Confess - Colleen Hoover
Published by: Atria Books, on 10 March 2015
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Pages: 320, Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Purchase
Reading Challenges: 2015 New Release Challenge, Bookish Resolutions Challenge 2015

Auburn Reed has her entire life mapped out. Her goals are in sight and there’s no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn’t expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry.

For once, Auburn takes a risk and puts her heart in control, only to discover Owen is keeping major secrets from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it.

The last thing Owen wants is to lose Auburn, but he can’t seem to convince her that truth is sometimes as subjective as art. All he would have to do to save their relationship is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin…

While Confess was sometimes heartbreaking and always well written, I found the ending to be a little bit ‘too easy’ after everything that was going on…

My Confess review:

Colleen Hoover is an expert at tugging at my heartstrings, I always feel all the feels when I read one of her books, and Confess was no exception to the rule! Auburn and Owen were great characters to follow, but they didn’t touch me as deeply as other characters have done. And I have to admit that I felt anger both towards Auburn’s parents, and towards Lydia! As always, the story started out a little mysterious, as a reader, I had no idea why Auburn would have ever wanted to move back to Dallas after the hardship she had lived through there in the past, but little by little, I realized I would have done the same thing as her.

The cast of characters in Confess is pretty small, but I still didn’t really feel like I truly got to know any of them all that well, I loved the beginning, when Owen and Aubrey first met, I was sure I was going to be blown away for the whole story, but I wasn’t… I think part of the reason why is that it actually too quite a long time for Owen and Aubrey to reveal themselves to me, the tease of knowing they both had confessions was better than actually knowing what it was.

The artwork used in Confess is beautiful! Really, really beautiful, and it brought one aspect of Owen to life in a way that was very special. The way he was holding so much back when he was talking made me think his secrets were much more dramatic than they were, though. The romance is well done, Owen and Aubrey do have a tangible connection, and it made me sad for both of them that Aubrey didn’t dare trust her feelings, both when it came to Owen and when it came to Trey.

Confess is written in dual points of views, chapters from both Owen’s and Aubrey’s perspectives, and I’m sure it will be an amazing audiobook! As the story unfolded, and I came closer to the end, I felt like it had fizzled out a little before the puzzle came into place a little too conveniently.

Some of my favorite Confess quotes:

It’s a strange feeling when you know at fifteen that you just lived through the harshest words you’ll ever hear.

It’s impossible to defend yourself against inexperience and age. And maybe they’re right. Maybe we don’t know love like an adult knows love, but we sure as hell feel it. And right now, it feels imminently heartbreaking.

The worst scenario I can come up with is one that would end with my murder. Sadly, that’s not enough of a deterrent, considering the month I’ve had.