Title: “Hello Stranger”

Author: Katherine Center

Genre: Romance

Publication Date: July 11, 2023

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

How do you carry on when you’ve lost the thing you need most to continue your promising career? That is one of the central questions in Katherine Center’s latest, “Hello Stranger.” Sadie is a portrait artist who has finally gotten what could be her big break, right before an accident that takes away her ability to see people’s faces. If you can’t see someone’s face, can you still know them? If you can’t see someone’s face, how can you paint their portrait? 

Lots of interesting questions are asked, and eventually answered, in this story. The supporting characters living in Sadie’s building are well-written, and for the most part, fun additions. The two men she meets while suffering from face blindness seem so different to her, but both hold her interest for different reasons. Sadie has a complicated relationship with her father, stepmother, and evil stepsister, which is slowly ironed out for the most part. I liked that her familial relationships weren’t neatly tied up by the end of the story, because, as this is a romance novel, the love interest angle does end up just as you knew it would. 

I have read most of Katherine Center’s prior works, and “Hello Stranger” is not my favorite of the bunch, but it is a solid entry in her bibliography, and is a light-hearted, funny at the right times, quick read that is worth a look.