well i don’t know what i was expecting with this one. especially after reading an amazing thriller just before it. i read verity because i wanted to have read a text by colleen hoover instead of judging her blind like i had been before. even with my low expectations this underwhelmed me. the way she writes female characters just feels so… off? there was nothing to connect the reader with the narrator (lowen) and everyone else was just there. it was easy reading for sure (if that’s a compliment in this case i don’t know) but felt a bit pointless quite often. and i knew what the ending was going to be from the get, and that’s just because i watched the housemaid movie LOL. also upon reflection, there are so many insane plot holes? chastin’s scar, crew with the knives, lowen’s scar on her wrist? and jeremy was painted as a saint when really he was one step away from positively useless. and when did lowen do any actual writing for verity’s books other than one novel outline? and what kind of books does verity even write anyways??? lowen starts reading them and we find out nothing about them after they’re introduced. one of my hugest reading gripes is when something is introduced as if it’s significant, but ends up being a menial pointless piece of information. i don’t want to sound too mean, as i read it quickly and didn’t loathe my time spent, but it has not convinced me that any other colleen hoover book would worth my time. heated rivalry kept me on my toes more than this. anyways…

i have never read a thriller before and this was a CRAZY one to start with. kia abdullah knows what she’s doing. i was gasping and i mean audibly gasping at moments, truly not being prepared for what was going down. every time i thought there would be a lull in the narrative (not in a bad way, just a pause in the chaos) something else would be revealed to keep me chasing. and the way all the knots were untied right at the end didn’t feel rushed, it felt like i was there watching it happen. will is fucking evil he feels the most evil out of every one. and despite what she did, leila seems the most sane and understanding. she just wanted to protect her family unit, she put her sister’s wellbeing above everything even if yasmin couldn’t see it. and andrew is just an idiot and everything is his fault. but is it? i guess that’s the point. the amalgamation of everyone’s mistakes ended in one huge one.