Review: Confess by Colleen Hoover

Confess

by Colleen Hoover

March 10, 2015

306 pages

Goodreads  Indigo

Goodreads Summary:

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

I'm sorry to say this but Confess and I did not click. As much as I wanted to like this book I couldn't connect with the characters and the story. In fact, most of the story frustrated me. I only kept reading because I like Colleen Hoover's writing- easy and smooth.

My biggest problem with the story is the timeline. The story takes place over a couple months but the two main characters only see each other a few times throughout those months. I'm just not a believer how they can develop such intense feeling for each other during that short time period. And the connection they "shared" was very one-sided in knowledge and contributed nothing. It felt too unrealistic to me.

Auburn was too passive of a character for my liking but I gave her a free pass because she was in a truly tough position. It killed me to have to watch her submit to others. Those bullies used her secret aka her one weakness to control and belittle her. It's a good thing Owen came along.

Owen is a good person and does not deserve all the suffering he was put through. While his self-sacrificing behaviour seemed too good to be realistic, I liked how he gave Auburn strength and confidence to face her enemies.

In the end I thought Auburn's problem was too easily resolved. Not to mention it's a morally ambiguous solution. I applaud her for using her brain for once but her method was questionable. It left me feeling like it could backfire any time after. Also, Owen's secret was totally no big deal.

This is my third Colleen Hoover book. I've enjoyed one but not so much the other and Confess falls somewhere in the middle. I think I will give her other books a try and hopefully there will be more hits than misses.