This was such an unexpectedly surprising romance novel. I love how well the plot was developed, and while I didn't feel like the romance wasn't at the forefront, I didn't mind that! It created fantastic anticipation, and it was structured in a way that I simply could not put the book down. Some of the twists were predictable, but overall I enjoyed the book and appreciated how different this romance novel was. Katherine Center is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW: death of a loved one (in the past)

I adored this book!! The anticipation in it was so lovely and wonderful (read the author's note and you'll get this reference ;) ).

This love story was so sweet and endearing - Joe was extremely charming and dashing and is the ideal book boyfriend if you're looking for another to add to your collection. Sadie was such a delight as well! She had a rough life early on but I enjoyed how she had to learn things and grow even though she was dealt with a poor hand early on. And even though her family wasn't the best, she still has her found family in the Kims and that warmed my heart for her.

I also especially love seeing underdogs and struggling artists working hard at their goals even when they feel like giving up and that was a great theme in this book.

Sadie, Joe, Sue, and Peanut have found a place in my heart and I am so happy for that because they are absolutely lovely! I definitely recommend this book if you're a romance fan.

Thank you Katherine Center, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for the eARC!

Everything is finally coming together for portrait artist Sadie. She has a place in a prestigious art contest which could zoom her art into space. Unfortunately, she suffers a medical emergency, brain surgery, and the loss of the ability to see faces. Her world crashes down as she cannot see the face she is creating a portrait for the contest.
It sounds like she has an imaginary disease but it is real and called prosopagnosia. For Sadie, it is her entire life in upheaval. Her inability to see faces causes situations she had never dreamed.
It is a wonderful story of a life interrupted and of learning to cope after losing one sense and growing, evolving others.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is yet another incredible book by one of my favorite authors! Sadie is the kind of heroine I love from the very first page- and her dog, Peanut, is just the best!!!!! After a minor surgery, Sadie's career is in danger. Still reeling, she is devastated when Peanut gets sick. But Peanut might just get the best vet ever. So Sophie is torn between the vet, Oliver, and her hunky neighbor, Joe. Katherine Center writes books that I want to linger in, incredibly heartwarming but not saccharine sweet. It's a fine line and KC walks it perfectly!

Wow! Center's writing really immersed me in the story. I put it down at first because I could feel the anxiety building just from Sadie's experience. The brief break was helpful and I found myself relating less directly to her situation. I would encourage you to be aware of the content. If you have recently gone through your own medical trauma now might not be the best time for you to pick this up. That being said, I've loved every minute of this read. I felt quite a bit of disgust in some situations with how the characters play out those situations but I was really pulling for Sadie. She can't seem to catch a break. In the end the journey for her is one of growth and learning and acceptance and understanding and utter surprise. I will definitely be picking up more Katherine Center books! Side note: I so wish I could see her artwork.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center 🌟🌟🌟Many thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Let me start by saying that Katherine Center was one of my newfound favorite authors of 2022. I have since happily read almost all of her books. Hello Stranger, while still being a good read, is my least favorite book of hers. I could buy in on the protagonists new disability & was pleased with the non discriminatory way it was written into the storyline. What I had a hard time wrapping my head around was her dysfunctional family dynamics - both in how it was abruptly brought up and just as abruptly resolved. Those issues, IMO, warranted more time/therapy in order to move forward. I was still feeling traumatized by her family drama & all of a sudden., she was over it! Might just be me..Still I found it to be an entertaining read.!

I was thrilled to read an advanced e-copy of the latest Katherine Center book, Hello Stranger (release date, July 2023). The book focuses on Sadie Montgomery, a portrait artist facing an important deadline for a prestigious contest and suddenly struck with facial blindness. What is facial blindness, you ask? The book does a great job of breaking down the brain mumbo-jumbo, and it is devastating to say the least.

I met Katherine on book tour last year, and to me this book radiates the countenance of the author more than any of her previous books. Or maybe now that I’ve met her, it all just makes sense.

Sadie has every reason to feel despair, and she is wrestling that beast to the ground and fighting for joy. Relentlessly, doggedly pursuing hope of any kind in a dumpster fire of circumstance.
That is Katherine, 💯, based on my brief interaction with her. It’s infectious to be around because there are many reasons to feel hopeless in this world and she fights for joy. Life is hard: keep on trucking. Look for good: see good.

Sadie was a very vulnerable character for many reasons (not just the facial blindness curveball) and the sections involving her grief over her mother were raw and searing. My heart just went out to her, and I loved the people the novel brought into her life to help her feel seen and to tear down her walls a bit. I loved her counselor especially. As usual with Katherine Center, the dialogue is snappy, I could not put it down, and the resolution of both the romance and the central character’s challenges were satisfying.

I’m currently recovering from knee surgery myself, feeling discouraged some days with the ups and downs, and this book resonated so much. Thanks, @katherinecenter for another wonderful story!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press & Netgalley for the e-ARC.

I had a ton of fun with this one. I absolutely love Katherine Center's writing. I felt really connected to Sadie as we followed along on her journey. I liked this book because it focuses on many aspects of Sadie's life, not just the romance. We get to see some nice fleshed out relationships with her Father, Stepmom and Stepsister, as well as her best friend Sue and her dog Peanut. I loved how we followed Sadie into learning to accept help from others through a sort of unprecedented event. And Joe, he was such a great love interest; patient, kind, and helpful. Man, I was falling for him along with Sadie. I highly recommend this book, especially for fans of Emily Henry. I need to check out more of Katherine Center's books (I also love and recommend the Bodyguard by her).

Some lovely things:
- Quirky MC with chaotic inner monologue
- Amazing love interest with the nickname "Helpful"
- cute veterinarian
- great female friendships
- great chemistry between characters

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this advance reader copy in exchange for a review!

It’s crazy this is my 3rd 5 star read of the month! Hello Stranger was awesome and will rank in my top favorites of the year!
It’s my favorite book that I’ve read so far in 2023! (So sorry A Court of Mist and Fury you are a very close runner up!)
I haven’t read many books that make me feel the way this one made me feel. So much more than just another romance book. It was fun, cute and hopeful. Made me laugh out loud and smile all the time. Truly made me feel happy. I wanted to be bffs with the main character Sadie and her dog Peanut!

Hello Stranger is about Sadie, who discovers she needs emergency brain surgery and develops the complication of face blindness. It may or may not be permanent. This throws a wrench into her work, as she is a face portrait artist. Sadie just found out she is in the top 10 of a face portrait competition. Sadie meets Joe, one of her neighbors. They don’t get off on the right foot but slowly develop into friends. There are obstacles such as Sadie’s older pup Peanut getting sick and Sadie having immediate infatuation with the veterinarian Oliver. Not to mention the evil stepsister Parker’s meddling.

I could gush about this book for a while! It was so good and would recommend it to everyone! It won’t officially release until July 11. Request it on Netgalley, mark it on your calendar and/ or preorder!

Katherine Center's Hello Stranger is so much more than a romance. It is an absolute triumph!

Every so often I come across a book that makes me want to write, a story that inspires my soul to nourish the ideas that have laid dormant for too long. That's exactly the feeling I had after finishing Hello Stranger, the urge to create, to somehow manage to breath life into a story half as vibrant as this one.

Sadie Montgomery, seemingly on the cusp of her big break as a portrait artist, faces a frightening setback after a seemingly routine procedure leaves her experiencing face blindness. Even the faces of those she loves most no longer spark any sort of recognition in her brain. Not only does this discovery disrupt her emotional health, but her livelihood as well, since she was barely able to make ends meet before. As Sadie not-so-patiently waits to learn whether or not this condition will be permanent, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to confront some repressed grief and a dysfunctional family dynamic. And somehow, she also finds herself falling in love...with two men?

Now, I will refrain from saying too much to avoid spoilers but I can promise that the dynamic between Sadie and her guy is the sweetest dang thing ever, like truly the most perfect depiction of a man so enamored by a woman who keeps evading him. Their stolen moments, sprinkled throughout, were so adorable and filled with the whimsy Sadie needed in her life.

Also, I so enjoy Center's narration style. I recall feeling similarly while reading her previous release, The Bodyguard. As Sadie navigated this life and love she never imagined for herself, Hello Stranger felt like being given an inside look into her personal diary. She became a friend as she confided her every hope, fear and desire in me. It was like I knew her. It was like I was her, my own thoughts and feelings right there on the page. Though mostly lonely and confused, Sadie's character also felt hopeful and renewed. She trusted that the universe hadn't forgotten her, that the challenges put in her path would come to feel more like lessons someday. It was very moving to witness her growth.

Now, there is an element that was easy to piece together as the reader, and, initially, I questioned that choice, thinking the book was far too predictable for its own good. But wow, I was proven very, very wrong. As this story nears its conclusion, there is a sequence of chapters that are so expertly done I couldn't stand to put my kindle down. My heart was in my throat, tears welling my eyes as every subplot was woven together to create this masterful web of events.

Not going to lie, this may be the longest review I have every written, but Hello Stranger is so deserving of that honor. This story provided so much joy and wonder into my life in the time it took to read, a gift I never take for granted, to love a story so completely.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Katherine Center for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Katherine Center is one of those authors that I always trust to give me an amazing story that will grab me until the very end. I went into Hello Stranger without even reading the blurb (that's how much I trust this author), and was immediately immersed in the life of Sadie, a portrait artist who loses the one thing she relies on the most: her ability to recognize faces. As a Chuck Close fan and past art student, I could immediately relate to her from an artistic perspective. As a woman who has an incredibly hard time trusting people and asking for help, I understood Sadie's fears and struggles in a profound way. This difficulty trusting, along with her face blindness, leads to plot twists that are surprising to Sadie, but not necessarily to the reader. I understood what was happening all along, and it was an interesting perspective to be able to see clearly what Sadie couldn't. I felt so much empathy for Sadie and Joe, and loved every second their story.

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.