Release Date: March 10th 2015
Published By: Atria Books
Pages: 320
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Purchase: Click here to purchase

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Synopsis: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a new novel about risking everything for love—and finding your heart somewhere between the truth and lies.

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.

Review: There are multiple things I like about Colleen Hoover’s books. Her ability to make you relate to the characters, her ability to pull on your heart-strings, her ability to make you question her characters secrets, to tackle tough subjects, and mostly, to make you think about a situation just a little bit differently. And Confess did all these things, but sadly, it wasn’t my favourite of Colleen’s books.

Confess starts sad… very sad actually, so instantly I was dragged into this story. In to the heartache, and the hope that something good will come in the following pages. The story held heartbreak, secrets, illusiveness, pain and desire.

Confess is told from alternating points of views of both Auburn and Owen. And one of Colleen’s another talents is writing from a male’s perspective. And things are no different in Confess. Owen is sweet and damaged, expressive but yet guarded, flawed and deep. And has a secret. Although, maybe not as big as some. Auburn is making a new start, but the secrets in Owen’s past could threaten her new beginning and everything that she loves most.

Although Auburn and Owen’s feelings run strong for each other instantly, there are many things that keep these two apart for a lot of the story. Although spread over a few months, these two only see each other a handful of times, and it is strong and intense! Although it was somewhat of an insta-love situation, there are people you meet that you get to know, and then there are people you meet that you already know. It may just be fate.

What I did miss from Confess was an awesome best friend or side kick. I have come used to a secondary character making me laugh and winning my heart in Colleen’s books. However no such character came to sweep me off my feet. There was the potential in Auburn’s friend/flatmate, as there are certainly glimpses of awesomeness, but sadly she wasn’t fleshed out enough for me.

As fans of Colleen’s know, we are always in for some shock when it comes to her stories, and Confess is no different. There is another aspect to this storyline that is not mentioned in the synopsis, and I am not going to talk about it either, but please keep this in mind when I start to get vague about certain events and reactions.

I don’t know why, but I really couldn’t connect with these characters. I didn’t feel Auburn’s desperation or Owen’s despair, or their feelings for each other. And I actually found Auburn to be rather frustrating. Although I have never been in the situation that Auburn finds herself in, so I therefore cannot truly understand, I just wanted her to stand up for herself more. At times she was a door-mat, and this included her overlooking things that should not have been overlooked. I do understand why this happened, for both the character and the storyline, but I still wish she had a more of a backbone at times.

There are two things that made me not absolutely love this book. First, was the reaction of one of the characters after a major “twist”. While I respected the reaction, to me, it just seemed a little too quick. I would have liked a minute of shock, of uncertainty, to be able to pull their thoughts together. But it seemed that there was none of this and it was immediate acceptance without a “wait a second, did that just happen?”.

The second thing was something that happened a little later… and for me, it was pretty big. A particular event occurred, and one of the character’s reactions to the situation, quite frankly, pissed me off. I understand why the character reacted like this and I understood why Colleen went down this track, but I still didn’t like it. It did not sit well with me, and although I understand that going down a certain track after this event would have caused a lot of problems for that character, I still wanted them to go down this track… to want to, to need to.

Colleen’s writing continues to be beautiful and effortless… it is real, it is honest, and even though situations and feelings may get messy, her stories always flow at just the right pace.

With Confess, Colleen continues to bring something unique to her stories, and this time it was art and confessions. The combination of these two things is amazing and utterly original in a way that only Colleen manages to deliver. The confessions are the building blocks behind Owens art, and the art is not just a small aspect to the storyline; it is the reason why Owen and Auburn connect and it is how we get to see sides of Owen we never would otherwise. And for me, the most important part was that these pieces of art where brought alive with the wonderful illustrations. My only criticism regarding the art is there wasn’t enough of it and I would have liked to get the full, colour picture as the piece was brought in to the storyline (as each piece is mentioned you get a smaller black and white image, you have to wait - or flick - to the middle of the book to get the big, colour version).

So while Confess wasn’t for me, I will eagerly await Colleen’s next book. Her uniqueness is refreshing and I always find myself blown away by her surprise twists. Colleen has a true individuality that I admire, but sadly this one didn’t hit me in the heart like her other books.

Quotes:

“I’m scared I’ll never feel this again with anyone else”

“I’ll love you forever. Even when I shouldn’t”

“There are people you meet that you get to know, and then there are people you meet that you already know”

“Sometimes I miss them so much, it hurts me right here. It feels like someone is squeezing my heart with the strength of the entire goddamn world”

“It’s amazing how much distance one truth can create between two people”

“That could be fate, you know”

“I’m afraid if I listen to my heart once, I’ll never figure out how to ignore it again”