Verity By Colleen Hoover Book Review

“It’s natural to assume the worst in people, even if that assumption is only for a split second.”

(pg. 302)

About

Author: Colleen Hoover

Genre: New Adult Psychological Thriller

Click to buy book

Click to read other book reviews

Synopsis

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin. When Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, asks Lowen to complete the remaining books in a contract his permanently injured wife is unable to fulfill, Lowen has no choice but to accept. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home with the intention of only staying one or two nights—long enough to sort through Verity’s chaotic home office to collect all the notes and outlines she’ll need to start writing the first novel. But the more time Lowen spends with Jeremy Crawford, the less of a hurry she is in to leave. While there, Lowen uncovers a hidden manuscript. An autobiography containing chilling admissions Verity planned to take to her grave, including the truth behind the events that turned their lives upside down. A truth that, if revealed to Jeremy, would further devastate the already grieving father. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript a secret, allowing Jeremy to continue to believe Verity is merely an innocent, unfortunate victim of circumstance. But as Lowen’s feelings for the devoted father and husband deepen, she wonders if keeping Jeremy in the dark is in her own best interest. After all, if Jeremy were to read his wife’s autobiography, the disturbing truth would make it impossible for him to continue to love her. A chilling romantic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.

Review

Spoilers Contained Below

To the mind blown,

There are very few authors out there who I feel like have branched out from their typical genre.

Colleen Hoover is one of them.

And when she branches out, she flourishes into a full fledged tree that has a lot of shade that makes you want to curl up in a fetal position and hide there.

I mean, I thought she was the queen of romance, but she is also the mistress of evil with this psychological thriller! Someone put her on a throne because my GOSH 😆

This book started off on a very eerie, chilling, and disturbing tone. I was oddly LOVING it. It was so detailed and gory that I just kept thinking to myself, wow. She’s really setting the scene for you. It’s so different from her romances though because they start lighthearted (well, lighthearted as much as CoHo book can be), but this one was graphic and it really seeped into you skin in the best way, which made me appreciate how Colleen was trying to get the reader to feel the mood. Oh, I felt it along with the chills that raked up and down my body.

Anyway, kind of random the book started off with a person getting run over on the street and how no one really paid attention to that. Kind of weird too because if someone got run over on a street, I would still think people would have the common decency to look up from their phone and take notice. Then again, I don’t live in a hustling, bustling city such as New York, so I don’t know the culture, but people, if you see someone get run over on the street and blood squirts everywhere, put down your phone and help. There’s nothing important on your phone anyway! I would have been angry on behalf of Lowen because gosh those people who didn’t care. I felt completely spooked for Lowen as well. I mean, she just got blood splattered all over her and saw someone get hit by a truck right in front of her eyes. That has to scar anyone.

When she met Jermey, there was something that also struck me as wrong about him. It’s kind of like that wrongness you get from watching You on Netflix. If you don’t know what You is, you (see what I did there 😉) can check out my Top Ten Netflix Recommendations which, I’ll link. But basically it’s this show based on a book (which I haven’t read), but there’s this guy named Joe and he’s crazy obsessive about Beck. He stalks her, he hides out in her apartment, he does some creepy stuff man and I don’t want to spoil it, but IT”S SOOOOOOO GOOOOD IT”S SCARY!! Jermey gave me Joe vibes and if you know what I mean, you know what I mean! But we can talk about You in a different blog post because season 2 is coming out on December 26, and I am thoroughly ready. Anyway, I just thought it was weird how comforting he was and how he lended Lowen his shirt and locked them in the same bathroom. If I was Lowen, red flags would be all over my eyes because that’s creepy as heck A guy you barely know who gives you his shirt and locks himself in a bathroom with you. Yup, no thank you. Even if he was attractive. Again, You just made me skeptical of EVERYONE because you don’t know who’s crazy.

Luckily, there were people outside the bathroom, so if she screamed they would hear her. When leaving this coffee shop and the bathroom, Jermey and Lowen have their catchprhrase of the hour with the word alright. All cute couples have their “always,” their “okay’s,” and Lowen and Jermey had their “alrights.”

So Lowen is someone any author can relate to. I actually really liked the concept of this book being about a writer given how CoHo is a writer. It really puts you in the mindset a writer has and the lifestyle of a writer. Lowen wasn’t the most successful writer, so she lived off of sparse paychecks in an apartment she shared with her mom who recently passed away. Lowen also used to sleep with her literary agent, which in my opinion isn’t something I think you should do, but I’m not judging her. It’s kind of cool in a weird way how they were still able to have a formal partnership after they stopped sleeping together. Lowen kind of pegs me as a girl who’s quiet, reserved, insecure, and despondent. She’s not really confident about herself, nor her writing and it really shows in how she kept putting herself down wby saying how she wasn’t the best writer or she didn’t care for the money. All writers are self-deprecating and hard on themselves, so I can understand where she’s coming from, but if she got as far as to have a literary agent and to publish a book that sold decently, she should give herself more credit and be proud of that. Some writers don’t even have that honor. I also say very reserved, which is another quality that I’m not saying is wrong or bad because gosh knows I’m reserved too, but she just didn’t seem the most open to be social. She didn’t like meet and greets or doing in person meetings. Maybe part of why she didn’t like to be social had to do with her upbringing or maybe she had bad social anxiety and that’s why she was reluctant to talk to others. So again, I could understand why she didn’t want to do all the writer things that typical authors do with promoting his/her book, but that also kind of explained why not a lot of people knew her book.

I would actually like to read one of Lowen’s books so that I could hold her and tell her how much I liked it. There was this part later on in the book where she was talking to Jermey about how she still felt like she wasn’t a good enough writer, and how all she wanted was for someone to tell her how much her books meant to them. Then Jermey told her exactly this and it was so sweet because I think Lowen really needed to hear that—-to get that validation that she was good enough in her craft.

Her literary agent actually got her a meeting with Pantem press, where they wanted her to write the last three books in Verity Crawfords thriller series. They wanted to add her on as a co-writer, even though she was going to write the rest of the three books. The reason being was that Verity Crawford was in a “car accident” and was paralyzed and couldn’t write the series anymore. People didn’t know the extent of her accident for privacy reasons, so they thought Lowen was just being added on as a way for Verity to reap the rewards or to chill since Verity knew how successful she was already. I give a lot of credit to Lowen for taking this on because if there’s a really highly established writer with a lot of fans, that’s very intimidating to write alongside that. People were giving Lowen a lot of hate for it too because they didn’t like the fact that a new writer was coming on board a series they already liked. As a reader, I know where these fans were coming from because if one of my favorite series all of a sudden just added a random writer to the series, I would be skeptical. It’s like Veronica Roth adding someone named Billy Bob to Divergent. It’s like who’s Billy Bob and what can he contribute to the series? So I get it.

Lowen knew she wasn’t going to accept the offer, no matter how much money was tied to the deal, but then Jermey talked to her about how Verity really liked her writing and recommended her. That had to feel good to know that a great writer as Verity liked her writing enough that she would think she would be best to take over the series. So with reassurance, a closed deal, and half a million, Lowen signed onto the project.

The only issue was that Lowen hadn’t read any of the books in Verity’s series. So part of her research to get to know Verity, her series, and her writing style, she agreed to stay in Jermey and Verity’s house.

Sounds like a brilliant idea given the whole family are chronics.

Not to be taken in a mean sense, but like one bad thing after another has happened to the family, so there’s bound for another bad thing to happen.

1) Chastin, the daughter passed away due to a peanut allergy at a sleepover

2) Harper, the other daughter passed away because she “drowned” in a canoe

3) Verity got in a “car crash”

Lots of quotation marks there, but I’ll get into that later.

If I was Lowen and I saw the house I was going to be staying at, I would have turned my car away and drove all the way home. If you see a creepy, dilapidated house, don’t go into it! That’s a horror movie waiting to happen. But I guess there’s a part of Lowen who might have wanted to see what happened because she was a thriller writer. Then add in a random sassy kid named Crew who popped up out of nowhere. That should have been another sign for her to bold. I loved Crew though and how he just slammed the door straight in Lowen’s face.

If there’s a kid that deserves any credit or praise it’s Crew. The kid’s been through a lot of DEEP, DARK, TWISTED, things and I genuinely feel sorry that he had to be in the middle of his parents’ creepiness. I can already imagine the trauma that Crew’s going to have when he grows up. I sense he might be a Joe, but I hope for the best for him. I’m glad he goes to therapy because if he didn’t I’d be worried.

Crew really brings the light in this dark book and roots the plot in innocence. He’s the one character you can find solace in because he’s just as confused as the reader, but I think Crew’s also much more smarter than people give him credit for I think he played dumb for over half the book because he really knew what was up. But that’s sooooo unsettling that Verity would have put him through all of that

Honestly, I don’t even know where to start again.

So let’s just address the elephant in the room so we know what the heck I’m talking about when I reference how I literally don’t know what I’m talking about 😂

So while in this house, Lowen finds this autobiography of Verity when she was actually searching for any outline ideas Verity would have had for her future books. Naturally, Lowen read the autobiography chapter by chapter because she wanted to get into the headspace of the author so that she could write like her and adapt that style. I think it was a good writing tactic, if not a good excuse to read the autobiography because I would have too.

But that’s not the trippy part.

This autobiography is ROUGH.

Like dark, run for your life, what the heck is wrong with you, you should be institutionalized, I want to hit you in the head, R-O-U-G-H

I MEAN ROUGH.

The first two chapters of this autobiography is how Verity met Jeremy and all about how she wore this sexy red dress that attracted Jermey and all the sexual things. Then she moved in with Jermey and was so infatuated with him like he was a drug she needed to live. There was something just very obsessive and crazed about how Verity wrote in these chapters, kind of reminded me of that movie called Obsession or something. It felt dirty.

After that, everything just goes downhill.

Verity got pregnant and oh my goodness, I can’t even begin to describe to you how disturbed, disgusted, and disgruntled I was. There are literally no words. You would think any woman would be happy or over the moon to be pregnant. NOT VERITY.

This crazy psycho is sooooooooo obsessive with Jermey that she felt like her being pregnant hindered their relationship because Jermey was giving his love to their future baby instead of her. She’s such a possessive person as to think this way. Like I get it, you’re worried you’re relationship won’t be as strong because he’s going to love the kids, but honey, be thankful you’re 1) pregnant 2) you have a partner who is sooooo in love with your children when most fathers don’t feel that sort of intense love from the get-go or they walk away. I just thought her whole mindset was SICKENING in how she felt angry and jealous of the love her babies were getting.

What was trippy was the whole way she described her pregnancy process in how it was a “theft” like her babies were stealing Jermey from her. Your babies don’t even know what they’re doing, don’t blame them. They’re not criminals. Get off your possessive high horse and love your children!

To make matters worse, life really just wanted to screw Verity over because she didn’t even want her kids, yet she was having twins.

*Sigh*

What are we going to do with Verity?

I’ll tell you what Verity did.

She did everything she could to have a miscarriage or to ruin her babies because she wanted them out of her life so Jeremy could love and focus on her again. She drank alcohol, she took pills, tried to fall down the stairs like her babies would pop like bubbles and be gone, and this son of a beach took a hanger up her down under area and tried to jamb the baby up like this is some sort of stuck claw machine. You know, being a woman and having a period is hard enough, but who in the heck sticks a hanger up your down under just to bleed in the hopes of getting rid of your babies?

That’s DISGUSTING. That’s WRONG. I COULD NOT. I WOULD NOT.

Jeremy didn’t even know what she was doing and I hurt for him because he was married to a psycho who was going to be a psycho mom. I would have told him to get out and take the babies while he could.

When her babies were born, Chastin had a scar on her face because of the hanger incident. Jeremy’s love grew naturally for the babies like any parent should, but Verity had no attachment or love for them whatsoever. She was very vengeful and distant and it just made me wonder, how could a mother EVER feel that way. She birthed life and she didn’t even like her own kids.

The moment she turned off the baby monitor and went to sleep once Jermey started to work really made me angry. I mean, who made Verity a mother. Honey went to sleep when her babies were balling their eyes out in the next room, wanting to be comforted. But no, it’s like Verity was like screw you babies, I need a rest. And the act she played with taking care of them and making dinner before Jeremy came home. I mean, what a fake. Someone put a baby monitor on her!

And for some gosh darn reason, she has this mother’s intubation dream of Harper killing Chastin and ever since then, Verity felt very protective over Chastin and favored her over Harper. Jermey took notice and got angry at Verity one day because he didn’t think that was fair if Harper got older and Verity didn’t love Harper as much as Chastin. But, Jeremy, you should be happy she at least loved one of them after not loving any of them.

OOOOOOH, but this was where I was LIVID 😡. So after having this dream, the babies are crying and for once in her motherhood life, Verity actually cares to go take care of her babies. But when she gets to the room, Harper’s crying, but yet Verity picks up Chastin and coddles her. And the moment Verity sticks her finger down Harper’s throat, I wanted to take a hanger and shove it down her throat, up her butt, and in her eyes because who the heck are you to stick your fingers down a BABY’S throat to try kill her because you had some sick, twisted dream that that baby was killing your other baby? 😤

Like how far do you need to stick a finger down someone’s throat to kill them?

Thank GOODNESS, Jeremy came just in time because your wife was committing murder. I wished he saw it on the baby monitor. Makes me wonder how he didn’t. If he did, why would he ignore it? I don’t think he would have because he loved both girls a lot.

The minute Chasitn passes away, Verity chalks it up to being Harper’s fault for bringing snacks that had peanut butter into the room. She was only a kid, she was hungry, and it was night. She didn’t know better. It’s not like she was purposely sticking her finger down Chastin’s throat or anything *cough cough Verity cough cough.* So I don’t get how Verity had the AUDACITY to blame Harper who didn’t know any better.

Chastin passing away took a toll on Jermey because Jeremy actually had a heart and cared. Verity was kind of sad, but she had no heart and wanted to take vengeance on the one child who took her favorite away: Harper.

The moment that Harper, Crew, and her went out for a “nice day” outside, I laughed. That’s an honest joke right there. Nothing comes nice with Verity, the demented. But a bit of a back track because Crew’s in the picture now. When Jermey and Verity’s relationship was lackluster, she tried to spice it up and claimed being pregnant like having another kid would fix their pain. If there’s one thing people should know is that adding another baby to a relationship problem—it doesn’t heal the real issue. What was wrong about this was Verity wasn’t even pregnant, so she lied to Jermey and by some luck someone made her pregnant again like she was a good mother and deserved another child. If she didn’t get pregnant, she was going to fake a miscarriage, which would have been just as wrong because the would make Jeremy feel bad for her for nothing. But he wouldn’t know that. She’s a liar and an attempted child murderer. Great.

But back to the canoe day.

I can’t express to you how much I wanted to jump through the pages and rip Verity to pieces. The kids had no life vests and Verity tipped the boat to one side, clutching Crew and telling him to hold his breath. I wonder why? 🤔 (That’s sarcasm).

BECAUSE THIS CRAZED BEACH purposely drowned Harper!!!! And she had the AUDACITY TO tell Crew that she tried to save the sister when really she just watched and waited to make sure she was down there for good. What is her luck that Harper got tangled in a fish net and that choked her to death. hHe’s just a lucky psycho and I don’t know how or why.

I don’t get how anyone could believe for one minute that she was any ounce of sorry or in shock because if you’re a mother, you would have saved both of your kids and would have scavenged that darn river to go get the other kid even if she was stuck in a net. Because if Harper was stuck in a neck, she had to have been down there for a good while and that would mean no one came for her. I wasn’t buying it. Some people were.

Jeremy wasn’t buying it. And if he didn’t think to leave her before that moment, I would have ran for the hills and never looked back because that’s some DARK stuff right there. And Crew had to live through that knowing that his mom saved him and faked this whole thing of “oh, I tried to save her.” Oh, save me the dramatics Verity 🙄.

Crew was probably really young and wouldn’t exactly remember what happened, but part of me feels like even if he was young, he’s not dumb and if this was a signfiganct moment in his life for wrong reasons, he would remember it.

I feel sorry for Crew. Your mom’s whack.

Verity’s autobiography ended with “I’ll just drive my car into a tree.” Verity knew that that would be her best option at this point because Jeremey knew she killed Harper and didn’t trust her anymore. Besides, their relationship was going down hill anyway so it’s not like he loved her all that much. Not to be a buzz kill, but his love for her died rightfully so because she deserved it. In all this time she thought that she was doing everyone to get him to love her again, she was really pushing him away and that hurt their relationship.

But wait, it gets worse!

I think I can’t fully talk about the end in a clear, rational manner unless I talk about what happened before the end.

So creepy house with chronics and lots of death. Must be a lovely house to be in, right?

Wrong.

Because something is completely wrong and beyond creepy.

The main reason: Verity.

There’s something that just seems off with her in how she stares at people. I think it’s beyond creepy how she would catch Lowen’s eye during some points of the book. If I was Lowen, I would feel beyond creeped out and violated. There was that time when Lowen was hanging out by the Lake watching Crew and Jeremey, and Crew was waving at the window where Verity’s bedroom was. Lowen thought Crew was waving at her at first, but then turned around and saw the curtains move as though Verity was there. I mean, who else would Crew be waving too. I would have RUN. All the flags were there for Lowen to do so.

Forest Gump ran so I could SPRINT 🏃🏻‍♀️💨.

Then there was that creepy moment with the knife where Crew had a knife and was trying to cut himself I think and then he dropped the knife and Jeremy came upstairs and helped the situation. When Lowen went back for the knife, it was gone. Lowen thought she was going crazy. I was going crazy because every part of me was like, “It’s Verity.”

I swear when Jeremy and Lowen went down to the basement during one part, I thought that Verity was going to lock them down there in the dark. I wouldn’t be surprised, but how creepy cool would have that been. But Verity did lock them in Lowen’s guest room when Verity heard them having some dirty fun. It’s kind of creepy how she did that. Lowen was so paranoid that it was Verity, but when Jeremy rushed back upstairs, Verity and Crew were asleep. During that whole scene too, there was something so gruesome and dark about how Lowen wanted to bite over Verity’s bite marks in the bed post because Lowen believed that Verity was never a good wife or mother and Jeremey deserved better. So by biting over her bite marks, I think Lowen was trying to prove that she had a “better” time with Jeremy. It’s actually almost like the sick, twisted thinking of Verity whenever she had “fun” with Jeremy—-both were possessive.

If I’m being honest, there’s something about Jeremy and Lowen that didn’t click for me. I didn’t quite like them together because I think Lowen just felt sorry that Jermey was in this toxic, confining relationship with Verity. She felt like Jeremy deserved better and that was her. But I didn’t really feel the love from either of them. I just think they were both at the same place and were in a circumstance that bonded them that made them kind of like each other, but I don’t think they really love loved each other, you know. I think romance in this book also wasn’t needed because I was fine with just the dark plot that the romance didn’t matter to me.

Towards the end, Jeremy took Crew to the hospital to get stitches for his teeth. That meant Lowen was alone with Verity. Lowen should have taken that as her other out to leave. I swear this girl has had multiple chances to leave this gosh darn house and yet she never does. *Shakes head*

Instead, Lowen did the next best thing, put the baby monitor on Verity and locked her in her room like Verity was a baby herself. I’m not sure this was the part, but there was a moment before this, where Lowen went up to Verity and confronted her in saying, “I know you’re faking it, and I’m not scared of you.” When Lowen gave her confident speech, I was kind of like, you go honey because gosh that takes a lot of guts to talk to a psycho.

Verity never moved the whole time until Jermey came back home and Lowen finally shows him the autobiography, which he reads

Now this is where things went from downhill, to rock bottom creepy.

Jeremy goes up to Verity’s bed and tells her to give it up. The only thing that got her moving was saying he was going to tell the cops about her, and all of a sudden this girl comes alive.

ALIVE.

I FREAKING KNEW IT!

You know, I give this psycho a lot of credit. She truly deserves a grammy for her acting because she wouldn’t react to anything no matter how loud, irritating, or weird. If I was Verity and I was faking that entire time, I would have slipped up sooooo many times that it would have been obvious. There was a time when Lowen even threw something at her and Verity never flinched. That’s talent right there. She missed her calling as an actress.

But Verity doesn’t even get a breath out before she’s choked to death by a raging Jeremy.

I mean, I truly don’t blame Jeremy, but murder with murder doesn’t make you any better. Lowen stopped him from choking her, physically, but again Jeremy stuck a finger down her throat to try to choke her to death and I MEAN

How far do you need to stick a finger down someone’s throat to kill them?

I feel like if there’s one question that this book has left me with, it’s that 😰

“Find what you love and let it kill you.”

– Charles Bukowski

That’s what chapter one of Verity’s autobiography said, oh how she never knew it to be true

UGHHH that’s so morbid of me to think.

I mean, she loved Jermey and Jeremy loved her to death 😳

Gosh, this book truly has brought out a dark humor in me and I’m not here for it 😂

But seriously, how deep do you have to put a finger down a person’s throat because gosh, do people really do that?

Not that I want to know, but what the heck.

I just couldn’t believe that Lowen went along with it. The whole aftermath of choking Verity, Jeremy seemed like he was in a daze with repeating, “Verity died in her sleep,” like he knew he needed Lowen to get the story straight and so that he could believe it too. But that really didn’t dismiss what he did. What they both did without giving Verity a chance to explain herself. I think that as bad a person Verity was, they should have at least let her explain something or say something because Jermey just jumped on her and killed her, when she wanted to say something. Maybe that something was important. They let criminals have trials before determining their sentence, so I think Verity should have gotten the same, you know?

Especially after the mind blowing letter Lowen finds seven months later, expecting Jermey’s child.

Yes, they formed a relationship and had a baby. Which made me remember when they did have “fun,” and how Lowen lied upside down and tried to keep it in after she read one of Verity’s chapters where she wanted to have a baby that Jermey deserved to keep and love. When this scene happened, I kept imagining Petra from Jane the Virigin when she got Raphaels’ sperm and then lied on that couch.

I feel like deep deep down, Lowen really is like Verity in different ways. You have to be a little bit sick to think the way she did at that moment.

But reading that letter just hurt my head.

Apparently, the autobiography was a writing exercise advised to Verity os that she could get into the mind of her villainous characters. So basically, nothing in the book was true because Verity was always writing the opposite of how she felt or what happened as a way to see it from a different perspective. Honestly, that’s a good writing strategy, but did she really have to title it an autobiography. I mean, she was really asking for someone to read it and believe everything she wrote. She could have just called it writing exercises. But that just makes you wonder, if it really was an autobiography because who would write all those sickening things without there being some truth in it because they say writers kind of write from expreicne and the heart, so maybe there was a part of Verity that felt all those dark things, but maybe not to the extent of murder.

But there’s also a part of me that believed everything Verity wrote in how it was all a lie. She didn’t care for sex, she loved her kids, she didn’t drown Harper on purpose, but helped Crew first to save him and go back for Harper. She knew it was wrong that they didn’t have vests on that day and that she could have found Harper more, but didn’t. I really want to believe the good in her and I think when most people read this innocent perspective on Verity, it really messes with them because we want to believe in the good in her. As people, we want to believe that they can do more harm than good. I wanted Verity to be good. I even felt bad for Verity while I read this because Jermey and Lowen killed her and if what was in this letter is true, they killed her out of cold blood because she was just an innocent writer.

What made things complicated and confusing was the fact that Jeremy already found and read the autobiography by the time Lowen gave it to him. So it makes me confused as to why when Lowen gave it to him in that moment when he killed Verity as to why he was so angry when he already knew? It also made me wonder why didn’t he just kill Verity if he wanted to in the first place? I mean he already had the house to himself and he could have done it at any time so why didn’t he? He tried to kill Verity by choking her in the house after reading the autobiography the first time around, but that didn’t work out because he needed to make it look like an accident. So he took one from her autobiography and tried to ram her into a tree, but Verity survived. My thing is how could she have faked being paralyzed that long without Jeremy knowing? Did the doctors hide that from her? Why didn’t she run away at the hospital when she knew Jeremy was after her?

I know she was waiting to take Crew with her, but that also just made me wonder, if she didn’t want kids, why was Crew the exception? But if her feelings were opposite than her autobiography, she loved her kids, so why didn’t she seem more pained about it or depressed? I don’t know. It’s not like I wanted Verity to be depressed, but losing two kids would ruin any mother and it seemed like it didn’t break Verity, but was just another thing she could write about. She also didn’t leave at first because she wanted the autobiography back so that Jeremy couldn’t use it against her, which was pretty smart of her. So she was biding her time looking for it, which explained all the noises and creeping around.

Again, Crew gets soooo much credit because he was in this messed up situation where he knew his mom wasn’t paralyzed and why he would say he talked to her and things. I kind of liked the fact that Verity let him in and tried to love on him, but there was something also wrong as to tell him to keep that secret because why would she want to keep that a secret from Jeremy unless she was scared of her life. Which just and ehe think, was jeremy the true villain in this story?

And what about Lowen, just ripping the letter into the toilet at the end to hide it from Jeremy? I think that she should have kept it and maybe showed it to him eventually because he should know. Unless she wanted to hide something too? But what did she gain from hiding this from him when Jeremy knew he tried to kill Verity in the first place? Is that why when the opportunity presented himself to kill her again, he took it?

Man, I just don’t know.

And that’s the thing. Books tend to have a good closure and leave you with wonderings of the future.

But this book just leaves you with more questions.

I don’t know if Verity was the criminal or victim in this situation because she could have written that letter to save face as being innocent to the police or in everyone else’s eyes. But I don’t know. Did Verity make everything up? Was it all just a writing tactic? Is Jeremy a killer? Is Lowen an accomplice? Or was Verity really a killer of her kids and that horrid? But she was just an author who sold millions of books within good reason, so she had to be a bit sane right?

I mean, right?

I DON’T KNOW.

I just think it really goes to show that people have wild imaginations and you never know where imagination blurs with reality.

What do I think of Verity?

Honestly, I don’t know what to think of her. Like I said before, I want to think the best of her because if she was an author, she wouldn’t be that insane, or so I would hope. And I also think if Verity was the type of author to do book tours and meet and greets, some part of her also had to be hospitable and kind. So it makes it really hard for me to see her as someone who would kill or hate her children. But then again, you never know a person’s soul and who they really are. People can always put on an act to save face. There’s also this part of me that does believe Verity has a darkness in her because she was able to write with so much zeal and conviction that that has to come from a place of at least some honesty in her life. I also feel like everyone has a bit of darkness in them that they suppress, but maybe this was her letting her darkness run rampant. There’s also the part where I didn’t understand how she could just play paralyzed for that whole time as to trick everyone when she could have come clean before then. But then she was scared for her life and needed the autobiography to be in the clear. But something’s just off . . .

And why would Jeremey believe in that autobiography unless he truly felt there was a darkness in Verity that actually would do such a thing. I’m not saying Jermey’s a saint either and there’s something off with him too, but he seemed like such a good person as to care for all the kids that I think he would only do something so malice if it was warranted to protect his kids. So I think maybe there’s some ignition as to why Jeremy acted as he did in the end. If that was his wife though and she truly was good, he would have believed in her and would have listened, but he didn’t. Unless he really hated her and didn’t see the good in her because her writing was that convincing.

I don’t know.

I feel like this whole blog post is one big ramble of I don’t knows and what the hecks.

I just feel highly unsettled because I don’t know man, I DON’T KNOW what I read or what it means or who Verity, Jermey, or Lowen is.

Honestly, if Colleen Hoover is reading this I would completely read a Crew novella in the future where he’s grown up and there’s this whole plot of Jermey being a murder and going to court. Or maybe Harper, Chastin, or Verity are actually alive because if TV has taught me anything, no one’s dead until you have a body, you bury it, and you say good riddance. I feel like we had a body for each of them, but did we bury them? Did they have a proper funeral to confirm? Not to be completely morbid or anything, but just imagine Verity coming back from her choking incident and going after Jermey and Lowen again. HOW BONKERS would that be? I would LOVE to read that!

I could ramble all day about Verity, but key lessons I learned are 1) you can choke someone to death by putting your fingers down someone’s throat 2) never write a crazed autobiography just in case someone happens to read it and takes it the wrong way as to choke you to death 3) lock your doors at night 4) run from scary situations 5) love and cherish my future kids every second of every day.

Anyway, I hope you took away something meaningful or confusing from this book. But in all honesty, Colleen Hoover really takes any genre and does it complete justice and this is no different. I’m highly impressed and would love to see her write for other genres too.

If you read this book, what was your favorite part? Least favorite part? What part made you the most mind-boggled? What do you believe to be true about this situation? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this.

And as always, with love,

Rating

4.8 Full Bloom Flowers

Characters: Verity’s all kinds of screwed up. Jeremey’s not that far off his rocker. I’m not buying Lowen’s future sanity. There might be hope for Crew, but I don’t even know what to believe at this point.

Plot: SO SO SO good. It hooks you from the minute in, chokes you, crawls up your spine, and leaves you with child that have you curled up in a fetal position in a corner of a room wondering what is life and what is mind

Writing: Again, Colleen Hoover truly takes any genre she writes and makes it her Beach

Creepiness: I mean, can you feel my goosebumps from here?