Confess by Colleen Hoover 

Narrated by Elizabeth Louise and Sebastian York

What an emotional journey! I started and ended Confess in tears. Without a doubt, this is one of the most creative, thought provoking, romantic listens I have had the good fortune of listening to in a long time. If you are a Colleen Hoover fan, then you are already familiar with her talented writing in the New Adult and Young Adult romance sub-genres. What I find the most fascinating about Ms. Hoover’s stories is that even though they all tend to fall somewhere between those two sub-genres, they still nonetheless all have their own sense of originality. It is this lack of a typical mold that keeps Ms. Hoover’s stories so engrossing and her ability to capture human nature (both the good and the bad) that makes you connect with her characters so profoundly.

This is the type of story where the less you know to start with, the better. Therefore, my synopsis of the background in the next two paragraphs is purposefully vague. For maximum effect, I suggest that you go into this listen with an open mind and no preconceptions, for the power of this story lies in the order in which the crucial facts are uncovered – and how the characters perceive this partially confessed world – almost as much as the facts themselves.

Auburn Reed has had to make some of the most difficult decisions imaginable in her short, almost twenty-one years. Her latest decision brings her to Dallas, where she knows only a handful of people. Struggling to make ends meet, she finds herself in an art studio applying for a second job. There she meets Owen Gentry, the owner and artist, and a man with his own unique, unimaginable burdens.

Auburn’s and Owen’s strong chemistry is evident from the beginning, but both have their own complicated pasts that make exploring its fruition nearly impossible. Moreover, the one thing that is certain, is that the only way for Auburn and Owen to be together, is for both to potentially jeopardize everything they had previously sacrificed for.

Truth and lies abound in Confess. Some characters will make you believe in the healing power of altruism and others will make you question whether selfish individuals always triumph in the end. Perhaps true love lies somewhere in between. Just how much would you be willing to sacrifice – confess or cover-up – to protect those you love and, most importantly, ensure your future with the person you envision as your ideal significant other?  Confess will force you to ponder these and other related concepts, and tug at your heartstrings all at the same time, as these quandaries present themselves in some of the most seemingly unjust circumstances.

Both Elizabeth Louise and Sebastian York render a talented narration that helps bring to life this emotional listen. Crucial to this point, is the fact that both are able to effectively communicate the particular mood of the scene with variations in their delivery and tone. Additionally, the sharing of the narration, using what now seems to be the traditional New Adult style of dividing the chapters based on gender – with Ms. Louise narrating the chapters from Auburn’s point of view and Mr. York, the ones from Owen’s – works great to highlight the ever increasing tension in this story.

Having listened to a number of Ms. Louise’s prior audiobooks, I can honestly say that she does a fantastic job of recreating teenage and New Adult characters. As Ms. Louise narrates both the prologue – which features teenage-aged characters – and more than half of the chapters, which primarily involve characters in their twenties, her rendition of these roles sounds authentic which helps the flow of the story. She is equally adept at delivering both genuine sounding female and male roles which allows you to sit back and enjoy the story, without having to pay attention to dialogue tags.

I have also been a fan of Sebastian York’s performances for quite some time now. Although Mr. York, in my opinion, excels when reading the dialogue for the male characters, he also manages to create a slightly higher and distinguishable, though not necessarily feminine, tone for the females. Mr. York’s authoritative, alpha-natured, natural tone worked perfectly for Owen, and the other male main characters in Confess, effectively highlighting the underlying struggle between yesterday’s choices and today’s happiness which features so prominently in the plot of Confess.

If you enjoy romances with original plots and complex, interconnected story lines that will keep you guessing and empathetically invested, then you will absolutely fall in love with Confess. The talented narration by Elizabeth Louise and Sebastian York, two of my favorite New Adult narrators, makes this great book even better in audio format.

BJ

Narration:   Elizabeth Louise – A- and Sebastian York – B+

Book Content:  A+

Steam Factor:  For your burning ears only

Violence:  Minimal

Genre:  New Adult

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster