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.
Synopsis
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
Chapter-by-Chapter SummarySee the Chapter-by-Chapter Summary of VerityQuick Plot SummaryLowen 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.
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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
You are always honest, I really appreciate that. Along with your honesty you are fair; and if you were reviewing my book I would be grateful for that aspect.
I thought the twist at the end would have been something like Jeremy actually the one the killed the girls, and that Verity found out so Jeremy tried to kill her but failed. So then he drugged her because he couldn’t try to kill her again so soon, and sometimes she had periods of lucidity, which is when Lowen saw her. I thought Jeremy wrote the manuscript to cover his tracks, hire a ghost writer to hopefully find it, so he could then kill her. I thought the first person they tried to hire either got spooked off, or didn’t find the manuscript, so they fired her. Then hired Lowen. When she found the manuscript, read it, it would have only been a matter of time till she told him. Then he could carry out the killing Verity to make sure she wouldn’t tell what actually happened to the girls. I’m a period of lucid, her letter could have been saying that Jeremy was behind it the whole time and kept poisoning her and Lowen only found out after the fact.
Also, Lowen was not innocent in all of this either. Remember how she made sure she got pregnant?
This is a better ending than in the actual book!
great summary and analysis as usual.
‘She also learns that Verity’s two twin daughters died in the months preceding Verity’s accident’ two twin daughters — twins implies two
I also suspect that Verity is somehow really that type which Lowen has called her. Its because you remember that when crew shouted from upstairs and Lowen went to see what happen, there when she asked Crew what cut his palm(or maybe something else, I don’t remember clearly), he told that verity warn him not to touch her knife. Later in front of Jeremy he totally changed the cause even when Lowen was telling about the knife.