If you’ve read Verity and loved it (or hated it) please come and discuss it with me! Welcome to my plot summary and Spoiler Discussion for Verity by Colleen Hoover on Jen Ryland Reviews! Includes info on the NEW chapter in the Verity hardcover!
Spoiler Discussion for Verity by Colleen Hoover
This post includes:
A Full Plot Summary of Verity
An Explanation of the Ending of Verity
Spoiler Discussion for Verity
Verity: Team Manuscript or Team Letter? Is Verity’s manuscript a writing exercise or a confession?
UPDATED: What is in the NEW epilogue chapter in the new hardcover version of Verity? I have all the details and all I can say is …. WOW! Check it out and let’s discuss!
Liked Verity? Here’s what else you should read!
Plot Summary for Verity by Colleen Hoover
Struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh is headed to a meeting in New York City when she witnesses a pedestrian get hit and killed by a truck. A kind bystander offers her a clean shirt, as hers is now bloody.
Lowen, in debt after her mother’s recent death, is in the city to discuss a job. The publisher of bestselling author Verity Crawford needs a writer to finish some of Verity’s manuscripts. Interesting!
The bystander to the accident is none other than Jeremy Crawford, Verity’s husband. He confides to Lowen that Verity was in a car accident and that she was a big fan of Lowen’s work.
Lowen tells her agent (and ex) Corey that Jeremy has invited her to his house Vermont to go over Verity’s papers and notes.
Corey suggests she ask Jeremy to mail them to her, considering all the tragedy that’s befallen people close to Jeremy. (Jeremy and Verity call themselves “chronics” meaning people who have chronic tragedy in their lives. But are they really?)
One of Jeremy and Verity’s twin daughters died of an allergic reaction, the other drowned in a lake, then Verity had her accident. Bad things just seem to happen to people in Jeremy’s life.
But Lowen is like nope, sorry. I’m going to his house.
Lowen heads to Vermont, feeling nervous. She’s greeted by Jeremy and Verity’s young son, Crew. Jeremy suggests she pick a pen name, Laura, and tell everyone to call her that. (No one does.)
Lowen meets Verity, who seems unaware of anything around her, and Verity’s nurses.
Jeremy directs her to Verity’s office. In sorting through Verity’s papers, she finds a manuscript, which seems to be Verity’s autobiography. Lowen reads a portion about Jeremy meeting Verity and their instant attraction.
Lowen is rejected for an apartment she was hoping to rent. Jeremy offers her a loan and goes around without a shirt. This, combined with all the sex scenes in Verity’s autobiography, makes Lowen wildly attracted to him. Even when she thinks she sees Verity peering out her bedroom window.
In Verity’s autobiography, she is pregnant with twins and feels conflicted about it, even jealous at having to share Jeremy with them. Lowen feels judge-y about this and wonders if Verity actually wrote it at all.
Lowen notices that Jeremy has put a lock on her bedroom door and recalls an injury she got as a child while sleepwalking. The next day, she goes grocery shopping with Jeremy and is annoyed at two women flirting with him. She’s pleased when Jeremy shuts this down.
Crew, Jeremy and Verity’s son, tells Lowen he injured himself with a knife (which Verity sees) but then tells his father he fell off the bed. The knife vanishes.
Lowen continues reading the autobiography, which chronicles Verity’s continued attempts to end her pregnancy by doing things like taking pills and throwing herself down the stairs. This deepens Lowen’s dislike of Verity.
Lowen also continues to lust after Jeremy.
Lowen wakes up in Verity’s bed. Jeremy rushes to her side and she tells him about the sleepwalking incident that injured her as a child. The next morning, he offers to put a lock on the outside of her door.
In Verity’s autobiography, she nearly smothers her daughter Harper and then realizes that Jeremy might have seen her on the baby monitor.
Verity writes about how Jeremy accuses her of favoring Chastin, Harper’s twin sister. She tells him that the daycare thinks Harper is on the autism spectrum. Verity also lies and says she’s pregnant again.
Lowen and Jeremy finally have sex but in the middle of it she sees Verity watching.
Lowen reads the part in the autobiography where Chastin dies of an allergic reaction. Verity is sure that Harper killed her sister.
Lowen yells at Verity for being a terrible mother, and Verity wets her pants.
Jeremy and Lowen undertake a marathon sex session. In the morning, Jeremy wants to sneak out so that Crew doesn’t find him in Lowen’s room, but they are locked inside.
Lowen reads the part of Verity’s autobiography where she kills Harper by capsizing a canoe and doesn’t save her. Then Lowen asks Crew about the day Harper died and he says that his mom says not to talk to Lowen.
Crew bites a knife, and Jeremy has to take him to get stitches.
The final chapter of Verity’s autobiography is Jeremy realizing that Verity killed Harper, Verity feeling despondent that her husband knows she’s a killer, and Verity contemplating driving her car into a tree.
Lowen finds Verity out of bed. She screams at Jeremy that Verity is faking and also a murderer. She gives Jeremy the autobiography and tells him to read it.
Verity admits to Jeremy that she’s been faking her condition.
Jeremy attacks Verity.
Lowen stops him, advising him to make Verity’s death look like an accident. He needs to to induce vomiting, then suffocate her so it looks like she choked to death.
Whoa, Lowen. Dark much?
What is the Ending of Verity by Colleen Hoover?
Seven months later, Lowen is pregnant and finishing Verity’s manuscripts in New York. She, Jeremy and Crew head back to the Vermont house and there Lowen finds a letter from Verity to Jeremy.
What does Verity’s letter say?
In the letter, Verity tells Jeremy that her “autobiography” was actually a writing exercise, a fictionalized version of real events that she was writing to “get inside the mind of a villain.”
Verity claims that she didn’t really try to end her pregnancy or kill the twins. It was all a “writing exercise.”
But Jeremy read the autobiography and, furious when he thought Verity killed his children, strangled her into unconsciousness, tied her up, crashed the car, put her in the drivers’ seat, and fled the scene.
After the accident, Verity pretended to be injured and, when Jeremy was in New York meeting with the publishers, made her plans to leave Jeremy and flee with Crew.
The one problem: Verity just couldn’t remember where she put the printed copy of the “autobiography,” the one that Lowen found so easily.
Horrified, Lowen rips up Verity’s letter and flushes it down the toilet. She can’t blame Jeremy for being fooled by the fake autobiography. Since they both killed Verity, she has to keep quiet.
What is in the new Epilogue in the new hardcover version of Verity?
What happens in the new epilogue chapter of Verity? Buckle up and let’s talk MORE spoilers for the epilogue.
The epilogue takes place six months after the main story ended.
Lowen and Jeremy’s baby daughter, Nova, is now three months old. They are living by the water in North Carolina. How sweet, right?
First off, the epilogue does NOT tell us whether the autobiography was true or the letter. Sorry.
But we get a LOT more info about that #couplegoals pair, Jeremy and Lowen.
Lowen has decided that whether the manuscript or the letter are true, Verity was a bad mother. Either Verity did terrible things to her children OR she wrote about doing terrible things to them. Both are bad. Okay, Lowen, but one is WAY more bad.
Never mind all that Team Manuscript/Team Letter nonsense. Lowen is much more worried about her sex life with Jeremy.
She is deeply, obsessively jealous of Verity’s beauty, her ability to bounce back after childbirth, and the amazing sex life she and Jeremy (supposedly) had. I guess Lowen does believe the manuscript was true because that is all Verity talked about.
To make herself feel better, she uses Verity’s Victoria’s Secret credit card to buy new lingerie. Oh, honey.
Lowen finds Jeremy lying in bed, reading a new thriller written by a gorgeous raven haired woman who looks a lot like Verity, and she feels jealous. Just jealous? Not nervous that he’s looking for her replacement?
Lowen initiates sex but still can’t escape the feeling that their sex life isn’t as good as Verity and Jeremy’s.
Lowen and Jeremy decide to take Nova and Crew to the beach. Lowen sets up a blanket and watches the kids while Jeremy goes for a run. All the better to pick up new and attractive women, right?
Lowen thinks of the time she asked Crew what she should name the baby and he said he didn’t care because the baby would die anyway. Wow. Please get this child a therapist.
Lowen also mentions that no one knows where they are living and they’ve all taken Lowen’s last name.
Suddenly a familiar-looking woman comes up to Lowen at the beach. It’s Patricia, the gossipy friend of Verity’s that Lowen met in the supermarket back in Vermont.
Patricia, who is walking her dog, is clearly shocked to see Lowen. Patricia does the math: the baby is three month old and Verity died about a year ago.
Jeremy comes back from his run, chats with Patricia, then tells Lowen to take the kids to the car.
Jeremy quickly all their belongings in the car and then goes back down to the beach and drowns Patricia.
RIP Patricia. Yes, the dog is fine. Thanks for asking 🙂
When they get home, Jeremy destroys all the evidence they were ever at the beach.
Lowen is horrified and briefly contemplates leaving, but decides he murdered Verity and Patricia to protect their family.
She gives him a “special present” in the shower as a reward and to prove her loyalty. He seems to enjoy his present. In his enjoyment he kind of chokes her, so hard she is sure it will leave bruises. But she doesn’t mind. Even though Jeremy almost choked Verity to death. Finally, he’s treating her more like Verity!
After the shower sex, Lowen goes to check on Nova, but she’s missing. Crew says he put her outside because she was crying. Fortunately, she’s fine.
Lowen cries herself to sleep. After deciding she’s become part of a family of Chronics.
Oh, Lowen. I’d sleep with one eye open if I were you….
Spoiler Discussion for Verity by Colleen Hoover
Is Verity a villain or is Jeremy a villain … or are they both evil?
Well, I don’t think we can resolve question one. But after that new epilogue, is there anyone out there who’s still on Team Poor Jeremy Finally Found Happiness With a New Wife?
Verity: Unlucky “Chronic” or a Psychopath?
I mean, either way, Verity is … something. Whether she actually killed Harper and wrote the autobiography confessing it OR she did a “writing exercise” that incorporated her guilt over Harper’s death and then lost it and wrote a letter trying to explain herself, she’s a bit odd.
Lowen says that Verity’s characters are “really fucked up” and Jeremy says that Verity has weird, religious parents.
So Verity’s not your average mom next door. But is she a murderer? Is she just crazy in love?
Verity makes the weirdest choices in this book. She writes a crazy, messed-up confession/writing exercise in which she recounts lots of sex scenes with Jeremy and then repeatedly attempts to murder her children.
Whether the pages are facts or fiction, instead of titling it “writing exercise” or reading it to Jeremy so he knows it’s a HUGE JOKE (if it’s just an exercise) OR or password protecting it or locking it away (if it’s real), she does the worst possible thing: she prints out a hard copy and promptly loses it. And when she realizes Lowen found the manuscript, she doesn’t sneak into her office at night and destroy it.
Finally, though she says her top priority is taking her son and escaping Jeremy (as it should be because he’s clearly cheating on her AND has tried to murder her) she hangs around forever, watching Lowen sleep with him while she pretends to be incapacitated. Because she’s still looking for the autobiography.
Is Jeremy a villain?
He initiated the meeting with Lowen and lied about Verity being a fan of Lowen’s work. And HE was the one who read Lowen’s books, not Verity. HE picked her to take Verity’s place (or to torture her).
I feel like Verity was afraid of him even before he tries to kill her, especially at the point she lies and tells him she’s pregnant again.
He had (according to Verity) already read the autobiography AND didn’t tell Lowen that when she told him to read it.
He definitely lied to Lowen. And quite possibly to Verity.
EDITED: Well, now that we have all read the epilogue I think it’s safe to say that Jeremy IS a villain.
Or do Jeremy and Verity have a twisted relationship and are both untrustworthy?
Verity claims that that the manuscript is a writing exercise suggested by her agent, Amanda. A writing exercise in which in which she is a monster who hates her children and kills them.
Jeremy finds it.
Whether it’s a confession or an autobiography, I think the reaction of most husbands would be that Verity was out of her mind with grief.
But Jeremy IMMEDIATELY assumes that his beloved wife and the mother of his children is a deranged murderer.
Verity never tries to explain because “he wouldn’t believe her.” Okay, then.
According to her, he strangles her and then stages the whole thing as a car accident.
Is Verity telling the truth? I don’t know. But I’m still suspicious of Jeremy. He lies a lot and he’s clearly violent.
Jeremy’s first reaction is to be furious at Verity, so firm in his belief that she murdered Harper and had wished both twins harm since before their birth that Verity realizes all is lost and she has to plot her escape. (Again, while romance readers might accept this level of crazy in love, many thriller readers are side-eyeing the entire situation.)
Then either 1) Verity attempts suicide by crashing her car into a tree OR 2) Jeremy injures Verity in the car accident because for whatever reason, divorce or calling the Child Protective Services on Verity isn’t an option.
Then after the accident, instead of either 1) cleaning up the misunderstanding or 2) getting a restraining order on Jeremy, Verity pretends to be incapacitated and unable to speak for months (again, huh???).
After that epilogue, is Lowen now a villain?
Lowen finds the autobiography. Instead of being like “wtf both these people are crazy; I quit,” Lowen is like, “hey that Jeremy is pretty hot.” It’s the whole “my wife doesn’t understand me, my wife is a psycho” story.
EDITED: now that we have the new hardcover epilogue, Lowen has SO much explaining to do. Lady, get out of there.
Team Writing Exercise or Team Autobiography or Team Something Else?
Was So Be It just a “writing exercise” or was it a confession? What is the evidence?
Sadly, as I mentioned above, the new epilogue to the hardcover version of Verity offers no clues.
Evidence that Verity’s manuscript is an autobiography:
There are clearly elements of truth in the autobiography. Yes, Verity may have exaggerated stuff, but there are actual toothmarks on the headboard, so that’s real.
The fact that Verity fakes her condition to stay and find the manuscript is compelling to me. She really wants to get that thing back. And yet, as I argue above, when she has the chance to leave, she doesn’t.
Rufina (in comments) offers that Harper’s scar could evidence that the manuscript is true. Though when Lowen asks about the scar, Jeremy tells her that the doctors said it’s not unusual for a twin to have one.
Evidence that Verity’s manuscript is a writing exercise:
If she had really killed her child, would she have confessed in writing and then printed the confession out and lost it?
It’s very plausible that she was terribly guilty over Harper’s death and the manuscript was a way to explore those feelings of being a bad mother.
Verity says Amanda told her to do it, which is easily proven or disproven.
What’s the deal with Amanda?
My theories as I read were all over the place, but I was definitely suspicious of Jeremy. I was also side-eyeing Amanda, Verity’s editor. At that early meeting with Lowen, she’s putting on red lipstick at 9 am, hoping to catch Jeremy’s eye.
Plus, Amanda was the one supposedly suggested this ridiculous villain origin writing exercise to Verity as a way to a) further her career and MAYBE b) to break up Verity and Jeremy.
Kind of kidding, but that would have been a good twist to have Amanda pop up at the house and point out her teethmarks on the headboard to Lowen.
If I Liked Verity, What Else Should I Read?
I argue in my review of Verity that it is, at its heart, a Gothic romance.
In Gothic romance, the typical plot involves a vulnerable, sheltered young woman coming to live with a magnetic yet troubled man. He’s often a widower, sometimes with children. She falls in love with him but at the same time, is worried that he’s keeping a terrible secret from her.
Think Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, or Rebecca – I have a whole post on Rebecca!
In any case, one of the central questions in Gothic romance is: can our heroine trust the guy?
In Verity, is Jeremy a grieving father and devoted husband, or is he a sinister figure? Is Lowen his next victim? Well, after reading the sequel, I’m on Team Sinister.
Or, as suggested above are both toxic and playing sick games with each other. If you like this theory (or Verity) you should really read Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney and then come join my Spoiler Discussion for Rock Paper Scissors.
Things I did love about Verity:
Verity had a great sense of fun, and of playing with the conventions of romance and Gothic fiction. It did keep me turning the pages.
As I was reading, I couldn’t decide if Verity was a murderer or a victim. Was Jeremy a chronic or an abusive husband? Was Lowen just a crazy kid in love or a complete idiot?
After the epilogue chapter in the hardcover, Jeremy is definitely evil and Lowen has gaslit herself.
So much drama.
Things that drove me crazy about Verity:
The instalove. Yes, this is a mainstay of Gothic fiction, in which a sheltered, virginal young woman is captivated by a tragic, tortured man.
I wasn’t a fan of Lowen. I felt like she was creeping on Jeremy from the moment they both witness the accidental death of some poor pedestrian and Jeremy rips off his shirt to give to her. Then when she finds out he’s Verity’s husband she can’t wait to get to Vermont and hang out with him. Again, instalove.
The lack of clarity on Verity. Was she a liar and a murderer, or was she just a victim of Jeremy?
Whew that was quite the Spoiler Discussion of Verity. What did you think of the book? What is your take on ALL this?
Please leave a comment and, if you want to be notified of my reply, hit the bell icon!
If you liked Verity because of its twisted relationships, and love thrillers, I’d recommend Rock, Paper Scissors. If you’ve read it, come join our Spoiler Discussion for Rock Paper Scissors – people have a LOT to say!
Hi! I enjoyed reading the book but the way it ended made me disgusted. I was waiting for something sophisticated like all this time Jeremy was the one who was twisted and he was the real writer of the books not Verity.
on another thought: if the manuscript was not the truth, how come Harper has a scar? So Verity did try to harm her babies even while pregnant?
Ooh, that is a great question about the scar. I do think it’s possible for a baby to be born with a scar, but that is evidence that the manuscript is real and the letter is a cover-up
A couple things that bothered me…if Jeremy put Verity in the passenger seat and made sure she hit the tree, did he jump out? If he stayed in the car and made sure it only hit the passenger side, then moved her to look like she was driving, wouldn’t the police have been suspicious of how she got hurt? Also, if Verity’s manuscript was bogus and she actually loved her children, how did Chastin get the scar on her face? If we are supposed to let questions like these go because of the question at the end, “which truth was she manipulating”, that seems a little too convenient to me :-/
I think (if I remember correctly) Jeremy crashed the car and then switched places with her (I think she was unconscious from him choking her). But how do you gently crash a car? And how would Verity remember any of this if she were unconscious? Ahhh this book! Maybe I’ll go back and look.
And I think the scar can go either way. Either Verity caused it (though you’d think it would have caused more damage than that) OR Jeremy tells Lowen that the doctors said a twin having a small scar isn’t uncommon as “things get crowded in there.”
Hi, a friend and I have been talking about the book for a long time and we both remember that Verity on the canoe just before Harper died just told Crew to hold his breath. It occurs to us that 1. if it really was an accident, she wouldn’t have had time to tell Crew and 2. if there had been enough time and she is the loving mother from the letter, she could have just said the request to hold her breath out loud to both children.
This is our main reason for believing that the true Verity is the one from the manuscript.
I agree that the canoe episode was one I side-eyed. Canoes don’t tip that easily. And if your children aren’t strong swimmers, why would you take them into deep water without life jackets? But even if Verity is a psycho, I do NOT think Jeremy is her innocent victim!
This book was very entertaining, but flawed in the ways you’re review describes. But I still couldn’t put it down. I wanted a little more from the end. The creepy moments where Lowen would see Verity were great, and when she finally confirmed to faking he just kills her. I’m not sure what I was hoping for, but a little more terror I guess. The letter at the end just ensures that all three of them are a little nuts.
That’s where I come out. I agree it could have been scarier but it’s so unclear who is in danger from whom that it’s hard to feel scared.
Verity is either a murderer and in a very toxic relationship or just has no common sense. Jeremy is a murderer and a cheater. Lowen is accessory to murder and a cheater. I was waiting for the meta twist that the ENTIRE thing was made up by Lowen as Verity fanfic, like an E.L. James situation.
Only picked this up because a student recommended it to me, so knew nothing going in. Part way through, I thought, “Oh, OK, this is a modern re-telling of DuMaurier’s Rebecca.” I don’t see *anything* about that in the book’s promotional materials, though, nor did I see it mentioned on goodreads. Was Hooper not admitting or not aware of the similarities? Because:
Seriously, I was half expecting the place to burn down at the end. Am I wrong? Why aren’t more people talking about this as either an homage, or a less-than-honest imitation?
YES I took it out of this spoiler discussion post because people were more interested in discussing manuscript vs letter but I do point out in my regular review of Verity that it has ALL the hallmarks of gothic romance/old school romantic suspense.
I think a lot of people haven’t read those kind of books but it’s totally Jane Eyre material: tragic/attractive guy, wife in the attic, young woman narrator who needs a job. I’d say it’s an homage and gothic books seem to be having a bit of a resurgence in books like The Wife Upstairs etc.
What if Jeremy was the one who wrote the autobiography and framed her? What if all this time he was a writer too. What if he liked being a ghost writer, as the idea came so easily to him when he suggested it to Lowen. He liked to be hidden in New York too. What if Jeremy and Lowen are both evil and that’s why they want to hide. Maybe there is more to why Lowens mom is scared of her and both Jeremy’s parents are dead.
I am up for any and all theories!
The manuscript being manufactured by Jeremy after second failed murder attempt would explain a lot the particular interest in the intense sex scenes.
I think I’m totally against majority of the comments here.
But I need a sequel to confirm.
I can see the reasoning behind a bat-shit crazy Jeremy, but I just don’t believe it.
The easiest way for Verity to prove the transcript is false, is through Amanda. But apparently that isn’t an option, which leads me to believe it’s not. Which would also mean if she did truly fear for her and her child’s life she would have left, the moment she woke up in the hospital.
If Jeremy was the driver of the vehicle, why didn’t he have any injuries as Verity supposedly did? The air bag thing is not plausible.
if he read the manuscript, why would he not be able to pick out any fictional discrepancies from their life?
Finally, the letter is portrayed to be written days before or night of her actual death. This leads me to believe more manipulation from Verity, knowing how intuitive Lowen has been.
Love these points. So based on these, you think Jeremy is completely innocent? It’s possible he had injuries and didn’t mention it. The Amanda thing is a definite loose end. And you think she wrote the letter in a hurry because she thought they were onto her?
So you think she’s just sticking around until she finds the lost manuscript (lol) and then she will miraculously come out of her vegetative state except that Lowen turned up?
Hello guys I Think that verity said the truth in her letter. She wrote it then because she didn’t have much space when the new girl came to her home. She came after a few days out of hospital and she was almost dead by her husband. There are many things I can accuse her and defend her in the same time. But maybe I hope in the end that she really didn’t do anything of that to her child.
I hope not too!
i read and extra of this book via tiktok and lowen when Jeremy killed his wife friend on the beach, lowen thought of leaving him. As exactly as verity wanted to do but didn’t make it. What if all these on lowen head and her jealousy for verity was too big. But when she took her place and saw Jeremy reading a book of another writer, thought same things will happen to her too. So it makes Jeremy also not look that innocent as we thought
Ha – always happy to find someone who agrees that Jeremy is sketchy and untrustworthy!
Why did he make the decision to smother Verity when:
1- Verity guessed he had found the open manuscript, she heard him cry, then saw him angry, and remembered the open manuscript from the computer.
2- if the letter is totally fake, then jeremy didn’t even read the manuscript and didn’t even try to suffocate her.
But after reading the extra chapter I believe that Jeremy simply has outbreaks without such plausible reasons, he killed Patricia just for “thinking” that she would gossip to everyone about him and Lowen
And after the extra chapter I’m only sure of one thing – that I always believe in Lowen – she’s the only one I feel sorry for far.