Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Sadie Montgomery's life takes an unexpected turn when she is diagnosed with face blindness, leaving every face she sees as a perplexing puzzle. While navigating this new reality, she grapples with family issues, pursues her artistic aspirations, and finds herself entangled with two very different men. Amidst the chaos, Sadie's search for clarity becomes elusive, yet unexpected connections and alternative perspectives offer a glimmer of hope. In this delightful tale, Center focuses on the most meaningful discoveries — about yourself and your place in humanity — often happen when we least expect them.

Such a heartwarming and charming novel, which feels like a promise from Center at this point, that harkens back to my pre-teen reading days of diving headfirst into the Sweet Dreams series of books.

While there were so many little conveniences that happened during this story, and Sadie was more than a little slow on the uptake at times, I'm willing to put all that aside and acknowledge that Hello Stranger is every bit as adorable as it needs, wants, and tries to be. Sometimes it takes work to set aside the snark and admit that these little conveniences are funny and allow for just the right amount of balance and anticipation that keeps me turning these pages.

I often turn to lighter books like this (I had a long stretch of relying on Kasie West books here) for mental breaks between harder books. The exact right kind of rom-com that Nora Ephron or Nancy Meyers would whip up into a movie with a great interior somewhere, and I can't help but picture Sadie's studio as a wonderful amalgamation of a beautiful Ephron-Meyers-esque production.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.

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The Mythmakers by Keziah Weir