Review: Verity

Review: Verity

Summary: Struggling author Lowen Ashleigh was barely scooting by. After the death of her mother and her decrease in book sales, she was about to shut down until she got an unbelievable offer. Now working as a ghostwriter for the successful but comatose Verity, all things seem to be finally looking up for the amateur writer; however, when Lowen finds an unfinished autobiography her impression of Verity changes. From admiration to disgust, there is only one thing Lowen wants, and that is to finish the last novel in New York’s best-selling series. But Lowen soon finds out things are not always as they seem. (There are mature & triggering themes) 

Thrillers have never been my cup of tea. I’d read thrillers like A Long Way Down, Frankenstein, and the Tokyo Ghoul Manga Series before, and they were all fantastic; nevertheless, this novel was…unique? To be honest, I’m not sure how to describe this book – it wasn’t a bad book or anything, in fact, I genuinely enjoyed it! But, in all honesty, I don’t like Colleen Hoover’s books. It Ends With Us, It Begins With Us, Reminders of Him: no disrespect to New York’s Best Selling Author, but all of her works feel redundant to me. But this one was different. This book was given to me as a gift for my birthday. My girlfriend recommended this book to me because she likes it. Of course, I was apprehensive, as I had been with every other book I had gotten from someone else.  And to be honest, I didn’t want to read it, I am by no means a fan of Colleen Hoover – like at all. To be honest, her books always leave me with a sour aftertaste. A strong independent female lead falls in love with the primary love interest, then…falls out of love with him, they have sex, then talk it out, then they either stay together or she leaves them. And I’m not suggesting a strong, independent female lead is a negative thing because it isn’t. Novels are mostly about male characters, so a female protagonist is a refreshing change. But, too much difference becomes the norm, and the norm, as we all know, is boring. For this review, I have three main points I want to go off of. 1.) The characters. 2.) Setting. And 3.) Plot.

The Characters: This novel focuses on an assorted cast of characters. Lowen Ashleigh (Laura Chase), Jeremy Crawford, and Verity are the three main characters in the novel. I wish I could say that these characters were breathtaking and relatable, but I couldn’t connect with any of them. Verity Crawford was the only character I managed to like, and she was, for lack of a better phrase, a vegetable unless Lowen decided to read her autobiography, where she became a psychotic lunatic. Or when she decided to stop acting as though she was unconscious. Except for Verity, the rest of the characters appear to be subpar at best. Lowen, for example, is a struggling author who has had a string of bad luck. Her love life is a disaster, and her mother died – does this sound familiar?  Like a character we have already read about? Like Lily Corrigan? – because that is who it is! As much as I dislike saying it, Lowen appears to be a carbon copy of Lily Corrigan from It Ends With Us. The only difference is that her mother died, and she wasn’t utterly unconcerned with anything (except having someone die in front of her by being hit by a truck…). On the contrary, Lowen displayed a considerable deal of emotion – the emotion that I enjoyed reading about – but once those brief sparks of excitement faded, so did my interest in her character. To me, she was merely there so Verity could seem more frightening and Jeremy could have temptations in his marriage. Furthermore, Jeremy Crawford’s character was a one-dimensional train wreck. He showed no signs of character development or change; he was perfect. Yet a flawless character is a boring one, and he was nothing but boring with his sculpted abs and strong but loving nature! All his character seemed to want was for Lowen to finish the final book in Verity’s series while avoiding sex with the new writer. It doesn’t last long as the two begin having passionate moments in every chapter, finally do the deed in chapter 18, and then double down in an overly passionate shower-sex scene. Great. When you can’t flesh out the characters, add enough sexual tension that when it happens, it appears pointless. Mrs. Hoover, you did an excellent job.

Setting: To be honest, there isn’t much to say about the setting. As readers, we know that it takes place in New York, but we never know what year. The book barely takes place in the streets of New York, mostly taking place in the Crawford house, which isn’t too much talked about either. The setting that gets talked about the most is Verity’s office – which makes sense when that’s where Lowen spends most of her time – but, you can only state Verity has a wall-sized desk so many times before you stop caring. Nonetheless, I tried to enjoy the setting Colleen Hoover built, but to be honest, her setting was just as bland as her main character. There was nothing to it. She was in a spooky house, that’s it. As disappointing as it is.

Plot: On a scale 1-10, the plot was a solid five. It wasn’t too bad, but it definitely wasn’t good. The amount of plot holes seemed to be infinite, and the lack of twists and turns was boring. You could always tell what was about to happen. Whether it’s Lowen turning her head and making eye contact with Verity after reading her autobiography to Lowen wanting locks on the inside of her door to protect the people she was living with. Now, I understand what the author of this book was trying to do. A book thriller romance where the main character is transparent and the love interest is a gift from God all seems like a good idea. That is until it is seen on paper. I have said it once, and I will say it again, characters make plot! Without those star characters in your novel, your plot will be bland and without flavor. What Colleen Hoover did was spend too much time making it none of these characters had a fault, so that made the internal conflict of finishing the novel and not having sex with Jeremy a flimsy problem in the novel. Also, why would Verity act like she was brain dead for most of the novel? The reasoning they explained made no sense, and she watched while they had sex. For such a jealous person – someone who is jealous of HER OWN CHILDREN, why would she watch that? Why did she give Lowen small signals of her watching her? The novel’s plot had so much potential, but Colleen Hoover failed at it.

In conclusion, for being New York’s best selling author, she is a horrible writer. Her books have the same premise , and none of them are original. If you want to read a rushed and sloppy novel, then I suggest this one. I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed picking at it more. So Colleen Hoovers’s Verity is not worth the purchase.