Hello Stranger
Hello Stranger - Katherine Center
my review : ✮✮✮✮
My heart is positively bursting after reading this book. I am so pleasantly surprised by how lovely, funny, and heartwarming this book was. Everything I was scared was going to happen didn’t, and everything I wanted to happen did (that probably only makes sense if you’ve read this book and live inside my head!). Just a right-down-the-middle, incredibly well-done romance novel.
This story is about Sadie, a portrait artist who just got the break of her career when she learned she was a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition. Soon after finding out she’s a finalist, she is crossing the street and almost gets pancaked by a car! She wakes up in a hospital to learn she has a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle. As Sadie grapples with her new reality and tries to understand how she can live life, let alone compete in this competition with her new diagnosis, she gets a crush on two men who couldn't be more different! It’s the perfect distraction for the shitshow that is her life right now. Things get fun! And sexy! And messy! These are the three things a good life should be!
It sounds really convoluted and soap opera-y, but trust me, it’s not! It’s brilliantly done and fabulous, and ok, maybe it is a little soap opera-y but in a GOOD way. I found this book to be an instant mood booster.
A highlight of the book is Katherine Center’s letter at the end discussing romance novels. She talks about how we shouldn’t call romance novels predictable because, yes, we know the characters will always end up together but instead say, “This story created a fantastic feeling of anticipation. YES! THIS STORY CREATED A FANTASTIC FEELING OF ANTICIPATION. If you read the book, I urge you to read the author’s note!
(p.s. This is a closed-door romance that still manages to be sexy! A feat!)
My only beef with this book is that Sadie’s Disney-level evil step-sister is named Parker. Which is the same name as my son. Hello! All Parkers are perfect angels!! I was able to look past the slander to enjoy this story.
you’ll love this book if you love:
Love stories!!
my favorite quote:
“But what I know for sure is that reading love stories is good for you. That believing in love is believing in hope. And doing that—choosing in this cynical world to be a person who does that—really is doing something that matters.”
