I always enjoy a good mystery, even the occasional psychological thriller. Verity, a romance thriller by Colleen Hoover is not one of them. This novel, too much for me, was full of psychological manipulation, child abuse, graphic sexual description and murder. Reading a number of positive reviews, I am in a minority. This author has many very faithful followers who have given this book five out of five stars. The first sentence set the tone for the story that followed. The narrator, Lowen Ashleigh, witness to a horrendous and bloody traffic accident, was too close too escape being covered in blood. Lowen, a struggling writer, is kindly assisted by a man unknown to her. Later that same morning, she and her book agent, meet with publishers for a ghost writing project. The man she saw earlier is at the same meeting. This man, Jeremy Crawford, is husband to Verity, a popular author who has severe health problems and unable to complete her contract. The story unwinds from there. Lowen’s life circumstances are less than favourable. The contract will solve some of her problems. She moves out to the Crawford home and into Verity’s office to research and work on Verity’s next novel. While going through the author’s desk and drawers she finds what appears to be an autobiography that becomes Verity’s voice in this story - disembodied, sexually explicit and terrifying.
The characters were joyless. The story was humourless - not even a modicum of black humour. Romance, while present, was greatly overshadowed by the tension in the story. I do suppose these could be qualities for any thriller. In short, this is not a book I will re-read. In fact, it troubled me greatly. I did read the book from cover to cover. Am I masochistic? I found Colleen Hoover’s writing fairly good. She did build tension and curiosity to know the outcome, which led me to the interesting conclusion.
“the things lurking around inside the mind
can be just as dangerous as tangible threats.”
~ Colleen Hoover, Verity
Title: Verity
Author: Colleen Hoover
Copyright: 2018
Publisher: Self Published (Hoover Ink, Inc.)
Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Romance, Suspense, Adult
Format: Soft cover
ISBN13 - 9781791392796
ASIN (Kindle Edition) - BO7HJYTRMD
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