Recent reading: "Verity"

Verity by Colleen Hoover

This was on a list of recommended books that popped up on my social media a few weeks back and boy, am I glad it did. Verity is a mind-bending story of a struggling writer who has what appears to be a sweet deal fall into her lap when she is asked to continue a best-selling series of books whose author has been left permanently disabled.

 

Lowen Ashleigh is offered a most unusual book deal. A car accident has left best-selling author Verity Crawford in a vegetative state, but her publisher would like the final three books of her lucrative series ghost-written and despite some misgivings there's no way the cash-strapped author can reject the massive payday.

While going through Verity's office Lowen stumbles across a manuscript that turns out to be not her next novel, but a secret autobiography. And it is dreadful - Verity is a psycho obsessed with her husband Jeremy to the point where she resents their children, who she sees as interfering with their relationship. The Crawford's had been haunted by bad luck - even before Verity's car accident, their twin daughters had died in separate incidents. As Lowen works her way through the the manuscript, she's shocked by Verity's bizarre distaste of motherhood and the terrible things she's willing to do to her children. In addition, Lowen begins to suspect that Verity isn't as disabled as everyone thinks, a belief that increases as Lowen and Jeremy act on their attraction to each other.

I have a fascination with people who are manipulators and reading Verity's horrifying tale is like being able to observe a master manipulator in action from the safety of it being a work of fiction. On top of that there's a devastating twist ending that will leave you wondering if Verity was really the monster portrayed in her autobiography.

Hoover is a multiple New York Times bestselling author and I'm looking forward to reading more of her books. This one is highly recommended.