Book Review-Colleen Hoover's Verity

Desperate for money and low on options, writer Lowen Ashleigh takes a business meeting that will change her life. She is offered a contract to finish a book series by famed author Verity Crawford, who has suffered an accident, but who is still alive. Verity’s husband, Jeremy, invites Lowen to stay in their home, so that she may sort through Verity’s office and writing notes. Verity cannot speak or move, but she is still living in their home, confined to the master bedroom, where she is cared for by Jeremy and day nurses.

Lowen is hesitant to stay in the Crawford home, but as she is low on cash and being evicted from her apartment, the offer comes at an opportune time. She spends her days studying Verity’s notes and her nights growing closer to the handsome and charismatic Jeremy. As time passes, Lowen begins to suspect that Verity’s accident and resulting trauma may not be what it seems.

This was my first Colleen Hoover novel. I work at a bookstore and I’ve witnessed such an enthusiasm for Hoover’s books, that I needed to understand the hype for myself. All of Hoover’s other novels are shelved under romance, while Verity is considered a mystery. I tend to prefer mystery to romance, so I thought Verity would be the best choice for my first Hoover novel. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think Verity leans more romance than mystery. It has a lot of steamy scenes, much more than an average mystery novel. Yes, it does have heavy elements of mystery and suspense, but quite often, more that I thought necessary, it dove back into romance. I’m not a prude and I don’t mind romance, but I have to confess that I wanted Hoover to get back to the mystery/suspense elements of the story.

I can see why Hoover is popular. Verity is a quick-paced, intriguing read with strong characters and great twists. I read it on a flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii, never putting it down to rest my eyes: a true page-turner. I loved the unsettling vibe of a strangers house and the intrigue of a “too good to be true” offer from the family of a prominent author. The concept for Verity was appealing and had me hooked from the first chapter. The ending is quite surprising and diabolical!

I enjoyed Verity enough that I am interested in stepping outside of my book comfort zone and reading one of Hoover’s romance novels. My stepdaughter read Hoover’s It Ends with Us and loved it. I might try that one next!

Book Review- Lisa Jewell's Then She Was Gone

Thank you to Atria Books for providing me with a copy of Lisa Jewell's novel, Then She Was Gone, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- Ellie Mack is a beautiful, smart, popular teenager, who seems to have everything going for her. One day, on her way to the library, she disappears and her case goes cold. A decade later. Ellie's mother, Laurel, begins to date a man named Floyd, whose daughter, Poppy, bears a striking resemblance to Ellie. Laurel begins to revisit her daughter's disappearance and discovers new facts of the case. Can Laurel finally find out what happened to daughter? Does Poppy hold the key?

LIKE- I've read several of Lisa Jewell's other novels and I was very excited to be granted a copy of Then She Was Gone. Jewell is masterful at crafting great suspense and mysteries. However, where she really shines is with her characters. She has a gift at tapping into the human psyche and creating relatable, multi-deminisional characters. 

Characters are what shine in Then She Was Gone. I was most drawn to Laurel, the grieving mother who not only lost her daughter, but also saw her marriage collapse under the weight of a missing child. Laurel is just getting her life back together when she meets Floyd and is shoved back down the rabbit hole of her daughter's case. Her anxiety and grief is palpable.  

We do not learn Ellie's fate until late in the story, but she is the narrator in some of the flashback chapters. Of course as a reader, our bond with Ellie is not going to be strong, like her mother's, however these chapters do serve to give us a clearer picture of Ellie and give us a chance to connect with her. Jewell is equally great at writing adults and children, letting us see Ellie's frame of mind and motivations. 

Then She Was Gone heads to some very dark places and is a story that made me anxious. I saw a blurb comparing it to Gone Girl, which was a little misleading. When I think of comparisons to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, I think that the story must have an unreliable narrator. Then She Was Gone has narrators under duress, but they are not unreliable. I read another that compared it to Alice Sebold's novel, The Lovely Bones, which is a much better comparison with regard to both theme and tone. 

DISLIKE- I anticipated the twist early on and kept hoping that it would not be what I was expecting. It's not that the story wasn't intriguing, but it's always a little bit of a let down when you manage to figure out the twist early on. I did not anticipate the creepy, disturbing aspects of the twist. It gave me chills. 

RECOMMEND- Yes! Jewell is such a marvelous writer that I have to recommend all of her novels, including Then She Was Gone.