Blog Tour, Reviews, and Giveaway: Confess: Colleen Hoover

by - Tuesday, March 10, 2015



CONFESS
Colleen Hoover
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Release Date March 10, 2015


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…

I am not sure how Colleen Hoover does it. But even though I always expect something special when I open one of her books, she still always manages to surprise me. This is another one where you just need to go in blindly, get pulled in, and go with the flow. Colleen takes you on another journey with amazing characters and an original story line that will touch your heart and keep you guessing.

Auburn Reed fell in love with a young man in her teens, but their time together was cut short to due to circumstances beyond their control. But it had a profound effect on her future choices. Years later, now she is making a new life for herself in a new place. She answers a Help Wanted ad and meets Owen Gentry, a quirky artist who owns an exclusive, yet different type of art gallery.

Owen is funny, endearing, protective, passionate, and truly interested. He is immediately drawn to her and is more affected than he should be. And he in turn touches her in ways she had forgotten could exist. But he has his own set of issues and a past that seems to keep hurting him and has shaped most of his decisions. 

She is devoted, determined, and strong, but has been conditioned to believe she is not. She lacks self confidence and still strongly affected by the pain from her past. Owen sparks something in her.  But even as she begins to feel truly alive again, Owen brings more complications to her life that she does not need.

They both have secrets, and put up smoke screens with omissions and some straight up lies. Their lives do not mesh. So it is a confusing, heartbreaking, and frustrating situation for both of them. And it only gets more complex and difficult the more their secrets are revealed. It is hard to tell who to trust and who has hidden agendas. Along with the secrets and mysteries, there are also plot twists that kept me guessing. 

There is so much going on under the surface both from their pasts and the present. The confessions come slowly as the story unfolds. I was completely enthralled and mesmerized. I kept trying to figure it all out and piece together connections. I kept trying to come up with any way there could the ending I wanted. I was so invested in these characters and this story that my heart was squeezing in my chest. I was felling everything--their deep connection, need, fear, anger, hopelessness, and frustration. I wanted them to be okay. I needed them to be okay.
And then the plot turned more suspenseful and made me even more nervous and tension filled. And the surprises just kept coming and the secrets and confessions kept rolling. It was so intricately layered  and created an intense, thought-provoking, emotional story.

This was a beautifully woven story about love, fate, hope, perseverance, and healing. It was a complete roller coaster of emotions and secrets. But it was engaging, powerful, and moving. But it also had humor and bursts of joy. I loved the main characters and getting both of their points of view even if they did not divulge their secrets to us any earlier than they did to each other. I felt for them. I hurt for them. I hoped for them. I hated the antagonists and they made me so angry. I enjoyed their friends that added a bit of humor to some tense situations. I loved how "confessions" were weaved into the story in so many different ways. And all of it together took me on a really unique, complex, and compelling journey that I will not soon forget. So in summary, I must clearly confess that Colleen Hoover freaking did it again...and it really should not surprise me!

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The down side of loving a book as much as I loved Confess is coming up with words at the end. Because I loved it, but without spoiling giant pieces of it, I am at a loss for words right now. This is the type of book that is best to be relatively blind going in. 

There are people you meet that you get to know, and then there are people you meet that you already know.

Auburn is new to Dallas, though she has ties in the city. A second job lands in her lap when she needs it most, but behind the wall filled with confessions is more than she imagined when she took the job. Her backstory had me in tears from very early on, and when the story moves to the present day I couldn't help but be sympathetic to her struggles and curious as to the motives behind her actions. 

Owen Gentry has a string of bad decisions behind him, but as he is drawn to his new gallery assistant he wishes he could take them all back. Or at least his most recent few. It is clear early on that he is hiding several things from Auburn, some things readers learn early while others take nearly the entire book to be revealed. 

If I had known you would show up at my door one day, I’d have done everything differently.

Their connection is immediate, though for very different reasons they fight it. Or rather, Auburn fights it, Owen isn’t quite sure what to do with it. I loved the way they worked through their secrets, their relationship hangups, their lives in general. 

One of the most innovative and creative things about this book is the collaboration with an artist to create the artwork that is actually referenced throughout the story. As I read an advanced copy, the artwork was not included. I cannot tell you how excited I am to see the artwork in conjunction with the scenes from the book. Just as with Maybe Someday and it’s soundtrack, I imagine the sensory experience that Confess brings will make reading the story even more compelling. 

Hello, book hangover! It’s a good thing I started reading this earlier in the day, because it was the kind of book that hurts to put down. There story is filled with so many secrets, assumptions

This is exactly what I hope for when I hear Colleen Hoover is releasing a new book. Tears, laughter, surprises. Fate, serendipity, beauty. 

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.



The prologue had me in tears. I wanted more Adam and Auburn, but in the same sense, I couldn’t deny the connection between our two protagonists when they first met. Their chemistry was fun, witty, and light. 

Owen and Auburn were fun characters, and I really adored them together. I found my favorite parts that kept me engaged the most included every time Owen and Auburn together. They were just so dang sweet and cute. Each moment spent between them reminded me of Colleen’s unique brand of romance. It wasn’t long before I started to cheer them on. 

The middle was pretty much hit and miss for me. I wasn’t very fond of any Trent moments, these were the moments I was disengaged. I felt he took away from the book with all of his contrived drama. I mean we had a man using whatever he could to undermine and manipulate those around him. He was a bit much and overwhelming on top of the underlying plot. 

I found I didn’t really start to become overly invested until about the third part of the book. Maybe it was all the drama finally coming together and the promise of Trent on his way to the curb.

And that epi was a unique little twist. 

I have taken a few days to think about my thoughts, hoping my mixed feelings regarding Confess would change or at least fall into place enough for me to explain them. Unfortunately, nothing has changed for me. It isn’t that I didn’t like the book because overall I did. I honestly cannot put my finger on any one specific thing that didn’t work for me. Wish I could though. Maybe then, I would feel better about leaving a three star rating. I think it’s even harder for me to pinpoint since I have never had this disconnected feeling about a CoHo book. There was something about Confess and my mood that just didn’t jive.

Thank you, Atria Books, for the complimentary copy of Confess.
 
Colleen Hoover
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Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Slammed, Point of Retreat, This Girl, Hopeless, Losing Hope, Maybe Someday, Finding Cinderella, and Ugly Love. She lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. Please visit ColleenHoover.com.

Enter for a chance to win! Visit Atria’s Tumblr page from 3/9 – 3/22 to enter to win one of five signed copies of CONFESS.

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