I adored Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist and also her second novel and was really excited to be given this book to review. I did enjoy it on the whole but as with many other reviewers, I didn't like the main characters very much and I didn't think the story had a very satisfactory ending. I think I was expecting more from this author and it ultimately didn't deliver as much as I had hoped it would. It was a good read but in my opinion, not quite as good as the previous novels.

I love Jessie Burton and this book did not let me down! I loved it! I read it over 2 days as I could seriously not put it down. It was BRILLIANT! It is deffo going on my book club reads when it is published! 5 out of 5!

I'm so disappointed in this novel. And it seems from the other netgalley reviews that it is a marmite book. I have loved Jessie Burton's first two novels and urge people to read them - not this one. It is stilted, lacks deep characterisation and as others said dull. It feels like the 1983 story should be removed completely and the focus should have been on Rose and Connie meeting as that is where the writing improved. Most of the 'extras' (secondary characters) are very sketchy and 2D even Elise and Matt but especially Joe and her friend (I've forgotten her name despite just finishing it - says a lot). It would have been better to reduce the number of characters and make them more believable and human. The ending is trying to be clever but is just painful and feels like a suggested extra. At times this talented author's work reads like a badly written women's fiction/chick lit novel (it is a talent to write those novels well, even if the writers don't get the recognition they may deserve). Jessie's strength is not women's fiction but literary, deep and powerful novels. None of these words apply here. I was left hollow and sad and a little angry as I'd been so looking forward to this book and it feels that it may have been written to a deadline rather or if not why didn't someone tell her it needed a lot of work. Anyway I finished it so the two stars are for that.

A beautiful and poignant novel from Jessie Burton, this time dealing with the expectations and disappointments, between a couple who care for each other, but also have their own agendas, which do not always work well with each other.
Jessie is great at setting a scene, and the 1980's and present day, timelines, were brought alive with her magical writing and sense of place.
The central characters, Elise and Connie, are not the most endearing couples, but as the reader, you still care for a positive outcome, between them. Elise's daughter, Rose, who is desperate to find her mother, is again sensitively portrayed.
This is a novel about complicated relationships and the fallout and effect that it has on family.
Yet again Jessie has written a thoughtful novel that would appeal to readers who like a good solid story with interesting characters.
The Confession by Jessie Burton. #TheConfession #NetGalley

Ok, it's Jessie Burton so you are expecting great things! By any other writer this would be fabulous, but I have to admit to be slightly disappointed. Obviously the writing is sumptuous, but, for me, there is something lacking. I think maybe it is over clever . It drags you in but ultimately doesn't really deliver.

Elise, Connie and Rose are all connected in this wonderful story that spans thirty years. Each character is vivid and the amazing story of motherhood, love, loss , lies and eventually the truth is brilliant. This is a fantastic story that gripped me from the very beginning until the last page. It's full of love and so much emotion and a truly unputdownable.

I thought The Confession was just wonderful - even better than Jessie Burton's previous books. With brilliantly drawn characters and settings, this is a story you can truly lose yourself in. I adored Rose and Connie and, although I found Rose and Matt unlikable, I was just as invested in what happened to them. I couldn't put the book down and read it very quickly. I will be recommending this widely and I think it's bound to find a big audience!

Extraordinary and moving book that had me entranced from start to finish. I read this on a lengthy train journey and barely noticed the hours slipping by as I was so absorbed. I was slightly devastated when it ended as I want, no need, to know more.

I have just finished this book and I find myself questioning how I feel. I really did not like any of the characters - they seemed selfish, self obsessed and cold. However their story was captivating and I could not wait to find out what happened. The outcome was a bit of an anti-climax and I was not surprised by the last interaction with Connie and Elise - harsh words that would never be forgotten.
Without spoiling the book I found Rose and her situation desperately sad but somehow I had little sympathy with her life choices and her final actions in the last few pages left me feeling she had learnt little from the experiences of those around her.
The book was brilliantly written and you just know it will make a great TV/film.
A great book club book - plenty to discuss.

I love Jessie Burton novels and this one did not disappoint. I learnt a lot as well as enjoying the characters and overall plot. The transition across time periods of narration was seamless. Thank you, would recommend to others as a brilliant read.

The Confession by Jessie Burton
Having read and loved The Miniaturist and The Muse I was looking forward to reading The Confession and I was not disappointed. The novel is told in from the perspectives of Elise and her daughter Rose. The settings are 1980 – 1983 and the present. Rose is trapped in a relationship which is going nowhere, drifting aimlessly through various different jobs as she searches for the mother who has always been missing from her life.
As a child she would imagine different possible lives for her mother and then her father gives her one clue about her which has been hidden from her for her whole life. He reveals that the last person to ever see her mother was a highly acclaimed writer who has become almost a recluse and stopped writing. Rose determines to seek out this woman and discover something about her mother and where she could be now.
The writing is extremely powerful and there are beautifully crafted descriptions of people and places. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. Many thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for giving me opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I adored this book. The main characters are fascinating, even though they are generally not very likeable, and the interlinked stories of Rose and Elise are absolutely compelling. Jessie Burton is a great writer, and successfully conjures up the various worlds of LA and contemporary London. I hope that this book will be hugely successful (and I secretly hope that Jessie Burton will write "Green Rabbit")

SPOILERS


It took me a very long time to get into this book,to the point I almost gave up.
Non of the characters endeared themselves to me,so I struggled to care what happened to them
As the book went on,and the mystery of how Elise became pregnant with Matt's child,I was drawn in more,but ultimately we knew how it ended,and nothing in the book changed that.
We started off looking for Elise,and as the book finished,she's still not found.
I feel it's all still too unresolved.

Thank you to netgalley, the author and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book.

I’ve read another book by the author and found this one very different. So don’t expect it to be similar.

I really enjoyed the characters, and felt my feelings towards them change all the time.
Yes some parts weren’t as interesting as others and it’s not a short book but the story is an interesting one without being too complicated.

The ending was a little frustrating as I like clear answers but that doesn’t always make a good book so I respect the authors decision to leave it as it is. Also I realise that the point of the novel is probably Rose’s journey and self discovery and not what actually happened to certain characters.

I so wanted to like ‘The Confession’ by Jessie Burton but I struggled with this book. I nearly gave in about a quarter of the way through but decided to keep going to the end. I think the problem was that I just didn’t like the characters so I felt no real connection with them.

In 2017, a young woman Rose searches for her lost mother and discovers the link to her - her mother’s ex-lover Connie.
The novel shifts between both times and we gradually piece together what happened.
The novel is really about Rose’s coming of age and how she must discover her past to move on with her future.
It works on a slightly meta level too: Connie writes novels about love and loss that mirror Rose’s own experiences.
The characters are well-developed and it’s an interesting read that’s a bit of a slow burn but gradually sucks you in.
I haven’t read other Jessie Burton novels but this is well-written and evocative.
The stories intertwine and felt very far removed from my own experience and a little surreal and unworldly (would Rose really take a job using a false name and identity, just to get information about her mother from Connie?)
But I did enjoy it and feel a little bereft now its ended!

This is an absolutely superb book which is so well written. This story is told from the perspectives of Elise, Connie and Rosie and goes backwards and forwards fluidly from 1980-83 and 2017. Elise and Connie meet in London in 1980 and begin a relationship which is a very deep one. Elise believes that Connie ‘lured her in’ but thinks she doesn’t give her as much back as she gives to Connie. Connie can be silent and dismissive, perhaps partly due to age difference (Elise is much younger) and partly due to personality. Connie is a writer of two books that are very successful and one is turned into a Hollywood movie and it is while they are in LA that their relationship starts to flounder and the two separate acrimoniously.

Rosie is Elise’s daughter but she is not present in her life and when she was little Rosie created myths around her mother to make up for her loss. When she was 12 she decided she was dead and the loss of Elise to nearly teenage Rosie is beautifully and creatively described. As a thirty something Rosie decides to try to trace her mother and by a sort of comedy of errors she ends up working for Connie as her assistant. Connie and Rosie develop a wonderful relationship although initially Rosie hides her identity giving a false name. Connie is a terrific character- independent, clever, acerbic and some of their lively discussions are like verbal tennis and both of them realise that they are in love with the ghost of Elise. Through Connie, Rose is able to become whole, she sheds her vulnerability, becomes free and independent, accepts she will probably never find her mother, gains a huge amount of courage and instead of living a life anchored to inertia she is able to move forward and make something of her life. One of the most positive things that she did was to end the going nowhere relationship with a man who was going nowhere - she had been with Joe for 9 years but their relationship is stale.

This is a wonderfully crafted story of female and male relationships, of love and loss, the price of success especially in Connie’s case, abandonment and vulnerability but also of acceptance and moving forwards to a life not as shackled to the past. There are some well crafted characters some of whom are immensely likeable such as Rosie, Connie, Kelly and Zoe and even though Joe is not especially admirable he is easy to imagine. There are lovely descriptions of places - London, California, Mexico and NY. The author made me feel like I went on a journey with Rosie so I desperately wanted her to find what she was seeking. I love the fact that at the end of the story Rosie needed Connie as much as Connie needed Rosie so there is a growing equality in their blooming friendship. I loved this book from start to finish and I would like to express my thanks for the privilege of reading this ARC.

Another good book from Jessie Burton. Although a little difficult to get into, it's worth it as the story develops and the convoluted relationships of the characters are revealed.
The book moves between Elise in the early 1980s and Rose in 2017; different times, different settings, complicated relationships - it works.

Jessie Burton is an incredible writer, one who in every one of her novels manages to evoke the time and place of her novels so vividly, with a whole cast of characters just bursting with backstories that you want to see more of. Burton is insanely talented, and while parts of the novel are slow moving, you are never bored but instead are lured deeper and deeper into a really beautiful dream. Connie, Elsie and Rose became absolutely real to me, as Burton's characters have had in the past, and some of Rose's story spoke so powerfully and honestly that I felt that Burton was talking directly to me. When I heard about the book first I was sorry that it wasn't set further in the past, or in a setting that is unfamiliar to me (this was why I loved The Minaturist and The Muse so much), but I soon realised that The Confession made the familiar unfamiliar and dangerous and exciting and I flew through the book in a race to find out the secret at its heart: that is, the connection between these women. Another beautiful book from one of my favourite contemporary authors.

I had high expectations for this book, which is probably why I was left a little disappointed. I adored the Miniaturist, this book however is very different.
It’s a decent read, and the story is easy to follow, it does get a little boring in parts and I can see why some people said they struggled to finish .