I requested this book because i loved The Bodyguard and was excited for another title by Katherine Center. While I wouldn’t rate this book higher than The Bodyguard, I definitely loved that this book make me slow down. I couldn’t speed through it like most books because the concept was different that anything I’d ever read. I had to work hard to put myself in the place of the main character, but not in a bad way. I definitely called the twist, but I still really enjoyed this book!

Sadie has wanting nothing but to make it big as an artist. Like her mother its been a dream and when she gets hopefully the big break she's been waiting for. She gets into a accident and finds out she needs brain surgery its a simple procedure and afterwards all seems well when she can no longer see faces its a blur literally. The docs say it should go back to normal and don't force it but no time frame. This is the worse time shes to make her painting for the art show and hold the mic she specializes in faces how can she paint someone's face if she can't see it.

This book is for me what brought me out of my months long book funk (there have been a few I thought was going to get me but each book I read after this one was stories I wanted to read)

This is my 3rd book by this author and each book gets better I loved this story of her trying to figure out a way to do things and not judging people by the faces but how they are. Also I'm not going to touch to much of the romance because its important to see it as it unfolds but damn I loved the romance!

Also her standing up to her family for her evil step sister her shallow step-mom and not there father was chiefs kiss.

I wont to read this again! Loved every minute!


Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this E-Arc in exchange for my honest review.- Please give me all the Katherine Center Books

First thank you to net galley and st martins press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sadie Montgomery is an artist that is struggling when she finds out that she is one of the top finalists for a portrait prize. However she has a medical issue right when she needs to be focused on the portrait. Complications from the medical issue really impact her ability to deliver her portrait but a kind stranger helps her discover her abilities while healing.

What I liked: this book provides lots of life nuggets to remind you what is important. I really enjoy that about her books and this one was about hope. This is a characteristic that i know is important. And try to keep holding onto especially during tough times. Sadie was a very difficult person throughout the book. She refuses help and makes assumptions about people. Turns out she has a brain condition that requires surgery. This is the same condition that her mom had and passed away from in her childhood. Signing up for surgery is not top of her list and she tries to avoid it but her dad steps in and makes her have it. Unfortunately she develops face blindness during the recovery. My mom had a brain surgery and continued issues from a tumor. There were parts that were very real in the book about your brain and how it impacts everything. There is so much hope that you have to have when going through brain surgery and recovery. My mom didn’t get a neuropsychologist but what a great idea to have during recovery. There are so many feelings that you have to process and changes that you are not in control of that impact you and your family and friends. I’m glad that she had that support along with Joe. Joe was her neighbor that she had previously made incorrect assumptions about but he totally helped her. He was so selfless for her and others. I struggled a lot with Sadie’s relationship with her family and stepmom and sister. I liked how she wrote the relationship and the progression. She wrote it very realistic and didn’t gloss over the messy parts. I’m glad that she also had Sadie examine her actions too.
My favorite part was the authors note. This was so beautiful and really explained why we need hope and love romance novels. I especially loved how she explained about people saying predictable. Let me just say I am highly anticipating her next book.

I would encourage anyone who needs a little pick me up and a sweet romance. We all need hope.

"I would love to go on a date with you," I told him. And then I added, "In three weeks."

I loved this book so much! It absolutely gripped me from the beginning. Sadie was so excited to be picked in the top 1o for her portrait competition that when she started to have face blindness I felt her anxiety, her fear, her loss of hope. I could never imagine what that would be like, losing the one thing you worked your whole life for and not knowing if it would ever come back. Though I guessed the little twist and I was right I still loved everything about this book! The plot was amazing and the story telling, I really made myself try to see the characters like she did, imagined them faceless with puzzle pieces.

The other thing that amazed me was the amount of research that Katherine had to have put into this book, I feel like I learned so much and just enough to interest me into doing some of my own research. I definitely recommend this book to all!

Tropes/Content: M/F, single POV, forced proximity (same building), death of a parent (in the past), evil stepmom and stepsister, love triangle, miscommunication, mistaken identity

Thank you Katherine Center and NetGalley for this ARC!

Lots of readers seem to be loving this one (and that’s great!), but I would’ve abandoned ship pretty quickly had I not received an early copy. It was clear from the start that this simply wasn’t going to be a good fit for me. Our heroine is pretty self-involved and there’s a LOT of medical details at the start, so it felt more like women’s fiction than romance to me, and not particularly enjoyable women’s fiction at that. Add in the love triangle and the continued emphasis on the face blindness, and I just wasn’t into it. I solidly read/listened to the first third, then found myself doing a lot of skimming after that.

The story follows Sadie, a portrait artist on a deadline. She’s in the running to win a major competition, and that means she needs to complete a masterpiece as soon as possible. Unfortunately, a fluke accident revealed that Sadie needs brain surgery, and that was definitely not part of the plan. When the surgery leaves Sadie with (hopefully temporary) face blindness, it complicates things even further. Not only does her job revolve around literally painting every detail of faces, but interacting with people just became a whole lot more complicated. As Sadie navigates the situation, she spends time with two very different men, and she’s forced to re-evaluate parts of her life.

Conceptually, this was very interesting. Face blindness is not something I’ve read about before, especially in romance. I liked the tension and drama that added to the story, for sure. Unfortunately, I did not really like Sadie as a character, and the whole book revolves around her. She was needlessly stubborn and refused to acknowledge her situation with others, which made things a lot messier than they needed to be. Sadie also didn’t take the time to get to know her guys, which made her feel selfish and made the romance feel super shallow. I’m not a fan of love triangles to begin with, and having one be so surface level was not great. I also found the medical stuff at the beginning to be too much – too detailed and too long. So, I can’t say that it was a quality issue, necessarily, but there were several things that drove me kinda crazy. I can see why this is appealing to so many readers, but it was a miss for me.

I have not met a book by Katherine Center that I haven’t loved and hasn’t made me cry. She has a way of writing that just pulls you in! I got this book as an advanced reader copy though NetGalley and was so pleased to have been approved for it. It came out on July 11th.

The main character, Sadie, has been down on her luck and it keeps getting worse. She is a portrait artist who has a medical emergency and finds out she needs brain surgery. She ends up with prosopagnosia aka face blindness as a side effect of the surgery. So as a portrait artist, this could have devastating effects. I really liked how the face blindness was written into the story and described. I got a real feeling for what it must be like. I have read another book that featured a character with face blindness and it was not as well done as this one.

Like every good romance, there is a love story, a misunderstanding, and a happy ending. I was really rooting for Sadie the whole time and really glad for how it all turned out. It is such a great read!

Definitely wasn’t what I was expecting going into the story, and how literal the title would be. It was an easy read - sad at times as Sadie navigated the world changed after her accident. Face-blindness led her to some precarious situations, and it was interesting to learn how impactful I could be. I thought the family situation could have been explored more, especially with Lucinda. The biggest message taken away is to live life with an open mind.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC!

I adored this new book by Katherine Center! After loving The Bodyguard earlier this year, I had high hopes for Hello Stranger and it didn’t disappoint. I thought the main character was relatable to follow, and that the premise with the facial blindness was really interesting. The love interest wasn’t my favorite, but the romance didn’t actually seem like the most important part of the book. It felt more like a self-discovery book, which I thought worked well for the story. Super cute and even funny at times. There was a "twist" at the end and I'm honestly not sure how I didn't see it coming!

𝘔𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘒𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 (𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵). 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 (𝘶𝘴) 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴.
𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵, 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦. 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘶𝘵, 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥.
𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘺𝘦𝘵, 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘶𝘱. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘶𝘻𝘻𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦.
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘒𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥.

If you're looking for something to just make you feel good - Katherine Center's books are a great place to start. And there's even a lesson to look beyond what you see in front of you to find something good. I'm smiling again just thinking about this book.

An absolute gem of a book by one of my go-to authors! Sadie, a portrait artist, has her life turned upside down when she discovers that she needs brain surgery and wakes up after the surgery to find that she has a condition known as face blindness. This possibly “just temporary” condition makes the portrait competition she is a part of almost impossible and Sadie fumbles along the few weeks after surgery trying to figure out how to navigate this new world she finds herself in.

I can’t believe it took me so long to read this book, I say that because I’ve had an early release copy of it for months, courtesy of NetGalley, and just kept putting it off. I don’t know why as you can literally never go wrong when you read a Katherine Center novel, or at least I haven’t gone wrong yet.

This novel seemed so different to me from the other ones I’ve read, but maybe that’s just because it’s been a while since I’ve read one of her books. There’s romance (of course) but I feel like this book was so much more about Sadie and her interpersonal struggles and her character development than it was about romance, and I’m ok with that. I think a lot of romance novels get so caught up in the finding someone to love and that the characters sometimes forget to love themselves and settle for behaviors that are less than they deserve! So bravo to Katherine Center!

The way the readers are led to understand what Sadie is going through, which is so hard to understand by the way as someone who’s never gone through face blindness (or even heard of it before), was phenomenal. You’re left with an understanding of an actual real medical condition that affects up to 1 in 50 people most who don’t even know they have it!

I did rate 4 stars (closer to 4.5 really) strictly because when I read a romance novel I’m looking for those feel good feelings that the author talks about in her little blurb at the end, with this specific book you get that, you definitely get a lot of moments of laugh out loud feel good parts, but I felt like the romance was cut a little short. That being, there’s a little bit in the middle but it’s mostly the very ending where all the magic happens. I know WHY, as I said, this novel is about Sadie learning to love herself not someone else, I just felt like maybe we could have used another chapter or so of the romance!

adorable story with a positive life lesson — “The more good things you look for, the more you find.”

Honestly the fact that dudes can fall for this judgmental, whiny, delusional, and extremely privileged FMC kind of piss me off lol

Ok in all seriousness, this is a light and fast rom-com but filled with lots of immature, vengeful and petty characters. Would’ve enjoyed the book a lot better if the characters are so unlikable and I’m just a not a fan of miscommunication in adult relationships.

3.5 ⭐️ and I’ll throw it a bit more star because the book mentioned GONG YOO MY GOBLIN LOVE

I really enjoyed Katherine Center’s latest book. This was a topic I had never even heard of before. It took a minute to wrap my head around the idea of not being able to put the pieces of someone’s face together. I personally connected with the main character and having lost a mother. I was rooting for her the entire time. Parker was the perfect villain. I didn’t see the ending coming so I liked that. It was a heartwarming story about self discovery and made you feel good in the end. Loved it.

This novel was a lovely visit to hope and happiness that I really needed after a few darker reads. It was light and happiness wrapped into a cute little book that just brought me joy! The conceit of the entire book was interesting and compelling which was the heroine (a portrait artist) finding herself with prosopagnosia, or face-blindness. That is really the thing that the entire story is centered around. And I think Center handled that one particularly well. And I think that is why this novel was so successful for me. If I hadn't bought that, the entire novel would not have worked. And I think that's the magic of Katherine Center. She can make things that may or may not be fully 'believable' from a logical standpoint, feel true and real. And this is a well-written, engaging book that I read in almost one sitting which isn't typical for me. I really enjoyed the entire reading experience and do recommend it.

I picked up my first Katherine Centre book a few months ago when I read The Bodyguard and absolute LOVED IT. I immediately requested this ARC and was so thrilled to receive an eARC - thank you to St. Martins Press and Netgalley!

Katherine Centre is a great writer of rom coms - I thought so in The Bodyguard and her writing in Hello Stranger is no different. She manages to write comedic light moments and intertwine them with truly traumatic moments for the characters to deal with - in this case dealing with a traumatic brain injury and family drama. Her blend of rom com with dramady is very well done and I can see why everyone has been telling me to read her books.

I was actually a bit taken aback by how low in sex scenes Center’s books are, but her writing and chemistry that she instills in her characters more than makes up for any lack of steam. If there is good romantic tension I dont need a ton of spice! And Katherine Center knows how to write good chemistry and good tension.

I enjoyed Sadie as a character, she’s quirky and well meaning - she comes across so bubbly but you can tell she is hiding some pretty deep issues with her family. Joe, our male lead, was just so gosh darn nice and it was refreshing to see a male lead who wasn’t a complete jerk to the heroine at first.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, I had two major issues with this novel that kept it from being a 4/5 Star read for me:
1. The face blindness concept was cool - I actually have a friend with face blindness and it was fun to ask her about the accuracy of this book. However, the key role that face blindness played in the romantic “twist” of the novel was… pushing the bound of believability. I am sorry but if someone is consistently calling you the wrong name for WEEKS… wouldn’t you eventually correct them? The whole “I thought it was a joke cuz I wore that bowling jacket (IYKYK)” was just a really lame cop-out explanation for why Joe never questioned something that any normal person would’ve done. I understand rom coms have many elements of unbelievability but this was too much for me. Plus the face blindness twist really just relied on the miscommunication trope, which I hate.
2. I appreciated Sadie’s family drama with her dad - I honestly think we could’ve just had her drama with her dad and a step mother she can’t connect to and the trauma with her family would’ve been sufficient. The evil stepsister angle that was thrown in was so over the top it felt like the stepsister character was pulled from a different novel. Her cruelty and manipulation felt out of place and more in place with a soap opera than a rom com.

This book had such a great message! So much more than just a typical romance. Even though I saw the ending coming from very early on it.was such an enjoyable ride getting there. I can't wait to read more from this author.

𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 by Katherine Center
Published: July 11, 2023 by @stmartinspress
Reviewed by: Mel
Format: eBook ARC [thank you @netgalley]

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆
✽ Miscommunication trope
✽ Accidental romance
✽ Katherine Center’s writing (it’s too perfect!)
✽ Overcoming obstacles
✽ Dogs

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
Katherine Center does it again! 2023 is my year of bingeing Center’s backlist — so when I requested the ARC of Hello Stranger, I thought it would be a long shot. It took me far too long to finally pick it up, but I’m so glad when I finally did. This was one of my favorite Katherine Center books!

I absolutely adored Sadie, “Joe,” and Peanut - and absolutely despised Parker. I don’t know if I’ve ever hated a character in a book so incredibly much. The book was so adorable and so well written that it unfolded so perfectly - and I didn’t put all of the puzzle pieces together until approximately 80% which was absolutely perfect timing — in a lot of books similar to this, it’s fairly easy to predict most of the plot points way ahead of time.

If you haven’t picked this one up yet, I definitely recommend it — it was a wonderfully enjoyable read!

Sadie Montgomery is diagnosed with face blindness after an unexpected brain surgery. She can still see, but she’s seeing faces as jumbled puzzle pieces. While she’s been told the condition is probably temporary, Sadie has to figure out her new normal. As a portrait artist, Sadie makes her living from being able to see and paint faces. While she’s learning to cope with this, she meets two men and begins to fall hard for one of them.

Hello Stranger is such a cute romance. The twist was a little predictable, and I felt like it dragged a little bit getting to that point, but overall I really enjoyed the characters and storyline.