Review: Confess by Colleen Hoover

 

Publication: March 10th 2015 by Atria Books

Source: Purchased

Goodreads description:

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…

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This book was amazing and without a doubt the BEST Colleen Hoover book that I have read so far (I have also read Maybe Someday, Maybe Not and Ugly Love) and I loved everything about it.

Everything about this book was perfect. The writing was captivating and there were a few plot twists that completely threw me. I did not see them coming at all and I like when a book can shock me like that.

I especially loved the idea of the confessions. That was such a unique concept and it really worked well with this book, as did the paintings that were specifically created.

Colleen Hoover is fantastic at writing believable characters that you just can’t help but love. Auburn was an amazing character. Her situation was heartbreaking and I couldn’t believe how strong and determined she was, especially at such a young age. But then again, she was tough because she had to be.

I also loved the character of Owen. He was basically perfection in every way and usually I have an issue with characters that are too perfect but that wasn’t the case here. The way he was written was believable and it just worked in this book.

I LOVED the romance in this book. Owen and Auburn were so adorable together and I liked that the relationship between them wasn’t forced. Auburn still could not fully let go of losing her first love and Owen wasn’t trying to take his place or make her forget him.

Of course the characters I hated were Lydia and Trey, but even as evil characters they were so well written. Colleen Hoover writes deranged creepy evil sinister psychopath really well! So believable. And even Owen’s father redeemed himself in the end.

The epilogue was perfect. It really did bring everything together and answered every question that I had. I loved how lines and small details that you don’t think mean much in the beginning actually do come back into the story at a later point. Everything was connected and I absolutely loved that. Especially when we finally learn the truth behind Owen and his history with Auburn. I lost it at that point. Colleen Hoover is definitely a master at writing the feels, I was an emotional wreck by the end of this book.

This book NEEDS to be a movie! Ugly Love is already being made into one, so maybe this one can be next.

Overall, this was a superb YA contemporary romance. I gave it a 6 star rating and I recommend it to everyone!

Jen's August 2015 Book Haul

The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

The Syrena Legacy (Of Poseidon, Of Triton & Of Neptune) by Anna Banks 

The Breathing series (Reason to Breathe, Barely Breathing & Out of Breath) by Rebecca Donovan 

Ten Tiny Breaths series (Ten Tiny Breaths, In Her Wake, One Tiny Lie, Four Seconds to Lose & Five Ways to Fall) by K.A. Tucker 

 

Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross & A Breath of Snow and Ashes (books 3-6 in the Outlander series) by Diana Gabaldon 
The Outlandish Companion: Volume 1 by Diana Gabaldon

Mel's August 2015 Book Haul

Very small book haul in August! I thought I bought more, but oh well. 

Top to bottom
The Silkworm and The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)
Risk by Fluer Ferris (This book is amazing! I highly recommend this book!)
Devoted by Hilary Duff (Bargain buy! $2 from a local second hand/op shop.)
Doctor Who Boxed set: Character Encyclopedia & The Visual Dictionary (Another bargain! Total $24, while individually, they were $23 & $18. Not sure which price went with which book, but who cares, right?) 

September 2015 TBR

Jen  
Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes (I read Falling Kingdoms in August and LOVED it and want to continue on with the series.)

A Dance with Dragons Part 1: Dreams and Dust by George R.R. Martin (I am still slowly making my way through this series.)

One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker (This is the second book in the Ten Tiny Breaths series which I started in August and absolutely loved so I want to continue on with the series.) 

The Martian by Andy Weir (I have been hearing some great things about this book and I want to read this before the movie comes out.) 

Other than those books listed above, I don't know for sure what books I want to read but I am in the mood for contemporary so any of the following are possibilities: 

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Frigid & Scorched by Jennifer L. Armentrout
If I Stay & Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Mel
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas (I have been anticipating this book for most of the year, and now I have it!)
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (I have read this book before, a few years ago, but I've really been wanting to continue the series and I decided it was better to reread this one to refresh it in my memory. I'm also just kind of in the mood to read it again because I enjoyed it so much the first time I read it!)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (I really should have already finished this for uni, but every time I sit down to read it, something comes up and I never get much read. I really want to finish it!)
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (I have read this several times, but now that it's on one of my uni reading lists, I might just do a refresher and read it with the gothic genre in mind, since it is for my Gothic Lit class. I honestly don't know which aspects could be considered as gothic, but we'll see how it goes.)

I really want to finish a few books on my currently reading list that I really should have finished by now, so just to clear it up a little, I'm going to try to complete these:

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (It's taking me way too long to get into this book! I love the Throne of Glass series so much and I was hooked from the first page, but I'm just not getting that from ACOTAR.)
Harry Potter - Magical Places (It's a quick read and I'm about half way through, I think. I haven't gotten back to this one because it's currently buried under a stack of books and papers on my desk and I haven't wanted to upset the lot and send them tumbling!)
Doctor Who - The Character Encyclopedia (Updated edition)(I've only had this book for a while - it's due to go into my August haul if I ever get some space to set the books up for a photo.)

August 2015 Wrap Up

Jen

I feel like this was a slow reading month for me compared to the previous months. The 2015 Netball World Cup took place in this month so that was a major distraction and then I had a period where I just didn’t feel like reading anything. My reading did pick up towards the end of the month but a lot were audiobooks.

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes → 5/5 
The Annotated Brothers Grimm edited by Maria Tatar → 4/5  
A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston → 3/5  
The Devil You Know by Trish Doller → 3.5/5  
Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker → 5/5  
In Her Wake by K.A. Tucker → 5/5  
A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin →  4/5  
Risk by Fleur Ferris → 5/5  
Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult → 5/5  
The Tomorrow series by John Marsden (all on audiobook)  
- Tomorrow, When the War Began → 5/5  
- The Dead of the Night → 5/5  
- The Third Day, The Frost → 5/5 
- Darkness, Be My Friend → 5/5  
- Burning For Revenge → 5/5  
- The Night is For Hunting → 4.5/5 
- The Other Side of Dawn → 5/5 

Mel
I've been busy with essays and readings for uni, so I didn't get as many books read as I'd like, and a majority of the readings for uni didn't actually get finished. I was lucky though, because one of my assignments was a close reading, which means I only had to analyse a passage from one of the books, so finishing the book wasn't really necessary.

Books Finished
Angelfall by Susan Ee → 5/5
The Duff by Kody Keplinger → 5/5
The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe → 3/5
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe → 4/5
The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe → 4/5
Risk by Fleur Ferris → 5/5
Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes → 5/5

Books Not Finished (and why I didn't finish them)
The Monk by Matthew Lewis: This book is really tedious and long winded. I think I reached about a third of the way and virtually nothing had really happened. I didn't like the story, I didn't like the characters and it just really got on my nerves. I was bored reading the portion that I actually read. I'm not going to finish this one.
The Italian by Ann Radcliffe: Really, I didn't even start this one, since I had so much going on, like the presentation due the fortnight after, but just what I heard about it in discussion with the rest of the class, I'm just glad that I never picked it up. I didn't focus my assignment on this book, so it's all good.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: I have almost finished the first part of this book and what I did get through, I have really enjoyed! I have never actually read Frankenstein before or watched anything adapted to film based on the book, so I'm still intrigued by it and I will finish it eventually. As for now, I don't need to do an assignment on it, so it can stay on the back burner for now.
The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald: In general, the texts that I have to read for my Narrative Analysis class are not texts that I would normally read, and typically for me I haven't enjoyed many of them. I read 18 pages of this book.
The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster: This book was a little better than The Rings of Saturn, and I managed to make it a third of the way through, but still, not something I'd usually read, so it didn't really hold my interest.