Verity by Colleen Hoover
Rating: 2/5
What It’s About:
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.
colleenhoover.com
What I liked:
There was not much that I liked about this book. The “thriller” part of the story was fairly interesting. I think it was what got me through a majority of the book. What the book summary doesn’t reveal is that Verity Crawford suffered a traumatic accident that has left her unable to move or communicate. Which is the reason why Lowen is hired to finish Verity’s book series. Lowen is convinced that Verity is faking her illness as she sees signs of movement and activity. This unease is compounded by the attraction that Lowen and Verity’s husband, Jeremy, feel for each other. Colleen Hoover did a good job of creating an unstable and ominous atmosphere. I also appreciated the steady pace of the book and I was able to read through quickly.
What I didn’t like:
This book was just kind of weird for me. First, it felt like there wasn’t really a protagonist(s). All of the characters lacked any kind of depth and it was hard to really connect or even like any of them. I don’t read a whole lot of dark or disturbing books and this one was a little hard for me to get through. Trigger warnings include: abortion, harm to children, murder, and death of children. This book is also filled with sex scenes (which were pretty steamy) but they were repetitive and didn’t add anything valuable to the plot…just wasted pages that could have been used to develop the characters more. There were so many aspects in this story that just didn’t make any sense (explaining further would reveal spoilers). The more I think about what happened in this book, the more frustrated I get. Ugh.
Overall Thoughts
I’m glad that I didn’t spend alot of time reading this book because by the end, I was just so over it. While I did like the atmosphere and eeriness of the story, there were just too many implausible, triggering, and underdeveloped elements that made for a disappointing experience. It seems that readers either love it or hate it according to Goodreads. I personally wouldn’t recommend it to others but apparently there are over 100,000 readers out there who loved it.