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

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is about a young woman, Sadie Montogmery, a portrait artist who undergoes brain surgery and loses the ability to see faces. So how will she paint portraits when she can't see faces? Sadie Montogomery has been following in her mother's footsteps by becoming an artist; she has even been placed in a competition where her mother was established years ago.

I enjoyed this book.

"The more good things you look for, the more you find."
This book had a really unique premise and even though I could figure out where some of it was going, I still enjoyed it! At time I wish there was more development of the relationship, but I thought Sadie's growth throughout the book was well done! Overall it was a cute book with a happy and satisfying ending!

4.5 Stars

This was my second Katherine Center book and she is an author I definitely want to read more from. I love that I have a decent backlist to pull from for her, but I'm also mad that it took me so long to find her. The way she writes is just fantastic, and while the romance might not always be the main focal point of her story, I still absolutely love it and couldn't put it down. I was hooked from the very start of this one.

The story of this one was so unique and one I had never read before and I loved seeing the representation of the brain injury in this one. The plot twist was not one I saw coming, but was one I absolutely loved. And I loved that while dealing with some pretty heavy issues, this was still such a heart-warming and funny book.

As I mentioned, while the romance was definitely there, this one also focused quite heavily on the relationships between Sadie and her family, which was a great addition to the story. There were a few over the top and kind of unrealistic moments, but I still loved them and how the turned out. And when it comes to Joe, the way he was with Sadie was just absolutely wonderful. I love how he was there for her and never pushing, and the way he supported her was just perfect.

✔️ Neighbors
✔️ Complicated Family Relationships
✔️ Plot Twist
✔️ Brain Injury
✔️ First Person Single POV

𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲: to laugh and fall in love at the same time.
𝗣𝘂𝗯 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: July 11

"𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙"

This is another Katherine Center book that just stole my heart since its first page. Every time I read a book of hers, I know that she’ll deliver something more than a love story, there’ll always be life insights sprinkled in them that I just absolutely adore.

So here we read about a woman who refuses to ask for any help and a man who is a compulsive helper. 😂 But when you suffer face blindness after a recent brain surgery, living life everyday would be a little easier with a little help. Otherwise, you’re cluelessly breaking up with people left and right 😅 That’s all I would say about this book, because I really think you should just go in blind with this one!

As a healthcare worker, I love occasionally coming across stories with a medical component to it, I loved reading more about prosopagnosia from a patient’s perspective and the author was so smart with how to use this storyline effectively!

It took a little while for me to like the female lead, but hello for amazing character development at the end! I just love the chemistry between the two leads! That rooftop scene? Guys, please DM me when you get to this part because I am just gushing with how cute that scene was! The male lead? Top book boyfriend material! The banter? Equally flirty and witty! The ending? It was everything! ❤️

Ugh go read this please! I wasn’t even able to keep track of the tropes because I was fully immersed in this story!

Buddy read this with my tagged girlfriends and it made the book even more special. As we all know, life is busy rn and I’m so happy I was finally able to join a buddy read again!

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

Thank you @netgalley for the free digital and audio copy!

💭Are you good with remembering faces or you remember names better?
☕️ I’m bad at both 😅

This is my first book by Katherine Center, and it definitely won't be my last!

Sadie is finally getting her big break as a portrait artist: competing in a prestigious competition for $10,000 and national recognition. However, when an accidental seizure leads to Sadie getting brain surgery, she is left with a side effect called "face blindness", which causes faces to look weird and not correct. Sadie refuses to accept help from anyone, even with this condition, until she meets "Joe". Slowly, she starts to accept help as the effects of her face blindness become more and more daunting.


Overall, I enjoyed this book.

However, Sadie was super frustrating for about 65% of the book. She continually felt embarrassed about her condition, when she definitely couldn't control the outcome of brain surgery. Almost all of her conflicts could have been solved had she been forthcoming about her condition, instead of hiding.


I enjoyed the medical aspect of this! I appreciated that Center brought a rare condition, Prosopagnosia, to light. I could feel Sadie's stress and apprehension throughout the book and it made me feel for her. The love triangle was a fun twist, as well as the drama that came with Sadie's family. The side characters really made this book stand out and made it so fun!!

Thank you to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for an #eARC of this book! All opinions are my own!

Katherine Center is an auto buy author for me, and I didn’t even read the synopsis before requesting Hello Stranger on NetGalley! I’m glad I didn’t because for a romance, this one is perfect to go into blind (pun intended!).

I loved the writing in this book. Center blends romance and women’s fiction so well, and can totally draw her readers in from page one! I always find reading about face blindness to be intriguing, but having a portrait artist that can’t see faces was a new take on it which was done really well.

Sadie, the main character, struggles with her new face blindness after an accident and has to figure out a way to paint a portrait for a contest she’s in. There’s a great scene in the book where she’s painting her neighbor and love interest, Joe. Joe is one of my new favorite characters, and everything about him was adorable.

There are some touching moments in this book as well as some laugh out loud funny moments. There’s a bit of a twist which I saw coming, but I loved reading the book to see when Sadie would figure it out. All in all another great story from Center, and I highly recommend it.

I listened along to the audiobook while reading my eARC, and I really enjoyed Patti Murin as the narrator. She brought Sadie to life and you could totally feel her angst with dealing with her face blindness.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review. And thank you Katherine Center for joining our book club for an amazing chat!

Struggling to find the right words for this one. Might be the timing of my reading—there's been some personal emotional upheaval of late—but as much as I ADORE Katherine Center, this one didn't speak to me on the same level as some of her previous works.

Still, it's a beautifully written story about unique characters, and I do love the way Center makes her settings, situations, and storylines just a bit different to your "typical" romance book. (Not to take anything away from "typical" romance books, because they're my jam.)

There's a warmth in this book that comes with the hopeful premise of finding yourself and your purpose again after a setback, and while a love triangle doesn't usually appeal to me—and there are shades of one here—I found it didn't bother me or lessen my enjoyment.

All in all, another example of why Center is one of the best authors publishing today, and a book that I think will appeal to many even if it's not *my* personal favorite of her excellent backlist.

there’s one thing Katherine Center will do without fail, it’s write a laugh out loud funny book. I highlighted so many hilarious lines and caught myself audibly cackling every 5 minutes. Her characters have so much personality and wit about them that the feeling is contagious!

This one is special, y’all. Sadie is an aspiring portrait artist who faced some pretty scary health issues, which led to her having face blindness. Basically, she can acknowledge individual facial features, but can’t see or recognize people’s entire face. Not really great for someone who paints faces for a living… but she’s on the verge of her big break and HAS to find a solution.

This story, while it is the journey of Sadie finding love (with not just one man but two 👀) it is such a journey of self development and realization for her. An amazing read full of heart and love on all sides. If you’re looking for a feel good read with relatable characters and hilarious antics, I highly recommend Hello Stranger!

Read if you love:
😶‍🌫️Mistaken identity/amnesia
🔺Love triangles (very well done!)
🐶Pets that are more like people
🧠Science/neurology
🤣The COM in RomComs
🎨Art galleries
🫶🏼Happy endings
👨‍👩‍👧Complex family histories

Rating 5/5 stars

Hello Stranger is one of my favorite reads of this year! This was my first Katherine Center book and I've got to say, I'm hooked.

Using face blindness as a main plot point is something I don't think I've ever seen before and it was such a good one. Sadie, our FMC, makes a living off of commissioned portraits, but after a near miss and a hospital stay, she discovers that she has a condition that causes face blindness...temporarily...maybe. Out of a job and on a deadline, we watch as Sadie learns how to navigate in the world with her new reality while also dealing with a pretty awful stepsister, an annoying stepmom, and a distant father.

I absolutely adored this book! The romance, the personal growth, the found family. I don't think there was a single thing I didn't enjoy! There's even a few twists at the end which were just the cherry on top.

Overall, this was a fun read and I would definitely recommend Hello Stranger for your next summer read. I'll be diving into Center's backlist next!


Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC! All thoughts and opinions are wholly my own

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.