The Book:
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
Published July 11, 2023 by St. Martin’s Press
Date read: May 5, 2023
The Characters:
Sadie
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
This page contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Love isn’t blind, it’s just little blurry.
Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.
But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.
If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.
The Review:
Hello Stranger was pure Katherine Center joy. I’ve read thrillers about prosopagnosia, but it was even more fun to read about a portrait artist with face blindness.
There was so much to love about this book: the storyline, the side characters, the dog, and the climax. I even loved the villian–Parker making fun of Sadie’s condition was hilarious to me. I was fascinated to see how the love triangle would turn out and really enjoyed where she took it, although if Sadie was less self-absorbed it might have turned out differently.
The best part of the book might have been the author’s note. I loved Katherine Center’s message about romance books and what to expect of them!
Patti Murin is a fantastic narrator and is always such a good fit for Katherine Center’s books. I definitely recommend the audio version of this book.
2 Comments