Colleen Hoover’s books are highly recommended throughout Bookstagram. Last year I read November 9 and Hopeless. Unfortunately, I didn’t like either of it. Not because the books were bad in anyway, but they were too intense for me. Just not my kind of book! Due to this, when I heard about Verity few months back, I was sceptical. I was not sure whether I should read it or not. When Verity was chosen as the book for buddy read by @dashofdark_tales and @bookedbound, I just felt that I should give it a try. I knew that if I didn’t do a read along, I was never going to read it. Again, unfortunately, I had a few review copies to read and review with deadlines and I couldn’t read along with the others. But then everyone in the buddy read group said they loved it and that some of them binge read it. This got me pumped up and I started the book last Monday afternoon. Believe me guys, I binge read and finished it before I slept by 1 am. Just goes to show, don’t judge a book before you read it!!
Lowen, a struggling writer, is going through a bad phase of life. She is about to be evicted from her apartment and her mother just passed away. Few days later, she gets a call from her agent about a meeting. She ventures out of her house after months. At the meeting she is given the job offer of a lifetime. Best selling author, Verity Crawford, is injured from an accident and unable to finish the remaining books in a successful series. Her husband, Jeremy Crawford, hires Lowen for the job and invites her to his house so that she can sort through Verity’s notes and outlines to complete the series. Instead Lowen finds an unfinished autobiography of Verity that was not meant to be read by anyone. This includes Verity’s bone chilling admissions about her inner most desires and feelings. Lowen hides it from Jeremy but starts to rethink on her decision when her feelings toward Jeremy intensifies.
I was surprised to discover that this was not a typical Colleen Hoover book. Even though I loved how it started, my intention was to read it in 2-3 days. Never did I imagine that I would finish it in half a day, especially since it was an eBook. It’s books like these that bring back my love for reading when I’m in a slump.
Hoover has literally done a book inside a book with the autobiography manuscript. It was brilliant. I should warn those who haven’t read it yet that there are some disturbing and uncomfortable scenes. Verity talks about a mother’s darkest thoughts, fears and desires. It was hard to read through some of these. Just goes to show how well Hoover has written and brought these scenes to life.
Verity is currently bedridden and does not have any sense of her surroundings after an accident. When Jeremy’s son, Crew, tells Lowen that his mother speaks to him, it kind of gets spooky. I could feel my pulse racing whenever Lowen felt that Verity was staring right at her or when she sees curtains moving at Verity’s window. Was Verity faking it? I started having my doubts too!
Even though Jeremy is shown as a thoughtful and loving husband/father, I still wonder about him. He still cares for and looks after his wife well. At the same time, he gets physically drawn to Lowen in a matter of few days. Now, that’s not normal!
The ending just blew me over. I was like What the hell just happened? What should I accept? Whose version of events do I believe? I think Hoover meant it to end that way. To leave us hanging and questioning everything that we believed to be true in the book.
The book reminded me a little bit of Gone Girl with the autobiography part. But that’s the only similarity. I loved Verity much more than Gone Girl. A dark thriller worth your time. Don’t miss it!
My Rating: 5⭐.