I enjoyed this book.Sadie Montgomery has routine surgery and ends up with Facial Blindness. This is very unfortunate for Sadie since she is a portrait artist. You follow Sadies’s journey with the facial blindness. I felt Sadie’s family with the evil step sister didn’t really make sense to me. There is a twist at the end though I felt the end of the story wrapped up to easy. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the E-ARC. This is my own opinion.

Katherine Center is a relatively new find for me, and Hello Stranger did not disappoint! Sadie is a portrait artist who finally hits her big break when adversity hits. Not only does Sadie have to overcome an unexpected surgery and recovery during the opportunity of a lifetime, but she has to face and reconcile the events of her past.

I absolutely love the characters in this story, as well as the story! it feels like I have known every one of them for a lifetime, and Parker is an instant enemy. If you've read it, you know! She is just awful!

You will come away absolutely loving this book! Thank you NetGalley for this delightful romantic comedy. I loved it!

Oh this is the first Katherine Center book I have read, but won’t be the last! This romance (and so much more) about Sadie, an artist, and her story as she loses the ability to see faces through a medical phenomenon is so tender, sweet, and moving. Center’s lessons about family, seeing what you look for, and love resonated with me from page one. The plot moves quickly and despite there being several tropes mixed throughout, the ending isn’t always obvious. I give this book 4.5/5 stars. Thank you Net Galley & St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of the e-book!

Thank you the St. Martin's Press, Katherine Center, and NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Sadie is a portrait artist barely scraping by when she gets a big break and is one of ten finalist in a portrait exhibition. While walking home Sadie looses consciousness, when she wakes up in the hospital she learns she has facial blindness. Can she still create a portrait for this exhibition? Can she learn to live with facial blindness? Can she find love?

I loved this book. Katherine Center is quickly become an auto-buy author and she did not disappoint with this one. I love the layers of the book, you have the portrait exhibition, the medical issue, the face blindness, and love. This book had the perfect amount of romance, drama, and laugh out loud moments. I also love how unique the plot was and what I learned throughout the story. Thank you Katherine for another great read!

I didn't love <i>Hello Stranger</i> because it was just a little too much of everything. The premise is just a little bit too outlandish, the female antagonists just a little too cartoon villain and the miser just a little too miserable. I think the art show was the point that pushed me over the edge in terms of finding the book a little too ridiculous. I'm still excited to read other books by Katherine Center, but this one missed the mark for me.

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Hello Stranger is definitely a cute story with some deep emotional undertones. I picked this up without reading the synopsis right after reading Rock, Paper, Scissors and was amazed that I’d picked up two books in a row that discussed prosopagnosia, a disorder that I’d never heard of before. This book goes into depth about the disorder and how it impacts our main character Sadie who is a portrait artist. I found that this book did not pull me in and I’m not really sure why. It was just very slow and I wasn’t super connected to the characters. The supervillain stepsister story was pretty overdone in my opinion and I’d rather the focus have been on her dad. I did think the romance was cute but the “twist” if it was intended that way, was a bit cringe in light of the disorder.

This is my first Katherine Center book and I think I will give another book of hers a try, maybe the Bodyguard.

Thank you to Netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy!

Oh my stars!! I absolutely was enthralled with the story of a portrait artist who, after brain surgery, can no longer see faces. Her diagnosis is called prosopagnosia and often times is a permanent condition. The way this story unfolded, with layers of family dysfunction, medical conditions, and the love of best friends, both 2 and 4 legged, kept me riveted until the end. I closed this book with a happy heart and the knowledge that just because you appear to live a life without emotional hardships doesn’t mean they aren’t there to see. Ms. Center has become one of my “must read” authors.

Thanks to Netgalley for the digital ARC of this book!

This was my first Katherine Center book and I can say confidently it will not be my last. Hello Stranger takes “meet cutes” to a whole new level with main character Sadie experiencing prosopagnosia, or face blindness. Center does an excellent job eliciting the feelings one might have while navigating the world in a new and frightening way. This book also handles parental loss in a beautiful way that makes you feel deeply for the MC and relate if you’ve ever experienced anything similar. Charming and heartfelt, this is a rom com that I really really enjoyed. I laughed and cried and felt satisfied.

I love Katherine Center's books and have read most of them over the years. The plot twist was easy to guess early one but I still enjoyed it. I think Happiness for Beginners is still my favorite. Hello Stranger felt cheesier than her other books, like a beach read.

4.5 - thank you to St Martins Press and Netgalley for the ARC

This was such a fun cute read! I have always been a fan of Katherine Center’s books so I was so excited to receive an advanced copy. I loved Sadie and Joe, and the extended cast of characters, and liked the way it all tied together at the end. Knocking it down half a star because the villain, Parker (not pleased to be sharing a name with her 😅) was so unbelievably awful, seemed more like a caricature of a person than a real character

I have loved the books I’ve ready by Katherine Center, particularly The Bodyguard last year, and was excited to get an early copy of Hello Stranger.

The face blindness was an intriguing aspect, and though it it is real the way it was described made me trouble understanding and believing it. The romance was cute and I do enjoy how it’s not the center of her books, but there’s a lot of self growth and discovery.

But there were so many annoying storylines that just made me angry while reading. Parker is absolutely horrible and I couldn’t understand that she did such horrible things and got away with blaming Sadie and nobody even questioned it. Bullying another girl to the point that she tried to commit suicide, and Sadie is blamed for it even though it was her best friend, and her own father so easily accepted that and kicked her out? It just seemed glossed over for such serious actions. I wish there had been more resolution to that part of the story. And then Sue, for being Sadie’s best friend, seemed to abandon her so easily at such a pivotal time in Sadie’s life.

Overall this was cute, and I liked the self growth and romance aspects, but there were many things that annoyed me. The first half of the book I found to be a bit slow and disjointed as well, though once I hit the 50% mark I was more invested. Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Just finished this book a couple days ago and...This book was So Good! Funny, yet deep in lots of ways! I loved the 2 main characters! And the ending surprised me so much it made me want to go back and reread it to see if I could see things differently the second time around now that I know!

Another great Katherine Center book! Love the characters! Fun, quick read! Will recommend to others for sure!

Hello Stranger is a delightful contemporary romance novel that follows the story of Sadie who is a potrait artist. After a medical emergency she has trouble painting because of face blindness. She falls in love with two men but really can't see either of them. This makes for some awkward situations.

This is an engaging and easy to read romance. Sometimes you just need to read something to feel good. With everything going wrong in Sadie's life there are also good things happening. The story is full of humor and heart. This is the second Katherine Center book that I have read. I definitely enjoy her writing style and will be reading more of her books. If you are looking for an enjoyable read that will have you laughing and rooting for Sadie and hoping her world will right itself then this is a book for you.

The Author's note is also excellent. It tells the reader how Katherine Center started writing romances. It is very interesting and I recommend reading it.

Thank you to #netgalley, #KatherineCenter, and #StMartinsPress for a copy of this book.

Here's the thing. I LOVE Katherine Center's books. I was so hoping this would be another favorite but it struggled a little for me.

*spoilers!*

I really couldn't handle how over the top awful Sadie's family was. It was practically Cinderella retold with how ostracized she was and how horribly every last one of them treated her. And somehow the very real abuse and gaslighting she suffered had a pretty bow tied on it at the end? That's the kind of shit you work out in therapy. And it's really important to validate what happened to you and not sweep it under the rug for a smiley happy weekly dinner just because cruella now lives in Amsterdam. I normally see her books as so real and beautiful since they handle tragedy and chaos with grace and romance, but this was a very flat answer to a cartoonish villain.

Also, the author kind of calls herself out for her own trope of "if only they would talk to each other, the plot would resolve" so that was a tired plot device. But hey, I love romance novels, so I won't get too picky.

*/end spoilers*

I still give it a 4 out of 5. I'm a tough critic, but I absolutely enjoyed my time speeding through the story. It can be a little heavy handed in forcefeeding some platitudes that seem like a shallow bandaid fix when they measure against the brazenness of the antagonist (her life was so hard too, maybe we shouldn't be angry with her 🙄) but mostly I remember the evocative storytelling for a good romance.

Recommend!

Katherine Center has done it again.
She’s a master of the pull into a book. The angle to grab and keep you reading, not wanting to set it down. (I read this in a day!)

The story was about Sadie who has a sudden medical condition that caused her to have to learn how to see people again – literally and figuratively. (Her condition was a real phenomenon, so that was very gripping to learn about.) I won’t spoil, but Sadie needed to learn to navigate her condition, which forced her to tackle some inner issues. She needed to learn to see and appreciate the people around her, how to ask for help, and learn not to take life for granted. All the while, the male love interest may be the perfect man, but she needs to get past her own confirmation bias to see it…

The story was super creative and lovable, and really dug in deep to make you rethink your own world.

We love romance novels for their happy endings and the lead up through angst and trials and tribulations to get there. This book was the same - but a very different take on the miscommunication trope. You will be hooked on hope and anticipation for that happy ending. I loved it. #IYKYK

“Knowing how much I used to be missing has taught me to pay better attention.”

Oh I just loved this book!! It was a “love story that created fantastic anticipation” (read it so you’ll understand this reference).

I need to read all of @katherinecenter’s backlist because it feels like she does good research on the attributes of her main characters. In this story, our main character Sadie has a medical emergency that leads her to have prosopagnosia, or face-blindness. I found myself googling things about it at many points throughout the story. It feels like she writes her characters with care as opposed to using it as strictly a plot-device or twist.

There were plot twists I did not see coming. There were moments that brought the characters together in really sweet ways, and moments that drove them apart in ways I wanted to yell at them to fix it. They were cute. Their stories had depth. I loved some of the main character’s inner dialogue.

There’s an author’s note at the end and I soaked up every word of it. Katherine, you nailed it. “Because tragedy is a given, but joy is a choice” 😭🥰

This beauty will publish July 11 so go get a slurpee and pick this baby up!

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for an advanced copy of this book. It brings me joy to have read and reviewed it!

10*stars
I can't describe in words how much I loved this book. You feel like you received a big hug after you're done with it.
So many beautiful lessons and so many beautiful feelings that you get from reading it. It was an experience.

Hello Stranger is a cute, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking rom-com with a bit of a twist. Sadie is a struggling artist who has suddenly lost her ability to see faces. This makes creating the perfect portrait for an upcoming competition next to impossible. Throw in a wicked stepsister, a jerky neighbor, and a sick dog, and you have a story filled with both devastating and comical misunderstandings. I appreciated the author’s note at the end regarding anticipation and hope! This is the first book I have read from Katherine Center, and I can’t wait to read more! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Wow. My second read from Katherin Center and I must say I was even more impressed. This book touched on so many necessary topics that you won't be able to not stay entertained. The main character Sadie trys to work through life after she's had surgery on a brain tumor which leaves her with face blindness. Her journey trying to cope with family issues, her career, and then falling in love while trying tot balancing the diagnosis made this book a page turner. Can't wait for the next read!