Hello Stranger

Sadie is a portrait artist who undergoes brain surgery which results in prosopagnosia (facial blindness). This complicates her personally and potentially professionally since she's a finalist in an art competition that could change her life. Now simple interactions become complicated, and Sadie must learn to read body cues and speech patterns to decipher who she's speaking to. To add to her stress, she finds herself attracted to two men. Naturally.

It's an interesting premise, particularly the facial blindness aspect and I enjoyed the bits of humour that Center adds in this very-light-on-the-romance story which has no spice but an endearing male lead.  

I loved Center's The Bodyguard, but I was surprised that this book fell flat for me. It felt like it never quite got going and had a repetitive feel because Center overexplains her plot, there's too much miscommunication and readers are stuck inside Sadie's head which is not a great place to be. 

Sadie is immature, whiny and takes waaaay too long to figure things out. For me, the plot was clear from the start and required me to suspend disbelief far outside my comfort zone with insta-love, insta-forgiveness and an over-the-top, straight from Satan character who should have gotten a swift and hearty comeuppance.   

While I'm grateful that this book taught me about prosopagnosia, I didn't enjoy how the story was executed. I like a HEA (happily ever after) but this story has little depth and no surprises for the reader. I'm in the minority with this book so if you want a very light book that's easy to pick up and put down while you're poolside this summer, then you may enjoy it more than I did. 

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to St Martin's Press for the advanced copy of this book which was provided in exchange for my honest review. 

My Rating: 2.75 stars

Author: Katherine Center

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: St Martin's Press

First Published: July 11, 2023

Book Description 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.