Genre: Fiction; Thriller

Note: There are NO spoilers in this review. When discussing in the comments, please provide a spoiler warning if needed.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

There are no “good guys” in this novel.

Verity by Colleen Hoover captures your interest and doesn’t let go. Even long after I’ve completed the novel, I find myself going back to the final twists and reveals just replaying everything in my mind.  

The CoHo fever is strong on #bookstagram, so there was no shortage of pressure to pick up one of her novels. Because I typically enjoy thrillers more than romances, it made the selection of my first CoHo experience fairly simple.

The main character, Lowen Ashleigh, accepts a job offer to complete the remaining books in a successful series written by popular author Verity Crawford. When Lowen arrives at the home of Verity she learns that the author was severely injured in an accident, which led her husband, Jeremy, to hire an outside writer.

Lowen begins to sort through Verity’s notes and read the already-published novels in the series when she finds Verity’s unfinished autobiography in her office. The manuscript lays out bone-chilling events surrounding the death of her two daughters and her relationship with her husband. 

At first, Lowen keeps the contents of the autobiography to herself, but as she begins to develop feelings for Jeremy she starts to realize how much she could gain if Jeremy left his wife in his past. 

The twists in this novel have even more twists, and while some are completely unexpected they all fit into the story perfectly. The story feels natural and terrifying in such a subtle and beautiful way. Throw in the juxtaposition of me reading this novel with my newborn baby in my arms and it makes this a downright horror story. 

“What you read will taste so bad at times, you’ll want to spit it out, but you’ll swallow these words and they will become part of you, part of your gut, and you will hurt because of them.”

Colleen Hoover, Verity

There is definitely violence in this novel, but the gore often present in thriller novels is absent. So if that is something typically holding you back from a highly rated thriller, Verity won’t pose any issues. However, there are some trigger warnings, specifically related to child abuse and death of a child. If that’s something you may be uncomfortable with, I recommend doing a little more research before diving in. 

That being said – Colleen Hoover wrote one hell of a thriller here, and I could not recommend it more. And like I said at the beginning, I absolutely love that there is no savior or hero of this story. It showcases true humanity and the lengths we are willing to go in order to get what and who we want.