VERITY

 

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 their family was forever altered. 

 

She 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. 

 

 

 

QUICK INSIGHT

 

Author: Colleen Hoover

Genre: Thriller, Suspense

Traditional or Self-Pub: Self-published

Pages: 314 (ebook)

Cover art: 5/5

Cover by: Murphy Rae

Overall Reading Experience: 5/5

First 5 Chapters: It starts with a big red splash and that’s how we dive down the rabbit hole of bad thing after bad thing. And there I sat, white knuckling my kindle white, thinking I'd eventually break the screen. 

Reasons to keep reading: Don’t? Hide under your covers, lock your doors. Stay away from the uneasy feeling at the pit of your stomach as you continue to torture yourself with such an intense novel.

Get it Here: Verity

 

WRITING!

Whew! The brain of Colleen Hoover…. I am envious. And also a little worried. How does one go in such graphic detail? How does one write a novel so suspenseful, she doesn’t wake in a cold sweat? 

I literally lost sleep over this novel. Not being able to put it down until I read the final sentence and I still felt incomplete. 

Colleen did an amazing job of having everything fall into place, one after the other. Yet, STILL, she gave no hints to the ending. I could have never guessed it. And oh boy did I try. But all my assumptions were way off the beaten track. 

And although while I enjoyed reading this novel, it was a little unsettling to me. And at how easily my stomach turned over at the graphic part. This is why I typically stay away from genres like this because of the anxiety that unfolds inside of me. 

I would do it all again if I could. 

 

 

HOT or NOT?

 **SPOILERS AHEAD**

I curse my best friend for telling me to read this book. At first I wasn’t even going to pick it up. AT ALL. I hate reading thrillers, suspense, and even horror books because I am a wimp and my imagination will take off and run with it. I will start to see things lurking in the shadows of corners, to find it’s just my lamp. Or feel something brush against my shoulder, but it’s just my hair. I will be haunted for weeks by the images my powerful mind creates

But I read it anyway. Because I am a good friend. 

I do not regret listening to her. From start to finish, I did not take one single break. No water was sipped, no bathroom breaks, I didn't even get up to stretch, or switch positions on the couch, that’s how good this book was. 

You will read a book within a book, and that book is more horrifying than the actual events that take place. Sure, for Lowen it’s scary to see the woman who you are taking over as a co writer for and who is supposed to be “mentally paralyzed”, at the top of the stairs watching you as you are passionately making out with her husband. Granted she should be watching you. 

Yes it’s scary to believe you are catching glimpses of this woman around the house. 

It’s TERRIFYING to read the woman’s private autobiography. To find out how twisted and emotionless she is. Lowen dove deeper in the pages, just as I did, wondering what drove this twisted woman to kill her children. I try to stay far away from graphic imagery but in this case I feel it was vital to the story, vital to the villain. 

And the heartbreak that Jeremy has endured, only to find that his wife was the one to drown one of their daughters. How cruel can you be? But yet he still cared for her after she crashed her car into a tree and became “Mentally paralyzed”. 

Only then to find out she ALLEGEDLY never killed her children. Her excuse was, she was writing parts of her life through a villain’s perspective to help her become a better author. BULLSHIT.

Sorry not sorry. 

There is no way as a mother you would be able to write vividly how you killed your kid. I do not have kids of my own but reading those pages made my stomach roll over and over until I physically became sick. And it was just a book. 

Of course with the way the book ended we will never know which manipulated reality was true. 

Here’s my theory…

Verity knew she was going to be caught. She knew with Lowen in her house she would find that manuscript. So she wrote a letter claiming she only did it for her writing career. I do not believe she was ever going to run away with their only child left, their son. There is no way she opened another checking account and drafted money into it without her husband finding out. I am sure banks have policies on how much you can transfer into a new account all done online. 

This of course is only my theory and if I am wrong then Verity was killed for the wrong reasons. But those reasons were her own doing. Why did she never admit it? She had to know one day someone would read it. 

That’s like keeping a diary on your nightstand and not expecting you siblings to read it. 

Anyways, enough listening to my rambling and go read the book yourself.

As always, I do recommend forming your own opinion, so there is a direct link to the book up above. And I always welcome feedback on my own critique as I’m not always right.