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.

Another Katherine Center win! I’m a big fan of her work, and while this gave different vibes than her norm, I still really enjoyed it. I felt like I was living this book along with the characters, and couldn’t put it down.

I read this in less than 12 hours, so it was obviously a good read. My biggest complaints about the book were actually plot devices to make the end of the book make sense, and I'm not sure if I like that or not. But overall it was a really sweet and thoughtful book. I am definitely now a Katherine Center fan (I also met her on her book tour and she's a delightful person!).

Katherine Center’s books are perfect!! I loved the little plot twist even though I did expect it, it was still executed nicely!! Having Prosopagnosia sounds absolutely horrible, and I think this book did a good job of portraying how anxious and stressed out individuals with this neurological disorder must feel! The relationships in this book were cute, and I did like the family plot line that was added in.
If you have this on your TBR definitely pick it up soon!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for opportunity to read and review this arc honestly.

I absolutely loved this book. It has all the emotions. I don’t usually tear up at books but there are a few spots my eyes got a little damp. The story was well done and I felt like I was there with the characters. Well definitely recommend to others!

I was excited for this because Katherine Center's The Bodyguard was a big win for me last year, so I had some moderate expectations going in. And I'm happy to say, I had fun but I didn't get as many warm and fuzzy feelings as I wanted. The premise was cool, but it was a little too feel good, lit fic for me.

TLDR a woman gets faceblindness and starts liking 2 guys while also struggling as a portrait artist.
What I liked
The characters (minus the step sister and MFC
The comedic moments
The "quotable" lines
The whole concept and writing style
What I didn't like
The MFC. She was a tad bit oblivious
The THRID ACT BREAKUP
Features:
Single pov
MC with a brain disorder
MC grieving a parent
Cute dogs
No spice
3.8/ 5 overall
3/5 anxiety
0/5 spice
Bargain or borrow (buy bargain borrow burn)
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

Such a weird book. I had such high expectations for this one since I loved the last book in the series but this read less like a romance and more like a womens fiction and I was not here for it.

I really liked this book. There is a bit of a slow start, but once it got moving I fell in love with the characters & story. Joe was wonderful. I also loved Mr. Kim. Sadie was adorable, but understandably a mess. Great story - thanks for the arc!

A slow burn for sure, so keep that in mind... Loved Center's debut and love this one even more. She brings so much heart to her story, and it's a perfect balance of serious/sweet.

Hello Stranger: the first book I've read by Katherine Center.

Okay, so... this book just didn't work for me. I had such high hopes, and was very excited after seeing all the hype surrounding this one and others by Center, but it sadly missed the mark for me.

Things that didn't work:
-not finding myself invested in the story, even after reading 50% of the book
-the juvenile main character. I found Sadie to be snarky, rude and lacking a filter when interacting with others. Honestly, she's exactly the type of character that just rubs me the wrong way. Looking back, I think my biggest issue with Sadie was her lack of self-confidence.
-somehow, I didn't even realize what Sadie's name was, even after reaching the 54% mark
-I did not enjoy Sadie's relationships with her family, including her obsession with her mum
-although I enjoyed the twist-type ending, I did not like how the explanation of it was extremely repetitive
-I found the lack of Sadie’s doctoral visits alarming. I wasn't provided enough information from a surgical standpoint, and I constantly wondered if she was healing properly.

Things that did work:
-prosopagnosia (face blindness) representation
-I did enjoy Joe (a bit)
-I really liked the twist-type ending
-the Author's Note, and how “hope” and “anticipation” are better words to use when describing romances (rather than “predictable”), because, same

As an aside, since I had the ARC in front of my eyes, while simultaneously listening to the finalized market audiobook version, I really noticed the many changes during the final editing process; the book was made substantially better with these revisions (and my review is based off of that more edited version).

In summery, I just wished I liked my first book from Center more!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the complimentary copy to read and review.

Katherine Center is a favorite of mine for a reason- I love her way of bringing deep truths to a fluffy story. With that being said, Sadie was a hard character for me to like. For a lot of the book, she just felt really immature. The love story was convoluted (although I figured it out pretty quick) and took a little too long for me to get invested. However, I did love seeing how Sadie dealt with face blindness and how she evolved over the book. This wasn't my favorite by Center, but I did enjoy it.

From my blog: Always With a Book

Katherine Center has been a favorite author of mine for a while. Her books just make me happy – I can count on some laughing, some tenderness and a sweet love story, and I love that. She creates such real, relatable characters and is able to infuse humor into her stories at just the right time while still giving us little moments of truth.

I always find myself completely immersed in these books and this latest one is no exception. I love that this time around, we are given a character that finds herself confronted with a major medical issue that will have a huge impact on her life. She ends up with face blindness and while it’s not the first time I’ve read a story that addresses this issue, I have to say, it was still quite an enjoyable story.

I think what I love most about Katherine Center’s books is the way she tells her stories. You cannot help but find yourself totally immersed in the character’s lives and that is exactly what happened to me with Sadie. As soon as I started this one, I needed to see how she would handle what life threw at her and I quite enjoyed all the little snafus she finds herself entangled in.

While this is at its heart a story that is classified as romance and possibly women’s fiction, I loved that there were still a few twists and turns that I was not expecting. That kept the mystery lover in me quite happy! Katherine Center is most definitely a must-read for me and I highly recommend adding this to your summer reading list.

Katherine Center does it again! She is back with another feel good romance. I found this concept to be quite unique - a portrait artist who develops facial blindness and has to now go through the world without the skills she most relied upon previously! With that said, I appreciate that Center’s books focus on the main character’s personal growth arc in the story, and not just a love story. Yes, it was predictable (at least for me) where the story was headed, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. I will say there were a lot of grammatical/editing errors, which unfortunately did detract from my enjoyment, which is why I dropped a star, but I am sure that’s because it was an ARC version. I would still highly recommend picking this book up!

Thank you #NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book!

I really enjoyed reading this book, once I started I couldn't put it down. In Hello Stranger Sadie has an accident that causes to her to have face blindness. As an portrait artist, this causes to her relearn many things like recognizing/interacting with people and her whole artistic process. It also causes a comedy of errors around her new crushes.

Overall rating: 3.8 ⭐

👍
+ I loved the premise of this book, what a unique concept to have a main character that has face blindness. I had first read about prosopagnosia in the book “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and this is the first fiction I’m reading with it.
+ I loved the love interest in this book. He’s so giving and thoughtful. A little scarred from life but also ready to heal and be healed. (Though I couldn’t tell you why he was into the MC.)
+ The MC’s grief was handled very well. Even when it’s not on the surface, you can tell how her actions and who she is as a person is colored by her loss of her mother, but also the rest of her family. Even when she says the opposite, you can see how much she cares about her father’s opinions.
+ I also thought the emotional journey the MC goes through after her diagnosis was handled very well. She has moments of wanting to make it work, moments of desperation and wanting to completely give up on everything, and all that felt very real.

👎
- I know some people really related to the MC, so apologies but I just could not bear her. Among many other annoyances, she had such strongly held opinions about everything and if she was a bit more flexible in a big time of change in her life, most of this book wouldn’t exist.
- The whole last chapter/epilogue almost felt like a self-help book. A little too hit you over the head with the lessons of the book, rather than letting the reader get there themselves.
- The villainous character, and the comedy of errors aspect took away from the realistic nature of the rest of the book, making it feel more cartoonish.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

3 stars - slow start and had no interest in the main character whatsoever. Liked bodyguard much better

I loved this one! It was a fun and unique plot. I enjoyed Sadie as a character and really loved her arc. I could see where this was going pretty early on, but that didn't stop me from enjoying every second. To quote Katherine Center in the author's note, I felt anticipatory joy for the happy ending! The only thing I didn't love was that I found Parker's character as a little one-note. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this - definitely my favorite Katherine Center book!