Katherine Center Archives - Kaetrin's Musings

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center, narrated by Patty Murin. A new favourite author/narrator pairing.

Last year, The Bodyguard was in my best of list – not only did I enjoy the story but I adored the narration by Patti Murin – so it was a no-brainer for me to review this year’s release Hello Stranger.

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist, broke and desperate to get her big break. She barely squeaks by with the earnings from her Etsy shop. She lives in her studio which she’s not supposed to do as her landlord, Mr Kim, (her BFF’s father) assures her it’s not “fit for human habitation”. She refers to it as her “hovel”.

Her father is a very successful cardio-thoracic surgeon who is disappointed with Sadie’s career choice. When Sadie’s artist mother died when she was 14, he remarried very quickly thereafter. Sadie does not get along well with her stepmother, Lucinda, and positively detests her stepsister, Parker, – who is a very nasty piece of work indeed.

But things are finally looking up! Sadie is a finalist in a national portrait competition – one of 10, out of a pool of 2000 entrants. In six weeks, she has to deliver an original portrait and she has the chance to win $10,000 and finally get some success.

On the way home from buying party supplies to celebrate her making the cut, she has a seizure and is rushed to hospital. There, she is diagnosed with a venous malformation in her brain which needs to be fixed or it could be fatal. It is the same thing that killed her mother. Following surgery, Sadie is left with a condition known as “acquired prosopagnosia” – acquired face blindness. She not only cannot recognise faces (something those who are born with prosopagnosia cannot reliably do to one degree or another), but the faces themselves are a jumble of pieces, like a mixed up jigsaw puzzle or a Picasso painting. For a portrait artist, this is a disaster. The condition may or may not spontaneously resolve. It’s a lot for her to cope with.

Sadie is comforted by her beloved dog, Peanut, who is a “gentleman of certain years” and her sudden crush on Dr. Oliver Addison, the new vet at the clinic where Peanut was boarded when she was in hospital. She can’t see his face of course but she just knows he’s a looker. He’s also very kind and loves animals. Check and check.

Meanwhile, her neighbour, Joe, moves from “weasel” category into the friend zone. She thought he was a womanising creeper but as she gets to know him she realises that’s not what he is at all.

Sadie is a person who does not like to ask for help. She is always and ever “okay”. Great, even. Joe is the guy who is always willing to help. He helps anyone – even Parker, when she moves into the building largely to mess with Sadie, because she really is awful.

Over the weeks leading up to the portrait competition, Sadie has to find a way to paint a face that doesn’t look like a police sketch or a ghoul and, she has to ask for help. Both of these things are incredibly hard for her, especially because she refuses to tell most people about her face blindness. She thinks of it as a failing or a weakness and is embarrassed by it.

It’s not difficult to guess the gimmick of the story so I don’t necessarily give myself points for picking how things ended. What makes it so fun is the characters and the way the story is told.

Sadie is wonderful. She’s funny and interesting. Her flaws are realistic and understandable. She has had to learn to rely on herself since her mother died and her father essentially abandoned her (emotionally at the least) and now it is a point of pride to keep doing it. She wants to honour her mother and find some further connection to her with her painting. Just before she died, Sadie’s mother was also a finalist in this same portrait competition.

And Joe is the best. I never believed he was a creep – I figured who he was talking about in the elevator that time. He’s kind, generous, smart and good-looking. Mr Kim calls Joe “helpful” because that’s what he is. But he’s no doormat either.

The only thing I’d say is that I think the “gimmick” went on just a little too long. I began to get impatient for the big reveal. For me, it tipped over from tension to the wrong side of frustrating. But this was only very close to the end and it’s a small thing in the bigger picture (heh, see what I did there?).

Patti Murin is fantastic. I just love listening to her. She has wonderful comedic timing and perfect intonation. Katherine Center writes with humour but its often about the delivery in audio and the jokes land every time here. But it’s more than just jokes. It’s the amusing asides, the whip smart turns of phrase. Ms Center writes them and Ms Murin delivers. It’s a perfect author/narrator pairing.

Ms Murin has a great range of character voices, excellent pacing and wonderful emotion in her performance. I enjoyed listening to her so much I immediately went to Audible to find more of her work.

Grade: A

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, narrated by Patty Murin. Fantastic narration and a funny contemporary romance – but note some heavier topics in there including parental death, death of a sibling and cancer. But if those things aren’t dealbreakers, this one comes with a big recommend from me.

I suppose The Bodyguard would be categorised by many as a “romcom” but, funny as it is (and it really is) I shy away from the term. For starters, it suggests light and fluffy and the very first thing that happens in this book is the female lead’s mother’s death. While that part isn’t on page; the story begins the evening of the funeral.

The male lead character’s own mother is dealing with breast cancer (although she has an excellent result). There’s also reference, in the past, to domestic abuse (the heroine’s mother), alcoholism and death of a sibling (the hero’s brother). Those are all heavy things. While I wouldn’t describe this book as depressing, the topics covered are far too serious for the term “romcom” to sit well with me.

Instead, it’s a very funny contemporary romance, with low heat (that’s fine – it really didn’t need it) with the main characters facing some big issues over the course of the book.

Hannah Brooks is an Executive Protection Agent (aka bodyguard). She travels the world from her Houston base, providing protection services to the wealthy and sometimes famous. Up until the day after her mother’s funeral, she was dating a co-worker, Robbie. But he dumps her (he’s a real piece of work) and within the space of a month, Hannah has lost her mother, her boyfriend and her best friend (Robbie dates her next).

Hannah is not generally a warm and fuzzy type. She’s focused, mainly on work. She describes herself as a “shark” who needs to keep moving. When she’s still there are too many hard things to think about and she’d really rather not.

The agency Hannah works for has picked up a new celebrity client; Jack Stapleton. Jack is a famous Hollywood actor who has been reclusive for the past few years since the death of his younger brother, Drew, in a car accident. There are rumours, unsubstantiated and well quashed by Jack’s publicist, that he was driving drunk and that is what caused the accident. He’s been living quietly in North Dakota but comes home to be with his mother after she gets a breast cancer diagnosis. His mother wanted Jack to be with her as she faces surgery and whatever treatment is needed afterwards.

Jack is estranged from his older brother, Hank, and this causes extra problems because Hank is the ranch manager at the family farm.

Hannah is assigned as the primary agent for Jack’s protection while he is in Houston. It’s her opportunity to land the plum assignment of opening the London branch. She’s competing with Robbie and only one of them can succeed. She’s determined it will be her.

There are some suspenseful moments in the book but this is not a romantic suspense. In fact, my main criticism of the story is that Hannah doesn’t get enough opportunity to show her professional competence and skill. Instead, Hannah ends up pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend in order not to alarm Jack’s family and in particular his mother, who does not need any extra stress. Because reasons, Jack and Hannah end up staying at the family farm for a few weeks so the pretence becomes 24/7 and ongoing rather than only for occasional visits.

Hannah, who has been so alone (she and her alcoholic mother were not close) falls for Jack’s parents who have the kind of marriage she thought only appeared on TV. They are loving and lovely and she is made welcome.

But it is the relationship between Hannah and Jack that is the big draw for this book. Given the nature of Hannah’s role, they are forced to spend lots of time together and their connection is delightful.

There were many times I laughed out loud while listening; especially the “mad cat face” scene.

Jack, who has not laughed very much in the past few years, finds himself laughing at least once every day because Hannah delights him. Hannah is not a Hollywood starlet. She’s “ordinary looking”, some might even say “plain”. To Jack, Hannah is “real”.

Their banter sizzles but they do more than trade bon mots. They help each other deal with their respective griefs. They take care of one another in various ways. They become close and, inevitably, Hannah falls for him. Apart from being gorgeous, Jack is, it turns out, a really nice guy.

The story is told from Hannah’s first person (past tense) point of view and her obvious concern is that Jack is an actor and it can be difficult to know what’s real and what’s pretend. Hannah finds it hard to imagine Jack would want to date her in reality. So do many others in Hannah’s sphere.

We listeners know better of course.

The narration is superb. It’s my first experience with Patty Murin but it won’t be my last. She has fantastic comedic timing, great pacing and tone and also delivers the pathos of the story with skill.

At one stage I thought that Ms. Murin might be a pseudonym for Cristina Panfilio (another favourite of mine) because they sound so similar. (They’re not the same person; a simple Google search shows me that – which is the only reason it gets mentioned at all here. It’s not cool to out people – don’t do it.) So, they’re not the same person but they could be narration twins. There is a very similar style of delivery and the same things I love about Ms. Panfilio’s narration are what shone out to me in Ms. Murin’s performance. In other words, they’re both excellent voice actors.

I’m convinced Ms. Murin’s narration was at least 50% of the reason I laughed as much as I did and she was also probably responsible for at least half of the other emotions I felt throughout the novel. Hannah is a great character, vulnerable, fierce, competent in some things (her job – though this was more told than shown unfortunately) and woefully unskilled in others – navigating personal relationships for example. And Jack is wonderful too. He’s far more than just a pretty face but of course he is completely gorgeous. He sees through Hannah’s guard to the woman beneath and recognises her for the gem she is.

The narration is just excellent and the story is a lot of fun – just watch out for the potential landmines of those heavier topics – but otherwise this book is a big recommend from me.

Grade: A