Verity by Colleen Hoover
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 best-selling 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.
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.
Sexy. Twisted. Consuming.
Here I went with a second try with the author Colleen Hoover.
I read her book “It Ends With Us” just a couple weeks ago…..it wasn’t my thing but I WAS impressed with her writing.
I have heard TONS about this book–no spoilers amazingly–and people either are completely fascinated by it or completely repulsed by it.
Whether peeps love it or hate it, the buzz surrounding it is REAL.
People are either screaming at me to go read it NOW or hollering at me to STAY AWAY.
I even had a friend tell me I may have a hard time with this one.
I was on the fence about Colleen Hoover with that last book….not my jam or my genre…but I knew this was a bit of a different vibe…more of thriller with some romance shit mixed in.
So I said YOLO…let’s give this a shot and see what all the fuss is about. (my apologies to my friend who I didn’t listen to lol)
I knew from the first chapter some fucked up shit was gonna happen…
And when the double narrative stuff started, I was already making predictions.
Crazy shit indeed started to unfold…and yall, this lady proved to me again that she is a GOOD DAMN WRITER.
I found this book more interesting than the other one….maybe because it was darker? And therefore more interesting to me? I mean, it got WAAAAYYYYYY dark, yall.
It wasn’t the most twisted thing I ever read…but I will say it was pretty effed up.
If you are a mother, you may have quite the difficult time taking in some of this. And if you have ever severely struggled with motherhood, it may take on a whole other kind of hard for you. (me over here raising my hand)
There is also LOTTTSSS of sex. Yes, I was rolling my eyes again with some of the scenes because they were just SO DANG RIDICULOUS and out there…but not all of them were like that.
I knew there would be some kind of giant plot twist as the chapters progressed–or even MULTIPLE twists–because that’s how these kind of books go AND because of all the hoopla that had been made about it.
I was thinking there would be some super crazy unexpected thing that happened at the tail end that would blindside me….I had all kinds of nutty scenarios in my head.
A lot of times with these kind of thriller books, I am pretty good at semi-predicting the ending.
When all is revealed in the end of the story, I was shocked….but also NOT.
I did like this book much better than the other one I read…definitely an engaging read that I could not stop listening to, but IDK if it needs ALL the buzz that surrounds it.
It was a great romantic thriller…but I think lots of other books can measure up.
ALSO….
Let me take a second for a HUGE annoyance I have with this read.
WTF is up with the audiobook ONLY being available on Audible?
Amazon gets on my damn nerves for a bagillion reasons….the only reason I actually HAVE Audible right now is because I had to do a 30 day free trial so I could finish last month’s book club selection on time….my hold at the library was NOT coming thru when I needed it to!
After I finished that book, I figured I’d listen to a new release right quick before I cancelled it.
I didn’t notice until I was finished the exclusive availability.
What is THAT all about? I headed to Google to find out.
Basically, Amazon can make a deal with publishers to exclusively have the audiobook rights for a certain time period, meaning no local bookstores OR libraries can have access to them AT ALL.
I do not enjoy this concept. SO MANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS.
This blog goes into why this is:
Add to my ever growing list of reasons why Amazon SUCKS. 😑
Anyways….final thoughts on this book: good read, good writer.
Moving on to something and someone else….