Spoiler Alert!!!! There will be spoilers in this review!!!
Description of book:
At age twenty-one, Auburn Reed has already lost everything important to her. In her fight to rebuild her shattered life, she has her goals in sight and there is 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 chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is keeping a major secret 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.
To save their relationship, all Owen needs to do is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin.
My Review:
Colleen Hoover, what did you just do to me? I read this book in one day because I could not put it down.
It was amazing, breathtaking, heart-breaking.
We start the book meeting Auburn Mason Reed. She is at the hospital visiting her boyfriend Adam for the last time because he is dying of cancer and she can no longer stay there with him. From the beginning of the book, you can tell that Auburn and Adam’s mom Lydia do not get along and you will see this better later in the book. You can see the love that Auburn and Adam have for each other, even though they are only 15. The last words Adam says to her are “I’ll love you forever. Even when I can’t”.
“How can a fifteen year-old-girl defend her love when that love is dismissed by everyone?”
The book then goes to present day and we learn that Auburn has moved to Texas and is now 20 years old. Looking for a second job, she sees a building that has a sign that says help needed and the name on the door is CONFESS. Having no clue what it is, she decides to check it out. This is when we first meet Owen Mason Gentry. CONFESS is his art studio where people leave anonymous confessions and he uses those for his inspiration to paint.
Owen realizes who Auburn is when he sees her but she doesn’t know who he is. We don’t learn how he knows her till the end of the book, and let me tell you OMG (which also happen to be Owen’s initials).
“Some secrets should never turn into confessions. I know that better than anyone.”
Another person we meet in the book it Trey. He is Adam’s brother and is also a cop. He is shady and tells Auburn that Owen is trouble and to stay away from him. She doesn’t understand where this is coming from but she doesn’t take his advice.
As the story progresses we learn more about how Owen has been covering for his father and that is why he has been in trouble with the law.
We learn that Trey wants Auburn and will do whatever it takes to make her his, even if that means using blackmail against her.
We learn that Auburn has a secret that will change the course of the book.
At the end of the book, decisions have to be made. Will these decisions help Owen and Auburn or will they tear them apart?
“My mother says there are people you meet and get to know, and then there are people you meet and already know them.”
WOW! This book was amazing. I immediately fell in love with Owen. I mean who wouldn’t? He was perfect for Auburn in so many ways. And I felt that Auburn grounded him, kept his head on straight. I hated Lydia and Trey; you’ll have to read the book to understand why. Owen does what he thinks is right to keep Auburn safe, or at least he tries to. Their connection is so strong that they both make decisions that could end up going bad for many different reasons.
Colleen knows how to connect with your heart. I have no idea how she does it but she makes you feel like you know the characters and gets you so invested in their story. This book made me feel so many different emotions; happiness, sadness, anger. This book made me laugh and it made me cry. It takes a turn genius to be able to do that.
About the Author:
Colleen Hoover is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels and five novellas. Hoover’s novels fall into the New Adult and Young Adult contemporary romance categories.
Hoover published her first novel, Slammed, in January 2012. Since then, all her eligible works have become New York Times best sellers.
Colleen Hoover is published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. Colleen also has several self-published titles.
In 2013, Colleen’s third novel, Hopeless, was the first self-published novel to reach #1 on The New York Times, where it remained for several weeks. Hopeless went on to become one of the top 20 bestselling ebooks of 2013.
In 2015, Colleen’s novel CONFESS won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance. That was followed up in 2016 with her latest title, It Ends With Us, also winning the Choice Award for Best Romance.
Her novel CONFESS has been filmed as a series by Awestruck and is due to release this spring on go90. Katie Leclerc and Ryan Cooper star in the series.
Ugly Love is slated to begin filming in late 2017.
Colleen founded The Bookworm Box, a charity subscription service and bookstore, with her family in 2015. The Bookworm Box is a subscription service that provides readers with an exciting opportunity to receive signed novels in the mail each month from authors all over the world. All profits from the subscription service are donated to various charities each month. To date, The Bookworm Box has donated over $850,000 to help those in need.
Colleen’s next release is WITHOUT MERIT, a contemporary romance novel due to release through Atria Books in October, 2017.
Colleen’s current work-in-progress is an exciting revisit to a previous novel, not yet announced, due to release in early 2018.
Author Links:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5430144.Colleen_Hoover
Website: http://www.colleenhoover.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Colleen-Hoover/e/B006SKAK42/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1491713388&sr=8-2-ent
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