Book Review: Colleen Hoovers "Verity"

Okay okay, I know what you're thinking... "I thought you said you don't like to read?!" Seriously, I thought so too. That was until I found Hoovers books and now reading is living rent free in my mind at the moment. I think it was about a week ago to the day I put out my other book review of her other book "All Your Perfects" which was her usual romcom style with a cutesy little happy ending. I adore easy to read, predictable endings like those, but thought it was time to spice things up a little. And boy did I spice it UP! A little while ago a friend from work recommended and practically PREACHED that I read "Verity" and hinted at some little plot twist at the end. You got me hooked. I'm in. Sold. So just under 2 days later, another 314 pages down and a hot review incoming!

Literally the first line of this book has me SHOOK. I must say, hoover really knows how to catch you off guard. I will issue a trigger warning for younger readers as this book does cover some gorey and potentially traumatising themes for some people [quite literally beginning from page one.] However, hoover continues with her trademark "coincidental" meeting between the protagonist and the love interest, in a much darker way this time. I kind of love how hoover really switched it up for this book, and I even noticed she wrote in the back that this was vastly different to her usual style, so be prepared for that!

Not going to lie, the book had me on EDGE. I'm talking it was literally 1am but I just had to read 10 more pages to see what cliffhanger she'd leave me on next. As the blurb suggests, the novel navigates the life of Lowen Ashleigh, and her love interest Jeremy Crawford [I always giggle at the names of the love interests, like who the hell is named Graham and Jeremy hahaha] It was almost like 2 worlds colliding as Lowen is an aspiring author and Verity [Jeremy's wife] is a very successful author. You could tell Colleen was really in her element here, writing about the universal experiences of writers and such. But even with topics so vague such as writing, being broke etc, Colleen still manages to make it engaging and interesting. I think it's why I find her stuff so easy to read, and that's saying something.

{me reading on my 6am flight despite all sleep deprivation}

I won't reveal too much but BOY did this book have me shook. I must admit some pages I had to skip through only because they were so descriptively written and not for the faint hearted [me lol] But seriously this style of like murder-mystery crossed with romance is one combo I could never get sick of. It was twisted, it was gorey, it was superstitious and it was FIREY. I loved the character development throughout the novel and the detail Hoover put into her "journal entry" style format for this book. It felt almost like Hoover was speaking to us a lot more so than in her romance novels. I woke up after reading this book and seriously felt like it was a fever dream, like this book was giving me "Black-Mirror" and "Dont Worry Darling" vibes!

If you [like me] love a good whodunit style novel with a little sprinkling of romance, I highly recommend this novel. It includes her typical spice but also throws in an added layer of plot-twists, fear and heaps more little details. I think it's safe to say this is one book I just couldn't put down.

My ratings for this book are:

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 8.5/10

Twist: 10/10

Ending: 9/10

Overall: 9.5/10

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next article!

Happy Fielding!

• Poppy