Book 12/30.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Auburn Reed is determined to rebuild her shattered life and she has no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she does not expect to become deeply attracted to the studio’s enigmatic artist, Owen Gentry. For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is hiding a huge secret. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything Auburn loves most, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it—but can she do it?
This was, yet again, an entertaining Colleen Hoover read, and the addition of a twist to Auburn’s story not usually found in New Adult novels differentiates the book from its peers. The pacing was done well, mostly thanks to Colleen’s writing style that makes it so easy to keep turning the pages. I also appreciated the premise behind Owen’s art which lends itself to the book’s title: he welcomes anonymous confessions in a dropbox at his art studio and his work, which is included in the novel, is inspired by them.
That said, Auburn and Owen were rather dull and did not have much chemistry, which in turn did not have me rooting for them with any real enthusiasm, and that does not bode well for the reading experience of a romance novel. And do not even get me started on Trey and his mama, the antagonists of the story whose villain-ness had no real characterisation and only served as a tool to keep the protagonists apart.
This was my fifth Colleen Hoover read, the first being the incomparable It Ends with Us which was a major 5 star read. I gave 4 stars to my next three CoHo reads, Ugly Love, Verity and November 9 the Ugly Love-Verity-November 9 treatment and rated it 4 stars, but when I sat down to write this review, I had to be honest with myself and admit that the only reason for my 4 star rating was the author’s name. Because Confess is a 3 star read if I ever read one, so here we are with the revised rating 😅
View all my reviews
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 