Confess

Author: Colleen Hoover

Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary.

Editorial: Atria Books

Year: 2015

Ranking: 4/ 5

 

 

Synopsis

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.

The Author

Colleen Hoover was born December 11, 1979 in Sulphur Springs, TX. She grew up in Saltillo, TX, and graduated from Saltillo High School in 1998. In 2000, she married Heath Hoover, with whom she now has three sons and a pig named Sailor. Hoover graduated from Texas A&M-Commerce with a degree in Social Work. She worked various social work and teaching jobs until she began her writing career.

In November 2011, Colleen began writing her first novel, Slammed, with no intentions of getting published. She was inspired by a lyric, "decide what to be and go be it", from an Avett Brothers song, "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise". Because of this, she incorporated Avett Brothers lyrics throughout the story. After a few months, her novel was reviewed and given 5 stars by major book blogger, Maryse Black. After that, sales rapidly increased, and Slammed and its sequel, Point of Retreat, both made the New York Times Best Seller list.

Personal Experience with This Book

When I read "Ugly Love" by Colleen Hoover I told myself I would read every book she had. After I realized she had many and I'm still in the process of reading them. However, I centered my attention particularly in Confess because of the confessions and the art involving the story. And also, by the fact that we have illustrations presented in the book representing those paintings made by Owen, which I found very nice and original.

I really liked the story in this book. And, I am not able to say much more than the story because it will be a huge spoiler. It is a beautiful story that leaves you thinking that destiny actually exists and, that somehow there is someone out there that it is meant for you, for you to love and to be loved.

It is impossible talk about Confess without mentioning the confessions that Owen gets in his study. I liked very much how those confessions were related to the paintings because it gives a deeper meaning to the Owen’s art. Besides as he said, thanks to them you realize that you still can have faith in humanity, and that sometimes many people face much worse things than what we are going through and they still go on with their lives.

At first I thought the relationship between Aurburn and Owen was developing very fastly. It was a kind of insta-love and I usually do not like when that happens in books. However, in this book and also in "Ugly Love" I did not care. More than an insta-love is like a chemistry and physical attraction that exists between the main characters that somehow justifies that things happen as quickly as they do. That chemistry evolves towards love, and although love comes very fast, is not something that comes to bother me.

Auburn is a beautiful character. She has that way of laughing at herself even when her situation is not the best; even when it seems that things are not at all well in her life and when it seems that all her problems are piling up and she has to do things she does not want to do, it is still there. Given her sad moments but still that essence we see from the first page where she finds a joke in a difficult situation.

Owen is a lovely and very passionate person. I think I fell in love for this guy from the moment I started reading from his perspective. Even if I think he should give some thought to the meaning of "deserve". Owen has a complicated life, like Auburn, but also has the ability to see the good and beautiful things and apart, he is a painter. Let's see, who does not like an artist? Who does not think a guy with paint on the shirt and who has his own studio is sexy? Besides that at first glance he seems so relaxed and charismatic. Well ... enough of my love for Owen.

Colleen has a way to rip the heart out of the person reading her books. And seeing that I've only read two, and many people say their first books are worse than the last. I love how she awakened in my heart feelings of anxiety and sadness. I really do think that reading one of her books is FEELING the story, not reading it. Her writing style really captivates and engages the reader.

The reason I did not give more score to this book was, despite everything I liked, because of the excess drama that the book has. God! There are many bad things that happen to these two characters in just a 300 pages book. I think she could have just take out one of those bad things and the story would have been as beautiful as it was. It reminded me to a Latin soap opera (not wanting to offend anyone). If it had not been because I really felt that there was too much drama in the book I would have given it a higher score. Although, this should be expected from an author as Colleen because, she loves to put drama in her stories.

The epilogue was BEAUTIFUL. Really BEAUTIFUL. I think it clarifies many things and I think that is what stayed with me the most from the story. Because that's when you understand why Owen fell for Aurburn once he saw her enter in his study.

The book is beautiful but if you do not like the sad stories you shouldn’t read it. While I think that people should give it a try. Especially if you are interested in art, the illustrations that are in this book are stunning.