"The Confessions of X" by Suzanne Wolfe

Suzanne Wolfe’s “Confessions of X,” is historical fiction about the life of St. Augustine’s love interest. 

This historically unnamed woman leaves her skeezy uncle’s house to promise herself to Augustine. He makes no promises to her. They are of different social classes and can’t legally marry, but their arrangement is generally respectable. They have a son, they travel to Italy. Ultimately, she sacrificially leaves so that he can marry well and advance in his career. But her loving sacrifice shows him a picture of Christ’s sacrifice, so he becomes a monk and…still never speaks to her again. What? 

This book was meh. First of all, Augustine is kind of a jerk. Second of all, the narrator—the love interest—is totally unbelievable as a real person. At the risk of sounding harsh, she was one-dimensional: just soooooo loving and selfless and giving and always thinking of others. 

And the sad parts were so sad I wanted to scrub my face off. 

I love the idea. That’s why I picked it for a FREE copy to review. But…meh. Despite the encouragingly juicy title, the story didn’t do it for me. 

This book gets my lowest rating yet: 2 of 5 stars.