This book was absolutely made for me. While I can't attest to it as someone with prosopagnosia, I think Katherine's explanations and portrayal of the disability were fantastic and easy to understand for someone not versed in neuroscience.

This is a beautiful, swoony romance with painful relationship dynamics and a main character with relatable self-doubts and fears.

SPOILER!! I found it obvious from the start that the good samaritan, the man in her building, and her dream man at the vet would all be the same man, but I found it delightful to watch it unfold still.

I truly can’t wrap my head around the magic that is Katherine Centers books. After reading Hello Stranger, I have so many thoughts, and so many feelings. However, what I’m going to suggest is you go into this one just knowing it’s going to be a delight. It’s focused around a girl with prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces), following an accident. I have read about this before in a thriller and it blew me away, but reading about it in a romance setting was even better. The love story (absolutely bonkers, the brain is a scary and fascinating place), the friendships, the grief, the ability to grow and ask for help, the precious elderly Peanut, the horrific family members. You will not regret reading this! Thank you so much to Netgalley for the pleasure of reading this ARC. I am already counting down until Centers new book!

adie has just received the best news of her life - she’s a finalist in a prestigious portrait contest, one that her late mother also participated it. But before she even has a chance to celebrate, she receives a shocking medical diagnosis requiring brain surgery. The surgery goes well, except for the little bit of edema causing another diagnosis - face blindness. While she can still essentially see, faces are a jumble to her. Not only is this a big problem with her impending contest, she’s struggling financially, her family is an ongoing issue, and now her dog is sick. Oh and she’s majorly crushing on two very different men.

While this was a little predictable, I always appreciate Katherine Center’s well-rounded characters and thinks she writes a perfect (mostly) closed door romance.

Oh my heart! Y’all, Katherine center can write comfort + joy + hope like nobody else!

“Hello, Stranger” tells the story of Sadie, a portrait artist at the cusp of an important moment in her career, who has an accident and suffers from a neurological condition that causes face blindness. Somehow she has to figure out how to be a portrait artist when she can’t distinguish faces. During her recovery, she also finds herself feeling attracted to 2 very different men and in the midst of a love triangle. It’s fun and heartfelt and such a creative story filled with top notch banter and all the swoon. I absolutely loved every minute of this book + didn’t want it to end.

Thank you SMP and Netgalley for my copy.

An unexpected accident leaves Sadie with face blindness, just as she's entering an art competition which could change her life. Her stepmother is trying to help, but they've had a strained relationship over the years, her evil step sister shows up claiming to help, but she's really sabotaging everything, and there's the neighbor Joe, who's suddenly a nice guy.

Nothing makes sense, and she's on a deadline. Besides her best friend who lends support, her dog Peanut is the one loyal companion she can count on.

What Sadie learns as she navigates life with face blindness is some perceptions are based on misunderstandings, it's okay to rely on others for some help, and sometimes love can happen in the most unexpected ways.

This book is a joyride of romcom magic! A must-read.

**received a netgalley from the publisher**

Katherine Center is so delightful. This story is so creative, the characters deep and lovable, and it’s just a wonderful time in these people’s world.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this read. This book was well written and I just like what Katherine Center does in her books. Her books are always a hit and enjoyable to read. She takes you on a ride right from the start that you do not want to let go of.

One of my most anticipated releases of 2023 is Hello Stranger by Katherine Center! I'm so grateful to the publisher for giving me the chance to read it early! I finished reading the book during this weekend, and I absolutely loved it. Am I surprised? Not at all. Katherine Center became an auto-buy author for me after I read The Bodyguard last year, and something tells me that I'll always love reading her novels! 🥺

Sadie was an absolutely remarkable character. I loved reading about her from the very beginning of the book. The story features face blindness through Sadie's story, which is a topic I never read about, or even know that much before. So, I really appreciated how the author brought awareness to a health condition that is rarely talked about, but effects people greatly. It was interesting to see how Sadie dealt with her neurological issues while navigating her artistic dreams. The self-discovery theme was rightfully portrayed as well.

The romance was soo beautifully written as well! (Again, not surprised at all) I'll not talk much about it because I don't want to spoil it for you ~ but let me tell you this, there are some unexpected twists involved, which I really enjoyed! The book really kept me hooked through and through. Katherine Center's writing style is so addictive ~ it's hard to put it down once you start reading it!

I cannot wait to read more of her novels! This is a new favorite for sure!

This book held my interest from the very first chapter all the way through the author's note. Katherine Center shares in her note that she wants to create anticipation and hope for her readers. As soon as I read this note, I knew without a doubt that she had done exactly that in Hello, Stranger. This unique story swept me away and gave me a new perspective of the world we live in!

Thank you to St Martin's Press for an advanced e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sadie is a starving portrait artist who has just received word that she's a finalist in an art contest. Just when she thinks her big break is within reach, she has a medical emergency resulting in brain surgery. The worst part is that she now has face blindness - how is she supposed to do portraits if she can't see faces?!

Things go from bad to worse when she has feelings for two different men - the dreamy veterinarian Dr. Oliver Addison and the cheery, helpful man in her building, Joe.

This was my first read from Katherine Center, and while I enjoyed the writing style, it was also very predictable. Sadie is also a very unlikable person as she never stands up for herself, refuses other people's help, won't talk openly about anything, and the worst part, she is very self-absorbed. If she would just ask other people about themselves more, she could have saved herself a lot of headaches along the way.

Even though this wasn't my favourite read, I still loved the other characters, so I will be sure to try other books from Center to see if this was just a one-off for me.

3.5/5 rounded up to 4

Happy pub day to Hello Stranger, the delightful new release from the always inspiring @katherinecenter. I was lucky enough to listen to an advanced copy of this thanks to @macmillan.audio, and I’m over-the-moon grateful to @stmartinspress for this physical copy that arrived today along with the Hello Stranger pouch and colored pencils. I adored this book, and am thrilled I’ll be able to pore over all my favorite parts—of which there were many.

Sadie Montgomery is a barely-making-ends meet portrait artist who has just gotten the best news of her life when she ends up needing brain surgery. The surgery goes well except that when Sadie wakes up, she can no longer recognize faces. Doctors are hopeful this face blindness won’t be permanent, but there are no guarantees, and Sadie must figure out how to move forward when she can’t do the thing she’s spent her life doing. Of course there’s also a romance. In fact, Sadie is interested in two different men and things go a little off the rails.

I said this book was delightful and that really is the perfect word. I was just so happy the whole time I was reading it. There’s so much joy in Katherine Center’s books, and even when the plot veers towards ridiculous, I still found it…well…absolutely delightfully. Having never been face blind, it’s hard to know how realistic the events in the book were, but they seemed plausible (the author’s note addresses this beautifully), if not a tad far-fetched, and overall the whole book was just so much fun. I did think the evil stepsister was a little too evil, but who cares? Not me. I was too busy collecting my newest book boyfriend, who may rival Duncan as my new favorite Katherine Center love interest.

I told the story of the book to my family at dinner and my youngest said it was her favorite book she hasn’t read yet. If that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what it is.

I think all fans of Katherine Center (and who’s not?) will love this one, although it is a little more eccentric than The Bodyguard. I loved the audio, but think you’ll probably need a hard copy as well to soak up all the joy in the writing.

I cannot say enough good things about Hello Stranger. It’s about a portrait artist who, after an accident, has a surgery that leaves her with face blindness. She has 6 weeks to paint a face for a contest entry and she can’t see faces.

She has friends and a therapist who help her, but I love how not seeing faces helped her see so much more about people. This was my second book by Katherine Center, but I loved it so much that I immediately followed this by another from the author’s backlog.

While in the midst of celebrating a huge achievement in her life, the heroine ends up at the hospital and diagnosed with a condition that hinders her artistic dream as a portraitist. As she lives through this "temporary" condition, she works through major life issues involving her professional and personal lives. Along the way is resolving these issues, the heroine will learn more about herself as she goes through this journey.

This is another nice Katherine Center novel. I appreciated the journey that the heroine goes through in this book, though there were times that the character was not endearing in my eyes. There was a myriad group of secondary characters, with a few likable ones and some that were not in favorable light. I also would have liked some more details in some areas of the book, which would help improve certain parts of the story. I still enjoy the author's writing style and look forward to reading more Katherine Center books in the future.


** Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own. **

This one didn’t quite work for me. A lot of things didn’t quite add up (like wrong names, weird timelines, etc.), so I’m hoping those got fixed on the final edits. It was also a bit too cheesy for my liking.

Overall, a quick, lite, happy read for a recent plane ride. I’m bummed since I typically love Katherine Center books (despite the cheesiness). I’ve seen many rave reviews about Hello Stranger, so I think I picked it up at the wrong time “It’s me, hi! I’m the problem, it’s me” vibes for sure.

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

🚨Release Day!
“Hello Stranger” by Katherine Center
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I always enjoy her reads and this was no different. Sadie is a portrait artist who ends up with face blindness(it’s a thing which was interesting to learn about). Sadie is on a deadline to prove herself and paint the ultimate portrait but everything is stacked against her and the only one whose available for her to paint is the yucky neighbor….
Rom-com book with a fun lead who you hope is soon seen by those around her for how great she is even when she’s lost her focus.

#julesbookshelf #netgalley #arc #hellostranger #bookstagram #goodreads #katherinecenter

Absolutely AMAZING! Love love love! Deserves all the stars and more!!! Might be my fav Katherine Center book - tied with Thing You Save In A Fire!! A well done romance that had me hooked from page one! Highly recommend🤩

Probably my favorite Katherine Center book so far! I loved the banter and chemistry between our MCs. I felt like I was reading a Nora Ephron script, because this rom-com is charming, laugh out loud funny, and pulls at my heart strings. Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for a review.

For whatever reason, I was really stressed to read this book. I think I thought it was going to be sad and dramatic and I just don’t have the mental energy or desire to read sad and dramatic books. However, I’m glad that I made myself read it because I was wrong! I love being wrong…in these instances. Hello Stranger is so SO sweet. I loved the main character Sadie, a portrait artist who develops face blindness after surgery. Do you see the issue here? It takes time, therapy, and changing the way she speaks to herself, but I love the way she works through not only her face blindness, but also some past trauma. Sadie’s rediscovery of what brings her joy brought ME joy. The rollerskating scene? *Chef’s kiss.*

Joe…oh Joe. What a CUTIE. What a SWEETHEART. The way he is basically obsessed (in a good way) with Sadie had my heart. I was a bit concerned with the love triangle that presents itself in the story…but it worked out satisfactorily. *Wink wink*

There wasn’t much that I didn’t enjoy about the story, but the aspects that annoyed me are worth talking about. This will have *minor* spoilers, but I will try not to reveal too much. Aimee (@theonewhereaimeereads on IG) mentioned in her review of this book that she rated this book 4/5 stars because of Sadie’s dad and her stepsister Parker. I agree completely with her reasoning on this! Parker is truly horrible and their interactions didn’t do a lot for me. A lot of the trauma Sadie carries from her teenage years stems from a lot of awful incidents that Parker instigated and blamed Sadie for…and Sadie’s dad and stepmom took Parker’s side. Now, by the time our story takes place, it’s been (by my count) about 15 years since all of this…and Parker is still horrible. Still doing everything she can to make Sadie’s life hell despite Sadie doing her best to just avoid Parker and it all felt…so childish in a way that didn’t feel authentic when reading. I don’t necessarily mean that I expected Parker to have transformed into a sweet and kind human, but her incessant targeting of Sadie didn’t feel realistic. She could have still hated Sadie, fine, but all of the things she does (even her dialogue) feels like she is still a teenager when in reality she is almost 30. In addition, I felt like her relationship with her dad and their issues also felt a bit inauthentic once the true root of it was revealed. I don’t want to spoil what that is, but again, after (over) 15 years in this case, Sadie’s dad also felt a bit ridiculous and their “moment of understanding” felt a little anticlimactic.

Now, despite the long paragraph above, this is truly a lovely book and I’m happy that I read it. I was all smiles at the end! Plus, the cover is so beautiful, and I’m a sucker for a beautiful cover. I highly recommend it if you want a sweet, romantic story with a lot of heart and joy.

Sadie Montgomery is ready for a different life. After years of scraping by as a portrait artist, she has made it as a finalist in a prestigious portrait competition, with a prize of $10.000. All she has to do is to paint one more portrait, the one for the final judging, that will be auctioned off after the final judging. She was on her way home from buying wine for the celebration party her best friend was throwing on her behalf when everything stopped. She was almost across the street, and then she was in the hospital.

When Sadie woke up in the emergency room, she found out that she had a seizure in the street, and a Good Samaritan rescued her from getting hit by a car. Days of tests reveal a small bleed on her brain, and surgery is recommended. Her first thought it to wait on the surgery for a couple of months, until the portrait competition is over. But when her dad visits her to let her know that what she has is the same thing that killed her mother when Sadie was only 14, Sadie agrees to the surgery. Everything goes perfectly, until one day, several days after the surgery, a stranger sits next to Sadie and starts talking to her like she’s Sadie’s best friend.

When Sadie realizes it is her best friend, she freaks out. This woman’s face is not at all familiar, and Sadie ends up getting diagnosed with face blindness. They doctors think it will probably pass, but she doesn’t know for sure. But how will she be able to paint the most important portrait of her life if she can’t see faces?

As she tries to recover back at her tiny studio, Sadie spends most of her time wrapped up in the softest blanket she could find while binge watching television shows. But when her dog Peanut won’t eat or even move, she has to rush the dog to the vet. And as it turns out, the vet is not only caring and compassionate and able to save Peanut’s life, he’s also handsome. Sadie may not be able to see his face exactly, but she can tell that he has a good face. So when he asks her out, she says yes.

But after sitting in the coffeeshop for an hour waiting for him, she decides it’s not meant to be. And then she runs into the Weasel, the guy from her apartment elevator who she overheard saying some very rude things one day. She sees him going in and out of the apartments of single women all the time, so she can’t help but think of him as kind of a jerk, even as he wears his vintage bowling jacket with Joe embroidered on it. But Joe the Weasel ends up saving her from a difficult situation at the coffee shop (not even the part where she got stood up), so she agrees to spend some time with him.

And then he rescues her again at a surprise party, and again in the hallway. The more time Sadie spends with him, the less she thinks of him as a weasel. And the less time she spends planning her wedding with the handsome vet. And when he agrees to sit for her, as she tries out different ways to paint a portrait without her being able to see her face, she falls for Joe. She picks Joe. She tells the veterinarian that she’s fallen for someone else. She’s ready to go all in for Joe. But then he ghosts her.

As Sadie is coming to the most important night of her life, with a non-traditional portrait for a very traditional competition, broken-hearted and still face blind, she has to face the idea that the rest of her life may not turn out the way she was envisioning it. But if her face blindness taught her anything, it’s that sometimes a change of perspective can open doors that you couldn’t even see before.

Hello Stranger is a hopeful story about loss and healing, and about how we choose to interact with the world around us. Author Katherine Center has crafted a warm, uplifting story about the ways we are all blind in some areas of our lives and how facing that and working to overcome it can change everything. This novel is sweet, heart-warming, funny, sad, and filled with the best (and a little of the worst) of humanity.

Normally, I would recommend a Katherine Center book wholeheartedly, but I just can’t do it this time. The first 30-40 percent of the book can be difficult. There is a lot of medical talk, so if that’s something you’re sensitive to, then you’ll want to be careful with the early chapters of the book. But then there is the scene that almost had me blubbering at the office as I ate my finished my lunch, the emergency vet moment. If you’re an animal person, then this scene may cause you distress too, so my recommendation is to read the first half of the book at home, or carry a lot of tissues with you. Once you get past that scene, it’s all good, animal wise, so feel free to read the rest of the book in public.

Aside from that one scene that nearly caused me a meltdown, I loved this book. It’s so charming and warm, and while I could see the twist coming from a mile away, I still loved this book. The more I read, the more I loved it, and the more I loved Center for bringing this story to us. You will put this book aside feeling like the world is not so bad, and that’s something that we all need these days.

Egalleys for Hello Stranger were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with may thanks.

I absolutely loved this book! Katherine Center is now an auto-buy author for me. I read this in 1 day (I did same with The BodyGuard!) Hello Stranger was well written and definitely worth the read! I found this book to be fun, charming, and overall an easy read! Sadie has A LOT going on and I could not stop reading! I found the characters in this book to be extremely enjoyable, especially Sue and Joe! Though I picked up on the twist a little early I still really enjoyed reading and will be recommending! Happy Publication Day!!