Hello Stranger

I found out this treasure was available on NetGalley and I literally stopped everything and requested it. I am SO glad that I did! Katherine Center's writing is not super exciting, super spicy or adventurous, but she has a quiet way of writing a COMFORT read that creeps up on me and onto my favorites list. Not to say that all of her books are 5☆ for me, but the ones that are... chef's kiss Her emotions that are woven into each character hit just the right note of sweet, not spicy to not be too “fluffy.”

Although I was able to guess the plot twist, the “anticipation” of what would happen, delivered all I wanted and more! I highly recommend reading the extra excerpt from the author - very enlightening!

This was my first book by Katherine Center so I wasn't sure what to expect going into it. There were aspects of this book that I really enjoyed and there were some that just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Hello Stranger could sort of be considered a love triangle which is typically one of my least favorite tropes, however this is a love triangle with a twist and I actually really liked the way it was done here. The twist was refreshing and not something I've read about before in a romance novel. And the love interest(s) are super sweet so that was a plus.

My hang-ups with this book are basically everything about Sadie's family. I just thought the whole evil step-sister plot was over the top and unnecessary and then it was wrapped up too nicely at the end.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I'll definitely give Katherine Center another shot.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was so good! I thought the premise was unique, and the story had so many funny parts – I was laughing out loud multiple times. It's about not giving up when things get tough and learning to still find things to enjoy things in life no matter what is thrown your way.

This follows Sadie, who finds out early on that she needs brain surgery, and after the surgery, she learns that she is having problems with the part of her brain that recognizes faces. I really enjoyed all the characters and what they brought to the story. Sadie was fun to follow. Her stepsister was a great villain character, and I thought the entire plot line with Sadie's family was very well done.

There is also a bit of a love triangle, which I found very comical since Sadie can't see what these men look like. But because of that, I liked this idea of loving someone for who they are and how they treat you, not just by what they look like.

Highly recommend! Also a clean romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book, once I started I couldn't put it down. In Hello Stranger Sadie has an accident that causes to her to have face blindness. As an portrait artist, this causes to her relearn many things like recognizing/interacting with people and her whole artistic process. It also causes a comedy of errors around her new crushes.

Overall rating: 3.8 ⭐

I always enjoy a Katherine Center book, and this one continues that feeling. In this book, Center not only writes an endearing love story but also explores an interesting topic, face blindness. It makes for a fascinating read.

The main character, Sadie, learns early in the book that she has a serious brain disease that requires a quick surgery that can fix the issue. The problem for Sadie is that after the surgery, which goes well, a new issue develops. Sadie becomes face blind, which is a major issue considering she is a portrait artist currently competing in a contest that could make her career. The story follows Sadie as she struggles with the face blindness while also falling for two new men in her life, both of whom she cannot see their faces.

The premise of the story is unique and interesting. I enjoyed that part of the book. Following Sadie as she learns how to recognize people without seeing their faces is quite engaging. On the other hand, I found the storyline involving her evil stepsister to be unnecessary and distracting.

The main love interest, Joe, is a very likable character. Sadie's judgmental critiques of his behavior and the assumptions she makes about him are frustrating, though. Sadie is a bit self-absorbed and does not often try to see things from the perspective of others.

Overall, the reading experience was enjoyable. While I do not love the main character, there is enough in this story that is original and interesting to make it a 4 star book.

I was really lucky in that I got the opportunity to ask all of the questions I had while reading this book directly to Katherine Center when she came to the bookclub I'm in. She not only answered every one, she also gave me some life answers I didn't know I was looking for. Joe/Oliver was, as the author puts it, swoony. He was ridiculous in his perfection. I loved that he was giggly and ticklish. The Kim family was lovely, Mr. Kim especially. When he bought Sadie's ugly painting for an exorbitant amount of money, I got teary. It did hurt me that Peanut had such a poor diet, but if Dr. Oliver says he's healthy, I'll take it. I found it refreshing that the evil characters stayed evil throughout, and even more refreshing that when I asked Katherine about it, she mentioned that she still holds grudges from grade school and said people don't redeem themselves in real life, so why should we expect them to in fiction. The greatest take away I got from the talk with Katherine was when she mentioned how important memory is in creating joy. When we think back on our memories, our minds only hold a few specific moments from the memory and our brain fills in the rest with fiction. Thinking of a few moments every day that bring you joy can change your outlook and train you to keep an eye out for those joyful moments so they become your lasting memories.

I was so excited to read this book, but was sadly quite disappointed. Outside of the obvious editing and polishing that needs to still be completed with the book I just could not get into this. If you're looking for a book that is quick and lighthearted (for the most part) I do think this could fit the bill. If you're looking for a romance, you may want to keep looking.

This book is about a struggling portrait artist with a problematic family life. She suffers from a stroke and needs to undergo brain surgery. She is left with acquired face blindness after just receiving word of her big break.

Some things I liked about the book:
- I loved that they're bringing attention to face blindness. I honestly didn't know that it was even a real thing prior to this book.
- One of my favorite quotes from the book highlights some of the ridiculousness that is medical statistics: “It's life-threatening” he said, “but it can be cured. The survival rate is thirty to seventy percent.” Thirty to seventy percent? What a useless piece of information. – there were a few quotes in the book that made me laugh out loud, but this one was most memorable.

Things that didn't work for me:
- the characters and dialogue did not have much depth to them.
- I truly did not see a point in adding some of the components of her family life into the story. I think it was to tie in her mother and give her more of a background, but it just did not work at all for me.
- At times I felt as though I was being force fed information on face blindness. It did not seem to come naturally in the book at all. I appreciate that Katherine Center spent a lot of time researching this topic and wanted to give as much information about it as she could – I just didn't like the delivery.
- The thing that probably upset me the most was there was basically no romance in the book. Sure there was sort of a romance starting, but the whole book was basically about her going to a coffee shop, trying to paint but feeling sory for herself, and weirdly planning a wedding in her head with someone she basically didn't know (oh right and denying her feelings for another person she also basically doesn't know).

This book was kindly given to me by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Sadie takes a tumble and, when she awakens again, she is face-blind. This is a problem. She has just placed as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society contest. What to do?

And then there is her elderly dog. The vet seems nice. He will be her husband, she speculates. But there is that charmingly helpful fellow in her building. The building, by the way, where she is not supposed to be actually living.

Not to mention her family troubles. Not only a wicked stepmother but a wicked stepsister, too.

Only Katherine Center can take all these elements and bind them into a charming and cleverly fun story.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Hello Stranger by the amazing Katherine Center! I've read two of Katherine's books prior to this (Things You Save in a Fire in 2021 and The Bodyguard in 2022) and absolutely loved loved them both! When I received an ARC of The Bodyguard, I couldn't tear my eyes from the page. Suffice to say, I was more than a little excited to get my hands on an advanced copy of her latest novel.

I just so happened to have sat through a whole lecture

I just finished Hello Stranger by Katherine Center and here are my thoughts on it.


Sadie finally feels like her career is getting somewhere! She managed to get a slot as a finalist for the North American Portrait society. She knows she has a great shot at winning and the prize money will go far! Plus her dad will see how successful she is.

One day while she is standing in the street, she has a minor episode that lands her in hospital. She needs brain surgery. It all goes well except when she wakes up she has something called face blindness. It has her seeing people's faces as jumbled up messes.

The fear she feels at not being able to see normally again and trying to navigate her dating life has Sadie wondering if her life as a portrait artist is well and truly over.

I had the worst hangover after this book. It filled me up so hard that I couldn't shake it off! I loved it. I actually had no idea that face blindness was a thing! It was fascinating and after I did some research, I found that the book was really well researched and handled with such care that it shows a level of genius in the writing you don't often find in the romance genre.

The character development was beautifully done and you could really feel Sadie's panic at trying to adapt to her new normal and wondering if this will ever go away. I loved Joe! He was such a sweetie pie and he seemed to roll with all the weirdness with very little question. He had no idea what was going on but he was such a love with what he didn't understand.

Loved that the book touched on art because I am a huge art lover. This book checked every single box for me and I was sad for it to be over. I finished the book in one afternoon and now I'm on the hunt for more books by this author. The romance in this book was so gentle and kind that I could have fallen in love myself.

5 stars. I think this is my favorite read of the year.

This book blew me out of the water!!! It completely surpassed my expectations! I'll be honest I really don't usually read clean/closed door romance on purpose/at all, but I absolutely loved this book!! It had me laughing and giggling and blushing! And the TWIST (that i saw coming but I'm so happy I was right) was amazing! Love love love this! I wouldn't change a thing

Side note - when miss Augusta came and had her moment and tore Parker to shreds oh my god I was livinggggg for that

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of Hello Stranger for review.

When portrait artist Sadie Montgomery has urgent brain surgery to treat a genetic condition that killed her mother, she loses the ability to see faces—just as she needs to paint a portrait for her ‘big break' competition and falls in love with two different guys.

I am a big fan of Katherine Center, and Hello Stranger didn't fail to deliver her trademark: a spirited protagonist facing a unique mix of personal growth, challenges with family, and romance. And goodness. Just feel-good goodness oozing off the pages as Sadie navigates her challenging relationships and rises above.

Maybe the premise of Hello Stranger was a bit-far fetched for me? Maybe the beginning was draggy? Maybe I had a hard time connecting to Sadie? Perhaps the narrative could've been more cohesive? Maybe I saw the twist coming a mile away? Perhaps. Maybe you'll feel the same. But I say if you've enjoyed any of Katherine Center's other books keep reading because I immensely enjoyed this book. Worth reading. Hands down. No question.

Center Strikes Again. This is another feel-good story from Center that takes an unusual situation and uses it to show how even suddenly-forced differences can be used to tremendous effect - without ever feeling like she is white-washing the difficulties of the given condition at hand. Indeed, Center goes into detail showing the various struggles here, but also how they can be overcome and adapted to. Along the way, we also get a strong and relatable tale of finding yourself and finding what truly matters to you... and some pretty hilarious sequences as well. :) Overall a strong and interesting book that puts a more "real" spin on this particular condition than the *few* other books I've read that feature it (which tend to do into more paranormal/ thriller spaces). Very much recommended.

This review contains spoilers.
What to say? I want to recommend Katherine Center to you, but any other title than this. (I really, really liked “Things you Save in a Fire”–start there.) I guess my childhood sense of being overwhelmed by embarrassment when I or others mess up in social situations and get people's names and identities wrong is still part of my psyche. This well of shame meant I couldn't relax into this as a cute romance with a fascinating neurological condition but rather kept tensing for the inevitable errors that face blindness creates. I do appreciate the research Center puts into finding unusual, believable human circumstances that provide welcome twists on familiar tropes in romance and women's fiction. But–I could not finish. I feel too much the second-hand embarrassment! Not something authors think to issue content warnings about, right?!

I found this to be an inspiring story. In this story the main character acquires prosopagnosia (face blindness) weeks before she is to present a new portrait for an art contest. She is learning how to live with it not knowing if it will come back. This story was a reminder to be kinder to people and to see past the looks. 

The ending wasn't quite what I expected and I can't decide if that is good or bad. It was interesting. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.