Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors – she writes books with richly detailed plots and well-developed characters. Her stories often involve nontraditional lead romance characters such as in her book, “How to Walk Away,” where the heroine is paralyzed from the waist down.

“Hello Stranger” was an engaging story featuring Sadie Montgomery, a portrait artist who has temporary face blindness after a recent brain surgery. The face blindness leaves her unable to see faces, which is a struggle in both her daily life and in preparation for her entry as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition.

Following her surgery, Sadie struggles to prepare for the upcoming competition, navigate her challenging family, and recognize people’s identities due to the face blindness. Through this journey, Sadie becomes friends with her neighbor in her apartment building, Joe, who she can only identify by his leather jacket. Joe and Sadie become friends with sizzling chemistry as they spend more and more time together.

Meanwhile, Sadie also develops feelings for the hot veterinarian, Dr Addison, who cares for her beloved dog, Peanut. (Side note – I enjoy how many of Katherine Center’s books include an adorable dog!)

Sadie struggles to follow her dream, cope with the face blindness, and sort out her feelings for both Joe and Dr Addison. This book was a little slow for me as Sadie continually tried to figure out who was talking to her based on their voice and what that person had worn in the past. Much of this book involved Sadie being tricked by people she would rather not interact with.

While this book wasn’t my favorite one by this author, “Hello Stranger” was an enjoyable read. The plot and characters were endearing and unusual from what one normally finds in this genre.

Special thanks to NetGalley for sharing this copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I went in blind and was so happy I did! I have never read anything by Katherine Stranger before now and all I can say is that I have been missing out. I don’t usually read clean romances, but in this case, it did not matter. This is one of the best books I have read this year!

The characters were amazing, I love dogs and I can’t say enough about the extremely compelling plot. The story was so well written that words are escaping me. The ending made me feel the story was complete and whole, utterly satisfying!

The narrator, Patti Murin, was so amazing! I loved her voices and I listened to this audiobook in one day. I could not stop!

I wish I could read it over again for the first time!

Thank you @netgalley @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for the chance to read and listen to this amazing #ARC!

Since finishing this book, I could do nothing but rave about it! I absolutely adored this one. This is my second book by Katherine Center, and I love the way she incorporates tough topics into her stories with a little humor. At times I was literally laughing out loud with this one. I cannot recommend this enough, and if you do read, don’t skip the author’s note at the end!

What would happen to you if you suddenly lost the one thing that you need for your job, your livelihood, your personal success? Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist about to potentially get the big break that will make her a success in the eyes of important family members when a potentially serious health condition sidelines her. But even worse, as a portrait artist who specializes in faces, her medical condition has left her with the inability to read faces, called face blindness.

I'll admit, I'd never heard of face blindness and this book makes it so that I'll never forget it! Sadie actually takes her situation quite well and she does have the help of a lovely therapist who helps Sadie navigate this fairly serious change in how she views the world. But there's no way to avoid the fact that the portrait she needs for the contest is not completed, and she'll have to tackle it while she has face blindness.

But there are some bright spots -- namely two -- her new veterinarian who she fantasizes about marrying, and one of her neighbors who lives in the apartment building. Joe, the neighbor, starts out by giving Sadie a wrong impression that gradually changes to something like friendship and maybe more. I don't want to say much more about this, but I truly loved how this unfolded! I had an inkling about what was happening here, but it wasn't confirmed until that glorious ending when a beautiful HEA lands in Sadie's heart.

By the end of this story, I just loved Sadie. The story is told in her voice and point of view which is cute and funny and sometimes sad. Sadie has suffered some loss in her life, for sure. I adored how the family situation come together nicely, even the episode with Sadie's evil stepsister.

I finished this book with a smile on my face and I ended up going back to read the deliciously sweet ending a few times since. Things almost go south for Sadie, but her friends really come through for her.

I loved everything about this -- from the story of a young artist finding her true creative calling to the romance that develops way before the start of the book. The romance here is just a lovely, slow build, that had me loving Sadie and hoping that everything would work out for her.

Overall, this is a terrific feelgood story that had me smiling and re-reading right away. I devoured this is a couple of days because I really needed to know how it all ended up for Sadie, including her art and her family. I just loved this and it will definitely be on my list of favorites for 2023.

When you are a voracious reader, it sometimes feels like you have read it all. Hello Stranger gets kudos for being the most original, unique book I’ve read this year. I couldn’t put it down.

Face blindness is a disorder that I knew virtually nothing about. The book does a great job of explaining the medical phenomenon, and even though I still can’t visualize what sufferers see when they look at someone’s face, I could feel every ounce of portrait artist Sadie’s frustration, confusion, and small victories as she faces daily challenges in a faceless world. It’s so interesting the way the mind works, and I was fascinated by Sadie’s perceptions and misconceptions.

I was warmed by her budding friendship with helpful neighbor Joe, after an extremely rocky start. I also enjoyed her relationship with the dashing vet Dr. Addison. The other supporting characters are very intriguing as well. Sadie’s well-meaning—but woefully oblivious—best friend unknowingly creates even more hurdles for Sadie to clear. Sadie’s evil stepsister is a truly heinous human being who kept me on my toes wondering when she would pop up to cause more mayhem and misery. Sadie’s beloved deceased mother is basically another character with how vivid Sadie’s recollections of her are. Her strained relationship with her emotionally distant father and evil stepmom create even more depth.

As a diehard romance lover, I would categorize Hello Stranger as contemporary women’s fiction primarily, with a swoony love story added. I appreciated everything about the way this story unfolded.

While I’ve loved every Katherine Center novel I’ve read so far, this one is phenomenally good. It covers all the emotions: anticipation, anxiety, anger, fear, frustration, delight, love, laughter, and most of all, joy! Thank you!

Format - E ARC (Netgalley)

Rating- ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Spice- 💋

Series- N/A

Troupes- He Fell first, unlikely friends, miscommunication,

CW- Brain surgery resulting in Prosopagnosia (Face blindness) absent father, harassment from a family member.

Katharine Center certainly has a way of drawing you in and holding you in her stories! I kinda went into this one blind knowing the basics of the story but not reading that synopsis. And I am happy to report that was a smashing hit for me!

I read this one in a little over 24hours which for me is fast, because I really just could not put it down for long. Sadie is a compelling and dynamic character and while she made some not so great decisions about her own health and well being I could understand her need to keep her weakness a secret.

My gut kelt telling me that Joe wasn’t who Sadie thought he was but since the story is told from her POV you were convinced almost until the end that she was right. I love when the hero falls first and Joe defiantly did, I don’t want to give any spoilers! So I can’t say much more about him or Dr Oliver Addison! But just know that Sadie has good taste in men.

I struggled with Parker, Sadies step sister. And while we find out more about her backstory and why she is the way she is. I just could not forgive and forget the truly awful things she did to Sadie both as kids and adults. Parker was unredeemable in my eyes and I hope Karma catches up to her. I also struggled with Sadie’s Father, and his lack of care and belief in his own daughter. He was more redeemable than Parker but not by much.

I really enjoyed this book even though there was no more then kissing and some hand action. In the spice department! But that is Par for the course with Katherines’s books. I am so looking forward to the new movie being made from one of her books! And whatever else she has in store for use! Also there is a lovely authors note at the end of this one that is defiantly worth a read!

Thank you to Katherine Center St Martins Press and Netgalley for this Advanced copy all options are my own.

Adorable slow burn romance. So many likable well rounded characters. This book had unique story line that had me hooked from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down. I will definitely be reading more of her books in the future.

I enjoyed this book. I remember reading another book by Katherine Center and the heroine experienced a debilitating and devastating tragedy going against her gut feelings. In this book the female lead, Sadie has a great career opportunity for her art, but health issue occurs and Sadie must come to terms with the issue and whether or not her opportunity will become a reality to participate. Along the way, Sadie meets a very good looking guy at the grocery store who tries to help her and pay it forward since she left her wallet, but Sadie's upbringing has her not relaying on anyone for help even a good gesture as she is used to being kicked while down and abused by her dad, stepmother and hated stepsister. Dealing with her health issues, Sadie meets two guys and come to terms with life as she sees it. Love is found, lost and found again. Enjoyed reading about Joe, Oliver, Helpful and bestfriend Sue. Look forward to reading other books by this author.

So much research went into this book to make the difficulties of Sadie’s condition really come to life in this story. I learned so much about prosopagnosia from this book. However, there were parts of the story related to the condition that didn’t make any sense. The recognition of some but not all voices, how long it took for the big misunderstanding to be cleared up; all of this led to a lag in the story and really dragged it down. Even when she realized her mistake with the servers at the coffee shop, she still couldn’t make the connection? Otherwise, this was an interesting, cute story but not up to what I usually expect from Katherine Center.

Katherine Center is a favorite author of mine and again, she wrote something that I really enjoyed reading. Even though some elements were predictable, it was still a joy to read. I didn't like that there were basically no consequences for Parker. Other than that, I thought this book was perfect.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

My second Katherine Center book after reading and loving the wholesome vibes of The Bodyguard! I've said this before and I'll say it again, but Katherine writes romance books like I've never read before. They're engaging, fun, genuine, and have top-tier banter. This was such a unique premise for a plot and I was invested in the main characters and their antics. Some plot twists were a bit out there, but that's the fun of the book!

It was an enjoyable read and I'll always recommend her books, as I still want to tackle her backlist! I read The Bodyguard via audiobook and would love to do the same for Hello Stranger. Happy Pub Day!

Struggling artist Sadie Montgomery has it rough…I mean really rough. She doesn’t exactly have a supportive family. Her father never approved of her career path (she wants to be a painter like her mother was) and she has the stepsister from heck. But then an incident occurs and she needs neurosurgery. Coming out of the surgery she is stricken by a bizarre condition, ‘face blindness’. How is a portrait painter supposed to work if every face she looks at is just a jumbled mess? To compound matters, she soon finds herself in a love triangle of sorts with the vet who treats her dog Peanut and a ‘helpful’ neighbor. While I have to say I saw a few of the twist coming it didn’t take away from my enjoyment in the least. While I think I enjoyed Katherine’s previous book, The Bodyguard, a bit more I still enjoyed the heck out of Hello Stranger and this is one book rom-com fans will not want to miss. I’d like to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Katherine Center’s Hello Stranger.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R31FZKECPXP9M9/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Hello Stranger- Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advanced copy of Hello Stranger! This was a solid 3⭐️read for me, but I’m clearly in the minority. The concept of a girl suffering face blindness was fun, albeit a little cheesy. I really couldn’t stand her step sister antagonist, it was like life time movie ridiculous villain. This was really disappointing considering What You Wish For and How to Walk Away were some of my favorite books ever and SO deep. This just felt a little too cheesy for me, like a Netflix movie. But everyone else loves it lol 🤷🏼‍♀️

As with everything that I read by Katherine Center, reading this book was a joy!

As a result of an accident on one of the happiest days of her life Sadie is left face blind. Doctors think that it's only temporary but honestly, they can't be sure. As Sadie struggles to adjust to her new reality- and prepare for her upcoming portrait painting contest (!) even though she can't seem to see or paint faces- she complicates things by falling for not one but two nice guys.

This was a pleasure to read. I felt for Sadie, who was really down on her luck, and thanks to Center's amazing descriptions I truly felt the panic of being face blind while reading this. The way that this book made me feel really emphasized how well she knew what she was talking about and how accurately these emotions were portrayed.

Even though the subject is a little difficult at times, Center manages to bring levity to the book as well. The romance(s) are fun and the friendships are heartwarming. This is yet another must-read by one of my favourite authors.

Wow wow wow!!! Now I know why you all love @katherinecenter so much! This was my first book by her and I immediately went and added her entire backlist to my cart! I’m not even sure which I loved more…this amazing story or the authors note. She truly has an amazing way with words.

This book is like a damn warm and fuzzy hug. I have read quite a few thrillers in a row and I needed a change of pace. Maybe a bit of sunshine, rainbows and hope. It was delivered! I really enjoyed the buildup between characters and the anticipation for the ending!!! Plus any book that features a dog wins in my book.

Sadie was the perfect main character. She isn’t successful and she hates to ask for help. She was so easy to identify with and root for. Joe was a wonderful leading man character. He had some funny quips and was so understanding without even knowing Sadie’s whole story.

The tie ins with the neurovascular disorders, the grief of her mother and the growth that we see in this novel did exactly what it was intended to do, provide hope. I know this is all over booksta so I don’t need to say more. It’s wonderful! If you are looking for a dose of serotonin, grab this one. Thank you @netgalley for my advance copy!

This would have been a 5 star read for me except for the use of a four letter word. It was unnecessary. Other than that this was a joy to read. I had never heard of facial blindness and was intrigued. It was very well written and thought out. The last line in the book cut me. A story of misunderstanding, family drama, love and reconciliation.

Sadie Montgomerys life is turned upside down when she develops facial blindness. As a portrait artist entering the biggest competition of her career Sadie needs to get creative with her work. She doesn’t have time to fall for one guy, let alone two, and things get complicated as she tries to navigate her new normal.

Complicated family drama, complicated love drama, complicated work drama. This clever and funny book also touches on loss and grief, and is both hilarious and heartwarming.
I loved The Bodyguard, and this book did not disappoint.
Definitely adding Katherine Center to my auto-buy author list.

REVIEW FOR HELLO STRANGER

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars

Thank you to @netgalley @stmartinspress and @smpromance for the gifted eARC!

𝕊𝕐ℕ𝕆ℙ𝕊𝕀𝕊:
Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist in Houston who just received news for her potential big break. When a freak incident combined with an inherited health problem causes her to have brain surgery, the resulting swelling leaves her with “face-blindness,” or the inability to recognize faces- which might as well be the kiss of (career) death for a portrait artists. As she learns to cope and tries to take care of herself, her dog and salvage her career, she begins to fall for two men who couldn’t be more different. But as Sadie begins to learn…there is more than one way of recognition.

𝕎ℍ𝔸𝕋 𝕀 𝕃𝕀𝕂𝔼𝔻:
• very similar to Katherine Center’s other novels
• unique storyline (face blindness?? I had no idea it was a thing!)
• Peanut stole the show lol
• Overall, I thought the FMC had a strong character arc and growth
• Helpful Joe was such a sweetheart (and a FOX from the sounds of it lol)

𝕎ℍ𝔸𝕋 𝕎𝔸𝕊ℕ’𝕋 𝕄𝕐 ℂ𝕌ℙ 𝕆𝔽 𝕋𝔼𝔸:
• the miscommunication. I get medical diagnoses are personal, but I think a simple discussion with people about what was going on in her life would have solved so many problems and would have prevented some characters (ie her best friend) from looking like a jerk
• I don’t know if I’ve hated a side character(s) more than I hated her family

𝕆𝕍𝔼ℝ𝔸𝕃𝕃 𝕋ℍ𝕆𝕌𝔾ℍ𝕋𝕊:
This book started out hot, then ran cold, then ran hot again with that ending lol. I ended up loving this unique story and, while the FMC annoyed me most of the time, I think towards the end it didn’t bother me as much. This story created great anticipation (if you read her Author’s Note then you know what that means 🤗) and if you love her books then you’ll love this one! Hello Stranger is out tomorrow!

Hello Stranger
Author: Katherine Center
St. Martin's Press

The anticipation of a new Katherine Center novel makes me eager to meet her latest characters and excited for the joy that I know the book will bring me. Her new book, Hello Stranger, is vividly original with a unique plot, an atmospheric Texas bayou setting, and an absolutely endearing main character. Sadie is a portrait artist. She lives in her studio, the rooftop "shack" of a former downtown Houston warehouse converted into a trendy condo.

After losing her ability to see faces, Sadie's place as a finalist in an art competition is in jeopardy. Sadie's journey with her art, medical condition, and family tugged at my heart, often in bursts of laughter. I was completely mesmerized by the love of her precious dog, Peanut and her romantic complication of meeting two, yes two, men she might love as well. This book met my expectations and took me even higher with new perspectives from sensory points of view.

A special bonus feature of this book is Center's author's notes, acknowledgements, and supplementary materials. Reading her story of research and behind the scenes work is fascinating. This short section is a story in itself, especially about the people she met through her research. It leads me as a reader to want to know more about the medical condition, prosopagnosia. I also loved her descriptions of personal feelings and back story about her writing.

Thank you to Net Galley and for an advance reader's copy. My review is my own.