For those of you thinking the name Colleen Hoover rings a bell, she’s the author of the bestselling book, It Ends With Us, which I would file under “romance”, “chick lit” etc. I promise I’m not trying to be too cool for school when I say I didn’t understand the hype and felt the book was hard to get through. When Verity was published,I thought I’d give Hoover another go and wow, was this different.
Lowen is thirty-one, she has middling success as an author, and her mother has passed away, leaving her an enormous amount of debt. As luck would have it, she is offered a unique writing opportunity to finish the hit series of a well-known author who’s been incapacitated due to an accident. Motivated by the large cash sum and a ever-so-slight interest in Jeremy, husband to author Verity Crawford, Lowen accepts. As she stays at the family residence to research the series and plan the remaining books, it quickly becomes apparent that something’s amiss in the stately Vermont home and with the people residing inside it.
I’ll start with the good news: I was pulled into the plot way more than I expected, and much quicker, too. I didn’t expect this kind of suspense/thriller writing from Hoover but thought she pulled it off well. Parts of the ending I found predictable, but the conclusion was well done and left a good impression of the book overall. Now for the bad news. I struggled with both Hoover books I’ve read because I find her writing style redundant and a lot of “telling” rather than “showing”. There are parts of the book that Verity narrates and I felt a more natural rhythm to the writing style and a flow to the voice, but I struggled at the beginning when it’s primarily Lowen’s narration.
I came into Verity with pretty low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. If you’re looking for an unconventional, mildly unnerving suspense novel (albeit fairly tame) then this is for you.
2% Rating: 7/10
Recommend? Maybe
Re-Read? Nope
Time: 1:51