Verity by Colleen Hoover

Alrighty, next review time.  I'll be recording this one, looking a hot mess because, well, it's hot.  Every frigid winter I insist I'm moving south when I retire.  Then it gets this warm and I nope right out of that idea.  So if you're watching the video version, know this is review #2 of the summer.  I didn't record one for 9 Perfect Strangers because I hated it!

This, in contrast...

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

This was recommended to me by Mrs. Memmott over at Mackrille.  She was literally posting "move this to the top of your 'to read' pile!"  So I did.  I finished it in roughly 3 hours awaiting word my sister and brother-in-law (both in our Air Force) had made it to CT from OH on leave for the 4th of July.  I. Could. Not. Put. It Down.

Here's the premise: a famous best selling author, Verity Crawford, is severely injured in a car accident.  She has 3 books left in a promised series.  Her greedy publishers don't want to wait for her to fully recover, lest her fame fizzle.  Instead, they convince Verity's husband Jeremy to allow them to hire a no-name shadow writer to finish the books under Verity's name.  Lowen has published a few books, but nothing blockbuster.  Her compensation is half a million dollars.

Jeremy allows Lowen to visit their home to peruse Verity's office for ideas for the next novel. There Lowen learns Verity is completely paralyzed and in a vegetative state.  Jeremy tells Lowen he and Verity have experienced terrible loss: one of their twin girls accidentally ate peanuts at a sleepover and died of an allergic reaction.  Their other twin girl fell out of the family canoe and drowned.  Now this accident.  Was Verity drunk or taking sleeping meds?  Did she try to kill herself after losing her girls?  No one knows.  Jeremy hired a full time nurse and stays in the home, rather than put Verity in long term care, so their littlest boy, Crew, can still be close to his mother.  

Now, that's all I'm giving you.  Know this: Lowen definitely finds the beginnings of another book in Verity's office.  But it's not book 7. It's something completely different.  

But what is truth, and what is fiction?

Find this on display when we head back to school!

A reminder all opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

9 Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Good Morning and Happy Summer!

This is book #1 in my Summer Reading pile, and it is the teacher's book club selection for June.  We're meeting tomorrow at Bad Sons, so I figured I should get the review done too.  I am moderating although I didn't choose this book.  Ms. Marcella did, but she forgot she had Dave Matthews Band tickets.

Ms. M. picked this because it's a Netflix series, and she wanted to read the book before watching the movie.  

The premise is that nine strangers meet at a health resort/spa retreat.  However they're not all strangers, which put me off to start with.  There is a family of 3 (Dad, Mom, daughter) and a young couple.  Then the rest are strangers.  Some there for weight loss, some for meditation, some, like the young couple, are there for therapy. We also have the director of the resort, her two assistants, and a massage therapist.  

I thought this would be a whodunit in a Clue style story, kinda like The Guest List maybe?  

Instead I found everyone and everything annoying, nothing believable, and the ending atrocious.  There I said it; I hated this book.  I am so disappointed, and have no idea how I'm going to lead a discussion on it!  I'm actually quite dismayed I paid for the hardcover version.  Bleh!

A reminder all opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.