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Rating: 4/5 stars
I want to say that I hated Colleen Hoover’s Verity, but that would be a lie. A sign of a good book is when it lingers with you, and after I finished, I could not stop thinking about this book.
Summary from the publisher:
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 her family was forever altered.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could 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 loving her.
People rave about Colleen Hoover’s works, so I decided to give her a try, starting with Verity. Even though I found the writing to be excellent, the book wasn’t for me, primarily because I felt particularly triggered by the subject of a mother – supposed villain or not – harming her children.
The reason why I persevered with reading was because Hoover clearly is an exceptional writer. With the book’s premise of one author discovering an autobiographical manuscript while researching how to take over another author’s successful book series and the mystery she uncovers surrounding Verity and her family, it was certainly a compelling read. I found the concept of passages written from the villain’s perspective to be interesting and creative, even though I didn’t like what she had to say.
And ultimately, I am glad I kept reading because I found the ending to be satisfying, and left me feeling contemplative.
A couple features of the book that I particularly enjoyed were the sexual tension between Lowen and Jeremy and the discussion about the writing process in the book (as a writer myself, I love books about authors, even if they are fictionalized). Also, on a personal note, I found Verity’s musings about ending her pregnancy to be interesting to consider in terms of my memoir and understanding my own family history. My grandmother claimed to have unsuccessfully attempted some at-home abortion methods on my mother (like Verity, she too was a hateful woman, although I never thought of her as a psychopath), so even though this work is fictionalized, it was interesting to muse in this way about how my grandmother might have felt.
To explain my book rating, I would give the subject matter a 2 because it was so disturbing, the writing a 5, and because it ended with a relatively positive ending (as positive as was appropriate for a book like this anyways), I am rounding my overall rating up to a 4.
I will give Colleen Hoover another chance too. But I would caution readers that this book is deeply disturbing about maternal homicide, so read at your own discretion.
Have you or would you read this book? What Colleen Hoover books should I read? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
If you are interested, you can pick up your copy of the book through Bookshop.org or Amazon.com using the links below.
Lisa Futscher 