Veirty

Book name : Verity

Author : Colleen Hover

Genre: Romantic thriller

" People go to the darkest of the darker darkness for the act of love. But is it always love?

What is the difference between love and obsession?

Find the book to find out"

Synopsis:

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

Review

The synopsis pretty much reveals the story of the book.

What it doesn't reveal is the suspense that continues to haunt you throughout the series.

The lead character lowen is not special. She is pretty much an average writer struggling through her writing career. The author indirectly told us that most of the good writers never become best sellers, because they do not like public confrontation. This is the case with lowen.

Jeremy on the other is a depressed character. That guy has more amount of grief than that amount of life he has lived. Again a great job done by the writer, portraying a father who has lost his two precious daughters.

I referred to lowen as the lead character, but the protagonist should be verity herself. How the name itself is a big irony.  The sub novel novel( the novel inside the novel) tell you about the darkest thoughts of verity. You believe that she is a psychotic killer who is obsessed with her husband.

But in the end you get a letter written by verity herself. Here you see a different side of verity. Here you see that she was never responsible for the death of her daughter.

When lowen finds the letter, like the reader she too is in a dilemma which truth to believe. Whether verity was the victim or the murderer?

It's upto you how you want to see her.

I have two theories.

1. Verity is the killer

How I justify this, is by going through each incident of so be it.

Many of things written in the book clearly indicated that she was a psychopath. That she lied about many things to her husband. This fact is justified , when jeremy tells lowen that there was not a proper connection between him and verity. Indicating, he knew her but at the same time didn't really knew her. Thus verity possessed two personalities. One in front of jeremy, the other in absence of him.

Also she had already written about her car accident. Means she already planned on doing it. There is a big chance that she caused the accident on her own, and the big manipulative liar that she is, she left the letter in the floor on purpose because she wanted lowen to find it and not jeremy. Because lowen had already become suspicious about the knife which disappeared from the floor. So it was a big assumption and a risk which verity was willing to take.

And when she realised that lowen had read the book, she wrote this letter, so that she could protect herself.

2) Verity is not the killer

Jeremy is psychopath

The reason I think that jeremy is psychopath is because, he had read the manuscript already before. What was the need to act in front of lowen? What was the need to kill her? I believe he killed her so that the truth doesn't come out that he caused the accident.

I know this is a weak thread , but if you were to look in all the directions, you'll have to look in this one as well.

My honest thoughts

I personally find that this is one of the best suspense novels I've read in a long time.

The suspense makes you read the book in one attempt.

It took most of my after to finish this book, but I finished it in one go. I was that intrigued by the whole novel. I was scared of verity just like lowen. I was scared of those sleepwalking. I had goosebumps so many times that I lost count.

What I didn't like about the book is that the romance didn't really kicked in between lowen and Jeremy. It looked like the author was forcing them to fall in love. This is a poor story from romance point of view. Because a love story based on the grief shared by two people who have lost their loved one's doesn't have a strong foundation.

I also didn't like the ending. I liked the ending before reading the letter. But after reading it Iam confused. If I were to describe it using poetic references,

The novel was the ocean, so be it was the water, I was ready to drown into the book, I wanted to drown until somebody in the form of letter pulled me out of the book and brought me to reality.

That's how I felt after reading the letter.

And as a reader I didn't like it.