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 that Owen is keeping some 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…
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*
4.5 “OMG” “Even when I shouldn’t.” “fate” Kisses
Well…surprise surprise – Colleen Hoover did it again. Confess just devoured my heart…brain…soul…all of it was just sucked up into 320 pages of unputdownable bliss and I was simply helpless to the awesomeness. I’m not joking…I Could. Not. Put. This. Book. Down. I finished it in less than a day…I was captivated and entranced…possibly even hypnotized – I mean, we are talking about Colleen Hoover, the woman is a genius with words. I really don’t know what to do right now. I’m beside myself because I seriously am not ready to let go of these characters. Welcome to Book Hangover…party of me.
Auburn Mason Reed…well, this chick held my heart in the palm of her hand from basically the second paragraph and she never let go of it for one second. There is something about Auburn that pulls inexplicably at every single one of my heart strings. I want to comfort her…hug her…protect her…because she’s never had that. Life hasn’t been fair or kind to Auburn…and surprisingly you would think that would result in a negative attitude or a huge chip on her shoulder…but she takes everything in stride. She does what she needs to do and she makes the best of it…ignores the pain and the emptiness and just remains resolute on moving forward. That takes an enormous amount of self will and determination cause I’ll be honest, if I’d been through half of what she had…I can’t say I would have made it. I ached for Auburn to have some kind of peace…happiness…something just for herself because good Lord did she deserve it…and lucky for me she got all of that and more in the form of a gorgeous boy with beautiful green eyes.
‘“I’ve been wanting to do this since the moment I laid eyes on you,” he whispers. His mouth connects with mine, and at first his kiss is like the one I gave him in the tent. Soft, sweet, and innocent. But then the innocence is stripped away the second he runs one of his hands through the back of my hair and slides his tongue against my lips.
I don’t know how I can feel so light and so heavy all at once, but his kiss makes me feel weighted to a cloud. I slide my hands up his neck and do my best to kiss him the way he’s kissing me, but I’m afraid my mouth doesn’t even compare to his. There’s no way I could make him feel like he’s making me feel right now.’
Owen Mason Gentry…my sexy artist with a ginormous heart. Owen is…a lot of things…so many amazing things…where do I even begin. Well…he’s kind and generous…incredibly thoughtful…sweet and sincere…funny…charming…oh who am I kidding, he’s completely swoon-tastic. He has a cat – which in my book makes him awesome…plus he named it Owen…and it’s a she, really? I can’t even with how amazing he is. I already said he was an artist…but he’s also incredibly talented, which makes him 10 million times sexier, but what led him to painting and what he paints takes everything about his art to a whole new level. The confessions and what he does with them is…like giving a visual representation to a secret…a fear…an emotion…a dream. I mean…it’s truly a mind-blowing concept and something you just want to dive into headfirst and never re-surface. When I say Owen has a ginormous heart it might be the understatement of the year. I’ve never met someone more self-sacrificing…more giving…he never thinks of himself first and while he may not have a lot of people in his life, he would do anything for those he loves. And…lastly…the most amazing thing about Owen is that his initials are OMG. 🙂
‘His mouth meets mine again, and he lands a kiss as soft as velvet against my lips. He slowly moves his head until his mouth is directly over my ear. “Is this it? Is this how it ends?”
I nod, even thought it’s the last thing I want to do. But this is the end. Even if he were to change his life completely, his past choices still affect my own life.
“Sometimes we don’t get second chances, Owen. Sometimes things just end.”
He winces. “We didn’t even get a first chance.”’
I loved everything about these two. From the moment they locked eyes I had a smile on my face and even through every angsty second I could not help but fall more in love with every little nuisance that was revealed. From the same middle names…to all the different ways they connected…they just got each other and I felt every second of their connection. I reveled in it…and considering the way Auburn and Owen’s relationship develops, that speaks volumes. I’ve always said that if I can feel the emotions from the characters…nothing else matters…so when it was actually brought up how many days they had spent together, I kinda had to do a double take because it felt like so much longer. They had this brilliant chemistry…it was effortless, the way everything was blended together just aligned perfectly and I really fell hard for these two, my heart simply overflows with love and adoration for Auburn and Owen.
‘“You’re being unfair.”
“No, I’m being selfish,” he says.
“It’s the same thing.”
He takes a step toward me. “No, Auburn, it isn’t. Unfair would be giving you an ultimatum. Being selfish is doing something like this.” His lips connect with mine with strength and purpose. His hands slide into my hair and wrap around the back of my head. He kisses me like he’s giving me every kiss he wishes he could have given me in the past, and every kiss he’ll wish he could give me in the future.
All of them, all at once.
His hands drop to my back and he pulls me against him. I’m not sure where my hands are at this point. I think I’m holding on to him for dear life, but every part of me other than my mouth has just gone completely numb. The only thing I’m fully aware of is his mouth on mine. His kiss is all I know in this moment.
All I want to think about.’
This plot…gah…it’s not called Confess for nothing…so many secrets…so many little details…so many things that could be spoiled…hence the reason why I’m not really talking about it. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out what the secrets were that they were keeping…but it really didn’t matter – that didn’t make me want to hear it directly from the characters any less. And trust me knowing the secrets beforehand did not change the emotional impact it had on me when the truth finally came out. There’s a million different ways to write a heart wrenching scene…but I promise you, Colleen has a direct line to whatever controls my tears…because she nails it every time. I mean I knew when I was crying two pages in on the prologue this book was going to be a doozy, but I was blown away. It was everything I needed…the entire emotional rollercoaster set to level 10 – and maybe it was because I was so connected and invested in these characters but I felt everything so deeply and I couldn’t stop loving it. I guess that my only complaint would be the ending, it felt a little…abrupt. I have come to expect a full story…a complete experience…and not that I didn’t love the insight that we get after the final chapter (I truly loved it)…I guess I was expecting an epilogue or maybe a little bit more closure. After I sat back and thought about it…I was fine with the ending…I don’t have to have everything spelled out for me, but I guess I was just a little surprised.
‘“I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give me. Because I know that if you walk out that door, then ten years from now…twenty years from now…we’ll wish we had listened to our hearts when we think back on tonight.”
“That’s what scares me,” I tell him. “I’m afraid if I listen to my heart once, I’ll never figure out how to ignore it again.”
Owen lowers his mouth to mine, and in a whisper he says, “If only I could be so lucky.” His mouth connects with mine again, and this time I’m very aware of every part of me. I’m pulling him to me with as much desperation as he’s pulling at me. His mouth is everywhere as he kisses me with relief, knowing this kiss is me agreeing to whatever he’s asking of me. It’s my way of telling him he can have tonight.’
Confess is a classic example of why Colleen Hoover is an absolute must read for me…her books demand to be read because they’re just excellence personified. She has this unique capability to create characters that steal my heart…compel every emotion out of the spectrum…concocts unique and original plots…and then packages it all up nicely with writing that blows my mind. I don’t even know how to explain it and do it any sort of justice. Her dialogue is some of the best that I’ve ever read…she is able to infuse the deepest emotions into the most simple of things – in fact everything she writes feels like it just bleeds emotion, and that might be why her books are like crack to me. She can have me dying laughing and bawling crying, sometimes all in the same chapter…heck it could be in the same paragraph…and while her books are no where near erotic, she’s still able to make things sexy and give you those feelings without taking it to that level. Plus anyone that can work the line ‘Texas is turning me into a whore.’ into a book…is seriously a genius.
Visit Atria’s Tumblr page from 3/9 – 3/22 to enter to win and a grand prize of a signed framed print of one of the images in the book plus a signed copy of CONFESS or one of the runner up prizes of one of four signed copies of CONFESS.
Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Slammed, Point of Retreat, This Girl, Hopeless, Losing Hope, Maybe Someday, and Finding Cinderella. She lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. Please visit ColleenHoover.com.
This looks like a great read! I will have to check it out soon!
Confess looks like a very intriguing story! Something I would start and never put down!
Who is who put as Auburn ?
She’s an actress, her name is Katherine Mcnamara.
Colleen is such a good author.