Verity

Name: Verity
Author: Colleen Hoover
ISBN: 9781538724743

Colleen Hoover

Mystery, Thriller, Romance • 336 Pages • Audio Book: 8 hrs and 10 mins • Narrator: Vanessa Johansson & Amy Landon

Struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh accepts the job of a lifetime: completing a bestselling series for the injured author, Verity Crawford. But in Verity's office, Lowen discovers a hidden autobiography-a manuscript filled with bone-chilling confessions. As Lowen's feelings for Verity's husband deepen, she grapples with a horrifying truth that could destroy them all. In a house built on secrets, she must decide if revealing Verity's story is worth the risk.

Lowen - Author hired by Jeremy
Jeremy - Verity's husband
Verity - Jeremy's wife, famous author
Chastin - Verity and Jeremy's daughter, died from peanut allergy
Harper - Verity and Jeremy's daughter, drown in a lake
Crew - Jeremy and Verity's son, 5

The book jumps between the present (P) and what Lowen reads in Verity's manuscript (M).
(P) Verity is left brain-damaged after a car accident.
(P) Lowen moves into the family home to finish Verity's series and begins an affair with Jeremy.
(M) While pregnant with twins, Verity obsesses over her body and feels Jeremy already loves the babies more than her. After he admits this, she attempts to abort them with a wire hanger.
(M) Verity eventually bonds with Chastin but grows hostile toward Harper.
(M) After dreaming Harper would harm Chastin, Verity tries to choke Harper but gets interrupted.
(M) Chastin later dies of a peanut allergy at a sleepover. Verity convinces herself Harper fed her the peanuts intentionally.
(M) Consumed by grief and favoritism, Verity takes Harper on a canoe and deliberately flips it, killing her.
(P) Lowen begins to suspect Verity is faking her condition after glimpsing her standing or moving. She hides a baby monitor in Verity's room and catches her on video, proving it.
(P) Lowen shows Jeremy the manuscript. Enraged, Jeremy confronts Verity and suffocates her while Lowen watches. He reports her death as natural, and authorities accept it.
(P) Seven months later, Lowen is pregnant with Jeremy's baby and they plan to move to a new house together with Crew.
(P) While packing, Lowen discovers a hidden letter Verity wrote to Jeremy. In it, Verity claims the manuscript was only a writing exercise in "antagonistic journaling" to strengthen her villain POVs and not at all her true feelings. She insists Jeremy misunderstood and never let her explain.
(P) The letter also suggests Jeremy caused the car crash in an attempt to kill her, and that Verity pretended to be brain-dead to protect herself until she could find the manuscript and escape with Crew.
(P) Unsure which version is true - the manuscript or the letter - Lowen destroys the letter.