Another excellent book by Katherine Center!! She has such a way of taking a premise that might be something ridiculous, and making it absolutely work! I loved all the characters in this book and how there is so much more to this book than just a typical romance.

I knew I was going to love Hello Stranger in the first chapter, when Sadie is singing "I Second That Emotion" in a party dress in the middle of a grocery story. I knew I had found my people. What happens next is completely unexpected, but, in typical Katherine Center fashion, she tells Sadie's story with humor, a little bit of snark, all while still managing to let the complex emotions she's feeling come through. For those of you who have never read a Katherine Center novel, Hello Stranger is the perfect place to start.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review!

✨this was such a silly, goofy, cute story!!! i loved following Sadie along on her very tumultuous time in her life, the struggles and the romance and the emotions of it all!

✨there were really emotional moments revolving around Sadie’s parents and feeling alone and misunderstood and ignored that I really enjoyed and I’m glad that the resolution felt real and reasonable and not magically fixed with one conversation, that is so real.

✨of course the romance was the star of the book and our main male love interest was perfect. calm, understanding, helpful, SELFLESS FORREALLLL, and I loved him. I think Sadie at times was a bit aloof. Both as a character trait and because of her medical issue that is introduced at the beginning of the book. But overall, the “reveal” / “resolution” had me giggling and screaming “OF COURSE!!!!!” And that was really fun and goofy.

✨highly recommend and I think I’m gonna have to read the rest of Center’s backlist 👀

✨thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read a free eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was really hoping to love this book! Katherine Center is a new author for me and i'll try another book of hers but this one wasn't one I loved. It read incredibly slow for me and my interest was never peaked enough to want to continue reading. This book was a DNF.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!

I loved The Bodyguard, so I was so excited to receive this ARC. And I enjoyed this book a lot. It was super easy and fun to read despite being pretty emotive at times.

I loved the plot surrounding her job, especially since it was already crumbling before the surgery. It was interesting to see Sadie navigate that alongside her family with which she already had turmoil. I didn’t care much for the romance since I think this story could’ve been strong enough with the work and family plots (and I can’t stand love triangles). I honestly didn’t pay attention to the romance part.

But it was cute, though. I didn’t hate it. Especially by how it was resolved at the end. Iykyk…

This has nothing to do with my rating, but I hated Sadie’s family, especially Parker. Oh, the willpower to not punch her in the face that Sadie couldn’t see.

A totally enjoyable book, filled with laughs and love. Sadie is an aspiring artist, hoping to win an upcoming art competition when an accident renders her with facial blindness. Although temporary, Sadie can’t see facial details, resulting in a lot of weird situations. Add in a best friend, Sue, and Joe, a love interest as well as Sadie’s complicated past, and you will experience a really fun read. Recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Sadie Montgomery is finally getting her life together, when the side effects of an illness leave her with face blindness. Can she learn to navigate her life and maybe even find love along the way?

I definitely enjoyed Hello Stranger. For the most part, the characters were well-developed and interesting and the plot kept moving. However, there were some secondary characters that could have been fleshed out a bit more and were mostly caricatures. Still this is a good read overall!

Katherine Center presents yet another charming and quirky story in her latest book. Sadie's day started out like any other until she woke up in a hospital bed, having suffered a seizure. She learns that a stranger saved her life and that she now requires brain surgery. The procedure is successful, but the unfortunate side effect is that she now suffers from face blindness. This poses a significant challenge for Sadie, who is an artist with a deadline to submit a portrait for a major competition just weeks away. She must learn how to adjust to her new condition and identify her loved ones and foes, including her wicked stepmother and stepsister, while trying not to reveal her struggles to others.

🎨HELLO STRANGER REVIEW 🖌️

HUGE THANK YOU TO @stmartinspress for this beautiful gifted copy of Hello Stranger! 🖌️🎨💙

Katherine Center does it again with this fun loving book!!

What the book is about:
Sadie Montgomery paints face portraits for a living. She finally gets the break of a life time and gets entered to win a huge contest that could start your career. But when tragedy strikes next thing Sadie needs brain surgery. After surgery she wakes up and can’t recognize faces anymore….

What I liked/thought:
🎨I adored Sadie so much!!
🖌️The whitty humor and banter Sadie had made this much that much better!
🎨I wanted to punch Parker in the face.
🖌️I was a little annoyed with the “twist” aka miscommunication trope is NOT my fav and it was a major problem in this book.
🎨I felt like the book could of been 100 pages shorter and still be just as good!

Overall, I gave this a 4⭐️ I’m not a huge miscommunication trope lover and I really didn’t like how it was done in this story. IYKYK. But nonetheless Sadie was so quirky and had spunk even when her life was falling apart. There was a couple of sad/teary eye moments! 🥲

Thank you Katherine Center, for another wonderful book.
This book was a little out of the ordinary and I loved that!

With adorable plot points, the story is fun and fast-paced. While maybe a little predictable, I would have been upset and surprised if it ended any other way.

I loved the explanation of face-blindness. I wished there was a bit more seen of the psychologist, the step-sister, and the step-mother.

I will have to say, I am surprised that the main character didn’t even know what day her mom died was?? Only that it was in the springtime near her birthday…. Who wouldn’t know what day their parent died?

Overall, though, what a cute book. Loved The Bodyguard, loved this one too.

The start of this story was a little slow for me but once she had her surgery I did not want to put it down.
I absolutely hated Parker. But I was living for this apparently not love triangle. When I hit that part I laughed so hard. I love the way everything wrapped up neatly, and how she didn’t win the contest she didn’t even place at all.
I will say at times it was a bit disorienting because she’s not the most reliable narrator but that is a given due to her condition.

I have loved all of this authors books! This was so good! Amazing characters and a great story line! Highly highly recommend.

reading a katherine center book is like receiving the biggest, warmest hug. her books and writing style are just so comforting to me. there is something so
magical about her writing that sweeps me away right off the bat and for a little while i get lost in an amazing story.

hello stranger is best experienced going in blind (ha). it has an element to it that feels like magical realism, but is actually very real and quite educational. katherine center is a master at balancing hilarity and angst. she is exceptional at writing characters who feel like your real friends and others who you just want to punch in the face.

sadie really felt it all and i felt it with her. the fallout with her father after the death of her mother truly broke my heart. i loved how independent she wanted to be, but her feelings of loneliness tore me apart. the romance in this story is chef’s kiss and it’s quite possibly the zaniest love triangle i’ve ever read. don’t let that scare you away though; i promise it is done to perfection. this is such a beautiful story of character growth and healing with a heap of swoony romance. i’m already anxiously anticipating what katherine will give us next!

thank you to st. martin’s press for an advanced copy. my thoughts are my own.

Katherine Center has a way with writing books. They are so true and well written. I know that when I pick up one of her books I am going to go on an amazing journey with her characters! I loved Hello Stranger so much! I cannot wait to see what she writes next.

I was disappointed by the last couple of Katherine Center books I've read but this one redeemed them for me! Really sweet

This was an entertaining, lighthearted romance. Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist, barely making ends meet, living in her art studio because she’s broke. She suffers a medical emergency and needs to ask for help from people around her.

This is emotional, inspirational and highly enjoyable. Highly recommend.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, the author, and NetGalley for the free gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Katherine Center novel - which I have heard great things about! This one was super cute but was not my favorite type of romance - there was little to no chemistry between the main characters and things felt super random .

I am not sure if the confusion was on purpose because of one of the main plot points, but it really made the main romance feel lost. The characters were cute and they had a lot of potential, and it had a lot of feel good aspects to it.

The cover is super cute and I have heard great things about her writing in general so I will definitely be checking out other books of hers!

Katherine does it again with this can't put down book, I love it. The character Sadie was so well written, I love how her character comes to terms with her new self, it has a realistic view about health conditions. It was heart gripping and made me laugh too.

I am a huge fan of Katherine Center, and just finished The Bodyguard (which I loved) before starting this one. I hate to say that I didn’t love this story. I felt like it was reaching too much, there were too many miscommunications, and I had to suspend my disbelief too many times.

Ms. Center has other books that are excellent and I highly recommend her as an author!

A feel good rom com by new to me author Katherine Center.
Portrait artist Sadie Montgomery just became a finalist in an upcoming competition that will give her all she's been waiting for if she wins.
Suddenly her life changes when she is in an accident, has to have surgery, and as a result now has prosopagnosia, face-blindness. As Sadie tries to adjust to her new reality she has quirky friends and a few romantic interests that help her along the way.
A touching, fun and interesting story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.