TITLE: Verity
SERIES: Standalone
AUTHOR: Colleen Hoover
PUBLICATION DATE: December 7th 2018
NUMBER OF PAGES: 333 pages
PUBLISHER: Hoover Ink
GENRE: Mystery, Thriller, Romance
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 what really happened the day her daughter died.
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 recognizes 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.
A standalone romantic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.
RATING: 2.5 Stars
LONG STORY SHORT: Good suspense. Far-fetched plot. Unlikeable characters. 2nd plot twist was.. Surprising.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Cheating, Infanticide, Self-Abortion
I am a huge fan of Colleen Hoover’s contemporary romances (alright… Except for Ugly Love). She writes good stories and has a good grasp on how to develop her characters (again, except for Ugly Love). So when I heard that she was venturing into a different genre, I was excited. She could write well, I already knew that. I was curious on what other things she can bring to the table.
Unfortunately, Verity was a big disappointment for me.
THINGS THAT DID NOT WORK FOR ME:
• The biggest thing that disappointed me about this book was the plot. How the fuck did she get away with doing that? I don’t want to get into spoiler territory here but seriously, how the fuck did she not get noticed? I would have probably loved this if I wasn’t so unconvinced about the situation that these characters were in. To be honest, I saw it from a mile away. I had a feeling that was going to be one of the plot twist. The entire time I was shaking my head in disbelief. How the hell did no one know???
• It was pretty predictable. Like I said earlier, I could smell the first plot twist when weird things started happening. The second plot twist came to be as a surprised – but I still wasn’t convinced.
• I didn’t need the fucking romance. For fucks sake. I was perfectly fine with the suspense aspect of the story to be honest. I didn’t need the unnecessary romance. Sure, Colleen Hoover is a romance writer, I get that. But since she already took a step away from that by doing a thriller, why not just complete do a thriller without adding the stupid romance? Cheating. Yes. Sometimes, it works in certain stories. It definitely didn’t with this one. It bothered me that even though a person love someone so much, they can still be fucking unfaithful.
• I hated each and every one of the characters. Save for Crew. That kid did not deserve to be in this story.
○ Lowen. Don’t get me started with her. Uuuggh. She frustrates the hell out of me. The way she fantasizes over Jeremy. Uuuggh. I can’t.
○ Jeremy. Ugh. He started out pretty good then everything slowly went down the drain. I cannot stand this man.
○ Verity. I hated her. I seriously did. But after understanding her a little bit, I realized, I just disliked her not hated her. Lol. My hate is really more towards Lowe and Jeremy. The problem was, I didn’t care enough about Verity to really be able to twist my perception of her into something else.
THINGS THAT WORKED FOR ME
Yes. This book had its merits which is why it wasn’t a 1 star book.
• Colleen Hoover could write. I am not going to dispute that at all. For someone who wrote her first suspense/thriller book, I am thoroughly impressed – just by how she writes though. The plot I am so not a fan off. Too far-fetched for my liking. The thing I liked most about what she did was that atmosphere of dread that something was there but you can’t really tell what it was. If the plot wasn’t too predictable I would have rated this book higher. She knows how to build the tension too bad the plot wasn’t as good as the build-up of the story.
• So yes. The 2nd plot twist. I am putting this on the good side of things because it was damn surprising. I didn’t expect anything like that. I was wondering why there was 20% more left when the story feels like it ended. That was when she threw the curve ball. My mouth was wide open with shock not going to lie. But… putting this twist way too late had its downside because I was beyond the point of caring about whatever happened. It was surprising yes but i didn’t care enough to ask the question of what happens next to them.
RECOMMENDED?
Personally, I wouldn’t. Colleen Hoover has so many other books that are 100x better than this one. But if you are into mild suspense/thriller and don’t mind an implausible plot with added romance into the mix, then maybe give this a go.
Perusing at Midnight 