A few spoilers included
As a bookworm, you don’t have to look too far to know that Colleen Hoover is a marmite author. Readers either love or hate her writing. There is a camp you can fall into where it all depends on the book; for example, the review I’m blogging wasn’t the first book I read by this author. I ended up reading ‘Reminders of Him’ via Audible, and while I did enjoy it, I found it very predictable. I definitely didn’t give it five stars. ‘Verity’ was another kettle of fish altogether. It certainly kept me reading up to a certain point.
In a rather graphic turn, an upcoming author witnesses a fatal collision on the streets of Manhattan and is coated in the victim’s blood. Shocked, she stares into the road until a man approaches, assisting her in cleaning up for a pending meeting with her publisher and ex-boyfriend. Wearing the stranger’s shirt, she gets to the office; on time for once, only to find the stranger is the person she’s meeting. Best-selling author; Verity Crawford has been left comatose after a car crash. She was mid-way through writing her famous book series and needed a writer to pick up where she left off, but a struggling writer like Lowen Ashleigh is most likely not what she has in mind. Jeremy Crawford has had a hard couple of years, his wife can’t continue her series, so he’s found, Lowen. Even getting her to move into their family home for research and to search Verity’s office. There’s just one problem, he can’t stop thinking about Lowen. Once signing the contract, Lowen is stuck in a house that she believes is haunted by the one person who’s meant to be the most helpless. Discovering a manuscript in Verity’s office only makes the situation worse. She wants out of the house but not out of sight of Jeremy Crawford. This contract is Lowen’s ticket to better days or absolute horror.
“The most helpless person in this house is the one I’m the most afraid of. It doesn’t make sense.” (PAGE 101)
If you haven’t read Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’, I strongly recommend reading that too. As you can see from the title, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hoover read that book and was inspired. Hoover’s book has a similar plot to Du Maurier, having Verity as the Rebecca character as she supposedly haunts the other woman that’s entered the house.
I believe this is why I rated it four stars; I didn’t rate it five as I found the graphic, almost bloody images were a bit much for me. That is a personal thing. It might be entirely different for other readers, but it was advertised as a modern-day ‘Rebecca.’ That’s what got me to buy my second Colleen Hoover book.