Verity by Colleen Hoover
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of the night their family was forever altered.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognized all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.
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This book was my first Colleen Hoover, and she’s definitely as bingable an author as everyone says she is. This book was super easy to read and get lost in, but it was also super disturbing so if you’re sensitive to some topics, you might want to dodge this one. It took a while for me to get into the writing as it was a different style to what I’ve been reading lately but eventually it was hard to pull myself out of the story. It’s regarded as a “thriller/romance”. I wouldn’t count it so much as a romance, sure there’s romantic themes, but it’s more a thriller than anything, a psychological thriller (who said thrillers couldn’t have a budding romance?). I really enjoyed the ride this book took me on but I ended up not liking the ending. It just built up SO WELL that I felt I was left hanging a little bit.
Lowen is a very introverted author with her own dark secrets and the more we read this, the less I felt I knew her. And I think this was purely intentional and it gave such an interesting and chilling dimension to this character. Sometimes it felt like her and Verity were merging into the same train of thought and it scared me a little bit to see how this job was affecting the main character. Given we’re reading from a first person point of view, this in turn affects US since we are the main character, we feel what she feels. That’s where this book got super psychological. Typically I don’t like books that mess with my head but this book did it in such small doses while still leaving you reeling that it was somewhat addictive. My mouth dropped open in shock and horror thousands of times throughout.
There were definitely a lot of twists and turns in this which made it “thrilling” instead of just straight up horror, however, a lot of the twists were foreshadowed so well that, even though surprising in the moment, once it happened it left you feeling the “I knew it!” satisfaction. If the book ended at the FIRST ending, I would have been completely satisfied. It, however, did not. The final pages took a lot of the intrigue away for me, became too detailed, and lost me on the final execution. I’m actually mad at myself and at the book because if I hadn’t read that last chapter, I probably would have been super mindblown. I’m a little bit bummed out.
Overall, great plot, super fast-paced writing, thrilling twists, definitely a good book for thriller newbies and great for getting out of a reading slump. Just, keep your expectations reasonable. 3.5 stars.