Hey Dearies!
So, I saw the trailer for this one, and when I realized it was a Colleen Hoover book, I was shocked because I don’t see Colleen Hoover as a thriller writer, so I wanted to check it out. Plus, one of my friends recommended it, so I figured I would give it a go.
Now, mind you, I have only read one of Colleen’s books, which was Regretting You. I’ll be honest, I was okay; however, it did take me some time to get into as well. Verity was a little different from what I have read of Colleen, and I figured if it was a good thriller, I’d get zoned right in like I do with Freida McFadden’s work.
I also did want to read the book before I saw the movie, and since it just came out, I figured it was the perfect time to do so. I was also curious to see how Anne Hathaway would do in a thriller movie.
The book is about a famous author, Verity, who was in a car accident and can’t move or talk at all from it. She has a very popular book series that her publisher is trying to have finished because the fans are requesting it, so her husband, Jeremy, reaches out to another thriller author who can help finish Verity’s series.
Lowan ends up taking on the job as she not only needs the money, but is struggling as a writer herself. She also just lost her mother to cancer, which she was taking care of her for. So, she heads over to Verity and Jeremy’s house to look at all of Verity’s manuscripts, notes, and her novels in the series to see if she can finish them for her.
Jeremy also invites her to stay with them in the guest room, as he said she had a lot of notes on everything and that it would take a lot of time to go through. While she is going through her notes, she finds Verity’s autobiography, and it’s a lot darker than what I even thought it was going to be.
Now, before I go on, I’m going to put a spoiler alert in place for the book. I have yet to see the movie, so only the book will be spoiled.
The chapters go back and forth between Lowan trying to understand and figure out Verity’s book, and when she starts to read her autobiography, the chapter will switch to the autobiography. Let’s just say, it’s so screwed up.
At first, it seems fine: a little bit of steamy scenes where Verity talks about how she met Jeremy and how much sex they would have; it will go into detail, so there are some spicy scenes as well. Verity talks about how obsessed she is with Jeremy and how when she became pregnant, she tried to give herself an abortion because of the fact that Jeremy was too much in love with their unborn twins than herself.
Lowan, who is reading this, is completely shocked because she did not know that Verity had twin girls who died around 8 years old. Chastin died at a sleepover when the girls brought snacks that had peanuts in them, and Chastin was allergic.
Then you read in Verity’s autobiography that she planned on killing Heather by having her drown and only saving her son, Crew, because Verity was convinced that Heather killed Chastin by allowing her to have the snacks at the sleepover, knowing they had peanuts in them. Plus, she thought that the death of their other daughter would help Jeremy go back to normal, because she wasn’t getting much affection from him.
I was so blown away when I read all that because Verity is completely nuts! While Lowan is reading all this, she is also dealing with strange things with Verity. Like how Crew would mention that he would talk to his mother, or when Verity was supposedly watching TV and Lowan walked into another room, the TV would go mute.
If it were me, I’d be out as soon as that stuff started to happen around me. Lowan, on the other hand, started to fall in love with Jeremy, and you guessed it, they ended up hooking up together. Jeremy made the first move, and this was after Lowan mentioned that Verity should be put in a place where she can get full-time care.
I think Lowan not only mentioned this because of the weird crap going on, but for Crew and Jeremy’s sake, being able to move on and do what they would want to do in life without having to be tied down to Verity needs.
Overall, it was an okay thriller; I’ve read better. It was a good try on Colleen’s part, but I just didn’t “love it”, like some of the other readers. Then again, it’s hard to compare thrillers when all I’ve read was Freida McFadden, and she really tops the cake for sure!
What did you think of Verity? Did you see the movie before the book, or did what I did and read it before watching it? Also, what did you think of Colleen’s attempt at a thriller? Let me know in the comments!
