Hello Stranger

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.