Book Review: HELLO STRANGER by the 👑 Katherine Center (on sale 7/11!)

🌟Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Katherine Center has done it again! That’s it, that’s the review. I stayed up well into the night to finish HELLO STRANGER the same day I started it, falling more in love with every turn of the page. Special thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for making my year with an early e-ARC. Center will forever be an auto-buy author for me. 🫶🏼

Read HELLO STRANGER if you like lovable, relatable characters; unique, heartfelt romantic comedies; funny first person narrators; sparkling wit and banter; and stories that leave you feeling super uplifted and joyful. I recommend going into this book [face] blind and canceling all your plans because you’re not going to be able to put it down.

“My experience of all this so far was the opposite of the woman who felt like face blindness let her live in a world that had no strangers. For me, right now, everyone felt like a stranger. Even me.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Spicy Meter: 2 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Discusses parental death and congenital disease. Revolves around face blindness caused by an open brain surgery. Touches on bullying, gaslighting, and suicide attempts. Contains sexual content.

“Hello Stranger” follows Sadie Montgomery, an almost-up-and-coming portrait artist (or so she hopes), as she faces the world with acquired prosopagnosia—aka face blindness. Yes, you heard that right: a portrait artist that can’t see faces after undergoing a sort of elective brain surgery 6 weeks before the most important portrait competition she could’ve ever dreamed of being a part of.

Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors but oh, did I not see this one coming. Katherine has once again brought us a whole new world with such an outlandish (but also possible?) situation. Like, this book was literally Murphy’s Law brought to life (anything that can go wrong will go wrong), and I was there for it.

With quirky and lovable characters, “Hello Stranger” was a very interesting take on how to take one day at a time, even when life feels like it’s falling apart. It’s a true ode to the harsh truth: we’re more than our looks and our mistakes. Also—this book is only set down as a Romance novel, but I swear it is more of a Rom Com if I’ve ever read one, Sadie and the situations she got herself in made me literally laugh out loud. I also kind of saw where the plot twist was coming, but that didn’t make me enjoy it any less.

I would highly recommended “Hello Stranger”, especially if you’re looking for an engaging, unique read, with a super relatable main character and packed with a well carried out (low-key funny) love triangle.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: July 11, 2023
“I’d painted many models over the years, and it was never nerve-racking like this. But this was different. Usually the models were across the room, not right up next to me. (…) And they were not people I had kissed. Or yelled at. (…) Or cried in front of.
They were always strangers.
That’s when I realized that (he) wasn’t a stranger.
I didn’t know exactly what he was to me, but he wasn’t a stranger.”

Happy Pub Week!!!

What a bright, beautiful & fun book cover! While I have several of Katherine Center's books, this is the first one that I have read and I absolutely loved it. This is a book that I would love to see turned into a movie.

This is such a sweet, heartwarming story! Sadie has overcome so much in her life and the hits just kept coming…her seizure, slow recovery from her brain surgery (with complications), family drama, health issues with her senior dog, etc. While there were some moments of weakness, I truly enjoyed reading how she prevailed and dealt with any issue that came at her.

Such a delight to meet all of these characters - I loved Joe & Peanut!!! I thought there was great character development. This story grabbed me from the beginning - I was going back and forth between the ebook and audio because I just couldn’t put it down! I loved everything about this story! It is definitely a book that I would read/listen to again. I really enjoy when an author brings awareness to illness, issues, events that one may not typically know about. Katherine did this so beautifully! I have never heard of Prosopagnosia (Face Blindness) before. Sadie’s story definitely shows you that you shouldn't take anything for granted - sight in her case, because you never know when it will be taken away.

Hello Stranger is truly an epic love story - with “fabulous anticipation”! I adored the ending and the author's note at the end was icing on the cake.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐡𝐚𝐬
Strangers to friends to lovers
Miscommunication
Love Triangle
Mental Health Trauma
Health Issues - Face Blindness

I had both the ebook copy and audio of this book. Patti Murin did a wonderful job with the narration!

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: July 11, 2023
𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬: 336
𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨 𝐋𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡:10 hours, 39 minutes

Thank you to @NetGalley, @stmartinspress, @katherinecenter & @macmillan.audio for the Advanced Readers Copy of this book for my honest review!

Review: Hello Stranger
Author: Katherine Center

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5

**Sigh** I just love Katherine Center.

This book was a joy. I tore through it in one afternoon/ evening.

First of all Sadie and her inner dialogue are flat out hilarious. Seriously- I was cracking up so many times.

And the love triangle was so unique and funny.
I also loved the premise of someone dealing with face blindness and trying to paint portraits. What an awesome concept. I learned so much about prosopagnosia. I definitely have a more vast understanding of this issue than I did before.

I also adore peanut. I have a dog that is very similar in importance to me so I found Sadie and peanuts bond relatable and sweet ❤️

This delightful and heartwarming novel introduced me to Sadie Montgomery, a struggling artist whose life takes an unforeseen twist after a life-altering accident leaves her with face blindness. Center's portrayal of Sadie's journey was captivating, filled with humor and an underlying sense of hope. The well-crafted characters, including loyal best friend Sue and intriguing love interests Joe and Dr. Addison, added depth to the story. I appreciated the author's thorough research on face blindness, shedding light on this lesser-known condition. The narrative, exclusively from Sadie's perspective, was skillfully performed, delivering laughter, romance, and vibrant energy. This story was an unexpected joy, reminding me of the power of resilience, the value of chosen family, and the beauty of perceiving the world through different lenses. The audiobook narrated by Patti Murin, enhanced the already delightful experience of Katherine Center's novel. Murin's performance brought the characters to life with her engaging and animated delivery. Her narration skillfully captured the humor, romance, and liveliness of the story, making it a joy to listen to. As the sole narrator, Murin effectively portrayed Sadie Montgomery's perspective, immersing me in her world and emotions. Her voice added an extra layer of depth and authenticity to the characters, making them even more relatable and endearing. Murin's skillful interpretation of the story further heightened my enjoyment of this story, solidifying my appreciation for both the book and the talented narrator. If you're looking for an audiobook that will entertain and uplift you, I highly recommend giving this book a listen.

How have I never read a Katherine Center book before this one? I loved this!! Sadie and Sue have a great friendship. I loved the writing. I loved how positive this book felt. It was like glitter in a way. The ending was wild. I loved the way the familial relationships changed and developed. This was great!

This was a sweet romance where the main character, Sadie, is a struggling artist who must undergo a little “minor” brain surgery. Upon recovery, she quickly realizes that something is wrong. She can not see people’s faces. She is experiencing a side effect from the surgery called Prosopagnosia, face blindness…NOT a spoiler, this is part of the synopsis. (If you have read Alice Feeney’s Rock Paper Scissors or you are a Neurologist, then you already know what this is).

I loved how the author shows us the evolution of Sadie as she learns to navigate her new life and learns to lean on her other senses in order to help her identify people. I love how she had to discover a different way to paint portraits because of course, how in the world was she going to continue being an artist if she couldn’t see peoples faces.

The only reason I am giving this book 3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 is because it was way too predictable for me. I guessed the entire plot in the first couple of chapters and it was one of those guesses that I knew I was right. And I was SPOT ON! BUT there were so many parts I loved and even found myself highlighting.

Now, if you are looking for a 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review, go and read the AUTHOR’s NOTE! I loved everything she had to say there. It was a beautiful love letter to romance novels. How in her 40’s was when she discovered that books could be fun (um, hello, that’s me!).

“Romance novels, rom-coms, happy love stories- they all run on a blissful sense that we are moving toward something better. The clues writers drop in romance novels don’t give you things to dread. They give you things to look forward to.”

“Knowing you are heading to a happy ending lets you relax and look forward to better things ahead. And there is a name for what you are feeling when you do that….HOPE!”

“Structurally, thematically, psychologically-love stories create hope and then use it as fuel. Two people meet-and then, over the course of three hundred pages, they move from alone to together. From closed to open. From judgy to understanding. From cruel to compassionate. From needy to fulfilled. From ignored to seen. From misunderstood to appreciated. From lost to found. That is a guarantee to the genre: Things will get better. It is a gift the love story gives you”

“I think love stories are deeply misunderstood- in part, at least, because they don't work like other stories. Love stories don't have happy endings because their authors didn't know any better. They have happy endings because they let readers access a rare and precious kind of emotional bliss. Yes, misery is important. But I think joy is just as important. I think the ways we take care of each other matter just as much as the ways we let each other down. That light matters just as much as darkness. That play matters as much as work, and kindness matters as much as cruelty, and hope matters as much as despair. More so, even. Because tragedy is a given, but joy is a choice.”

“…it's because love is nourishing.
We all sense it deep down, I hope-past the snark and the tough-guy exteriors. Love is healing. It's unapologetically optimistic. It's the thing that puts US back together. So I write stories about things getting better about people healing from hard things, and trying to connect, and working like hell to become the best versions of themselves, despite it all. I hope this story made you laugh. And swoon. I hope it kept you up way too late reading and gave you that blissed-out, oxytocin-laden, tipsy feeling that all the best love stories create. I hope it gave you something to think about, and maybe a new perspective. But more than anything, I hope it gave you something to look forward to.”

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review….Pub Date: 7/11/2023

Thank you to Katherine Center, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

First, let's take a moment to stare at and appreciate the cover of this book! It is hands down one of my favorite covers. Secondly, this book made me laugh out loud more than once. This book was more than just a romance book to me.

I loved Sadie, and let's not forget Peanut! This is definitely one I will recommend over and over again.

I forgot to write my review for this book! I loved it. Just like every other book I've read by Katherine Center. This one deals with face blindness, something I was familiar with after reading about it in another book. But how do you deal with that when you're a portrait artist? The character of Sadie was very well written and she tried so hard to complete a portrait to be entered in a competition. My heart went out to her. She was lovable, as was her neighbor Joe. This book was witty with a great cast of characters. Although, I care for the evil step-sister but she was a good character in this story despite her evilness. I enjoyed this book so much that I was sad to have it end. It would be great to have this made into a movie. I highly recommend this one for the beach, coffee shop, or just sitting at home in a comfortable chair. Grab a copy today!

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

I read this beach book in a day. Interesting set up with the complicated medical issue and what you see is not always what is real.

A Cinderella-like setup is not what this book ends up being. Through a series of miscommunications that almost seem impossible, the book brings together a tough family situation, trust, and art in a way that I didn’t ever really see coming.

It was a refreshing read and enjoyable the entire way through. While I don’t think this book is going to be as big of a hit as her last, it does fill that need for a good summer book to read that deals with big issues but in a light-hearted way. There’s a lot of self-discovery woven throughout this story that felt like a good therapy session in a positive way. I can’t wait to see what Katherine Center comes out with next!

𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵, 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘧𝘶𝘭!

Another fantastic book from Katherine Center, you can’t go wrong with her stories, everyone one of them is unique, heartwarming and awesome. A perfect summer read.

Thank you SMP Romance for this gifted copy.

𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 by Katherine Center releases tomorrow July 11, 2023.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

I enjoyed this story and the writing. The topic of face blindness was interesting. I liked the characters, but they seemed a little oblivious.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.

Loved it.

Katherine Center’s books always leave me feeling more hopeful and reflective than before, and Hello Stranger was no exception! This was probably Center’s most heavily researched book, and the focus on the main character having face blindness was so fascinating. I had never heard of this condition before reading about it here.

Here are some other things I loved about this book:
💙 Sadie’s ability to keep going even though she was facing a huge challenge. Many early reviewers of this book have said that Sadie was whiny, but I thought the opposite. Of course she was down on herself a lot of the time because of her situation, and that is completely understandable because it was such a hard thing to deal with. But she came out the other side more grateful than before. Her character growth was incredible.
💙 Joe was such a sweetheart and an enneagram 2 to the core (like me!) I loved his servant’s heart for helping pet sit for the animals in the apartment building.
💙 there were so many lovable side characters: Sue, Mr Kim, and Augusta were all fabulous.
💙 Sadie’s cute dog Peanut was one of my favorite parts!
💙 the twist in the story was so out of left field for me! But it made for a very satisfying ending.

I loved the healthy balance of hopefulness and reality in this book, and it was a joy to read! Already can’t wait to see what Katherine Center comes up with next!

🤍Book Review🤍
📖 Hello Stranger By Katherine Center📖
Overall Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️


My thoughts~ I Found out something pretty interesting as this book does have a pretty unique plot, there is a neurological disorder where people are unable to recognize faces, it’s called prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. Something I had no idea about until I read this book. You learn something new everyday.
Sadie is a young unsuccessful artist whose world gets flipped upside down after she is diagnosed. She gave me many different vibes throughout the book some I loved such as her quirky personality and some I didn’t love as much, she did come off a tad winey and demanding. She ends up having 2 love interests but because of her new diagnosis she has a hard time remembering there faces or which one is which, this kind of surprises me because if you really like someone shouldn’t you know there other features or voice?
It was a very predictable read but I still enjoyed it, it was a supposed to be a fun heartwarming story an I definitely got what the author was intending to be written it just wasn’t the story for me.

Talented portrait artist suffers a medical emergency that leads to face blindness. Sounds like the plot of a crazy Lifetime movie, but in Katherine Center’s capable hands, it’s a funny, heartwarming, emotional story. Sadie is about to compete in a portrait competition that could set her career on a different path, and suddenly, she can’t see faces, let alone paint them. And on top of that, she starts crushing on two different men she’s never even seen properly.

I hate love triangles, and luckily, that aspect of the story turns out to be minor. This is really Sadie’s journey, and besides, it’s obvious early on that Joe is the superior option. I really enjoyed watching Sadie get to know him and trust him and let him help her, something she’s loathe to let anyone do for her. They’re so sweet together, and their romance develops naturally at a good pace.

But the most interesting aspect of this story is the face blindness. Sadie’s struggle to cope felt so real, so stressful. The narrative does a great job of taking the reader along with her, from her initial despair, to her denial, to her finally learning to cope and adapt. The different painting techniques she’s employed while experiencing her face blindness were so interesting. So yeah, this is a romance, but it’s really the story of Sadie trying to find herself, and she’s so damn likable you’ll be totally rooting for her.

There are some plot points that some readers might be bothered by – past death of a parent and a truly heinous stepsister who takes evil to another level. But those things shaped Sadie, and I thought the scenes about Sadie’s late mother were especially lovely.

This story was the best read so far for me this year!

Before I give a synopsis of "Hello Stranger", I wanted to discuss the main character, Sadie Montgomery.

Sadie has been through a lot in her young life. She lost her mom when she was just a teenager, her father blamed Sadie for her death, her father remarried Lucinda not long after her mother's death, and to top it off, there was the evil step-sister, Parker who made Sadie's life miserable by being a bully.

Sadie is a struggling portrait artist who is trying to make a decent living. She is excited to be a finalist in an important art competition with a grand prize of ten thousand dollars. At the beginning of the book. Sadie finds out that she has an abnormal vessel in her brain that needs to be repaired. Sadie was hesitant at first because she didn't want to have the surgery before the Art show. Her father, who is a surgeon convinced her to have the surgery as soon as possible.

The surgery was a success but with one glitch. Sadie has developed face blindness. This condition was bad timing to say the least. How can Sadie prove herself as a Portrait Artist if she can't recognize her own face.
Can Sadie prove she is still a good artist to her family and the art world?

This was an unique story. I learned about face blindness and also enjoyed the rom com story with Sadie and Joe. Many thanks to Net Galley and St. martin's Press for an ARC.

Let me just say that I’ll read anything that Katherine Center writes. There is just such a smoothness to her stories.

Sadie experiences an episode in the middle of the street leading her to wake up in the ER with a diagnosis requiring surgery. The surgery however leaves her with acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia, or face blindness. Not being able to recognize faces is a hard pill to swallow for a portrait artist. She needs to rely on her other senses to recognize even her family and close friends.

Even though I figured out a plot twist really early on I still really was so invested in seeing where the story went staying up until midnight to finish it because I couldn’t put it down.

There was family drama and the stepsister was purely evil, but I loved how her other family drama was resolved.

I don’t want to spoil anything so just go read it! Thank you to @theromanticbibliotheca and @thebluehaired_reader_ for indulging me in all my messages while reading it and not telling me if I was right.

I received an arc for review, all opinions are my own and given freely.

I did not appreciate the fat phobic phone call conversation in the elevator (even if it was later to be revealed it was about an animal) it was really cringe and unnecessary to the plot. I also could not stand the female lead. What rational person elects to opt-out of necessary brains surgery because they have an art contest to win? DNF.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is the story of life, love and strength. Sadie Montgomery was on cloud nine. After being selected as a finalist for the North American Portrait Society’s competition, she knows this is her ticket to success. However, it is thrown into question in a single moment as she wakes up in the hospital and needs a simple, yet simple surgery. After being pressured to get the surgery, sooner rather than later, she wakes up with a “temporary” condition known as face blindness. Each face she sees is a puzzle of jumbled features. Sadie is determined to win the contest and she works to overcome her condition. Added to the stress of the competition is family drama, her sick dog and possible romances with two different men. Will her face blindness truly be temporary? Could everything else come into focus as well?
Hello Stranger is a wonderful story of overcoming one’s disabilities and finding the life you always wanted, even if it’s not the road you thought you had to take. While I was expecting a different type of story, I was enthralled by Sadie’s experiences and her determination to not let her condition hold her back. A mix of humor, family drama, and romance, Hello Stranger reminded me of Ms Center’s 2018 novel How to Walk Away. I cheered for Sadie as she finally found the courage to speak up and declare “no more” and live the life she wants. There are a few pleasant surprises as the story winds down that are heartwarming and will leave readers smiling as they close the final pages. Readers can’t go wrong with a Katherine Center story and Hello Stranger is no exception. I highly recommend Hello Stranger!

Hello Stranger is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook