verity book review nytimes

‘Verity’ review: This horror romance is a last ditch attempt at originality

It is bold to say, but after reading “Verity,” I feel no inclination to read another Colleen Hoover book again.

Describing the plot of this book to friends brought myself to the brink of insanity. It is comparable to a fever dream in which nothing makes sense, and the only frightening aspect is that your mind came up with it. Not only is the plot entirely implausible, but it is close to juvenile in construction. There are plot lines present that are completely unnecessary, character motivations that do not line up and just plain cringeworthy lines. The one thing we can praise Colleen for is creativity with this one.

The premise of the book starts with Lowen, a budding author who writes thriller novels. She is approached by an agent who then asks her to co-write the rest of an unfinished series written originally by Verity Crawford. However, instead of simply finding Verity’s old notes and outlines, Lowen discovers a manuscript for Verity’s autobiography. Things progress from there.

I want to preface my full review with the disclaimer that prior to reading this book, I liked Colleen Hoover as an author. Her book “It Ends with Us” is positively leagues above “Verity,” therefore my expectations going into this book were high. I thought fondly of Colleen’s writing, and was anything but a skeptic.

First and foremost, I must address the main character of “Verity” — Lowen. In short, she was woefully underdeveloped. Not only is her moral compass askew for an almost insubstantial reason, but it is clear most of her decisions are written to solely progress the plot.

Reading Lowen’s decision-making process felt like watching a terrible horror movie and screaming at the TV — “Stop! Don’t go in there!” It was with baited breath that I continued to read to simply uncover the underlying reasons for what made Lowen act the way she did.

To my own disappointment however, we never get there. For essentially the entire first half of the book, we are strung along in a chase to figure out what life-altering tragedy occurred to Lowen. This event is talked up to be almost so horrific that it has undoubtedly transformed our main character. Only, it is beyond dissatisfying. Upon discovering the reason I audibly said, “That’s it?” while reading.

To sum up, there was nothing below the surface of Lowen. It just so turned out that she was a bad character paired with bad writing.

Moreover, we have to talk about the subpar love interest of “Verity” — Jeremy. I guess I cannot blame Colleen for putting a mediocre woman with a below average man. The relationship that Jeremy presents is full of distrust blanketed by lust. Again, we are presented with the same problem of shallowness as before. There is almost an odd fixation on Jeremy as a character, and that may have been an intentional choice. However, it completely misses the mark.

This borderline obsessiveness comes off as arbitrary, seeing as Jeremy is written as a tolerable character at best. I did not think it could be done, but Jeremy quite possibly had less substance than Lowen.

Moving on, it is important that I acknowledge how much of the plot is simply just filler. For example, there are conflicts that arise due to the careless mistakes of the characters, however these issues only serve one purpose — To fill pages.

Additionally, there are multiple scenes within the book that provide no relevant information in the slightest. These scenes do not supply background information nor do they give opportunity for character development.

Overall, I gave this book two out of five stars. To be completely candid, the writing reads like something you could find on Wattpad with its nonsensical twists. The plot definitely took me by surprise purely because it is outrageous. It seems the common theme within “Verity” is that you can be sure you will be left with many questions — one of them being “What did I just read?”

Michelle Davis

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How Colleen Hoover Rose to Rule the Best-Seller List

With legions of devoted fans and a knack for high-voltage emotional drama, Hoover has sold more than 20 million books. And she’s done it her way.

Colleen Hoover at home in Texas this month. “She’s defying the laws of how the market works,” said an industry analyst. Credit... Jake Dockins for The New York Times

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By Alexandra Alter

• Published Oct. 9, 2022 Updated June 21, 2023

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Colleen Hoover has sold more books this year than Dr. Seuss. She’s sold more books than James Patterson and John Grisham — combined.

To say she’s currently the best-selling novelist in the United States, to even compare her to other successful authors who have landed several books on the best seller lists, fails to capture the size and loyalty of her audience.

She holds six of the top 10 spots on The New York Times’s paperback fiction best-seller list , a stunning number of simultaneous best sellers from a single author. She has sold 8.6 million print books this year alone — more copies than the Bible, according to NPD BookScan.

And her success — a shock that she’s still processing, she said — has upended the publishing industry’s most entrenched assumptions about what sells books.

When she self-published her first young adult novel, “Slammed,” in January of 2012, Hoover was making $9 an hour as a social worker, living in a single-wide trailer with her husband, a long-distance truck driver, and their three sons. She was elated when she made $30 in royalties. It was enough to pay the water bill.

Hoover, 42, didn’t have a publisher, an agent or any of the usual marketing machinery that goes into engineering a best seller: the six-figure marketing campaigns, the talk-show and podcast tours, the speaking gigs and literary awards, the glowing reviews from mainstream book critics.

@colleenhoover #stitch with @karlilovesbooks ♬ original sound - Colleen Hoover

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The Bookshelf

BOOK REVIEW: Verity by Colleen Hoover

An unpopular opinion i don't know, maybe.....

It took me two and half years of hosting my podcast, Speaking LITerally, for my co-host, Liz, and I to finally take the plunge and read a Colleen Hoover book. Verity is what we went with as it seemed more aligned to our preferred reading genres, and we decided to take our options to the air in our October Podcast episode. So if you want to know what our Podcast book club thought, definitely take a listen. Speaking LITerally is available wherever you listen to all your favorite podcasts.

Anyways, my personal thoughts are mixed. Did I like Verity? Um, it was ok. Am I knocking down the doors to my local bookstores to get more Colleen Hoover books? No. Will I read another CoHo book? Not anytime soon. And, yes this is with the knowledge that Verity is not like her other books. Even with that knowledge, I have no desire at the current moment to read anything else. Ironically, my 17 year old, senior in high school son has a close female friend who reads Colleen Hoover frequently, and I have had several conversations with her. So, at least until May when they graduate, I can ask her how the books are.

The premise of Verity was promising. A young struggling author seems to get the opportunity to be the ghostwriter for a widely popular author, Verity, who is unable to finish her series. Struggling to make a decision, the money seals the deal, and she moves into the author’s house for several weeks to “research” the series, look at the author's notes and outlines in order to be able to finish writing the books. The issue is that Verity is lying in a coma in an upstairs bedroom, Verity’s husband seems to have a thing for her, and there is Verity’s son and two dead daughters.

Where do I begin? The book starts to a bang, I’ll give COHO that. The stage is set from page one to feel sorry for our main character, Lowen. The woe-is-she persona is strong. But, unfortunately, I never connected with her, and she kinda drove me crazy. However, if COHO was going for creating a cast of characters that are all a little off and have some concerning, sociopathic tendencies, she delivered on that. But Lowen was my least favorite. Same issues with Jeremy, Verity’s husband, though. He has some serious issues and I think labeling him “morally gray” just doesn’t do it justice. But, I guess like calls to like. I just didn’t like!

It’s what you do when you’ve experienced the worst of the worst. You seek out people like you…people worse off than you…and you use them to make yourself feel better about the terrible things that have happened to you.

The book overall is supposed to be that mystery/thriller genre which is not what COHO typically writes, so kudos to her for stepping out of her comfort genre. I will say that there were some amazingly creepy scenes. Maybe creepy isn’t the right word. Suspenseful? I’ll try to list them without giving any spoilers, but if IYKYK.

Creepy factor on a scale of 1-5:

The staring through the windows - 3

Crew’s behaviors - 4  (Crew is Verity and Jeremy’s young son)

The character standing at the top of the stairs - 5

Nurse April - 3

The extra bonus chapters - 5

The sleepwalking - 4

Now, just because I didn’t really care for the characters, I do respect the difficulty that it must be for Lowen to try to dissect someone’s life in order to write their books without being able to communicate with that person. Plus, the little autobiographical story that Lowen finds hidden is what causes Lowen to enter into her downward spiral of doubt and paranoia and builds the tension and suspense for the rest of the book.

Alternating chapters between Lowen’s reality with chapters of Verity’s manuscript break up the chronological plot by providing the reader nuggets of information about Verity and Jeremy’s life, marriage, the death of their children, everything. But as it comes in small, controlled doses, Lowen begins to doubt what is true and the fear grows. Throughout the progression of the plot, we see Lowen’s character evolve, or spiral, into the murky waters of trying to decipher the truth.

There is a nice little twist at the end that puts everything into question. As the reader, we are meant to question what the truth is. So, if you are looking for a book that has a pretty bow tying up the ending, you are not going to get it here. Typically, I don’t like not knowing for sure, but I think the extra chapters made up my mind on what I think the truth is. I’ll keep my opinions to myself. (If you really want to know. I highly encourage you to listen to our Book Club Podcast. We all have a different hypothesis.)

My mother used to say that houses have a soul, and if that is true, the soul of Verity Crawford’s house is as dark as they come.

Where does this land on my bookshelf?

Middle shelf. Probably on the lower end of it. I didn’t not like it, I just wasn’t like “oh, wow. Everyone needs to read this one!” It definitely made me think and react, but I couldn’t connect with Lowen, and I just thought every other character was a little too crazy. The tension and suspense was successfully created in how Lowen engaged with Jeremy and those in the house as she read more and more of Verity’s manuscript. And the doubt as to the truth at the end was well established. Literally, it could go either way. At the end of the day, I can say that I have read a COHO book, even if I may not read another one for quite some time.

Please leave me a comment, especially if you have read Verity. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Don’t forget to check out my other fun sites!

Website for book lovers: www.azdesertbookworm.com It has links to my podcast Speaking LITerally, book reviews, breaking literary news, games, links to small businesses and more! I update it at least once a week! I also have a lot of content on my Instagram! Check it out - @azdesert_bookworm

Speaking LITerally podcast ! Our monthly misadventures into all things literary. Separated the Atlantic, Liz and I come together in our love of reading!!! Find us wherever you listen to your other favorite podcasts! Click here to find us on iHeartRadio!

If you are really bored, you can read about some of my personal adventures in life raising two teenagers, commentating on professional wrestling shows and loving a husband who is fighting Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and all the lesson I learn along the way. Educate This.

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Book Summary and Reviews of Verity by Colleen Hoover

Summary | Reviews | More Information | More Books

by Colleen Hoover

• Genre: Thrillers
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About this book

Book summary.

Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1  New York Times  bestselling author of  It Ends With Us.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.

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Reader reviews.

" Verity delivers the grand slam of thriller twists—the holy grail of'what the…?!' moments ... It lit up my brain." ― Washington Post "If you came here to find a mystery romance book that'll have you on the edge of your seat (and keep you up at night), add  Verity  by Colleen Hoover to your cart." ― Cosmopolitan "Unravels a picture-perfect couple's courtship and marriage in truly twisted—and jaw-dropping—fashion." ― Elle magazine "The energy and pace in this book are like a fun house at a carnival. It's ever-changing, and just when you think you know what to expect next, Hoover hits you with another turn. Up until the very final page, readers are mining for clues. Just when you thought you figured out the who, what, when, where, and why, it completely changes, leaving you gobsmacked." ― BuzzFeed "The perfect choice if you're after a gripping read but be warned, its twists and turns may very well keep you up at night." ― Refinery29 "Colleen Hoover's romances and contemporary fiction novels ... grip readers with emotionally charged storylines, unique plotlines, and twists that leave us reeling." ― Business Insider "Talk about a word-of-mouth of page-turner we're still not over ... Cue the seductive mystery that has one of our all-time fave twists. Run, don't walk." ― The Skimm

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More Information

Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Hopeless series , the Maybe Someday series, Ugly Love, Confess, It Ends with Us, All Your Perfects , and many more. She lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. Please visit www.ColleenHoover.com.

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Verity (Review, Book Summary & Spoilers)

By colleen hoover.

Book review, full book summary and synopsis for Verity by Colleen Hoover, a thriller-slash-romance novel about a write who is offered a dream job.

In Verity , Lowen Ashleigh is a writer who's offered the opportunity to complete the last three novels of a bestselling book series because the author, Verity Crawford, is unable to do so for medical reasons.

When Lowen moves into the Crawford house to go over Verity's notes, Lowen sees that Verity has been left largely unresponsive after a car accident. She also learns that Verity's two twin daughters died in the months preceding Verity's accident.

Lowen soon finds her self attracted to Jeremy, Verity's husband, and she also discovers an autobiographical manuscript by Verity, which contains dark secrets about Verity's life.

(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)

Full Plot Summary

Lowen Ashleigh is offered a job completing the last three novels of a popular book series. The original author, Verity Crawford , was in an accident a short while ago and is now alive, but unresponsive. The accident happened soon after the deaths of Verity's two twin daughters.

Lowen moves into the Crawford house to go over Verity's notes, where Verity is being cared for by her nurse, April . Verity's husband, Jeremy , and young son Crew also live there. Lowen quickly finds herself attracted to and falling for Jeremy. Strange occurrences also make Lowen suspect that Verity is faking her medical condition.

Lowen starts to read Verity's book series called The Noble Virtues , which are all written from an antagonist's point of view. In Verity's office, Lowen also discovers an autobiographical manuscript that Verity wrote that reveals Verity's dark nature.

In the manuscript, Verity describes resenting her daughters because Jeremy loves them more than her. Verity also admits to loving one of her daughters ( Chastin ) more than the other ( Harper ), and she has a dream that Harper will someday kill Chastin.

When Chastin is 8, she ends up dead from her peanut allergy. Chastin and Harper had been at a sleepover together when it happened. Verity then admits to murdering Harper six months later. She purposely took Crew and Harper out on a canoe, caused it to capsize and then only saved Crew.

Lowen is initially unsure whether to tell Jeremy about the manuscript, knowing it will only hurt him more. By now, she and Jeremy are sleeping together, and discussing a possible future together. However, when Lowen thinks she sees Verity move, she tells Jeremy in order to protect him and Crew.

Jeremy confronts Verity who finally admits to faking it. Jeremy then attacks Verity, and Lowen at first tells him to stop, but then she advises him to make it look like an accident. Verity is killed.

Months later, Lowen is pregnant and they are all living in a new house. The old house is due to be sold off. As they clean out the last of the stuff, Lowen discovers a letter that Verity wrote after her accident.

The letter describes how Verity wrote the manuscript as a writing exercise to practice her antagonistic point of view that she uses for her novels. She also writes about how Jeremy knew about the manuscript and had forced her into the "accident" because of it.

Afterwards, Lowen destroys the letter. However, the book ends with her being unsure as to whether the letter was true or just another manipulation from Verity.

For more detail, see the full Chapter-by-Chapter Summary .

If this summary was useful to you, please consider supporting this site by leaving a tip ( $2 , $3 , or $5 ) or joining the Patreon !

Book Review

• Plenty of suspense
• Page-turner
• Solid plot twist
• Very graphic (may be a pro or con for you)
• Somewhat implausible ending, relies on characters acting in contrived ways

Verity by Colleen Hoover was published a few years ago, but has continued to be pretty popular since then. Hoover is primarily known for her romance and YA novels, but Verity is more of a thriller-mystery romance.

In Verity , Lowen Ashley is a writer who is hired to write the last three novels in a bestselling book series because the author, Verity Crawford, is unable to do so herself. However, in the process of looking over Verity’s notes about the books, Lowen discovers an autobiographical manuscript written by Verity that reveals dark secrets about Verity’s life.

Reading this book, I wouldn’t have guessed that Hoover was someone who doesn’t typically write thrillers. It’s dark and graphic and very suspenseful. She definitely nails the thriller atmosphere and the page-turner pacing.

I also thought the major plot twist in it was fairly clever, though I don’t want to spoil anything about it here (see the Spoiler-ish Thoughts section for details). However, the ending seems a little implausible and relies on characters acting in contrived ways in order to make it work.

Also, this book isn’t as twisty as some mystery-thrillers. Instead, the romance aspect of it takes precedence for much of it, with our protagonist falling for Verity’s husband, Jeremy Crawford.

It’s important to mention that this book is aggressively graphic when it comes to sex and there’s quite a bit of it. Like, a lot. This is by far the most graphic book I’ve ever read. Obviously, whether or not that something that interests you is highly subjective.

Read it or Skip it?

Honestly, if you like the idea of a mystery-thriller romance novel, then this book is probably a pretty solid iteration of that type of book, especially if you are someone who would enjoy the creepy and suspenseful atmosphere of the book.

I went into Verity knowing I probably wasn’t the right reader for this book — I don’t really like romance novels — and I thought it was better than I expected it to be. I don’t plan on revisiting this author simply because I’m just not all that interested in the types of books she writes, but I was happy to sate my curiosity.

Have you read Verity? What did you think? See Verity on Amazon.

Spoiler-ish Thoughts

SPOILERS START HERE. You’ve been warned.

Okay, let’s talk about the final twist. The whole time, I knew there was clearly something about either Lowen’s narration or Verity’s manuscript that was false, I just couldn’t figure out what it was or why.

When it’s finally revealed that Verity was going essentially a writing exercise, I though that was pretty clever, especially since Hoover makes a point to keep reminding us that Verity writes in the voice of an antagonist and how that’s such an important component of her books.

The one thing that didn’t make sense though was why Jeremy flips out when he re-reads that manuscript or why he wouldn’t mention to Lowen that he’d seen it before? Am I missing something here? Why does he bother pretending to read the manuscript instead of just saying that he’s already read it?

Also the whole thing with Verity faking a her medical condition just seems extremely unlikely. And it feels very contrived that over the course of many months she was never able to find an opportunity to tell Jeremy that the manuscript was just a writing exercise.

Book Excerpt

Read the first pages of Verity

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Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

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