Sadie Montgomery is ready for a different life. After years of scraping by as a portrait artist, she has made it as a finalist in a prestigious portrait competition, with a prize of $10.000. All she has to do is to paint one more portrait, the one for the final judging, that will be auctioned off after the final judging. She was on her way home from buying wine for the celebration party her best friend was throwing on her behalf when everything stopped. She was almost across the street, and then she was in the hospital.

When Sadie woke up in the emergency room, she found out that she had a seizure in the street, and a Good Samaritan rescued her from getting hit by a car. Days of tests reveal a small bleed on her brain, and surgery is recommended. Her first thought it to wait on the surgery for a couple of months, until the portrait competition is over. But when her dad visits her to let her know that what she has is the same thing that killed her mother when Sadie was only 14, Sadie agrees to the surgery. Everything goes perfectly, until one day, several days after the surgery, a stranger sits next to Sadie and starts talking to her like she’s Sadie’s best friend.

When Sadie realizes it is her best friend, she freaks out. This woman’s face is not at all familiar, and Sadie ends up getting diagnosed with face blindness. They doctors think it will probably pass, but she doesn’t know for sure. But how will she be able to paint the most important portrait of her life if she can’t see faces?

As she tries to recover back at her tiny studio, Sadie spends most of her time wrapped up in the softest blanket she could find while binge watching television shows. But when her dog Peanut won’t eat or even move, she has to rush the dog to the vet. And as it turns out, the vet is not only caring and compassionate and able to save Peanut’s life, he’s also handsome. Sadie may not be able to see his face exactly, but she can tell that he has a good face. So when he asks her out, she says yes.

But after sitting in the coffeeshop for an hour waiting for him, she decides it’s not meant to be. And then she runs into the Weasel, the guy from her apartment elevator who she overheard saying some very rude things one day. She sees him going in and out of the apartments of single women all the time, so she can’t help but think of him as kind of a jerk, even as he wears his vintage bowling jacket with Joe embroidered on it. But Joe the Weasel ends up saving her from a difficult situation at the coffee shop (not even the part where she got stood up), so she agrees to spend some time with him.

And then he rescues her again at a surprise party, and again in the hallway. The more time Sadie spends with him, the less she thinks of him as a weasel. And the less time she spends planning her wedding with the handsome vet. And when he agrees to sit for her, as she tries out different ways to paint a portrait without her being able to see her face, she falls for Joe. She picks Joe. She tells the veterinarian that she’s fallen for someone else. She’s ready to go all in for Joe. But then he ghosts her.

As Sadie is coming to the most important night of her life, with a non-traditional portrait for a very traditional competition, broken-hearted and still face blind, she has to face the idea that the rest of her life may not turn out the way she was envisioning it. But if her face blindness taught her anything, it’s that sometimes a change of perspective can open doors that you couldn’t even see before.

Hello Stranger is a hopeful story about loss and healing, and about how we choose to interact with the world around us. Author Katherine Center has crafted a warm, uplifting story about the ways we are all blind in some areas of our lives and how facing that and working to overcome it can change everything. This novel is sweet, heart-warming, funny, sad, and filled with the best (and a little of the worst) of humanity.

Normally, I would recommend a Katherine Center book wholeheartedly, but I just can’t do it this time. The first 30-40 percent of the book can be difficult. There is a lot of medical talk, so if that’s something you’re sensitive to, then you’ll want to be careful with the early chapters of the book. But then there is the scene that almost had me blubbering at the office as I ate my finished my lunch, the emergency vet moment. If you’re an animal person, then this scene may cause you distress too, so my recommendation is to read the first half of the book at home, or carry a lot of tissues with you. Once you get past that scene, it’s all good, animal wise, so feel free to read the rest of the book in public.

Aside from that one scene that nearly caused me a meltdown, I loved this book. It’s so charming and warm, and while I could see the twist coming from a mile away, I still loved this book. The more I read, the more I loved it, and the more I loved Center for bringing this story to us. You will put this book aside feeling like the world is not so bad, and that’s something that we all need these days.

Egalleys for Hello Stranger were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with may thanks.