Verity
Ratings808
Average rating3.7
I honestly do not know where to start. Or how. This novel left me feeling spent, as if I've not slept for 36 hours.
Have I not read It Ends with Us, I would assume Colleen Hoover is a freaking fantastic thriller/dark romance author. But either way, yes, yes, yes, she's freaking fantastic.
The story itself is dark, disturbing and very engaging. It's hard to stop reading. You just want to go on and on and on until the very last page. And then you will go “WTF!?” And then you feel like you can't stop thinking about the novel. It will take some time for you to digest the story, to digest the characters, to even fathom the truth. That is, if it is the truth after all.
If you feel like going down that dark, twisted road, pick this one up.
Couldn't put this down. A highly addictive, page turning read.
Verity is a famous author who's rendered immobile and unresponsive after a car crash.
Jeremy, her husband, enlists the help of Lowen, a struggling author, to finish his wife's mega famous book series.
What unfolds next as Lowen moves into the family home is compulsive reading!!!!
A fellow writer handed me this book. She chuckled and said, “You only have to read the first chapter.”
Well. I read the first chapter. Then the rest of the book. I know it was supposed to be clumsy and bad, but ... I actually kinda liked it. Ha!
Is it often ridiculous? Oh yes. Like, Hallmark movie ridiculous, with enough melodrama to make a romance writer blush. The opening scene alone took WTF? to 11. Did the novel always make sense? Not a chance. Were there plot holes? Yup.
But ...
The writing at the line level mainly was pretty darn good. Zooming out, the structure was solid, and the pacing was on point. And the characters ... at least some of them were interesting.
All this book needed was an editor with the power to say “No.”
So. Fun read. Don't expect a lot and you may enjoy it. Think of it as a romance writer attempting to write suspense, which should set the right expectations.
Happy reading, folks.
DNF @ 40 pages
That was how long it took me to realize this book was trying way too hard and was just not going to be enjoyable.
That's also how long it took me to realize that Lowen is insufferable.
It is also possible that it was just very overhyped.
3.5 estrellas. La verdad empecé a leer este libro sin saber nada sobre la trama, no leí ninguna sinopsis, pero si me he encontrado con críticas tanto buenas como malas de él, así que quise juzgar por mi misma.
Creo que no esta mal, es un libro corto así que lo pude leer en unas horas, me pareció interesante la historia, aunque, si bien tenía sus momentos que produjeron suspenso, faltó mas de ello para considerarlo un thriller, se quedo corto de momentos inquietantes que me tuvieran nerviosa por así decirlo. Por sobre todo si lo disfrute, no esta mal para pasar una tarde.
I actually enjoyed this book. I was too scared to read this in the dark (which btw I READ A LOT OF BOOKS IN THE DARK WITH A NIGHT LIGHT) so I didn't enjoy all the romance in this book but the shock that verity gave me made me all like ‘IS THIS WOMAN A MOTHER OR WHAT' this book was such an amazing read.
I really struggled with this one. It started off rough,I kept dozing off and couldn’t stay focused on the story. I eventually had to pair my physical copy with the audiobook just to make it through. The characters felt predictable, and even though there were a few intriguing moments, the author missed the mark for me. Overall, it was just an okay read, nothing more.
From the beginning, Verity sucks you into a tangled web of suspense. Lowen, a struggling writer, is hired to finish bestselling author Verity Crawford's series after Verity is incapacitated. But when Lowen stumbles upon Verity's autobiographical manuscript, things get wild. In the manuscript, Verity confesses to chilling secrets, especially about her disturbing behavior as a wife and mother, and the extremes she went to. As I read it, I was convinced Verity was unhinged—her manipulations, cruelty, and selfishness were beyond anything Lowen expected, and her actions left me questioning how anyone could be so calculating.
But here's the kicker: Colleen Hoover keeps you guessing. By the end, you're left wondering what was real. Did Verity's manuscript tell the truth, or was it a calculated, manipulative fiction? For me, the manuscript's version of Verity felt way too authentic and intense to dismiss. Team Manuscript all the way—it captured the darkness that seemed way too real.
Verity is a wild ride for anyone who loves psychological thrillers with moral ambiguity and unreliable narrators. It's intense, twisted, and leaves you questioning everything. If you haven't read it yet, brace yourself for a lot of “what just happened?!”
Wtf was that? I liked the overall premise, but wtf at that ending. A few issues I also have (possible spoilers)
1. No condom after only knowing said person a few days? Sorry that's an absolute PASS for me.
I still don't know after reading this book which one is telling the truth. The book was great and I really liked how it followed Verity throughher life in a manuscript. The ending was surprising as well.
Back in 2022, I first heard about Verity on TikTok. It was described as “intriguing,” “disturbing,” “nail-biting,” and a story that many couldn’t put down, but dearly wanted to because of the “graphically disturbing content”. I would have to agree — not because of the content, but because of the prose. This was one of the worst written books I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading. I kept thinking it would get better, and by the end I was left sorely disappointed and feeling like Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook. Do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time reading this. We only have one life: this takes about 3 hours of it you’ll never get back.
Hey, friends? This book was Not Good. The only interesting parts were the book-within-a-book chapters, the leads were wooden and boring, and the ending was a huge cop-out.
However, easy-breezy reading. Is that why Colleen Hoover is popular? Readability? Genuinely asking, I had to purposely slow myself down to read this in basically a few hours over 3 evenings.
Honestly, i would've given this 2 stars for the suspense and the plot twist at the very end, but no.
During the whole book i hated everyone. The MC is a disrespectful homewrecker, the love interest is a cheating husband, and Verity was portrayed as the most detestable human being on earth. The characterization is also lacking, i dont even know what they look like.
Also the romance has misogynistic undertones. 2 women sexually obsessed w a man fighting over his attention? “He fucked me like I was his virgin”??
WTF?
Wow. Ok. Parts of this were so...disturbing. Like, make me nauseous thinking a person could actually think the way Verity thought.
More than a little... Odd at the love story happening. I wanted to smack my head often at Lowen and Jeremy.
There were moments I worried about the sanity of the little boy. Maybe he's the “villain” or at least had the potential to be one.
It's the ending for me though. This didn't end the way I thought it would. I thought it was going to be... I don't even have the words to say what I thought.
One question I am left with is... Which Verity is the real one?
Too much sex talk, lots of useless details, many things make no sense. The start and ending are kinda the only interesting parts.
I'm still trying to figure out why I finished this because it's all so absurd.
Maybe the repetitive oral sex scenes tied me over.
Yeah let's go with that.
In spite of the fact that this is not my favorite genre, I really enjoyed it. But I'm not sure about the end... it was unexpected, but it didn't blow up my mind.
OMG...where do I begin??? This book had so many twists and turns that I was panicking the entire time. The ending had me gasping. Omg... 10/10 read. Please be aware of the triggers. Highly recommend
Loved this journey! I've never liked a book inside of a book before but this really made it work. It has a bit of predictable parts but also still manages to surprise!
Meh? Probably 2.5 stars, but rounding down. I gave this book a chance after H A T I N G It Ends With Us, because all my Colleen Hoover devotee friends said it's outside her norm. I wanted to like it, and I did like It better than IEWO, but it was still just... not my favorite. It was definitely suspenseful, creepy, and successful at sucking me in (I read it straight through in one sitting) but the last 15% or so got a little too unbelievable for me to truly enjoy. (I read a lot of magical realism so I don't think imagination is my problem, here.) There were a couple of plot devices that felt shoehorned and (light spoiler ahead) the letter that concludes the story is entirely a lazy way to do a whole bunch of expository narrative to try to introduce a twist that isn't much of a twist. Just not my jam.
