Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover

Published December 7th 2018 by Hoover Ink, Inc.

Goodreads Synopsis

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

A standalone romantic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, releasing December 18th.

My Review

“...the things lurking around inside the mind can be just as dangerous as tangible threats.”

I had forgotten how much I like Hoover's writing sometimes. It isn't that her books have some mind boggling plot lines or because they have something new to offer. It's just the way she writes her characters. She makes her characters seem so real and her books read so easily that it's impossible to put them down. It's very easy to connect to her characters because Hoover knows how to get inside her readers' minds and manipulate their emotions. I've always thought that she is one of those authors who writes angst very well. After reading Verity I realized that she can write creepy even better.

Throughout Verity, she creates an eerie atmosphere of foreboding and doubt. I couldn't help but turn page after page, coming up with my own theories as to what might happen next. It was interesting to read about a character who's an author from an author's point of view. 

“A writer should never have the audacity to write about themselves unless they’re willing to separate every layer of protection between the author’s soul and their book. The words should come directly from the center of the gut, tearing through flesh and bone as they break free. Ugly and honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying, but completely exposed.” 

It was also easy to imagine how writing about fucked up characters might fuck up the author's mind in the process. Because, aren't all fictional characters a piece of the author's soul, however small that piece maybe? Don't the events of a book sometimes have an element of wish fulfillment attached to them?

The only issue I had with the book was that even though the plot escalated quickly, the actual climax was a bit meh. The ending felt kind of rushed, almost as if it were an afterthought. It left me feeling dissatisfied and I didn't find it worthy of the buildup.

I had come up with my own crazy little theory that the whole manuscript was written from Verity's husband's POV and he was the actual author in the story, writing under the pseudonym of his wife's name. That would mean that all the crazy things mentioned in the manuscript were his doing and writing them down as though his wife did it was just a way of covering his tracks and putting the blame on her. Yes yes, my mind works in twisted ways.

But overall, it's definitely a great quick one time read that is bound to give you the creeps. Rating: 3/5 stars!

Review: Children of Blood and Bone by Toni Adeyemi

Published March 6th 2018 by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Synopsis

They killed my mother.

They took our magic.

They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.

My Review

“I teach you to be warriors in the garden so you will never be gardeners in the war.” 

What?! What does that even mean? This was such a disappointing read. I'd been steering clear of YA fantasy for a while because I was fed up with the excessively tropey, unoriginal books masquerading as the next best thing in YA. So, I picked up Children of Blood and Bone with no small amount of trepidation, even after all the glowing reviews that it got from trusted reviewers. 

However, it turned out to be an incredibly cliched, surprisingly slow paced, dud of a book. Evil prince who switches sides after falling for the oddball destined to save the world? Check. Meek little best friend who eventually transforms into a badass? Check. Insta-love that blossomed in a span of hours and came in the way of the greater good? Check. Gaahh.. the only thing missing was an unnecessary love triangle and this would've been every other YA fantasy in a 500 page nutshell!

The book started out slow and just got slower. I determinedly slogged through the first 200 pages, thinking that maybe it's just a slow burn that would eventually build up into something interesting, but boy was it a downer! I couldn't care about any of the characters either. The book is told from the perspective of Zélie (the dull-as-a-Fourier-Transform protagonist), Amari (the scaredy little rogue princess) and Inan (the incredibly annoying crown prince). None of these characters managed to capture my interest or made me feel anything except scorn at the way they acted throughout the book. Some of the things that they did made zilch sense (hint: partying out in the open without cause for celebration with the enemy at their heels? Ugh. Dumb). The only person who actually had a stable head on his shoulders was Zélie's brother Tzain, and even he was as uninteresting as a sack of hay.

The world building was shoddy at best and there was no proper explanation as to how magic or the Gods' will worked. The racial discrimination and violence at the hands of a cruel, tyrannical King may have been intended to throw some light on racial discrimination in Nigeria, but it fell flat and evoked no real sympathy or dread from me. The book was peppered with random events that made little to no sense and just made me more aggravated at the book's length. 

Overall, a highly disappointing way to kick off the new year. This makes me so much warier of the entire YA fantasy genre now. It'll be a while before I'll be able to trust the hype again.

Rating: 2/5 stars!