Verity by Colleen Hoover

Lowen, a writer, who is almost broke, lands up with the best offer in her lifetime - to finish the series of best-selling author Verity. Lowen stumbles upon a draft of Verity’s autobiography during the research for the novel and it unearths more mysteries surrounding Verity’s medical condition and the death of Verity’s daughters. As these mysteries unfold, the suspense builds up and the novel keeps us engrossed.

Verity, the protagonist’s character arc is well written and the story depends heavily on this character to move forward. Jeremy, Verity’s husband is a weakly written character despite being the character that is linked to all high points in the novel and travels throughout the length of the novel. Lowen, as a writer who has a secret past and her fear for public / social appearances is a better written character. 

The climactic ending to the novel is great but the novel has its share of shortcomings in the build up to the climax where a lot of unnecessary scenes disturb the flow. The negative shade of Verity is brilliantly written and propels the narration forward. But the wrongdoings of Jeremy and Lowen are silenced at most parts and end up being justified and we wonder whether that was intentional or inadvertent.

Despite the shortcomings, this served just as the satisfactory read to come out of the reading slump.