Verity

This is really more like 3.5 stars, but I'm giving it 3, because I can't in good conscience give it 4.

Of all the Colleen Hoover books, this is the one I liked the most so far. That's not saying much. Perhaps my expectations are lowered at this point, too. It's more of a “thriller”, and I think she writes these better than she writes romances. This was quite the page-turner and I finished it two days.

I put “thriller” in quotes because it's not very thrilling. There are parts I thought “uh-oh, they're building up to this bad thing that will surely happen any moment”, but naaa. It was a relatively tame thriller, which I didn't mind because I am kind of a wimp.

I didn't read any spoilers, but I did see there was some big twist. As I was reading, I thought of a few VERY good twists that it seemed like they were building up to, but when the time came... nope. The ending was dumb. The supposed “twist” was dumb. It was so lazy. I read that Colleen Hoover rushed to get this book out by the deadline, and that ending would explain why.

There's also a bonus chapter when the book was republished and THAT was awful too. It didn't really add anything to the story and just made me not like the dull characters even more. Read this bonus chapter at your own risk.

This book COULD have been 4 stars if:
- The ending was better and not phoned-in
- I cared more about the main characters. “I'm attracted to him because he's so attractive” isn't good enough. Give me something, here.
- Some things that happened in the book actually mattered. There was a lot of fluff in this book that you think will come back in some form later but NOPE. Don't get your hopes up like I did.
- There wasn't several LONG ASS letters. Colleen Hoover loves her long letters in books, and it really takes me out of the moment.


I'd also give a trigger warning to any moms who don't like reading about twisted stuff happening to their children. I was okay with this stuff, but I'm also not a mom.