If you’re unfamiliar with Katherine Center, she is the Queen of heartfelt, feel-good, closed-door rom-com novels. When frustrated with life, I know her books will bring me joy. Her characters are always enduring, charming, and lovable. Hello Stranger did include one or two characters we love to hate, but in the end, you’ll sympathize with even the “unlikeable” ones.

The unique plot line works for me; our MC, Sadie, develops a rare medical condition, prosopagnosia (AKA face blindness). I’ve never heard of this condition before and learned much from our character and the author’s note. I also really liked, to my surprise, the love triangle. Typically one of my least favorite romance tropes, but Center handles the trope with uniqueness and care. And as always, I love the message the book delivers. Plus, who can’t resist a dog in a story - so much love for Peanut!

Patti Murin’s narration needs no hype! She performs Sadie perfectly as she struggles with her diagnosis and new life. Murin also performs the side characters exceptionally well, bringing the whole cast to life. I highly recommend this format!

"But I guess that’s the great thing about life — it gives you chance after chance to rethink it all. Who you want to be. How you want to live. What really matters.”

Even though this is only my third Katherine Center, I already know she is one of my favorite romance writers. She provides such unique plots with great humor and banter. I also love how she creates stories with a heartwarming message and I look forward to seeing what we’ll discover with each book.

In ‘Hello Stranger’ we meet portrait artist, Sadie Montgomery. She is about to celebrate winning the biggest and long-awaited achievement in her career but in a blink of an eye, she finds herself waking up in a hospital bed and finding out she is diagnosed with a temporary condition known as face blindness. Literally meaning she can see everything but faces (this is actually a real condition!) This would inconvenience anyone but it’s a bigger disaster since she paints faces for a living.

We follow Sadie as she attempts to still maintain her career, navigate her complicated relationship with her father and evil step-sister, grieve her mother’s death AND she finds herself a new romance… without being able to see his face. This was a lot of fun with great anticipation for the ending which I really enjoyed. Sadie made me laugh so much as I related to her inner dialogue as I also find myself planning my wedding seconds after a stranger even holds open the door for me.

Romance remains one of my favorite genres and Katherine’s author's note reminds me why. People often critic endings that are predictable which happens a lot in romance even if it’s mentioned in a positive way. However, Katherine explains a new perspective on it — we use the word anticipation. Even though we almost always know how stories can end, anticipation and hope is always the best part. So instead of saying, this story was predictable, we say, this story provided great anticipation for the ending! And this story was another example of that

4.5 ⭐️’s
Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist and on the verge of breaking in after all her hard work. But when she unexpectedly needs brain surgery, they neglected to tell her all of the side effects. After surgery, Sadie has some swelling causing acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia, also know as face blindness. Everyone she meets is now a stranger and competing for a chance to win an art world competition has to be out of the question, right? As Sadie learns to orbit her new world, she’s interested in one man she knows is destined to be her future husband, all the while falling in love with another. With an evil stepmother and a horrific stepsister in the mix, this book was quite the fun read. In an upside down time in Sadie’s life is there a chance that something good could come out of it? Hello Stranger is a feel good book that was funny, heart touching and filled with hope. Even knowing where Center was going with this one did not take away from the unique story as the journey was well worth it. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

𝒩𝑒𝓌 𝑅𝑒𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌

Sweetly satisfying, and a little predictable, 𝙒𝙚𝙡𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 by Katherine Center, is still a perfect PG romance for summer reading.

I learned so much about face blindness or prosopagnosia - this condition is the perfect setup for a novel and resulted in many funny and tragic situations for Sadie, our protagonist.

Sadie’s life has never been easy- she has hidden most of it from her father- who continued to be distant after the death of her mother. Her stepsister Parker made sure Sadie’s life was as miserable as possible. As soon as she hears about Sadie’s condition, she arrives to torment her.

On top of that, her steadfast canine companion Peanut takes a turn for the worst.

Sadie has to learn to rely on the help of strangers like the handsome veterinarian saving Peanut or her adorable neighbor Joe- but how can she accept help when she has always taken care of herself?

ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴛʜɪs ɪғ

🌻you enjoy a PG light romance
♥️like stories with complicated situations of mistaken identity
🎭 enjoy a good backstory of realistic family drama
🥾Sadie reminded me of Helen Carpenter from Happiness for Beginners - a winning character formula

#summerreading #romance #bookstagram #books #hellostranger #happinessforbeginners #lovestory #prosopagnosia

This was so adorable! I had a great time reading this. Loved the overall theme of the book and the creative story line.

Thank you SMP for the gifted e-copy.

I love Katherine Center's books, and Hello Stranger is no exception. You do need to suspend reality a bit, but for me that's not an issue.

Sadie thinks everything is starting to fall into her place (finally) in her life. She is a portrait artist, and finds out she's a top 10 finalist in a huge portrait contest. Maybe this is her big break to show her dad that she can make a life for herself in her chosen career. It's also a huge deal because this is the same contest her mom was a finalist in before she suddenly passed away when Sadie was a teen.

Then, Sadie needs brain surgery, albeit supposedly minor. In books, nothing is ever easy, and Sadie wakes up and can't see faces anymore. As a portrait artist, this is extra devastating news. How is she supposed to paint a portrait for the contest if she can't see faces? Beyond the, there are new struggles in her every day life, plus her stepmother and stepsister trying to complicate things. She does make a new friend in the building, Joe, and kind of develops a crush on her pups new vet, even though she has no idea what their faces look like.

Anyway, there's some romance, some personal growth, some family drama - typical Katherine Center, which I LOVE.

Katherine Center books are always auto buy books for me. The misunderstanding in this book was amazing. This book is a semi-slow burn but still fantastic.

So, "Hello Stranger" whisked me off on a rollercoaster ride of artistic dreams, face blindness, and a love triangle that might make a geometry teacher jealous. The book's a mix of feel-good fuzzies and eyebrow-raising plot leaps, but let's just say I'm here for it.

Sadie's an artist who suddenly sees faces like Picasso gone wild – not exactly what you want when you're hanging out in the real world. But amidst this colourful chaos, she's juggling life, love, and her trusty sidekick, Peanut the dog.

In the love department, Sadie's got two guys vying for her attention. Talk about a dicey situation. But hey, life's all about multitasking, right?

Now, let's talk about the author's note at the end. Katherine Center had me doing a happy dance with her deep dive into why we adore romance novels. It's like she took a peek into my book-loving soul.

This was my first Katherine Center ride, and I'm already buckling up for another. "Hello Stranger," you may have been a bit of a wild ride, but you left me grinning and craving more.

I have read all books by Katherine Center and loved them all. They are all very different but wonderful and this one is no exception. It deals with a subject I’ve never heard of and is so interesting . She is a terrific writer !

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist who has just qualified for a prestigious art competition. But in an unexpected twist of events, she finds herself with prosopagnosia, or face-blindness. With every face she now sees looking like a puzzle, painting a portrait for the contest seems impossible.

What’s a girl to do when life gets turned upside down? Fall for your dog’s dreamy vet, have steamy encounters with the dodgy guy in your building and tell no one about your condition, of course. Naturally, drama and misunderstandings ensue. And while a little predictable at times, Sadie's navigation of her new "normal" is an enjoyable journey to follow.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center and St. Martin’s Press for an early copy of this book for an honest review.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really like the fluff that Katherine Center presents but I like less the aloof, quirky main characters she writes. I think that this one was a bit lower on my list than her others -- she was too weird, too unrealistic, too...quirky. I think that the face blindness plot was actually quite moving and while I saw the "twist" coming a mile away I found it moderately satisfying.

3 stars.

While it was a unique plot and the characters were likable. (Well except Sadie’s family). The first part of the book was super slow and the last part it finally picked up the pace and turned into the cute rom com I was hoping for in the beginning.

Katherine Center does it again! This book is a good mix of pulling on your heart strings, humor, hope, romance and I felt them all! There is a twist to the story which I didn’t guess coming because I was too focused falling in love with the characters in the moment. Thank you Net Galley for a free copy of the e-book in exchange for my honest review.

Some of my favorite quotes:

“She couldn’t always fix things for me, but she was always there. Until the day she wasn’t.”

“No matter how alone you ever are in life, you always have yourself, right? You always have that goofy, imperfect face that forgets to take off its mascara before bed and wakes up with racoon eyes. That one crooked lower tooth that the orthodontist never could manhandle into place. Those ears that stick out a little too far. Those lines on either side of your smile that always look like parentheses. That slight dimple at your chin that’s just like your mom’s.”

“It was so tempting—even still—to feel bitter that I’d lost her so soon. I had to work to turn the other way: to remember to feel grateful that I’d had her at all.”

““Like try to tell the story of this moment in your life. Try to capture your world right now, cracked open, exactly the way it is. Capture the chaos and the uncertainty and the longing. And don’t forget to capture whatever’s going on with you and that guy—because there’s some kind of fire in that”

This was such a clever romantic comedy!

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist living in her art studio. She is estranged from her father and step-mother, and Sadie's foil in this story is her VERY evil step-sister Parker. Are you imagining properly evil? Because if you think you are, add approximately a thousand more evil points, and you've got Sadie's step-sister.

Sadie's sort of stumbling life comes to a crashing halt when she has a seizure in the middle of the street, and after a subsequent visit to the hospital, she is diagnosed with a malformed blood vessel in the brain: a cavernoma. If she doesn't have surgery, she could die. But this does not work at all with her schedule, because she has placed as a finalist in a local artist's competition - the same competition her late mother won before her death.

Disaster strikes in the aftermath of the surgery, when she develops a rare complication known as face-blindness. Her brain can no longer parse out facial features - when she looks at a person's face, everyone looks like a stranger to her - from her best friend Sue to the neighbors who live in her apartment building.

How will she complete a portrait for the art competition if she cannot see faces? Fiercely independent Sadie will just have to learn to rely on others for help, from her estranged family to her bestie Sadie - and lets not forget her friendly neighbor, Joe.

I cannot wait to purchase this book for our little library! It will be such a great addition to our collection.

This was such a fun book! I found myself completely immersed in Sadie’s world and never wanted to leave.

This story followed Sadie. She's a broke artist trying to prove her dad wrong because she quit medical school for art school. She wants to win this art contest to win some money but unexpectedly, a medical condition appeared and demanded her to undergo brain surgery. After that, well, meeting people becomes a challenge for her. I love how Center creates the most relatable characters and Sadie is no different. Her love story with Joe is swoon-worthy and I appreciated her growth throughout the book.

A definite winner and this author has solidified herself as an auto-buy author for me!

3.5 stars
This book was hard to get into. It wasn’t until 45% that I started to like it. Sadie wasn’t terribly likeable at the start and it took a while to get into the details of her trauma.
The love story was cute and I loved that part of it. The confusion with identities and face blindness was such a neat twist to throw into their romance. Made for some great moments.
The resolution with her family could have used more friction. She was angry, I was angry, and then everything just seemed ok? I wanted more there. So not my favourite but still a good book.

Katherine Center writes such heart warming stories that pull you in. She has a talent for weaving together the romance plotlines with a darker deeper story that balances and enhances both while not taking away from either. The face blindness is such an interesting plot device and there were a few twists to keep it interesting.

I think that Bodyguard is still my favorite book of hers, but this was a fun summer read.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is my 3rd book by Katherine Center. This might be my favorite!
Sadie, Ms. Center's Protagonist has a seizure and is saved by someone she doesn't know. She ends up having to have brain surgery and she experiences Prosopagnosia or Face Blindness, this is a huge problem, especially for Sadie who is a Portrait Artist and has a career-making competition coming up fast.

What ensues from there is a funny and endearingly agonizing love story that will melt your heart, cheer Sadie on, and make you wonder who will she choose the Veterinarian or the guy who lives on the 5th floor...

Katherine Center writes frustratingly happy stories that don't always end with what you expected this one might be that way too, however, as is also Ms. Center's style she loves to throw in a twist and this one is the twisties of all. there are deep characters, ones you will want to punch, scream at, and definitely want to ignore, but you will not be able to because Sadie will do it for you... well, maybe not the punching, but I definitely wanted to punch one character and throw her down the garbage chute, yeah, she's that bad! Others you will want to hold hands with, laugh with and cry with and snuggle up with, which are all great things to want to do.

I recommend this book, it's a great summer read or a book to curl up on the couch with when you need a good, quick book to read that will make you smile.

THIS BOOK IS EPIC! It will take you through all of the feels. Like funny, sad, pitiful, joy, duh moments, and so much more! The theme of judging people based on things you don’t know or understand is so relevant in our time of social media. It is truly one of my favorite books of the year!
@katherinecenter truly knows how to make her character flawed and human while at the same time creating such a flawless backstory and character arc it is absolutely amazing!

I would recommend this book to anyone that loves twist, has fun with hilarious mishaps, and finds joy in great life lessons and themes.

Romance Rating: Clean Adult (alludes to others sexual encounters)
Content Rating: Death of a Parent, Brain Surgery, and Evil Step Sibling

I absolutely loved the concept of the book. So interesting and creative! However, I never cared much about the characters, and some of the incidents were pretty far fetched. Still, it was an enjoyable read.