My confession: this book was not for me. 2.5 / 5 stars.
The blurb: 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…
My take:
Though I can only give this book 2.5 stars, it wasn’t all bad. I loved the idea of the anonymous confessions and the paintings they inspire. This was the best part of Confess for me. It’s an original idea which Hoover uses in a thoughtful and effective way.
I can also understand why Colleen Hoover has such a loyal following. Her prose is compelling, bordering on hypnotic in places. At times the first person voices are magnetic and if a reader were to connect with her characters I can imagine they would happily forgo sleep to find out how things will work out for them.
Sadly, I did not connect with the characters in Confess.
My recent experience with Disclaimer, 24 Hours and now Confess, has made something clear to me: I don’t read to suffer. I read for adventure, excitement, romance, love, drama, mystery, thrills… But I don’t enjoy getting an in-depth, first-person account of ongoing trauma or spending time with broken, highly-damaged characters. Particularly when said characters make choices which mystify and frustrate me. I found myself wishing they’d stop dithering, grow a spine and sort themselves out.
I can tell you the exact moment I began to lose patience. Auburn (main female character) has met Owen (main male character) about 15 minutes ago. She looks at him and thinks the following:
“His eyes don’t seem like the eyes of a twenty-one-year-old. They’re dark and deep, and I have a sudden urge to plunge into their depths so I can see everything he’s seen.” (page 25)
Really? REALLY?
I stuck with it until “Part 2”. Then I skimmed to the end just to find out what happened even though I didn’t really care.
Can anyone who has read more of Hoover’s works tell me if I might have a different experience with another of her books? Do all her characters have traumatic pasts and serious hang-ups? Do they all fall in love/have a mysterious attraction to each other within minutes of meeting? Help!
Art and Soul 
Yes, they all pretty much have something traumatic in their pasts. She may not be for you. 😦
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Oh, dear. Maybe I should steer clear in that case… I wouldn’t mind the trauma if they were making efforts to sort themselves out!
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Hmmm…Maybe try Hopeless?
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Thanks! Off the check it out on Goodreads now 🙂 I’ll see if my library have it too. They have quite an impressive Colleen Hoover collection.
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I think I actually borrowed it from my library when I read it.
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CoHo is not for everyone. Her books follow the typical new adult formula: female with traumatic past + brooding male = insta-love craziness. But I like new adult none the less 😂.
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It’s a shame because her writing is very good. But once I don’t get on with the characters in a book, I pretty much want to give up!
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Yeah, I love her writing. It’s so lyrical. But I total understand your frustrations with the characters, especially the guys in some of her other books, I just wanted to slap them for making stupid decisions -_-.
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I read to escape/adventure too. Definitely an author I need to stay away from.
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I was disappointed because her writing is good. But if the characters don’t interest me then I just can’t get into a book. When I finished I had the urge to read a couple of chapters of The Martian to cheer myself up! 🙂
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Ha ha, yeah, it’s hit or miss with coho. I love her, but you may not. I mean, if you didn’t like this one, you may or may not like the others, but they’re all centered around some heartbreaking tragedy or trauma and a hot dude that the female wants but can’t have for some reason…but idk, I love her books so it’s up to you whether you want to give her another try. Hope that helped ;P
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I’ve read three of Colleen Hoover’s books and disliked every one of them. I could never really put my finger on what it was that irked me so much, but I think you described it perfectly! The constant whining and complaining of her main characters just frustrates me too much to be able to enjoy the book.
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That was the core problem. I kept willing them to take charge and sort themselves out! The writing itself wasn’t the issue. I think I’d give another book a try. I’ll just have to do some thorough research into the characters first.
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Not sure I would try Hopeless. Only Colleen book I’ve read and deals with abuse/trauma. Think our tastes may be similar as I liked the writing but the traumatised characters thing isn’t for me.
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It’s a shame. I don’t think I’d even mind the trauma if we saw them making real efforts to overcome it from the beginning. Or one main character was damaged, but another wasn’t for some balance… I think I’ll give it a few months, try and find the book of hers with the least damaged characters and give that a go!
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I’m not sure whether to try another or not. Might do the same. Leave it a while and see how I feel.
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