Katherine Center, author of some of my favorite books, has written her latest novel, "Hello Stranger." This particular novel centers around Sadie Montgomery, an aspiring artist who is following in her late mother's footsteps. Life seems to finally be looking up and she's on the path to artistic success when she has a terrible accident. Upon waking from the accident and finding that she requires brain surgery, she discovers she has prosopagnosia (face blindness). Sadie's trademark stubborn pride keeps her going but also keeps her from accepting help or telling others what's going on with her. Along the way, she ends up in a love triangle between herself, her dog's vet, and the flirty guy in her apartment building. What will happen with these relationships and will she ever admit her difficulties with face blindness?

I enjoyed the side characters in the story, and appreciate Sadie's kindness towards her truly evil stepmother and stepsister. I also was interested in the face blindness story line, and have never thought about the difficulties that would include. Also, I liked the twist at the end regarding the love triangle, but I was hoping for more chemistry between Sadie and her chosen guy. I enjoyed this book very much, but it wasn't my favorite of Center's. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

WOW this book was absolutely incredible. I loved it so much I could shout it from the rooftop!

Sadie’s story is heartbreaking, heartwarming & the slow-burn romance was just beautiful. I can’t recommend this book enough. I will most definitely be purchasing a physical copy for myself because this is one of my all-time favorites.

Thank you NetGalley & St Martins Press for the ARC!

I adore everything Center writes, & Hello Stranger delivers with intense emotions, wry humor, & an innate generosity toward all its characters (even mean ones!). When a portrait artist goes face blind following brain surgery, she can’t paint…or recognize the kind man in her apartment elevator who gets her blood boiling. Chemistry for days and an ending that was signaled in advance but was still completely satisfying. Read this ASAP!

A charming read from one of my fave authors! Thanks for the ARC, Netgalley.

📖 The details:
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

⏱ Quick summary:
Sadie Montgomery is an aspiring portrait artist who may just get her big break as a finalist in a big art competition. But then she has a seizure that leads to brain surgery that leads to face blindness - not great for a portrait artist. And not great as she's getting to know her cute veterinarian and her annoying (but sweet) neighbor.

💁🏻‍♀️Christina's take:
4⭐️
I went into this book blind (ha!) and didn't know at all what to expect - except that KC would work some magic! The storyline was unique and fun, the characters were likable (well, not all of them - Parker!), and dialogue was witty and sweet (my fave kind). Of course it was pretty predictable and a bit cheesy, but I didn't mind at all. I was rooting for Sadie (and [name redacted]!) the whole time. Recommend!

Hello Stranger was such a fun, easy read. The storyline was unique, and while it became predictable toward the end, I couldn’t wait to see how it all turned out. The amount of perseverance, hope, and finally happiness in this book can lift any reader’s spirit, Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Another great Katherine Center read . Both Sadie and Joe are so likeable, and the banter between them is great! Also , loved the plot twist! Thanks @Netgalley for the ARC!

Sadie Montgomery is tragically failing at life. A portrait artist following in her late mother’s footsteps, Sadie is finally about to get her BIG BREAK. That is, until a life changing event occurs and alters her approach to her career, and her life as she knows it.

Okay friends. It’s Katherine Center. You know what’s coming!! KC is an auto-buy for me. She has been since I picked up How to Walk Away many years ago. But as we all know, our expectations are often set pretty high for our favorite authors based on our past experiences with their books. Well… ladies and (maybe) gentlemen, @katherinecenter does not disappoint yet again!

The plot of this story is very intriguing and, as always, KC writes her characters in such a way that they immediately feel like your best friends. I fell in love with Sadie from the very beginning. She is completely relatable, hilarious and down to earth. Joe and Dr. Addison 😉, the love interests here, are sweet, humble and completely charming. Sadie has quite the dysfunctional family that’s explored a bit in some of the chapters. I do wish that a little bit more had been done with them (especially Parker) but there was just enough there to see how they ticked, and how they affected Sadie’s life. And as always, the FMC had the most supportive, quirky and loving bestie, Sue.

Reading this was effortless. It left me feeling warm and fuzzy inside and most of all, it left me feeling hopeful. Nobody writes exactly the right book at exactly the right time quite like KC does. Always speaking to my soul, always right on time. This book is swoony, light-hearted and joyful. A must read!

RATING: 3 - I WAS OK

More often that not, I tend to go into books blind (aka without reading the synopsis). I was craving an easy, light, fun romance novel and after reading THE BODYGUARD last summer and having just been approved for this ARC - I figured this one would do the trick! But wow this was completely not what I expected and was a little thrown off at times but here are my thoughts:

What I LOVED ❤️
- THEMES of disability awareness, resilience, overcoming battles life throws your way, finding the joy when everything around you is a mess, being present
- The EPILOGUE - epilogues can be hit or miss but this one PERFECTLY wrapped up this book

Where I Struggled 💔
- This was partly due to the fact that I went into this book blind but was really thrown off by the premise - at times I felt like it was all over the place
- I wanted more from the CHARACTERS - I felt that Sadie’s dad, Sue, all could have played deeper roles and wished that Sadie and her dad’s relationship developed a bit more over the course of the book
- The ENDING - that plot twist? Wow did not see that coming

This book is fabulously fun. It’s a love story – fueled by unexpected turns in life.

Sadie is a portrait artist. She’s living on the edge and finally has a chance with a contest that can open up amazing opportunities for her if she wins. It’s like going home with a gold trophy. She has six weeks to execute a painting of a model.

However, there was a big obstacle. She had a nonconvulsive seizure and her brain surgeon said she had a lesion that had to be treated. Her mom died from the same thing. Her father, a well-regarded cardiothoracic surgeon, used his connections to get her scheduled before she had too much time to think about someone drilling into her head.

There was good news. The surgery went well. Yet, there was one complication. She was left with an acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia which meant she was unable to recognize faces. Sadie was told it could take two to six weeks to resolve – hopefully. So now what?

The book is fast paced with Sadie’s new world as she tries to use all the words of wisdom from her psychologist. This is the perfect beach read; the book everyone will be talking about this summer. Yes, it may be easy to predict the outcome but the characters are what drives you to the end: Sadie, her father, her wicked stepmom, evil half sister, fun friend and cute little dog. And of course, the love story.

My thanks to Katherine Center, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of July 11, 2023.

Katherine Center's latest novel is a heartwarming and emotional read. The characters are cute and relatable, and the author's writing style is engaging and easy to follow. The story follows the journey of Sadie Montgomery, a struggling artist who is dealing with the aftermath of a surgery that left her with face blindness. The plot is compelling and the themes of love, friendship and perseverance are woven in seamlessly. The book is a great read for anyone who is looking for a feel-good story that will leave them feeling uplifted and inspired. I highly recommend this book and Katherine Center as one of my favorite authors.

I'm so bummed to be writing a negative review of a book that I was thrilled to receive an ARC of (I even gasped when I saw it was available). After loving Center's The Bodyguard last year, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Hello Stranger, but it left me frustrated and rolling my eyes by the end rather than wanting more.

Center is great at writing unexpected romance stories. In Hello Stranger, Sadie has necessary brain surgery that leaves her with temporary (hopefully) face blindness while her brain heals. The problem is that she's also a portrait artist about to participate in an important competition, made nearly impossible by her inability to process faces.

This was all interesting to me, though I had a personal struggle with the face blindness because I realized it made me feel like everything was fuzzy all the time as I was sort of imagining this story playing out in my head. That felt more like a me problem than the book's problem, though, so I didn't mind it much.

Quickly, though, I found a lot of this story very grating. Sadie has this capital-T Terrible family that I found pretty ridiculous. Her best friend is also a little obnoxious in that she keeps doing things Sadie doesn't like but it's written off. Then Sadie has these competing love interests: a vet who she acts like she has a deep, emotional connection with even though they've only met a couple times while he was treating her dog and then a guy named Joe who lives in her building and is apparently perfect except she heard him being a major jerk on the phone one time in the elevator.

The dueling romances felt pretty ridiculous and over-the-top to me—Sadie truly spends no time with the vet, so why should we care about him, and why would it be such a big deal when she finds herself more attracted to Joe? It was also pretty obvious to me from the beginning that the two men were in fact one and the same, which all made it more annoying to have to continue plodding along until these dummies figured it out. This only became further annoying when they did figure it out and there was all this explanation of how that seems unbelievable but actually, it totally makes sense! It felt like Center was already defending herself from criticism by saying, "See? Even these characters know this is dumb, but it happened anyway!"

I also found Sadie to be frustrating on her own. She has this family she hates, but when her Evil Stepsister tells her she loves to play the victim, I kind of agreed. Sure, the stepsister was unnecessarily terrible (she bullied another girl so much the girl attempted suicide and then blamed it all on Sadie), but luckily the bullied girl appears OUT OF NOWHERE to be like, "Nope, it was actually Parker (Evil Stepsister), Sadie is perfect." !!!! Full nonsense by the end of this book.

All right, writing this is now making me angry. Suffice it to say that I found this book pretty obnoxious by the end, which mostly just really bummed me out.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️
SPICE: 🌶️
REVIEW:
Guys, I’m NOT kidding when I say I read this cover to cover without putting it down once. I just couldn’t stop reading. I needed to know what happened next and I stayed up WAY past this moms bedtime to finish the whole book. 🙈😂

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming- literally. She’s celebrating a big win in her career when she wakes up in the hospital with temporary facial blindness. Her worst nightmare come true. She can’t recognize the people in her life which makes things complicated when she meets not one, but two strangers she finds herself falling for.

An unexpected romance, an evil stepsister, and lots of drama.

Katherine Center blew me away with this book and I cannot wait to purchase it. 💙

After reading the Bodyguard by Katherine Center, and it being one of my favorite reads of last year I was so excited to get a chance to review her latest, "Hello Stranger"

It did not disappoint! Sadie, a super loveable and relatable character, seemed to be on the brink of her big break when a terrible accident occurs leaving her with temporary facial blindness. As she struggles to figure out life and how and where to go to from here she catches the heart of two eligible bachelors. Both of which who seem perfect, minus the fact their faces look like pieces from a mixed up puzzle.

I quickly devoured this one and I LOVED Sadie and Joe. If you love quirky romances and conflict that could've been avoided by a little more conversation by the characters, but still leaves you with all of the feels...this one is for you!

Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you #Netgalley!

Big fan of Katherine Center's books and this one did not disappoint! This read had a very unique concept that I had never really thought about or knew much about. The main character, Sadie, experiences a complication after brain surgery where she can no longer see faces of others or herself. She was told it could take a few weeks to ever come back. She must learn to recognize people by how they walk, smell, talk, dress, etc. and it is not as easy as she thought it would be. During this difficult time she was a finalist in an art contest for submitting a portrait, which as you could imagine is difficult in her current state. We watch as Sadie observes her neighbors, her friends, the vet clinic and so many others. So many funny instances and twists that eventually tie all together at the very end.

.4.5

Sadie is a portrait artist on the cusp of her big break when she has an accident, leading to a brain surgery. It was supposed to be a routine operation, but Sadie us left with face blindness—not a great thing for someone who paints faces for a living. While she’s trying to scramble to save her career and care for her ailing senior dog, she starts to fall for two very different men.

This book broadcasts where it is going from the very beginning, but it gets all the passes, because it was too cute. I originally picked it up because of the recommendation of author Emily Henry, forgetting that Katherine Center wrote one of my favorites of 2022 (The Bodyguard), which was apt for the plot of this book. Anyway, I was not let down. If you’re an Emily Henry fan, you’ll probably really enjoy this one as well. I almost feel bad for talking about how much I liked this, as it doesn’t release until July, but it is definitely one for the TBR list.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this advanced copy of the manuscript to review.

I devoured this book in 2 days. Another great story from Katherine Center! This was such a joy to read, & I loved Sadie’s journey. Parker was so frustrating, & I adored Dr. Nicole. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy!

This was my first Katherine Center book and it did not disappoint. Unlike ordinary romance novels, the main character, Sadie, struggles with a very rare health problem. This impacts her career, friends, family, and everyday life.

Including a health struggle in a book can be difficult, and Center did an amazing job bringing detail to the situation and showing just how it can affect someone’s mental health and day-to-day life. Not to mention, the descriptions of the charters in this book are off the charts.

This book contained a slow burn, and there are many plot twists throughout that keep it VERY entertaining. While the beginning may seem a bit slow, keep reading, trust me!!

If you are looking for a unique romance that features family struggles, art, self-development, and great characters, I highly recommend Hello Stranger!!

Sadie Montgomery is a highly talented portrait painter, if only the world could recognize her skills. She's had nothing but bad turn after bad turn, and she's been reduced to living in her art studio. Things are about to turn around for Sadie, as she's made it to the final round of a prestigious portrait competition. It's not just any competition - it's the same one that her mom, also a portrait artist, had entered just before she died 14 years ago.

A few weeks before the competition, Sadie is in an accident, and during the ensuing medical treatment, a condition in her brain is discovered. Her dad, a renowned surgeon but not that great of a father, insists that the surgery happen immediately. Sadie gets the brain surgery, but one of the side effects is that she has face blindness - she can't see or recognize faces. For most people this would be a frustrating inconvenience but for a portrait artist it is life-altering. The doctors tell her it's most likely temporary - but that doesn't really solve the problem as the competition is only a few weeks away. What will Sadie do?

As Sadie navigates this terrible reality, her beloved but elderly dog Peanut gets sick. The new veterinarian at the local practice is a hot doc - Dr. Addison. Sparks fly, and he asks her out on a date. At the same time, her hot neighbor Joe seems to be the man-on-the-spot when she needs help in the apartment building. Sadie's evil step-mom Lucinda is coming around more to check on her, and it seems that maybe she's not so evil after all. No, that can't be right! We hate Lucinda.

The face-blindness episode is a topsy-turvy chapter is Sadie's life, but oddly it brings her more clarity than she's had in years. She learns to trust her own skills an artist. She is able to stand up for herself when it comes to her bully of a step-sister Parker, and by extension, her dad and step-mom. It was very satisfying to see her advocate for herself in the climax scene at the art show, even though I felt bad for her that she had to be pushed that far.

What I like:
- Katherine Center - the heroines are always imperfect and I really like that. Here, we have someone whose skills are at the forefront of her personality, much like the heroine in The Bodyguard. We barely hear about her appearance and for a romance I find that very refreshing.
- her bestie, Sue, left during a pivotal time. This seemed like a jerk move at the outset but it really forced Sadie to dig deep and rely on herself. And, it allowed Sue to encourage her, coach her from the sidelines.
- diverse supporting cast
- interesting career path


What I didn't like:
- the metaphor about not being able to 'see' people I felt wasn't fully completed - in particular when Joe/Oliver is talking about how Sadie had seen him around the building for more than a year before they started talking. They didn't resolve that to my satisfaction. I suppose it is implied that we sometimes don't actually 'see' people till we're ready.
- Peanut is a big deal in the first third of the book and we barely hear peep about him the final 2/3. More Peanut!
- it was a bit too on the nose that his ex-wife was going to buy the portrait of his torso.... kind of strange TBH
- the whole Joe/Oliver thing.... honestly I get that we needed that whole thing of mistaken identity to happen so there would be enough tension but it made him seem like a total pushover and kind of a dummy.... like, how does this guy not realize what's going on. How does he not realize that this woman is calling him by the wrong name, and doesn't put two and two together about who he is. I get that men are obtuse but... this felt like a reach.
- While I appreciated that Sadie was able to patch up her relationship with Lucinda, I would have preferred that there was more healing with her dad. That's not to discount what did happen, I just wish that there was more energy with him.
- PARKER. Just PARKER. THE WORST.






Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

One of my early favorites for the year! Katherine Center does it again! Fabulous characters with solid depth, and what a fun story. I so enjoyed Sadie. I would have loved a few more references to her pup. He came in and out but there seemed to be such focus when he was involved, that the gaps felt a little obvious. All in all, I can't wait to see what Ms. Center puts out next.

- Minor note - at least one time Lucinda was referred to as Linda.

I couldn't put this down. Before Hello Stranger I had only read The Bodyguard and now I'm absolutely going to go read Center's entire back catalogue. The book was perfect but even more than that be sure to read the Author's Note at the end. Center perfectly summed up why romance novels are more important than ever in a time like this and beautifully put into words why I keep reaching them for them time and time again.