Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review of this book!

First let me say, I am a HUGE Katherine Center fan. This book had a VERY creative concept and brought attention to a condition I had no idea existed, but was not as high on my list as some of her others.

Struggling artist Sadie Montgomery quiet literally lost sight of life in an instant. After getting promising news regarding her art (finally!) her ability to visualize faces is lost…. Which proves to be quiet the problem being as she is a portrait artist. Sadie continues to take hits, like dealing with the scumbag neighbor dating everyone in her building, her dog getting unexpectedly sick (that Vet though) and SURPRISE her evil stepsister showing back up in her life. One thing she did NOT expect to find was a herself in a love triangle with the Vet and Scumbag (maybe he isn’t so bad after all?) neighbor.

The book was a fun easy read, I just think some of the characters/relationships weren’t fully played out or well developed (mainly Sadie’s family). BUT I really did love learning about the condition Sadie had.

This book was so heart warming and fun. I was a big fan of The Bodyguard and was so excited to get the opportunity to an advanced copy of Hello Stranger. I loved the humor in the book (“gotcha therapy”…hysterical) and I must say I am in desperate need of a pajanket.

I loved this overall story line. I love how Katherine wrote both of these main characters so they were both so real and likeable. I was also very attached to the side characters, whether I loved them or hated them. In particular I thought the evolution of Lucinda through the eyes of Sadie was very well done.

We’ll be excited to stock Hello Stranger at Westsider Books this summer!

Sadie is a struggling portrait artist who finally has a chance at her big break. Before she can celebrate this opportunity, she finds out she has to have brain surgery to remove a small brain bleed. An unfortunate side effect of the surgery, Sadie ends up with acquired prosopagnosia: face blindness. Sadie has to figure out how to create a portrait without the ability to see any faces. While juggling the hot veterinarian and Mr. Helpful in her building, Sadie has to figure out how to save her career.

Katherine Center won my heart over several years ago with Things You Save in a Fire. Hello Stranger was a delight. I was laughing out loud at Sadie's relatable cynicism and sense of humor. As someone who hates telling others why they're struggling, I totally understood Sadie.

I recently read another book that dealt with developmental prosopagnosia and it did not handle it with care; it felt like a tool to tell an interesting story. In Hello Stranger, however, it was handled with care and clearly well researched. It helped paint a picture (heh) of a challenge many readers may not be familiar with.

I wish this book had more romance. I loved swoony Joe and needed more of the hot vet... but overall loved seeing Sadie's journey to find self love and acceptance.

My first Katherine Center book and it won’t be my last. Lots of hope and happiness it was funny and heartbreaking at the same time. Face Blindness is something I had never heard of and it was interesting to me to read about it.

“The more good things you look for, the more you find.”

With every book I read from Center, the more and more I fall in love with her writing and stories. There are few books that can keep me up way past my bedtime, and this was one of those…I just couldn’t stop reading it, even as the tears kept filling my eyes!

Sadie is a struggling portrait artist who finally got her first big break. She is a finalist in an upcoming portrait competition and has six weeks to create a new portrait for her entry. But when she learns about needing an elective yet emergency brain surgery, the timing couldn’t be worse…especially when she wakes up from surgery with Prosopagnosia, also known as ‘face blindness’ or the inability to see faces. Not only does she feel unable to complete her contest entry now, but she can’t even recognize the faces in her everyday life, even of those that mean the most to her. How will she navigate this ‘new normal’?

Center’s books always give off warm and cozy vibes. But she also always does an amazing job teaching me something. Hello Stranger makes us think about what aspects of the people around us do we truly see, and what parts do we ‘see’ simply because we expect to find them? She also challenges us to think about learning and choosing to see the world around us in new and beautiful ways.

And can we just talk about her ‘Note from the Author’! I mean that alone gets five stars from me! It is the perfect ode to romance novels and their importance as a genre…I couldn’t have summed up why I love these types of books any more perfectly.

“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 things to dread. They give you things 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. It’s the structure—that ‘predictable’ structure—that does it. Knowing you’re heading towards a happy ending lets you relax and look forward to better things ahead. And there’s a name for what you ‘re feeling when you do that. Hope.”

Highly recommend this for fans of deeply emotional and character-driven stories full of growth and learning and love.

5 stars

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the e-ARC!!

Katherine Center has done it again! I just recently started reading her books and I have to say that I am a big fan! I would definitely add this to my bookshelf and definitely recommend it to my library for their collection.

This book felt light and fun like Katherine Center always does, but it also had a deeper story and meaning than usual. I loved the cheeky humor through out the book that kept it from getting too tense. <spoiler> As someone who lost her mother during childhood, this is one of the few fiction books I've read that gets that particular experience of grief right. <spoiler>

I'm a long-time devoted fan of this author, and I always eagerly anticipate her new releases. I also *love* that her publisher (@StMartinsPress) sends out e-ARCs so far in advance so I can enjoy her writing ASAP. (Thank you!!) I was proud of myself for at least waiting until the YEAR of publication to get to Hello Stranger, and rather perfectly, I decided to save this for an airplane read and it really hit the spot! I finished approximately the first 40% on the plane and then binged the rest when I awoke with jetlag the next couple of mornings. I finished this book with copious tears streaming down my face tangled in bedsheets at about 3:45 in the morning on vacation so it's hard to say whether any fatigue contributed to my emotional outburst or whether it was just the way these sweet characters burrowed themselves into my soul.

It did take me a little bit longer than in her previous books to really sink into the pace of this one, even though I was fascinated and hooked. The first half sets things up in a unique way with Sadie & her acute prosopagnosia (face perception blindness) - all of the other characters become much more clear as to their significance to the story later on. I really, really love Katherine Center's main female characters with all of their imperfections and thoughts and friendships and Sadie was certainly no exception. As the reader, I had a guess at where the story was going but I also wasn't completely 100% sure so there was no doubt that I was flipping pages quickly seeing how everything would turn out at the end.

This story was full of heart, was a bit reminiscent of a fairy tale scenario (we'll say Cinderella because of the evil stepsister) at times, and it made me smile and cry and laugh and gasp and really what more can you ask for? I am certain this one will be another smash hit for this author this summer. I, for one, need to reread a few pages that were hard to read through the tears and sleepiness at the end :)

I absolutely loved this story. Sadie was a hilarious, kind, generous, and humble character, and Joe was wonderful. I did not see the big twist coming, at all, but the ending left me feeling all warm and fuzzy, the way a romance should. Definitely recommend if you are looking for a fun, cozy, easy romance read.

I felt this book got better as it went on. In the beginning it took a while for me to get hooked, but once I was hooked… I was HOOKED. This book has the perfect mix of romance and surprise along with a little bit of a thrill.

Katherine Center has quickly become one of my favorite authors and this book is no exception! Her books are sweet, funny and heartwarming - you can't help but root for her characters.

The premise of this book is so unique and Katherine delivers once again. Sadie is down on her luck but doesn't let that keep her down.

This will be a highlight of Summer 2023 reading lists everywhere.

I absolutely devoured this book. It’s perfect in all the ways!! The cover is stunning and fits the story perfectly. I really loved the overall theme that we really do not know what others are going through, feeling or experiencing. Most times we form a confirmation bias just based on what we think. We find reasons in our own mind for them to be true while ignoring possible reasons it’s not actually true. Quoted from the book “Seeing the world differently helps you see things not just that other people can't-- but that you yourself never could if you weren't so lucky. It let's you make your own rules. Color outside your own lines. Allow yourself another way of seeing”. Absolutely loved the descriptive way this book pulls everything together for Sadie and her life. It’s a fun light hearted read with some romance included but more so about a young woman finding her own path of way of coloring outside her own lines. I think I resonated with more of the artistic side of the book as this is really how I see things most days. Not to mention the odd similarities to my own life- I’m a portrait artist with an Etsy shop and a pet named Peanut- I do not have a joe or hot vet in my life though. I’ll work on that from a different viewpoint! Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you St Martin’s Publishing, Netgalley, and of course, Katherine Center for the eARC!

The last few pages of this book gave me the best “I KNEW IT!!” Moment I’ve had since HOSAB.

Poor Sadie, what a rough few months. Like damn, girl. Evil step sister, sick dog, absent father, intrusive step mother, and wicked head trauma. Not to mention all the things reminding her of her mom.

I went into this totally blind to the plot/summary, so I truly had no clue what I was in for aside from romance. I had no idea this would be so sad in so many different ways and for a majority of the book. I don’t think I’d get by any better than Sadie does if this shit happened to me.

This is on me for not reading the blurb and just blindly thinking I would love it because I loved the bodyguard. When we got to the face blindness I cackled and could not recover. I know this is a real issue for some but the way it played out was not for me. I was going to keep going because like I said, I loved TBG, but the more I thought about it the more I felt meh about picking it up so I’m just going to call it and wait for her next romcom

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ebook copy.

Had an enjoyable time reading this book.

Ugh. I was so excited to try this after LOVING The Bodyguard which I have 5 amazing stars! This was only my 3rd by Center and I’ve been 1-1 with whether or not I’ve liked them. But unfortunately I had to DNF this one.

I just couldn’t get past the cringey inner dialogue. The fixation on her crush & how *extra* it was that she planned out their entire future within 2 seconds after talking. It’s just unbelievable and made me dislike the main character entirely. There were a few other things but ultimately, the dialogue & obnoxious main character drove me away on this. 😩

I throughly enjoyed Hello Stranger. I found it to be very unique and about something I’ve never heard of before. There was humor, happiness and some heavier topics throughout the book. I absolutely loved Sadie.

I loved this book! The humor is there, the dreamy guys are there, this book has everything you expect in a good rom-com! I really liked the concept of the story, a facial recognition disorder isn’t something I’ve read about before! There are a couple of cliche tropes like the evil stepmom/stepsister and love at first sight but it’s not overbearing. I stayed up way past my bed time to finish this one because I HAD to know what was happening. If you find yourself mildly confused half way through, push past the confusion it’s worth it! I really enjoyed this book! A fun read I would recommend!

Calling all fans of Katherine Center-Mark your calendars for July24th so you can add this one to your beach bag. This book is a little different than most of Katherine's books. A plot-driven, character development, contemporary romance. It is lighter, silly but somehow I found myself actually crying! It came out of nowhere as this isn't a sad book. Somewhere in the middle I stared getting a little bored as the plot really slowed to make room for the character development, but it picked back up. All the emotions in this one: giggling, at Sadie's perspective on her love interest, frustration with her family sadness, and then admiration for her tenacity. You really can't go wrong picking up a Katherine Center's book. She is so talented and I love her books.

Hello Stranger - Katherine Center
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 - NetGalley gifted ARC
Pub date: 7/23

There is a reason that Katherine Center is called the queen of cozy romances because she delivers with each novel. I loved her book, The Bodyguard, but Hello Stranger, is a fun story with the lead, Sadie, having a mysterious illness causing her to be unable to recognize human faces. Sadie falls in love with two men she can't see and has a great best friend, Sue, who I thought was terrific, Sue’s parents were even more impressive, but my favorite male was her dog, Peanuts. I loved the dog. The entire story is cute, with a lot of misunderstanding, sadness from her mother's death, being estranged from her father, and trying to make a career based upon her artistic skills but coming up short so many times. Sadie is fortunate, though, because she’s surrounded by people who love her and want the best for her, and in the end, that is one of the most extraordinary things about this book. I will read anything Ms. Center writes! I know Katherine Center fans will enjoy this one. #facialblindness #art #troubledfamily #wickedstepsister #dog #vet #bestfriends #love #loss #hope #witty #funny #StMartinsPress #NetGalley #KatherineCenter #HelloStranger
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I received a complimentary copy of this ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and the author for the opportunity to read this book. Pub Date: July 11, 2023. @netgalley @stmartinspress @katherinecenter