Hello Stranger

 

We all know that sometimes we just don’t see clearly when it comes to love, but for Sadie Montgomery … she literally can’t see clearly. 

In an unexpected chain of events, one week she’s painting photorealistic portraits and qualifying for a prestigious art contest, and the next she finds herself experiencing prosopagnosia, or face-blindness.  Talk about bad timing! How is she going to paint a portrait for the contest when everyone’s faces now look like a puzzle? 

On the brighter side, despite not being able to distinguish faces, she really likes her dog Peanut’s new vet, Dr. Addison, but there’s also her questionably-behaved neighbor Joe in the picture. Neither of them know that she can’t tell who they are by their faces, though she has definite ideas about which one she wants, until that starts getting fuzzy too!

Katherine Center shows again why she’s a master of her genre. This is funny, charming, and filled with entertaining characters. Sadie can be prickly at times, but I was always rooting for her as she worked through her painful past and present circumstances. Her best friend Sue was hilariously blunt, Joe was fun, and even her cruel stepsister Parker somehow made me laugh.

From the premise to the ending, it’s well written and engaging. The only downsides: I thought there was a little too much explaining at the end and a few story elements that my overthinking brain had to just roll with and not question too much, but as Center so brilliantly explains in her author’s note, it comes with the territory of the genre. Definitely read or listen to her thoughts! 

I both read this and listened to the audio narrated by Patti Murin, who I absolutely love! I think it would’ve been harder to find the humor in some characters - especially Parker - if I’d only read it, but Murin’s voicing for her was snarktastic, and she does gender voicing perfectly, which I always appreciate.

It’s a great read, a wonderful listen and a whole lot of fun. I highly recommend it!

★★★★ ½ 

Thanks to St. Martins Press, NetGalley, and author Katherine Center for the DRC and Macmillan Audio for the ALC to honestly review. This will be out on July 11, 2023.