Verity by Colleen Hoover
So what’s the scoop on Colleen Hoover’s Verity?
I will never look at Steak n’ Shake the same way…
Colleen Hoover and Lisa of Troy finally meet. Alright that’s weird. I am never referring to myself in the third person again….
In Verity, we find Lowen Ashleigh who is a down-on-her-luck author when she gets an incredible offer to finish a series by a famous author, Verity Crawford. When Lowen goes through Verity’s office, she discovers an autobiography by Verity with salacious admissions and jaw-dropping tales. What will Lowen do with the information she has discovered?
This is my very first Colleen Hoover work so I will share with you my general impressions, not sure if these are hallmarks of her other books. Hoover keeps the action flowing with short paragraphs and sentences. There are no page long paragraphs here.
The storytelling is top notch, and Hoover sprinkles gossipy revelations throughout the book. And this book is filled with steam. Steam upon steam. Steamy steam. Descriptions of steamy steam. However, please be warned that this book is incredibly, incredibly dark with some graphic depictions of child abuse.
In terms of structure, Verity really reminded me of the book, Home Before Dark by Riley Sager, because it also switches back and forth between modern day and back to an old book. The main character, Lowen, does have internal ruminations, but the author masterfully navigated these sections and did not get lost in the weeds.
Verity is page-turning and reading it is certainly not a chore.
There are two things that kind of bothered me, but to me, storytelling is everything. And this book had it in spades.
First, the ending did not surprise me at all. Without trying to spoil anything, the ending relies on a familiar trope that I saw coming very early in the book.
Second, a part of the ending did not make sense. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything, but it has to do with a certain reaction to the manuscript.
Personally, if I was the editor of this book, I would have rewritten the ending, but (sadly) Colleen Hoover has not been ringing my phone off the hook.
Overall, Verity is a dark, page-turning tale, and I look forward to reading more from Colleen Hoover. Highly recommended for those who are fans of May Cobb. Or try May Cobb if you enjoy Colleen Hoover.
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