Publishes July 11, 2023-St. Martin’s Press-Romance-336pp
https://katherinecenter.com/hello-stranger/
Book Summary
Love isn’t blind, it’s just a 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.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
A humorous yet poignant view of a struggling portraitist and her startling diagnosis after brain surgery. Readers will “see” Katherine Center’s Sadie though the foggy lens of face blindness. Through therapy with Dr. Nicole, Sadie and readers learn about confirmation bias, how to let friends help, and how to face tough truths about life, ourselves and healing family hurts.
Another recognizably memorable reminder of Katherine Center’s ability to help us see ourselves in the reflections of others. Find truth and hope in Hello Stranger.
Katherine Center is the author of How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire—both instant New York Times bestsellers—as well as The Lost Husband (now a movie starring Josh Duhamel), and five other bittersweet comic novels. She writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. Katherine has been compared to both Nora Ephron and Jane Austen, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two kids, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.
The Grateful Reader 