Hello Stranger
Katherine Center
336 pages
St. Martin’s Press
July 11, 2023
What You Wish For was one of the first ARCs I ever read and reviewed and while not my normal genre, I was so captivated by the story and the writing style. Fast forward a few years later and I can say those same words about this story too. And this face blindness. I had not heard of this a until a few years ago and it keeps showing up in all the books I read. Up until now it’s always been in thrillers, where the inflicted person is at a disadvantage with a killer, but this was a clever use in more of a women’s fiction/romance novel. Having Sadie need to rely on things other than a face to recognize the people surrounding her. I loved all the descriptions of people and how she remembered and recognized them.
Weirdly I rely a lot on the sound of someone’s voice and was surprised that wasn’t something she used. I am a knitter and will knit while “watching TV” and I put that in quotes because I am usually focused on the knitting and follow the show based upon hearing the characters. I am always recognizing someone in a movie based on that voice. Am I the only one?
But back to the book. I really was so invested in Sadie’s journey and her struggles to cope with her condition. How she filled in the blanks, both wrong and right. Katherine Center does such a good job of bringing characters to life and having you step into their shoes and feel what they are feeling. The good, the bad and the ugly. And while I continued to ponder Sadie’s perception of the world around her, the author pulled the wool over my eyes on the romance. I was a little slow on the uptake to the love triangle brewing. This would have been the perfect summer read and a contender for my favorite of the month if there was just a little less of Sadie’s parents being oblivious as to what was happening between their two daughters.
I flipped back and forth between the book and audiobook and loved the narration of Patti Murin. She expertly represented Sadie and all her emotions while allowing the story to shine. I really enjoyed both versions.
If you are ready for some slightly quirky characters and to get invested in the story, this should be part of your summer reading.
About the book
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.
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