📚 Colleen Hoover is a polarizing writer — young adults love her, while the internet despises her. Although the author has time and again been the topic of much controversy — particularly for romanticizing domestic abuse in her 2016 “romance” hit It Ends With Us, which later was adapted into a film starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni — she has, over the years, put out some pretty admirable novels, with Verity standing out.

Set to receive a screen adaptation in late 2026 starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, Verity is a change of pace for the veteran romance writer. A tense and gripping story, the novel follows Lowen, a hopeless, broke, and desperate writer seeking to make ends meet. When she’s hired by Jeremy to ghostwrite for his — now bedridden — wife and bestselling author Verity Crawford, she naturally can’t say no. The catch? It’s a live-in position since Verity’s notes are too complex and too many to move.

Lowen’s life is all smooth sailing for a while, busying herself with the daunting task of pretending to be the nation’s most celebrated author — that is, until she finds something she wasn’t meant to find. Tucked away alongside Verity’s notes is none other than a manuscript that turns Lowen’s world upside down. As she reads one chapter after another, she comes to realize that the reality of the situation is much darker than what she had signed up for, and if she wants to stay safe, she must remain silent.

With alternating narratives shifting between Lowen’s recollections and Verity’s manuscript, readers are pulled into the drama, tasked with the impossible mission of deciding whom to believe — a dilemma that carries over until the very last sentence of the book. This isn’t your typical whodunnit, nor is it a thriller with a twist easily surmised halfway through. It’s a novel that will leave you utterly frustrated, confused, and just as lost as its protagonist — and it’s one you need to read if you want to consider yourself a fan of the genre.

Verity surprisingly proves to be a quick read. The pacing is on point, the plot is solid, and Hoover surprisingly delivers fully realized characters who are human and, therefore, flawed. If you’re looking for a change of pace from your usual reads, we’d argue you need not look further.

WHERE TO FIND IT- You can find the paperback version of Verity at Diwan. You can also get the ebook on Amazon at no charge with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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