stranger is the book you didn't know that you needed to read. It is about family, strength, healing, and learning that asking for help doesn't mean you are weak. I really liked Sadie, the main character that suffers from facial blindness after undergoing surgery. It was interesting learning more about facial blindness and also getting a feel for what a person who has this must do to get a handle on it. Also interesting was how other senses become heightened to help compensate for not being able to "see" a face.

4 solid stars for Katherine Center’s newest novel! I’ve enjoyed all of her books so far, so knew this one would not disappoint.

It was a sweet, uplifting story with quirky, down to earth, very likable characters! I've never heard of "face blindness" before, so reading about the main character's diagnosis and struggles with it was interesting and eye opening. The book as a whole was pretty lighthearted but there were definitely heavy issues woven in (parental loss, family drama, infidelity) that gave the story depth.

I adored Sadie's relationship to her childhood dog, Peanut, as well has her friendship with Sue! The dialogue made me laugh out loud and it felt very relatable.

I also appreciated how the “love triangle” came full circle in the end! ❤️

Thank you for the opportunity to read the book in advance!

Sadie has the worst luck….or is it her perspective? In Hello Stranger, Sadie, struggles of being an artist with face blindness and stressed to meet a competition deadline. I was hooked within the first chapter of the book. It flowed smoothly and was an easy read.. Defiantly recommend this and am excited to read more from Katherine Center.

Just as Sadie finds she is a finalist in an art competition, she has to undergo an unexpected brain surgery. Suddenly, Sadie finds she has face blindness, hopefully, just a temporary complication that she is determined to hide. As soon as she meets her new vet, Sadie instantly starts fantasizing about their future wedding. Yet before they can even go on a date, Sadie finds herself increasingly drawn to her annoying neighbor. As Sadie struggles to paint a portrait without being able to see faces, her personal life implodes around her, teaching her love can come from the most unexpected of places.

Katherine Center's latest romance is predictable in that way you want romance books to be predictable. Although the storyline was a little hard to swallow and the characters were so one-dimensional that it was a bit ludicrous, the cute and quirky premise makes it a perfect read-it-and-forget-it story for when you just want a mindless love story.

I went into this book without even reading the plot because I've loved everything Katherine Center has written. It was perfect to enjoy the book this way because I was as surprised as the main character by some of her experiences. It's rare a book provides a real surprise, and this one does it well.

Like Center's other books, you get a mix of a main character with internal struggles, family drama, and some romance. However, these common pieces do not make her books predictable, they each have their own unique characters and setting. Hello, Stranger is no exception! Don't miss the author's notes at the end for her thoughts on romance novels and the reasons they are so delightful!

I love Katherine Center but I think I do a fairly good job staying unbiased reading new books by favorite authors. Just because you love an author doesn’t mean you love every book they’ve written.

So trust me when I say Hello Stranger is amazing!!! As expected, it was easy to fall into, has a unique storyline, there’s personal growth, and an ending that keeps your attention and has you cheering,

It might be my favorite of hers yet.

Thank you for the change to read the ARC!

Another person reviewing this book? You bet!

This book absolutely deserves the hype it’s getting from ARC reviewers. I was up until 2 AM finishing this last night.

I loved the time the author put into learning and conveying face-blindness, prosopagnosia . It was great to learn more about the condition and what life is like for someone with it while still getting a very satisfying love story.

Hello Stranger
By Katherine Center
4.5⭐️’s
Out July 11th
Add to your TBR’s now.

Thanks to @stmartinspress @netgalley and @katherinecenter for early access to this story in exchange for an honest review.

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait painter and finally got a huge career break by getting a final coveted spot in a prestigious portrait competition. On her way back to her apartment to celebrate, she has a seizure and finds out she has a brain abnormality that could burst and kill her at any time. After being forced into the surgery to fix the abnormality, she wakes up to discover she can't see faces. No one thinks this is a big deal, after all she is alive and healthy and it may not be permanent, but to a portrait artist under a deadline, this is a much bigger deal.

Ashamed to admit the problems she's having, Sadie tries to navigate her new life, figure out how to continue painting, all while taking care of her geriatric dog, making a new friend in her building, and the emergence of her stepsister who is set to sabotage her at every turn. Unraveling her family history while creating a portrait she can't see, Sadie is on an unintentional path of self discovery and finding out how much she can really overcome.

Katherine Center, in her usual way, has brought to light a commonly uncommon ailment or varied ability and worked it seamlessly and beautifully into a story about resilience, self love, self discovery, and overcoming obstacles. It's exactly what I expect from her and also a completely independent fresh work.

#arc
#netgalley
#hellostranger

“Hello Stranger” is another great book in Katherine Center’s stable of books. You are immediately engaged by the story of a women who suffers and struggles in her daily life from a disease commonly known as Face Blindness. We learn how Sadie has developed workarounds to live her life as fully as she can. Despite her agility in most instances, there are still many incidents where she must muddle through. And she does have situations where she wrongly assumes things about people which does have its comic side. Most of the people she associates with understand her disease and help. An evil stepsister provides tension in the story. Did I mention that Sadie is a portrait artist who is working on a portrait to enter a prestigious competition?

I absolutely love Katherine Center’s novels. “Hello Stranger” is no exception. She has a gift for bringing her readers immediately into the stories and we always cheer when the girl ends up with her boy, which is what we wish for in a romance. There are twists and turns that keep the reader up long into the night to finish ‘just one more page’. Along the way in her books, she imparts wisdom and the knowledge that suggests how we too might act in similar difficult circumstances.

In Center’s Author Notes she shares with us the process of writing a romance novel. It is so interesting to learn about this. And knowing how a romance book is structured does not take away the craving to read more romance novels. Especially ones by Katherine Center.

At this point, I'll read Katherine Center's grocery lists. I thought she couldn't top The Bodyguard but I might have actually enjoyed this one more. You really find yourself rooting for Sadie and the plot keeps you immersed no matter what (especially when you're seething over her witch of a stepsister). I really enjoyed both the romance and Sadie's personal growth and I didn't feel like one overpowered the other which is rare in a romance novel. I read this as an ebook and will definitely be going to purchase a physical copy to add to my budding Katherine Center collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for sharing this advanced reader copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

3.5, I wish it would have been more predictable, but at the same time I really enjoyed the different storyline. It’s a book I will remember because it’s the only book I’ve read on face dysmorphia. I think Sadie’s past story didn’t help the main story line, and was too unbelievable.

Thank you st Martin and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

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

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist on the verge of her big break when she makes the finals of a prestigious portrait competition. But when an accident forces her to undergo brain surgery, she wakes up to find she has developed face blindness, a condition that renders her unable to see faces. Sadie is distraught at having to readjust her worldview—literally—while preparing for the biggest opportunity of her career, but soon she makes the acquaintance of two intriguing men: the handsome veterinarian who saves her dog’s life and the obnoxious neighbor who lends a helping hand during her lowest moments in recovery. As she struggles to make sense of her new normal, Sadie learns that joy and redemption can be found in the most unlikely of places.

Katherine Center’s books have much more going on than the central romance(s), elements that enrich the story without getting bogged down in unnecessary or uninteresting details. Sadie’s backstory was heartbreaking, but her stepmother and (especially) stepsister were so satisfying to hate (even if the latter was a mostly one-dimensional villain without much nuance until the very end). The resolution of the romance was fairly predictable, but it was written in such a way that I was still so invested to see how exactly everything was going to play out. The only thing that felt a little jarring to me was a minor character’s deus ex machina appearance near the end to help resolve one of the storylines, which seemed way too convenient to be realistic and wasn’t addressed at all after it happened.

But I loved pretty much everything else about this book: the “starving artist” mentality of struggling to pursue your dreams while all the odds are stacked against you (including your own crippling self-doubt), and how the notion of quitting seems at once like a huge relief and like a deep betrayal of our younger selves. The face blindness slant was so unique and fresh and appeared extremely well researched, though I’d be interested to hear how it compares to a real person’s lived experience with the condition. I like how most of KC’s characters seem very real in that they are flawed individuals with mostly redeemable qualities (Sadie’s best friend is occasionally flaky even though her heart is always in the right place; Sadie herself is stubborn but mostly self aware and well intentioned). I also love that the love interest(s), aside from being otherworldly handsome, talk and act and behave more or less like real people. They read like men I know in my real life, not just like “men clearly written by women” (not that I don’t love those, of course).

Anyway, this was such a delight to read and I had a hard time putting it down once I got into it. Definitely recommend.

Oh!—Also, if you’re the type of person to skip over reading author’s notes, I highly recommend reading this one. Katherine Center discusses her refreshing take on romance novels as a genre, which is both enlightening and vindicating to read as a romance lover. I’ll leave you off with a brief excerpt:

“That’s a guarantee of the [romance] genre: Things will get better. It’s a gift the love story gives you. But no type of story gets more eye rolls than love stories. ‘They’re so unrealistic,’ people say, as they start another zombie apocalypse movie. What is that? Is it self-protection? Self-loathing? Fear of vulnerability? Is it pretending we don’t care so we aren’t disappointed? Is it some sad, unexamined misogyny that we as a culture really, really need to work on? I think love stories are deeply misunderstood—in part, at least, because they don’t work like other stories. Love stories don’t have happy endings because their authors don’t know any better. They have happy endings because they let readers access a rare and precious kind of emotional bliss. Yes, misery is important. But I think joy is just as important.”

Overall rating: 4.25 stars
Spice level: 0/5 (fade to black)

Katherine Center delivers again -- a feel-good romcom with intelligence, humor, and heart (and an evil stepsister, a sweet pup, and a medical mystery). What more could a reader want? I zipped through this one, reading a few chapters each night while on a trip, cheering for Sadie (and her pajacket) the whole time. Learning about prosopagnosia (face blindness) was fascinating and the author's note is a perfect inclusion. I'll read anything by Katherine Center and leave feeling joy-filled and satisfied. Thanks to the author, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for the advanced copy and the chance to share a review.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for the opportunity to read this ARC! Publication date: 7/11/2023.

Rom com, romance, women’s lit, Katherine Center fans, add this book to your summer TBR! Pre-order this, tell your public library to pre-order this, ASAP. If you know me, you know I absolutely adore KC and the myriad of strong female MCs she has created. This book is full of blissful sense of joy, anticipation, and hope. I devoured this book in one sitting and stayed way past my bedtime.

Just like all my favorite Katherine Center characters, Sadie’s story is about healing, finding herself, and becoming the best version of herself. Sadie is always “fine” and never wants help. Then after an accident that resulted in prosopagnosia, she has to figure out how to redefine herself as a portrait artist.

Very enjoyable read!! I actually started and finished it in one day. I liked the characters and the plot line was very unique and interesting! The main character suffers from facial blindness and it provided such a different and fascinating perspective on life and love. Themes include family drama, friendship, grief, and trying to identify your calling and career. Highly recommend!

Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this wonderful book!!

This book releases July 11th, 2023. Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martins Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

———

This was such a sweet book! Though it did deal with some heavier topics the story was well balanced with love and joy. I really enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and the plot line was so unique and interesting.

Sadie was such a fun and relatable character. I loved reading about her struggles and how she learned to cope with them. She faces many ups and downs throughout the story and it’s amazing to see her grow through it all.

The endinggg 🥹 This was a entertaining, inspiring and heartwarming read.

I recommend this book if you like :
• Unique Plots
• Puppies!
• Family drama
• Charming characters
• Adorable romances
• Mistaken Identity
• Mental health