Kirkus Style Review

Verity by Colleen Hoover 

Romantic suspense 

Independently published, December 2018 

314 Pages 

Struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh is about to get evicted. When famous writer Verity Crawford gets in a car crash and becomes paralyzed, Lowen can’t refuse the offer to write the rest of Verity’s series.  

Though Verity was the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards finalist in the romance genre, Hoover sticks to her trademark of being unconventional regarding genre; Verity reads like a compelling thriller, sometimes horror, mixed with romance tropes.   

Verity opens in busy Manhattan, with protagonist Lowen en route on foot to an important meeting with a publisher. While walking, Lowen is showered with blood because a male jaywalker was run over by a truck. This death and Lowen’s blood-soaked shirt commences the “meet cute” between Lowen and Jeremy Crawford, Verity Craford’s husband. Jeremy escorts Lowen to a nearby coffee shop, gives her his clean shirt, a few emotional words are exchanged, and so begins the slow-burn romance between Lowen and the still-married Jeremy. 

In a predictable coincidence, Jeremy and Verity’s publicist are whom Lowen and her manager are meeting with. Lowen refuses doing publicity, she prefers her words to speak for themselves, and is about to refuse writing the rest of Verity’s series. Jeremy convinces Lowen, saying his publicist would pay double with no press necessary. With no other monetary prospects, plus debt Lowen’s recently deceased mother left her, Lowen can’t refuse. Because of the eviction, Lowen finds herself temporarily moving into the Crawford home per Jeremy’s suggestion, so Lowen has full access to Verity’s books, outlines, drafts, notes, etc. When Lowen unearths Verity’s unfinished autobiography, questions arise as to the true nature of the untimely deaths of two of Jeremy and Verity’s children. The book alternates between Lowen’s narrative and reading directly from Verity’s autobiography. In the autobiography, Lowen reads of Verity and Jeremy’s sexy romance, and of Verity’s unconventional obsession with being the first love of Jeremy’s. Lowen finds herself trying to be an intervention on Jeremy and his son’s Crew behalf. 

Hoover’s unabashed intensity makes Verity disturbing to someone seeking mainly romance with slight/fluffy suspense. Readers feel the horror emanate from the pages when it seems Verity can move around and manipulate their lives, keeping Jeremy wrapped around her finger. I was shaken while reading, but Verity is simply unputdownable. Don’t expect a perfectly happy ending.