Delightful, quick read
When choosing a romance book, I usually look for a story that has an interesting twist that I haven’t read before, characters, who sound from the synopsis, are likable, and a story that will deliver some of the feel good emotions I expect from a romance. “Hello Stranger”, by Katherine Center, delivers on all of the above. A delightful, quick read, I finished this book with a soft spot for the characters and overall contentment with what I just read. There’s a lot to unpack in this book. Sadie suffers from Acquired Prosopagnosia, which leaves her with the inability to recognize faces after a medical procedure. Never having heard of this before, I thought the author did a great job walking through how life altering this condition can be, both for Sadie as an artist, but for any individual. We use faces as our main way to connect to each other, and when that is lost, Sadie has to use her other senses to build those connections. Doesn’t seem as hard when you say it, but we get to see how hard it really is for her and how easy our brain can make assumptions or make determinations that challenge some of those connections. Another sub-plot revolves around Sadie’s struggles with her family, specifically her relationship with her father after her mother’s death and his remarriage. As someone who’s lost her mother, I related with so many of her feelings of loss. With that said, I don’t think this story was as developed as it could have been. Sadie’s relationship with her father and stepmother was rushed while her relationship with her stepsister was overplayed in my opinion. While I can see the importance of both, I would have flipped the amount of space they play in the story. Lastly, the love triangle of Sadie/Joe/Oliver was was pure romantic fiction at its finest. Did I basically guess what was going to happen with this story from the beginning? Yes, I did. Did I care? No, no I did not. The interactions between the characters here was charming, cute, funny, basically what I look for in these kinds of books. Some areas that fell a little flat for me included some of the internal dialogue that Sadie provides through the story….without providing spoilers, some of the descriptions went on a little longer than I cared for and I was kind of waiting for the story to move on. Some of the character development fell a little flat for me. I wish Sue had a larger, more positive role in this story as a friend (she comes off as lacking empathy at times) and, as I already mentioned, I wish Parker had less of a role in this story. There is enough happening that the need for her as the heel wasn’t necessary. I also wish we learned more about Sadie’s dad and Lucinda as I think they could have been a lot more interesting and integral than they were. However, I will say I can overlook this because I think Sadie/Joe/Oliver are so strong and likable, and are the main focus of the story, as they should be. I especially connected with the Author’s note at the end of this book because it perfectly sums up my feelings for romantic fiction as well. Could you say this book is predictable in many aspects? Definitely! But fans of romantic fiction want the joy, the hope, that anticipation that come with these stories, and they pick up these books for that, not for the shock factor (in my opinion). Hello Stranger delivers on that aspect, and for that I would give it 4/5 stars.
