Wonder by R. J. Palacio is a novel about August Pullman, a ten-year-old boy with a facial difference who goes to school for the first time in fifth grade. For readers who want the plot, the narrators and the book's lesson on kindness.
Confess
2015 · 320 pages · Summary updated 24 October 2026
Confess is Colleen Hoover's romance about Auburn Reed, a young mother fighting for custody of her son in Dallas, and Owen Gentry, an artist who paints anonymous confessions and hides one of his own. For readers who want a love story built on secrets.
The gist
Auburn Reed lost her first love, Adam, to illness when she was fifteen. Years later, she moves to Dallas to win back custody of the son she had young, who is being raised by Adam's mother. Desperate for money, she takes a one-night job at an art studio run by Owen Gentry, who paints the anonymous confessions strangers slip under his door. They fall for each other fast. But Owen is about to be arrested, and Adam's brother Trey, a police officer with power over Auburn's custody case, wants her to stay away. Hoover's argument is that secrets, even kind ones, can trap the people who keep them.
Key ideas
- 01
Strangers confess what we hide from those closest to us
People slip anonymous confessions under Owen's studio door, and he paints them. The confessions are honest because no one knows who wrote them. Hoover contrasts this with the main characters, who keep their biggest truths from the people they love most. The example is Owen himself, who turns strangers' secrets into art while hiding his own from Auburn. The book asks why honesty is easier at a distance.
- 02
Power over a child makes a mother vulnerable
Auburn's chance of getting AJ back depends on Lydia, the courts and Trey. Each of them holds power over her. Hoover shows how this dependence makes a young mother easy to manipulate. The example is how Auburn treats Trey: she does not return his feelings, but she sees him as the easiest route to her son, and she feels she cannot afford to refuse him.
- 03
Two narrators reveal what each hides
The chapters alternate between Auburn and Owen. Each tells the reader things the other does not know. Owen's chapters hint that he has met Auburn before. Auburn's chapters show how much she fears losing AJ. Hoover uses this structure to build suspense: the reader sees both sides of the secrets that keep the couple apart, but not the whole truth until the end.
- 04
Art turns private pain into something shared
Owen's paintings take anonymous confessions and give them a public form. A stranger's shame or grief becomes something others can look at and recognize. Hoover uses the art to suggest that saying a painful truth, even anonymously, can be a kind of relief. The book's own pages include the confessions and paintings, so the reader experiences the art alongside the characters.
- 05
Protecting family can become a trap
Several characters keep secrets to protect someone they love. Lydia guards AJ. Trey guards his power over Auburn. Owen guards a secret about his arrest. Hoover asks when protection turns into harm. The example is Owen's choice to accept jail rather than explain himself to Auburn, which costs them both time and trust and leaves Auburn exposed to Trey while he is away.
- 06
Owen took the blame for his father
The pills belonged to Owen's father, Callahan, a respected public defender with an addiction. When Trey pulled them over, Owen took the charge to save his father's career. Hoover makes this sacrifice both loving and damaging. It keeps Callahan's secret, but it costs Owen his freedom and nearly costs him Auburn. The twist shows how far loyalty to family can go.
- 07
Owen and Auburn met before
The final chapter reveals that five years earlier, Owen's father was in the hospital room next to Adam's. Owen saw Auburn's visits and punched Trey so she could say goodbye. He then painted his first painting with Adam's discarded supplies, and Adam asked him to send it to Auburn. It hangs on her wall. Hoover ties the romance to the book's opening goodbye.
Full summary
A love story built on confessions
Confess is a romance novel by Colleen Hoover, published in 2015. It was adapted into a short-form television series in 2017. The book alternates between two narrators, Auburn Reed and Owen Gentry. It also includes images of paintings and the anonymous confessions that inspired them, which gives the book a distinctive look.
The novel is a romance, but it is also a story about custody, power and the secrets people keep to protect those they love. Almost every major character is hiding something.
Auburn and Adam
The book opens with a goodbye. Auburn is fifteen. Her boyfriend, Adam, is dying, and his family has moved him from Portland to a hospital in Dallas for his last days. Auburn says goodbye to him there. Adam's older brother, Trey, tells her when it is time to leave.
After Adam dies, Auburn has their son, AJ. She is still a child herself. Her own parents give her little support. Adam's mother, Lydia, offers to raise AJ, and Auburn accepts. Later, Lydia moves to Texas with AJ.
Five years later, Auburn is determined to get her son back. She moves to Dallas to be near him. She works as a hairstylist, shares an apartment with an eccentric roommate named Emory, and saves every dollar for her custody case. She sees AJ only on Lydia's terms, and Lydia makes it clear that Auburn has a long way to go before a court would trust her.
Owen and the confessions
One day Auburn passes an art studio called Confess that needs extra help for the night. She walks in and meets Owen Gentry, the artist who runs it.
Owen's work is unusual. People slip anonymous confessions through a slot in his studio door. Some are funny, some are shameful and some are heartbreaking. Owen picks confessions and paints them, and the paintings hang in the studio with the confession beside them. The art is a way of letting strangers say the things they cannot say out loud.
Auburn helps him with a gallery show that night. They talk, and the attraction is strong and immediate. Owen asks her out. In his own chapters, Owen hints that he knows more about Auburn than she realizes, and that this was not their first meeting.
Owen's arrest
Owen does not show up for their date. Auburn later learns that he was arrested for possession of prescription pills. His father, Callahan, a respected public defender, bails him out.
Owen tells Auburn that he will likely go to jail. Auburn is hurt and confused. She also knows that any link to a man facing drug charges could destroy her custody case. She decides she cannot be involved with him.
The arrest also brings Trey back into the picture. Trey is now a police officer in Dallas. He has long-standing bad blood with Owen, and he warns Auburn to stay away from him. Trey is also Lydia's son and AJ's uncle. He has influence over whether Auburn ever gets her son back. When he interrupts a moment between Auburn and Owen, the threat is clear.
Owen is sentenced to a short jail term of a few months. While he is away, Trey pursues Auburn. She does not return his feelings, but she sees him as the easiest route to AJ. She feels trapped between what she wants and what she thinks she must do for her son.
Owen's side
Owen's chapters give a different view of the same events. He is a quiet, private man who lives above his studio. He has a strained relationship with his father, and he carries the weight of a family situation he does not explain to Auburn. He is drawn to her from the moment she walks in, and he seems to recognize her.
Owen also explains why he started painting confessions. The slot in his door lets people unload something they cannot say to anyone they know. He reads every one. Some are small and silly. Others describe guilt, loss or secret love. Owen sees the confessions as a kind of trust, and he treats them with care. His art is how he connects with other people while keeping his own life closed.
The irony is clear. Owen spends his days giving voice to strangers' secrets, but he cannot share his own. When he tells Auburn that he expects to go to jail, he does not tell her why. He lets her believe the worst rather than explain. His chapters show that the silence costs him, and that he believes he has no choice.
Auburn, for her part, has a confession of her own to make. She has kept her past with Adam and AJ to herself, and she fears that the people around her will judge her as Lydia does. The two narrators circle each other, each hiding the thing that matters most.
Characters
- Auburn Reed: one of two narrators. A young mother who moves to Dallas to fight for custody of her son.
- Owen Gentry: the other narrator. An artist who paints anonymous confessions and keeps a secret about his arrest.
- Adam: Auburn's first love, who died when she was fifteen.
- AJ: Auburn and Adam's young son, raised by Adam's mother.
- Lydia: Adam's mother, who has custody of AJ.
- Trey: Adam's older brother, a police officer with power over Auburn's case.
- Callahan Gentry: Owen's father, a respected public defender.
- Emory: Auburn's quirky, loyal roommate.
Themes
Confession and secrets. Owen's studio invites strangers to confess. Meanwhile, the main characters hide their own truths. The book asks why it is easier to confess to a stranger than to the people closest to us.
Custody and power. Auburn's future with her son depends on people who hold power over her: Lydia, the courts and Trey. Hoover shows how that dependence makes a young mother vulnerable to manipulation.
Protecting family. Several characters make sacrifices to protect someone they love. The book asks when protection becomes harm.
Art as healing. Owen's paintings turn other people's pain into something that can be shared. Art gives voice to things that would otherwise stay silent.
Fate and connection. Owen's narration suggests that his path and Auburn's crossed before. The book plays with the idea that some people are meant to find each other.
Spoilers: Owen's secret
This section reveals the main twists.
The pills were never Owen's. His father, Callahan, is the one addicted to prescription drugs. One night Callahan called Owen while he was impaired, and Owen went to help him. Trey pulled them over. Owen knew that the arrest of a respected lawyer would ruin his father's career, so he took the blame.
Owen is released early and reconnects with Auburn. They spend a weekend together. When Trey learns what has happened, he confronts Auburn and assaults her. Emory intervenes and makes him leave. Owen then tells Auburn the truth about his father and the pills.
Trey keeps up the pressure. When he next confronts Auburn at Owen's apartment and restrains her, Owen punches him. Trey arrests Owen for assaulting an officer, and Owen goes back to jail.
Spoilers: the ending
This section reveals the ending.
Auburn decides she will not let Trey control her life. With Callahan's help, she plans to free Owen and expose Trey. Lydia and Trey are called to Callahan's office. There, they are confronted with a recording of Trey's abusive behavior, evidence that could end his career as a police officer.
Lydia agrees to sign custody papers that give AJ back to Auburn. Auburn then demands that Trey drop the case against Owen. Owen is freed. The novel ends with Auburn, Owen and AJ together as a family.
The final chapter goes back five years. Owen's father was in the hospital after a car accident, in the room next to Adam's. Owen saw Auburn visiting Adam often. When Trey told her that her time with Adam was over, Owen confronted Trey and punched him so that Auburn could say a last goodbye. This is the origin of their feud. Owen then painted his first painting with art supplies Adam had discarded, and gave it to Adam. Adam asked Owen to send it to Auburn. It still hangs on her wall. She never knew Owen painted it.
What the critics say
Readers often praise the confession artwork and the final chapter's link between Owen and Auburn. Some find Trey a one-dimensional villain and the resolution too quick for the problems the book sets up.
Who should read it
Read it if you want a romance with secrets, a custody fight and an artistic twist, told by two narrators. It includes sex scenes, drug addiction and an assault, so it suits adult readers.
Do this week
Flashcards
12 cards
Quiz
Question 1 of 5
Why does Auburn move to Dallas?
Questions this book answers
What is Confess by Colleen Hoover about?
- Confess is a 2015 romance by Colleen Hoover. Auburn Reed, who lost her first love, Adam, at fifteen, moves to Dallas to regain custody of their son from Adam's mother. She meets Owen Gentry, an artist who paints anonymous confessions. They fall for each other, but Owen is arrested on a drug charge, and Adam's brother Trey, a police officer, wants Auburn to stay away from him.
How does Confess end?
Trey has Owen jailed for punching him. With the help of Owen's father, Auburn confronts Lydia and Trey with a recording of Trey's abuse. Lydia signs custody of AJ over to Auburn, and Owen is freed. The final chapter shows that Owen first saw Auburn five years earlier at Adam's hospital and painted the picture Adam sent her.
Why was Owen arrested in Confess?
Owen is arrested for possession of prescription pills, but the pills belonged to his father, Callahan, a respected public defender with an addiction. Owen took the blame to protect his father's career.
Who is Trey in Confess?
- Trey is Adam's older brother and a Dallas police officer. As AJ's uncle and Lydia's son, he has power over Auburn's custody case. He has a long grudge against Owen and pursues Auburn himself, using his position to control her.
What is the theme of Confess?
- The main theme is the cost of secrets. Owen paints strangers' confessions while the main characters hide their own truths. Other themes are custody and power over a young mother, the harm that comes from protecting family at any cost, art as a way of sharing pain, and fate.
Related books
Ugly Love is Colleen Hoover's romance about Tate Collins, a nursing student who agrees to a no-strings affair with a guarded airline pilot, Miles Archer, whose past is a closed door. For readers who want a steamy, emotional love story with a heartbreaking backstory.
Zora Neale Hurston's novel about Janie Crawford, a Black woman in early 1900s Florida who moves through three marriages in search of real love and her own voice. For readers who want the plot, the themes and the meaning of the title.
The Wife Upstairs is Rachel Hawkins's 2021 thriller that retells Jane Eyre in a wealthy Alabama suburb, where a broke dog walker falls for a widower whose wife vanished on a lake. For readers who like twisty domestic suspense.
New books, occasionally