Confess by Colleen Hoover
Book Series: Standalone
Publication Date: March 10, 2015
Genres: New Adult
Purchase: Amazon US – iBooks
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REVIEW
RATING: ★★★★★
“The kiss between us quickly grows painful, and not in a physical sense. The more we kiss, the more we realize what we’re losing, and it hurts. It scares me to know that there’s a chance I’ve come across one of the few people in this world who could make me feel this way, and I already have to give it up.”
If you know me by now, you know I’m an enormous fan of Colleen Hoover! When a new book of her comes out, I need to read it immediately. All her books contain a lot of drama, every character seems realistic and emotions can be felt on every page. This was also the case with Confess! I read it a second time, and I was just as excited about it as three years ago, when I read it first. And the unique quality of Confess – every book of Colleen has something unique – is definitely the confessions, but also Owen’s art, that plays a big role. All this, accompanied with Colleen’s exceptional writing style, results in Confess being an incredibly marvelous book.
“‘No one deserves you like I do.'”
Every character in the book just feels so real, even the side characters. Now and then, I just wanted to jump into the book to shake them up and to say: you have to do this and that; (don’t) believe him or her; watch out. All I could do was feel empathy for them. They could have been people in real life.
Auburn, at times I felt great jealousy towards you. Just because the handsome and intriguing Owen had eyes for you. How incredible it must be when somebody admires you like that and cares so much for you. In the beginning, I thought you would be a shy girl, but I couldn’t be more wrong. The only thing is, sometimes you let people walk all over you and you can come off as a little bit naive. But all for good reasons. You are able to love someone so much, that you would give up everything for that person. You put your own needs aside, just to be sure that that person is happy. And Owen, you’re exactly the same in that way. In the beginning of the book I didn’t know how to feel about you. Because the facts didn’t coincide with the things I learned about you. But you’re a sweetheart. You’ve got so much emotions within you and your artistic qualities are seriously over the rooftops! Ridiculously good.
Besides the two main characters, I think there are only four or five side characters. Thinking about it, every Colleen Hoover book contains that few characters and I think this is what makes her books that strong. Every side character plays an essential role in the story. They all just have one or two traits in the story, but those characteristics make them important. Emory can be very nosy. She is by far my favorite side character. Lydia is manipulative. Trey is – what can I say about him – he takes after his mother. Then, there is Owen’s father, I can’t say much about him either. Let’s just keep it at: he is complicated. I don’t want to spoil anything for you guys, off course.
“He kisses me like he’s giving me every kiss he wishes he could have given me in the past, and every kiss he’ll wish he could give me in the future. All of them, all at once.”
Normally, I really hate love at first sight, insta-love, in books. It almost always comes of as unbelievable, resulting in absolutely no realistic feeling while reading. Confess is the exception to this rule. Yes, Owen and Auburn immediately fall in love – even though I don’t think ‘falling in love’ really covers the feelings Owen and Auburn develop for each other -, but I still believed it every moment of the book. They get to know each other slowly and the attraction, that is there from the very first moment, expands into deeper feelings in a totally natural way. It does go quickly, but Colleen knows how to describe their feelings in such a way, you can do nothing other than go with the flow.
“’I’m not scared because it’s you, Owen. I’m considering it because it’s you.’”
I made the decision to read the book a second time, because of the tv-series. I don’t know if you heard about it – I think you do -, but a couple weeks ago a series came online based on this book, called Confess. It really surprised me that I was still impressed by the story like this, because most of the drama comes from the little and big secrets and the confessions of Auburn and Owen. They serve als plot twists. The image of the story wasn’t one hundred percent clear before reading this time, but while reading I would suddenly remember it, before it appeared in the story. I didn’t mind that at all. First, I expected that to ruin the story for me, because I was convinced that these secrets were what made the story strong.
But I find out that the success of this book isn’t based on the secrets. It’s as strong as it is because of the way it was written. Especially, the emotion that pours out of every word. I found myself wiping away tears, even this second time. The graphic way this story is told, really brings it to life. You have absolutely no problem imagining it. And don’t get me started on Owen and Auburn’s feelings and how realistic they are described. Pouring from every page, making you FEEL them. So, maybe you start reading because you want to know which secrets are hidden behind Owen and Auburn, but you keep reading because of Colleen Hoover’s visual and poignant words, chock-full of emotion. Well done Colleen!
I’m not easily swayed to give 5 stars, but with such a gem as Confess I don’t even have to think about it. Confess paints a unique story about a love between two lifelike characters that can’t seem to grow in full effect because of withheld secrets. Confess lets you FEEL from the bottom of your heart. Confess gives you the hope that you can get a break in life after having so many lows you can’t even see light in the darkness. Confess is honestly one of the most beautiful books I have ever read.
“It’s amazing how much distance one truth can create between to people.”
Chelles Life In Books 