My Favorite Books!

Verity

Genre : Thriller

Pages : 324

Published : Dec 7, 2018

Goodreads rating : 4.3

Trigger warning : Child violence, Murder

My personal rating : 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My favorite quote from the book : "The things lurking around inside the mind can be just as dangerous as tangible threats."

Description : 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.

NON-SPOILER SECTION

I know I've already warned you in the trigger warning part, but if you can't stand reading scenes of child abuse, don't read this book. There are some extremely disturbing moments that were almost too much for me, and I'm used to reading that kind of stuff! So.. beware.

The book is suspenseful and it'll make you want to finish reading it in one sitting because you'll want to find out how it ends. It's not perfect when it comes to writing and plot in my opinion, but it's very readable I'll give it that.

People who only read romance (like the author's other books) might find this book really scary, but as someone who's a fan of this genre, it left me a bit underwhelmed. I was a expecting.. more creepy stuff to happen, I guess.

Anyway, you know what the book is about from reading the description, and I can't say much more about it without giving spoilers, so go ahead and check it out if it sounds interesting to you.

SPOILER SECTION

The story went in a completely different direction than I thought it would. At first I thought Verity was innocent and Jeremy was evil. I thought Verity would tell Lowen everything and they would team up against him... But then when Lowen was reading Verity's manuscript and I found out that she tried to kill her twin babies in her womb just because he already loved them more than her... I was disturbed.

When Lowen tried to confront Verity for the first time, it was good to know she wasn't scared of her anymore, but I also felt like letting her know she read her manuscript was a pretty dumb thing to do in that situation.

And can I just say... all the characters were so infuriating in their own way. I was like come on Colleen Hoover, why would you write unlikable characters for this type of story? They made questionable decisions. For example when they started sleeping together while Verity is literally lying in bed in the same house.

When Jeremy left Lowen alone in the house to take Crew to the hospital, I thought something scary was about to happen. I thought she would go to Verity's room only to realise she's not in her bed... and then she would start shaking and the lights would go off... Don't blame me for thinking it would go like this, I read and watch a LOT of horror and this is what it does to your mind lol. But nothing of that sort happened. And when they killed her I couldn't believe it was that easy. All that dread... All that build up... I was disappointed to say the least.

When she showed Jeremy the manuscript and his first question was "Where did you find this?" I suspected he already read it. And I was right.

So... that ending. Lol. What can I say? Some readers are pissed off because they don't like the fact that we don't know if Verity was really evil or not. But I like it. It's a unique ending and I don't mind not knowing. I kept glancing at the bottom of my screen to make sure how much of the book was left and it was about 80 percent by the time they killed Verity. So I knew something else was coming. But I didn't expect that.

Okay, this is it. I won't be recommending Colleen Hoover's books anymore. It's not that she's a bad writer or anything, but her ratings are definitely higher than they should be thanks to her dedicated fans. But I've seen her in a booktuber's video and she seems like a fun and lovable person. I like her, just not her books.