Hello Stranger Book Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today, I am back with another book review. This book has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for the longest time. It was a BOTM pick a while ago (I don’t even remember how long ago). So, let’s get into it!

At the time of writing this post, this book is actually on Kindle Unlimited! This is my second Katherine Center book. Previously, I’ve read The Bodyguard which I loved. Hello Stranger took me awhile to get into. It was a slow start mostly because the romance felt secondary. But let me back up.

In Hello Stranger, we follow our main character, Sadie. She’s a portrait artist trying to prove (mostly to her dad) to her family that she’s not a failure. Her dad wanted her to go into the medical field like he did, but Sadie wanted to follow in her mom’s footsteps. Sadie ends up having a seizure which leads to brain surgery. Post brain surgery she comes out with a condition called face blindness. She can’t recognize faces…they basically look like puzzle pieces to her. This is bad for multiple reasons, the biggest being she’s a portrait artist who just got her big break in a very competitive art competition. Now she is having trouble doing her job and can’t recognizes anyone like the average person can. There is a love story woven in here. Although, she can’t see faces, Sadie develops a thing for her veterinarian but also for her neighbor…as if things couldn’t get more complicated. Sadie tries to navigate this possible permanent way of life hoping the face blindness goes away (although there is a chance that it doesn’t).

Although, this book took a while for me to get into, I’m really glad I kept with it. I loved the ending so much. This reminded me a lot of Emily Henry’s books in the sense that while there is romance, the characters are also dealing with real things. Sadie has a complicated relationship with her family. She feels like she has to prove herself to them. Joe, her neighbor, was recently divorced and it was very traumatic for him. It’s when the world is falling a part that you can find love in unexpected ways. It’s about looking for the good things in life because, “the more good things you look for, the more you find.” (pg. 336).

There was a lot of focus on character development and healing. Everyone is struggling with something. I think one of the best things Sadie said was to always be kind. She was learning to be positive and try to look at life like the glass is half full. Even when things were terrible, and everything felt like it was getting worse and worse. She didn’t throw herself a pity party, she kept moving.

Overall, I gave this book 4/5 stars. It’s a really quick read with less than 350 pages. I loved the characters, and honestly, I think the entire plot line was really interesting. A portrait artist with face blindness? It’s definitely unique.

Alright folks, that is all I have for this week. Come back next Wednesday for another blog post. As always thank you for reading :)