Well this solidifies that Katherine Center is now an auto-buy author! I was just introduced to her last year and have enjoyed her books immensely. I really need to catch up on all her backlist!

One of the things that I really love about Center’s work is learning something new about a medical issue. In this book, the MC, Sadie has a whirlwind brain surgery that leaves her some complications. She can no longer see faces and she’s a portrait artist! She’s just been accepted into a gallery contest that could finally give her, her big break. We go on her journey the next several weeks as she goes through recovery and trying to figure out her new normal.

Sadie was such a breath of fresh air. I loved her witty comebacks and how she looked at life. Even though, she has some past trauma, she tries to be kind and optimistic. I mean, sometimes she’s just ignoring the hard things but I think that’s what is so great about her journey. I do wish that we got to know her a little bit more before her surgery though. Sadie’s family situation is extremely sad and I hated Parker from the moment I met her.

Joe was the best! I fell for him so fast and he is just such a beautiful human being. I really enjoyed the relationship that Sadie and Joe build. Can you imagine building a relationship with someone and not ever seeing their face? She had to learn a whole new way to recognize people and I think that Center does such a great job here. His love for all the animals was seriously the sweetest!

This book was so quick to read because I had such a hard time putting it down. There are so many fun and sweet moments but we also get a lot of depth. I laughed and I cried a lot. It was so entertaining and I feel so happy after finishing this book. I will say that there are a couple of side characters that I wasn’t in love with. It’s really my only complaint about this book.

Overall, if you loved her other books, I think you will love this one too! It’s fun and heartwarming but will also pull at your heartstrings. There are some very tender moments that will make you cry. I’m looking forward to her next one! 🙂

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an e-arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Katherine Center had been a favorite author of mine for years, going back to before I would have called myself a romance reader. Her characters have major hurdles to overcome (impending blindness, paralysis, ptsd, etc.), but her stories are filled with such hope and happiness.

In this one, Sadie is a portrait painter who is gearing up for a competition that will hopefully kick off her career. In the lead up, though, she experiences a seizure that ultimately leads to brain surgery, which leaves her with a condition called face blindness. Basically, her brain can't properly process facial features to distinguish one person from another. Not only does this present some obvious challenges in the day to day (like not recognizing your evil stepsister), but it's extremely problematic for someone trying to paint a career defining portrait on a deadline.

While trying to find her new normal and prepare for the competition, Sadie also finds herself trying to navigate a complicated love life. She is absolutely certain her dog's new vet, Dr. Addison, is her forever person. At the same time, though, she's growing closer to her neighbor, Joe. Her initial impression of Joe wasn't great, but as he's helping with her portrait process and just generally showing up for her, she realizes she may have misjudged him. Add in Sadie's evil stepsister moving into her building, family drama, financial woes, and Sadie's insistence that no one know about her face blindness, and life is a bit complicated.

This entire story was told from Sadie's POV, which was especially interesting and entertaining because Sadie is the definition of an unreliable narrator. She's a quirky character on the best of days, but her condition further skews things, so you never really know what to believe as a reader.

This is a really fun and unique story with all the "Pollyanna" vibes I expect from this author.

When portrait artist Sadie wakes up after surgery, she discovers she has developed prosopagnosia, an inability to recognize faces. This new development put Sadie, who was already struggling to achieve personal and professional success, into a total tailspin. Center’s brilliant cast of characters, unique plot complication and compelling slow-burn romance come together to make a satisfying romcom. Thoughts on identity, perception and human relationships blend smoothly into the story while raising awareness of prosopagnosia. Loved it!

There is something about Katherine Center that I just can't resist. I start to read her books, find that I'm not in love, set them aside, but pick them up again and discover how absolutely marvelous they are. The written seems different the second time around - and maybe that's more to do with my mood? I just know that whatever she writes, I must give it a second chance. "Hello Stranger" wasn't an exception. Initially, the plot pushed me away, but Katherine Center pulled me back in. And, as always, I fell in love with another set of characters worthy of my love and attention!

Cute romance, this was my second read by the author and I would certainly recommend for others to enjoy.

This was really cute! While it is a little predictable, I still really like the concept of using face blindness in a romance. I loved our MMC and definitely felt the chemistry. There were some fun side characters, as well. This wasn't my favorite Kathrine Center book, but I still had a really good time and would recommend it!

3.5 Stars

A feel good story about Sadie, our main character, overcoming many challenges life has thrown at her all at once. We follow her journey after brain surgery has left her not being able to perceive faces. Now, she has to navigate her work as an artist and life in general without being able to see people’s faces. She discovers that sometimes we don’t see everything around us clearly and sometimes we only see what we want to see.

Overall I liked the idea and message of the book and it was a fun, quick, lighthearted read. It did take me a bit to get into the story off the bat, however the later half pace was better. I also did predict the twist early on in the story but I enjoyed reading how the main character discovers this.

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

I absolutely loved this romcom! It took me a bit to get into, but I really loved all the layers. Center's characters are very dimensional and original. The misunderstandings were believable and hilarious. I really appreciated Center exploring some complicated medical situations and not shying away from showing what it's like to loose control of your life a little bit. Very relatable.

Overall, I found this to be a really smart, hilarious, and must-read romcom. Highly recommended. My favorite romcom this spring and summer.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

Who knew face blindness was a thing? I sure didn't. How awful! This was a wonderful premise for a story with multiple layers of interest. The main character is struggling with several challenges all converging at the moment when things should have been turning to her favour. Take some family turmoil, medical issues, financial crisis and the added fun of a "love is blind" trope and this is the novel you'd get.

I'm a fan. When's the next one?

Thank you to St. Martin's Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advanced copy of Hello Stranger by Katherine Center.

Struggling artist Sadie Montgomery and her adorable, spoiled senior dog Peanut, undergoes a "minor" brain surgery that results in seeing the world in a whole new way... facial blindness. She can still see! But recognizing faces proves impossible.

Katherine Center is an auto-read author for me, and has been for a long time. Her books are always such a nice combination of heartwarming, heart aching, and fun. If books were a hug, Katherine Center's would be those really good hugs. :)

This was a fun read! The facial blindness was definitely something I had never heard of. And I did enjoy how it was worked into some fun twists at the end. I had already assumed the main twist, but that didn't take away from the fun of it.

I enjoyed this book! I don't think it outranks some of my favorite Katherine Center books, but it's definitely worth the read.

Easy, cheesy, simple read and I loved it.

I liked Sadie (MC) a lot and enjoyed watching her navigate this time in her life. I cringed every time Parker opened her mouth, it was like watching a bad hallmark movie. Overall, I would describe this book as a cheesy hallmark movie.

the plot was super cute and easy to read. I kindddddd of predicted the ending, but it was wrapped up nicely. Katherine did a great job creating dynamic, enticing, witty characters.

I think her writing style is a breath of fresh air. It’s so simple without being overexplained or complicated. I’m also a sucker for 1st person POV.

This was my first book by Katherine Center and I will definitely read more by her. I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed this book! Such easy, cheesy reads.

I did not give this book 5 stars because I would’ve loved more of a relationship between Sadie and Joe or Dr. Addison, more smut or romance in general. I also thought Parker was just so awful and cringy I hated reading her parts lol.

Thank you to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press, and Katherine Center for the ARC of this book for an honest review!

Katherine Center can do no wrong for me.... she is one of my favorite authors however I couldn't really connect with this story. It started off very slow for me but it picked up and nobody does romantic comedy like KC :)

I am great at remembering people but terrible at names. And my big pet peeve is when people don’t remember me at all.

Hello Stranger is the story of Sadie, a woman who had a bleed on her brain and after surgery was left being unable see faces. She could see everything else but faces became jumbled. And she was a portrait artist. This was a cute romcom about overcoming the odds and pushing through, despite the obstacles. I figured out the “twist” pretty early but it was still entertaining and sweet to watch it all unfold. And the relationship with her stepsister added some comic relief. This is a perfect beach read (or lake read, in my case).

HELLO STRANGER
Katherine Center


In HELLO STRANGER we are following Sadie. Sadie has just had brain surgery and upon recovering she realizes she cannot make out people's faces. Every person she sees is a stranger to her. She has a form of Prosopagnosia.

Sadie is a portrait artist by trade and as you can imagine this disorder is very unsettling for her. She finds herself rediscovering what it means to be an artist and finds herself trying to piece back together her life in a more appealing way.

Enter not one, but two love interests to lust after. The rest is history.

I did an entire post talking about books featuring characters with Prosopagnosia. But this is the first romance novel I have ever read that featured this occurrence. I thought it created a very interesting dynamic. I have learned even more about the subject and I thought that was a big bonus for the book.

I loved the idea that since Sadie can’t make out faces Every. Other. Sense. Is. Heightened. This made for some of the steamiest scenes I've ever read by Katherine Center. Although fleeting, this tension between the characters went a long way.

HELLO STRANGER is a love story but it's also about grief. Not only the grief of losing a loved one but also the grief of losing and letting go of what you thought your life was going to be like. And giving birth to and accepting the life you were meant to live.

HELLO STRANGER is my favorite of Katherine Center's books. And it might be the most romantic book I've read recently. You can find HELLO STRANGER by Katherine Center everywhere books are sold, it's out now!

Thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copies! It was a pleasure to read and be given the opportunity to provide feedback!

HELLO STRANGER...⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am so glad that I came back and gave this author another go after not liking her last release. She impressed me with this one. I have rec this to my friends and family and even bought a couple physical copies. Such a good and interesting read

Katherine Center is an auto-buy author for me and I have loved all her books. This one fell flat and I was so disappointed. There were several things that just didn't work. Also, there was a huge continuity error and I hope was corrected before the book was published.

I am always honest with my reviews, and it pains me to say that this was not my favorite Katherine Center book but please do not let that discourage you from reading it. I have read so many rave reviews! Now that the book has been publishd, I plan to reread it to see if my opinion has changed.

Thank you to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed Katherine’s previous book and didn’t have high expectations as the synopsis sounded like it might not be my cup of tea. Spoiler alert - I was wrong. This was a quirky and entertaining romance novel that was very easy to read. To be transparent there were times when I wanted to bop the MC on the head because her behavior was mildly irritating but also I’ve never experienced the traumatic events she has so who am I to judge…she’s prob handling it better than I would. Katherine also managed to write it in a way that the plot kept me engaged even if the character wasn’t my favorite.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is a true delight! Sadie Montgomery life is complicated, but it has just started to turn around. She is a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition. But, then after complications she is diagnosed with face blindness? What does that mean when you are portrait artist?

This novel was incredible and I read it in a day which involved staying up too late. Sadie was such an interesting character who I connected with and enjoyed her journey. The secondary characters helped create the perfect story. The romance was beautiful and complicated in a good way. (To avoid spoiler I am not being too specific. ) I loved the writing style of hope and how it created fantastic anticipation. I appreciated the themes of being compassionate with our selves and others, embracing our humanity, and being reminded that we see what we expect to see.

"It takes a certain kind of courage to be brave in love. A courage you can only get better at through practice."

Hello Stranger will be a favorite of 2023 for me. The writing was magnificent, the characters were endearing, and the themes of hope and perseverance resonated with me. I very highly recommend.

I was given a copy by the publisher and not required to write a positive review.

Katherine Center has done it yet again! Katherine has a way of writing swoon-worthy romance moments mixed with belly laughing comedic wit. I went into this blindly but was more than pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-Book ARC.

After an accident, portrait artist Sadie suffers from hopefully/probably temporary face blindness (aka acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia). Will she be able to paint a portrait for a prestigious competition in this condition? And, what about dating?

Well. Hmmmm. So far my 2.5 star rating is in the minority, but overall, I was very disappointed by this plot and found the execution lacking. The meet cute at the beginning was well, cute, and I liked many of the characters, including Sadie, her dog, Peanut, her best friend, Sue, and new friend, Joe. I also absolutely LOVED Sadie's ritual on her deceased mom’s birthday of baking her mom's favorite cake and talking to her like she’s still alive.

However, I did not like Sadie's irritating stepsister, Parker, and the way she constantly bullied Sadie felt tiresome and overdone. I typically love books by this author but this one was missing the light hearted humor and much of it felt like one long pity party for Sadie. The overall message of the story was good, but the twist (which I guessed early on) was super lame in my opinion. I won't go into details to avoid spoilers, but let's just say that I don't buy the reasons presented.

If you're looking for another book about face blindness, then I would highly recommend Rock Paper Scissors (4 stars) by Alice Feeney!

Things You Save in a Fire (5 stars) and What You Wish For (5 stars) remain my favorites by this author.

Location: Houston, Texas

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.