Hello Stranger
by Katherine Center
4/5 ⭐️

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist about to get her big break in the North American
American Portrait Society competition. That is until she has to have emergency brain surgery and wakes up with a condition known as face blindness. She is able to see but now faces have a distorted appearance like a Picasso painting.

Her condition is a major obstacle with the competition deadline lingering. On top of this, her beloved dog Peanut gets sick and Sadie’s mean step-sister moves into her apartment building. Sadie is blinded by illness, confusion, and love. Yes, Sadie also falls in love with 2 guys, her vet and her neighbor as she grapples with her condition. The timing could not be worse! Sadie needs to focus on her painting but managing anything clearly right now seems impossible.

Katherine Center writes characters that you instantly fall in love with. Sadie was no different! As an underdog professionally and personally, you immediately start rooting for her. I listened to the audiobook and Patti Murin's narration was enjoyable for Sadie. This book is a sweet and heartwarming romance. Although I felt like Katerine Center did her research and thoroughly explained Sadie’s face blindness, I had some questions about the ending.

Read this if you like:
🔻Love triangles
🐶Cute dogs
🥰Friends to lovers
🧲Opposites attract
💝HEA

Katherine Center, the queen of comfort reads, returns following The Body Guard with her latest gem, HELLO, STRANGER —a heartwarming story of an artist whose life takes on a significant change where nothing is as it appears.

LOVE ISN'T BLIND. IT IS JUST A LITTLE BLURRY.

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist who is broke and barely making ends meet in her little studio apartment. Her estranged surgeon father was unhappy when Sadie chose not to continue her medical career and followed in her mom's footsteps instead. He refused to help her out in the future due to this decision or offer his support. Plus, her evil stepmother Lucinda is horrible (her father remarried) and an evil stepsister.

Sadie paints portraits and is so excited that she has earned one of the coveted finalist spots in the competition that could earn her money to catch up. It would be life-changing. It was the same competition her mom placed in years ago. She died when Sadie was fourteen.

Tragedy strikes before the competition. She has a seizure in the middle of the street. A Good Samaritan saves her from being hit by a car.

Her evil step-sister Parker is at the hospital, and she receives the bad news. A malformed blood vessel in the brain: called a cavernoma. A lesion and needs to have surgery. The timing could not be worse.

A cavernoma is a cluster of abnormal blood vessels, usually found in the brain and spinal cord. They're sometimes known as cavernous angiomas, cavernous haemangiomas, or cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM).

After the surgery, she realizes she cannot see people's faces. Everyone is a stranger to her. How can she draw a portrait when she can see their faces?

Sadie's family is no help with the situation. A wicked stepsister and a stepmother, and her father constantly siding against her. Fortunately, she has her best friend, Sue, and her family, who have informally adopted her and serve as a great support network.

How will she cope?

Then she finds herself in a love triangle of all things. Two men, one a helpful Joe, who lives in the same apartment, and the goodhearted veterinarian who saved her dog Peanut. As Sadie tries to save her career, confront her haunting past, and handle falling in love with two different guys, she realizes that happiness can be found in the places—and people— you least expect.

An uplifting, witty, emotional, heartwarming bittersweet story tackling highly charged topics of neurovascular (cavernoma, prosopagnosia-face blindness), coping mechanisms, and survival, blended with some light-hearted fun romance. You will root for Sadie until the end.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Patti Murin for a highly entertaining and lively performance. I enjoyed the author's note.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for an ALC and St. Martin's Press for an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. #SMPInfluencers

Blog Review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: July 11, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
July 2023 Must-Read Books

Katherine Center shows again why she’s a master of her genre. This is funny, charming, and filled with entertaining characters. Sadie can be prickly at times, but I was always rooting for her as she worked through her painful past and present circumstances. Her best friend Sue was hilariously blunt, Joe was fun, and even her cruel stepsister Parker somehow made me laugh.

From the premise to the ending, it’s well written and engaging. The only downsides: I thought there was a little too much explaining at the end and a few story elements that my overthinking brain had to just roll with and not question too much, but as Center so brilliantly explains in her author’s note, it comes with the territory of the genre. Definitely read or listen to her thoughts!

I both read this and listened to the audio narrated by Patti Murin, who I absolutely love! I think it would’ve been harder to find the humor in some characters - especially Parker - if I’d only read it, but Murin’s voicing for her was snarktastic, and she does gender voicing perfectly, which I always appreciate.

It’s a great read, a wonderful listen and a whole lot of fun. I highly recommend it!

★★★★ ½

This is my second Katherine Center book, and I don’t know why I’m so slow to read her others, especially the ones being made into movies - The Bodyguard was one of my very top books of 2022, and now Hello Stranger is one of my very tops of 2023! She’s such a spectacular writer and a very talented storyteller! This book is just so incredible! I purchased copies of several other books last year after loving Bodyguard and now I pledge to get them actually read!

This book has such an incredibly unique storyline, with the face blindness aspect (a side effect after surgery to remove a cavernoma, discovered after a whole interesting situation at the beginning of the book), and not being able to tell who anyone is, let alone not being able to work (being a portrait artist) just when Sadie is accepted into the top 10 winners for a huge competition… the competition her mother was in at the time of her passing, so it’s a huge thing.

The friendships, the neighbors, the family dynamics - everything that Center has included in here has been so carefully crafted and planned, and she so carefully researched the face blindness (prosopagnosia) to make sure she did it justice. This book is just a dream to read, and even better to listen to because she’s got the best narrator in Patti Murin! 5-stars for the book and 5-stars for the narration! 1000% recommended by me.

I received an advance review and listen copy from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio, and this is my honest feedback.

I absolutely adored Katherine Center’s newest release, Hello Stranger, and the tie-in to the title is on-point and impactful. This story is now one of my favorite reads of the year.

Hello Stranger has the perfect mix of sweet love story combined with heart-wrenching family dynamics, strong female friendship, challenging personal issues to overcome, and thought-provoking themes. The main character is funny and optimistic, but also realistic, relatable and inspiring. I learned new things about “face blindness”, which is something I knew and have read little about, and the insights gleaned were interesting and valuable.

Hello Stranger follows Sadie Montgomery who as gone her own way in life, despite her father’s dogged resistance, choosing to follow her dreams of becoming an artist like her late mother. In addition to her career choices, she has had to go it alone without the support of her family, who has alienated her and kept their distance, repeatedly choosing to believe her “evil step-sister” over Sadie. It has not been an easy road, losing her mother at a young age and then essentially losing her family, but her friendship with Sue, and Sue’s parents, has kept her going.

Tragedy strikes yet again when Sadie has a seizure on a street intersection, saved by a Good Samaritan. When she has to follow-up with brain surgery, comes out of it with a new obstacle to overcome, prosopagnosia, or face blindness. As a portrait artist, this is especially debilitating, but she handles it with grace, determination and optimism. Along the way, Sadie learns more about herself, tackles some long-held issues, finds restoration and a degree of healing within a certain relationship, as well as a discovering love in an unexpected place.

Katherine Center portrays her characters’ interactions, choices, thoughts and emotions with such authenticity and realism. Her stories consistently have deeper themes for the reader to contemplate; her characters are humorous, likable and engaging; and her plots have unique elements that make each story feel fresh. Hello Stranger was heart-warming and an absolute joy and pleasure to read. Katherine Center is without a doubt, an auto-buy author for me.

A special thanks for MacMilllan Audio for the audio-version of this story. Patti Marin narrated it and did a fantastic job! Her voice perfectly encapsulated the character and drew me into the story and made it so much more enjoyable.

I’m happy to see that there is a lot of love and many positive reviews for this book. Unfortunately, I am an outlier and did not enjoy it nearly as much as the other four books I have read by the author. This one just wasn’t for me.

The narrator did an excellent job on the story and really brought it all alive.

I really like the genre spot Katherine Center’s books hit—the depth and personal journey of “women’s fiction” combined with the sweet and swoony of romance. I have read three of her books so far and each of them had been really difficult to put down because they really sweep you away. This one was no different! But if I put my critique hat on I did have a couple hang ups. Specifically, the role that miscommunication had to play in the story (contrived miscommunication is my biggest book pet peeve, but I can understand a little more why it was utilized here) and the role of the evil family member felt over the top for what was needed. But all of that didn’t keep me from fully enjoying the ride. The face blindness aspects were pretty fascinating and I liked the themes of the different ways we see and are blind.

The authors note at the end about the reasons we read romance was excellent and I’m so glad the audiobook included it since they don’t always!

4.5 stars!

Katherine Center does it again! I love her way of writing romance. This was predictable but not in a way that was annoying, it was super cute and emotional. I enjoyed Sadie as a character and of course, Center's male love interests are always incredible as well. I've always been intrigued by face blindness and find books about it intriguing. The fact that our FMC paints portraits of people and has a potentially life-changing competition added so much to the drama of having her condition, even if it is temporary,

In true Katherine Center fashion, she also adds a dash of self-discovery, a hefty dose of family drama, and a few loveable side characters (including an adorable dog named, Peanut), which all add to the charm of this book. The romance was 10/10 and the humor helped to lighten up the vibes as well. This book was emotional, heartwarming, and highly unputdownable. Katherine Center will continue to be an auto-buy author for me!

Katherine Center is so good at creating characters you want to root for and really fun banter! I feel like you really can’t go wrong with one of her books, they’re always enjoyable.

With that being said, this wasn’t my favorite of hers, but it was definitely unique and overall a good read (I did this one on audio and def recommend). It had its lol moments, and the characters were great, it just seemed to lack.. something?

BUT.. I would absolutely recommend this book for someone looking for a fun romcom with a unique storyline

What a fun book! But what else would you expect from Katherine Center?!?! I mean who would get some rare sight blindness and then fall in love with a man who you can't see his face?? But you know what it works! She writes the unbelievable and makes it so we love it!

The narrator did an excellent job!

This proves why Katherine is an auto-buy for me!

I love how I always end up feeling uplifted and educated after reading a book by Katherine Center. Her characters always have a unique journey to travel, while inspiring the reader with their personal growth throughout the story.

Sadie immediately won over my heart with her rare struggle of facial blindness, especially as a portrait artist who can no longer do what she loves. Her dog Peanut often steals the show, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The audio narration by Patty Murin was perfection, and I'm sure I'll listen to it again in the near future. She makes you feel like a friend is telling you a story, and that's why I devoured the entire book in one day!

Last year it was The Bodyguard, this year it's Hello Stranger. I'm calling it now, this is my favorite read of the year!
This book was absolutely fantastic. It was emotional, magical, funny (SO funny), and everything I wanted it to be.
To quote the author: "This love story really created a fantastic feeling of anticipation." The slow burn was SO worth the wait. The characters were amazing and lovable. Honestly, I feel like I could gush about them all day.
1 finished this book days ago, but I needed to take some time to really sink into the feelings (the best ones) and soak in every drop of them that I could.
The author really created something beautiful here, and I'm dying to get through her entire backlog (I've already LOVED The Bodyguard and The Lost Husband...which is also a movie on Netflix 9).
Katherine Center can do no wrong. I now introduce to you my new auto-buy author.

It's very rare that I don't like an audiobook but this is one of the few I wish I didn't listen to but rather read physically. Although, I'm not sure that would've helped with my enjoyment. This was a book I was heavily anticipating because I was interested in the idea of a portrait artist developing face blindness and how she navigates her life and relationships with that but this ultimately fell flat for me. The female main character was extremely childish and tiresome to follow. The stepsister and stepmother plotline was very outlandish and silly. The rest of the characters were very one dimensional. In regards to the romance, it was not convincing and I couldn't care enough about the characters to root for them to be together. I had to suspend so much of my disbelief in order to get through this book. Overall, this just wasn't for me but it might be someone else's cup of tea.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for a free copy of this audiobook, in exchange for an honest review.

Objectively, this is not a perfect book. I knew where this story was leading, I became frustrated at some points, and I rolled my eyes, quite a few times. But more importantly, I laughed out loud, a lot.
I thought the premise of this book was very unique and also informative. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of Sadie who is a creative compared with the scientific facts of the brain condition she suffered. I love reading books where the main character is in fine arts, I can relate to being a creative. I like to hear the details of their works and all of the details that go into it. It really speaks to me and I felt like on a personal note, I could relate a lot to this story. Not only do I share a birthday with Sadie’s mom, Nora, but I have also lost a mother way too soon in life. I won’t go into the personal details of my life with my estranged father, evil stepmother, and all the other similarities, but regardless I think anyone could enjoy this story.
I had a great time listening, I liked the narrator, Patti Murin, and Patti did a great job of voicing Parker to make her even more annoying. Really though, Parker is the worst, and I’m tempted to start a “I hate Parker Montgomery” fan club. Let me know if you are interested.

This is the first book I've read/listened to by Katherine Center. It has definitely exposed me to an author I hope read more of. This book made me laugh, feel hopeful and kept me interested the whole way through.
Sadie is a struggling portrait artist who chose to follow in her late mothers footsteps. She is weeks away from a competition she has been chosen for. Not only has she made it the final 10, but it was also the competition her mom won years ago.
Unfortunately, Sadie is found to have a slow bleed in her brain due to a genetic malformation and requires immediate "brain surgery". She developed a rare side effect that "may" resolve with time. Acquired Apperceptive Prosopagnosia, also known as Face Blindness. I ended up down a several hour rabbit hole researching this very interesting neurological condition. How is Sadie supposed to submit a portrait when she can't see faces?
I do want to assure you, this is most definitely a light hearted romantic comedy. Sadie's inside voice is hilarious. The supporting characters are entertaining, and "Joe", is the most heart melting, nice guy!
I would recommend this read for anyone looking for a unique romantic comedy with light spice.🌶 I rarely bother with the authors note, but I must say, I did actually enjoy parts of the author's note at the end of this book.
I have rated this book a 4.5/5. Thank you to NetGallery and the Publisher for the audiobook version of this book.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. This book is just.. *chef’s kiss* for me. I don’t know how Katherine continues to do it, but I absolutely loved the book, especially the twist at the end! She has definitely become an auto-buy author for me over the years.

If you have a feel good story that teaches you that we have to sometimes slow down and enjoy the little things in life, then this book is for you.

Another fantastic book by Katherine Center! I love her books and was so excited for this one; it did not disappoint. Her stories always have romance, comedy and a general feel-good story, but I always look forward to the serious issue each book will tackle. In this case, the main character, a portrait artist, deals with sudden face blindness. As I'm sure you can imagine this has a serious impact on her life. Center weaves the stories of a sweet romance, dealing with neighbors, family drama, a life altering medical diagnosis, true friendship, being true to yourself, a love of animals and much more into one novel that has you rooting for the main character the whole way. Loved the audio version.

Sadie just got word she is in the finals for an art competition. This could be her big break. She loves drawing portraits. As luck would have it she ends up in the hospital needing brain surgery. When she wakes up from surgery she can't see anyone's face. How can someone draw a portrait if they can't see the face of who they are drawing??

Another Katherine Center book I couldn't help but enjoy! I liked Sadie and was rooting for her throughout the book. I have some brain disorders, not like hers, so I felt like I could connect to her in some way. Plus I'm a dog mom myself! And I fell in love with Joe and his floppy hair. I thought the two of them were cute together. I can't wait to fall in love with the next book Katherine Center writes!

I listened to the book as I read it and I LOVED the narrator. She did such a fantastic job. You could feel the emotions in her voice. She is a narrator I will continue to listen to!

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for the copies of the book!

I can’t believe this was my first Katherine Center read! I loved it so much 😍

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🧼

Sadie is a portrait artist, who is about to get her “big break,” when she gets into an accident that leaves her with a *hopefully* temporary condition, face blindness (causing faces to be blurry).

Joe is Sadie’s neighbour, who becomes her friend, and a pleasant distraction. She doesn’t explain her condition to him, but he helps her out nonetheless.

A lot of this book sends the message that things aren’t always as they seem. People aren’t always who we think they are, based on first impressions or external factors.

This definitely had some predictable moments, but that’s part of the fun of it. Definitely read/listen to the author’s note, she explains a lot there.

I tandem read this book - audio and ebook - and really enjoyed the narration! Patti Murin did a wonderful job at capturing Sadie, and all the side characters.

What you’ll find in Hello Stranger:
🌼 Artist heroine
🌼 Cinnamon roll hero
🌼 He falls first
🌼 Romcom
🌼 Friends to lovers
🌼 Forced proximity
🌼 Slow burn
🌼 Miscommunication
🌼 Single POV/first person

Thank you so much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy to review. All opinions are my own.

If you are looking for a fun, non spicy romance light read, you will enjoy this book. And, who knew face blindness was a real thing? Not me! This is my second book by Ms. Center and I have enjoyed them both. The narration was done well too.
Thank you #NetGalley, #MacmillianAudio, #KatherineCenter, #PattiMurin and #HelloStranger for the advance audiobook for my honest review.