The Housemaid by Freida McFadden Review

This review does not contain spoilers for The Housemaid. Trigger warnings include domestic abuse, violence, and crime.

There are a ton of writing cliches littered throughout this book - even in the first chapter, we see a "I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding" line from our main character, Millie.

I also Google Translated the Italian landscaper, Enzo, said to Millie, and it was obvious that our lead was in danger from the beginning. And it is clear that Millie thought just the same, and did just that as well. The second she realized that Enzo had told her "danger," she should have turned around and ran away from that family as fast as she could.

Nina and Cecelia freak me out -- Nina definitely keeps information from Millie and chooses what she knows. Keeping vital information from Millie and causing rifts early on in Millie's employment can only lead her down a dark road. The way that Nina interacts with Millie when they are in front of other people astounds me. Even if you are not too found of someone, I could never imagine talking about them right in front of their face and speaking so rudely to someone that you originally said was so amazing.

I found myself constantly feeling bad for Andrew during Part I of the book -- he clearly was not happy in his marriage with Nina and it become glaringly obvious as you get further into the book. However, in the second half of the book, my pity for him turned to suspicion, especially after the countless warnings Enzo gives Millie.

We have a change in perspective as Nina's point of view takes the lead in Part II of the book, where we are able to see the early stages of Nina and Andrew's relationship and marriage. It completely changed my stance on the characters, as we are introduced to the other side of the story we had only expected. Enzo's character development and Nina's background are given top priority in these chapters, and it was very interesting to see their dynamic play out.

Part III takes us back to Millie's perspective and shows the progression of her time in Nina and Andrew's house, and we also maintain a glimpse into Nina's perspective as the conclusion fast approaches. McFadden does a pretty good job of developing all three of the main characters and their personalities as the tone of the book shifts the more you read. Millie and Nine have their ultimate "girlboss" moments that were mildly unexpected, but certainly well-received.

In all honesty, when I was a few chapters in, I wasn't too sure if I was going to enjoy this as much as I did. The writing was a little iffy for me, but with the short chapters it became a very quick read and I found myself flying through the book in no time. The plot takes a moment to heat up and I had to push myself in the beginning to keep going, but I'm very glad that I stuck with it to the end.

I would recommend this book to fans of Verity by Colleen Hoover -- you can read my review, here -- and Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage, as well as fans of psychological thrillers. If you have not read the two mentioned books and enjoyed The Housemaid, then I definitely recommend picking them up!

You can add The Housemaid on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on publications and releases.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!

Verity by Colleen Hoover Review

This review contains spoilers for Verity - please read with caution. Trigger warnings include graphic depictions of violence, child death and violence, and murder.

You can read my reviews for other Colleen Hoover books on my blog, here: It Ends With Us and Finding Cinderella.

I want to start off this review by saying this has to be one of Colleen Hoover's best works -- Verity is very different from her other novels, but the suspense of reading this book had me on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend this book to fans of thriller and psychological genres, especially fans of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Bunny by Mona Awad.

The first chapter of Verity does not even begin to describe the emotions and twists that you will be put through by the end of the book. Hoover starts us off by immediately having our main female character, Lowen, bear witness to a tragedy that she could have been spared from seeing if the circumstances were in her favor. This tragedy brings our main male character, Jeremy, into Lowen's life and his presence is not fleeting -- he is here to stay. If only I could yell into the pages and warn Lowen that any man with a "J" name is not to be trusted, she would not be in this mess.

Lowen, a writer whose books are being published but not hitting the charts, is brought to a meeting where she is offered the chance to finishing writing Verity Crawford's bestselling thriller series, as she has been in an accident that leaves her unable to do so. And because there are no coincidences in Hoover's books, Jeremy happens to be Verity's husband, aiding in the search for a co-author.

Jeremy and Lowen's first interaction with each other was Jeremy help clean blood off of Lowen and bond over the fact that they both had a death in the family very recently. And as soon as they have the opportunity, they leave each other's lives and are just as quickly thrown back in when Lowen decides to accept the offer of completing Verity's book series. Personally if I was Lowen, I would be running for the hills -- why does her writing sound so similar to Verity's? How did they discover this? 

Under a pen name, Lowen accepts the offer once negotiating the price, and travels to Jeremy and Verity's home in order to go through her office and notes to get herself sorted and in the mindset to complete the series. It is in her office that Lowen discovers a manuscript -- Verity's autobiography -- and begins a descent into unravelling who Verity was as a person before her accident, and what haunts this family. Lowen will read a chapter at a time, and if I was in her shoes, I would be devouring the entire manuscript instead of putting it away when she felt it became "repetitive," as this causes Lowen to only know part of Verity's side to the story as she continues to stay at the Crawford home. 

Verity's manuscript is filled with some of the most insane encounters and actions that I have read. She thinks about killing one of her daughters, Harper, because she thinks Harper will kill Chastin. The things that she did to Harper are insane, I have never read a book where a character had such a harsh reveal of their actions, and I was truly shocked.

In a home that does not feel like a home, Lowen begins to spend her time reading this manuscript rather than actually sorting through Verity's notes on her book series. We begin to Lowen judge Verity's actions and somewhat confront Verity once strange occurrences happen near Verity. I was on the edge of my seat when Crew, Jeremy and Verity's son, was found in Verity's room with a knife and bleeding from his chin -- especially when he told Lowen that his mother does not like it when he touches her knives. Like Lowen, if there was a sign to get out of that house, this would be it.

As I was reading this book, I was increasingly becoming paranoid that Verity was literally going to be standing behind me wherever I turned -- Hoover does a great job in creating her presence in the house and in Lowen's life. It felt as if Verity was haunting not only Lowen but the reader as well, almost like you could feel her presence when you were reading scenes where Lowen was sure that Verity was standing at the stairs or in the window. Every time it was mentioned that Verity was either awake or walking around, I could only picture Samara from The Ring movies.

This book had me on the edge of my seat and constantly looking over my shoulder as I devoured this in essentially one sitting. Hoover draws the reader immediately in and you are given new, wild information about Verity throughout the book at the pace of Lowen's interest in her manuscript. We see the outside view of Lowen and Jeremy's relationship through the eyes of April, Verity's nurse, and through Crew, the sole living child of Verity.

Much like how Verity's manuscript showed her obsession with Jeremy, we slowly see Lowen go deeper and deeper into a trace for Jeremy, and eventually Lowen seems to make her time at the Crawford house revolve around Verity and not completing her book series.

It was so incredibly interesting to see Verity's thought process through her manuscript pages and the constant struggles and battles she faced internally and with her family. Her husband expresses early on that he could potentially have more love for the twins than his own wife, and we see Verity's immediate struggle with the realization that the one person that was supposed to love her the most in her life has pushed her down to third place.

I personally thought it was clear that Verity's manuscript was leading to the fact that she knew that Jeremy thought that she had something to do with Harper's death -- even in the beginning of the book when it was revealed that she drowned in the lake, I had a feeling that it was very much not an accident. It is gripping to read Verity's chapters, and the final words in her manuscript only confirm what I had thought, that it was Verity who gave herself the fate she finds herself in now.

But then I read her letter.

Verity's letter to Jeremy reads so differently than her manuscript, feeling filled with more hopeful emotions and urgency to explain her side of the story and give reasoning behind what she wrote in her manuscript. To see her describe Jeremy already have read the manuscript and basically attempt to murder her had me gasping aloud. She is pleading with Jeremy to understand the manuscript and what she witnessed while being in the house as Lowen entered their home and eventually found the printed version of the manuscript Verity so desperately wanted to find.

This letter, explaining that she did not kill her child and that Jeremy was the one responsible for her car accident, makes the reader take a harsh turn into Verity's mindset -- we have only been exposed to her thoughts through a manuscript claiming that she has done a number of heinous things, and now we see her pleading to Jeremy to understand what he actually saw. When Lowen found the letter, I knew in my heart that there was no way Jeremy would ever read it or know it its existence -- he has just murdered his wife, and what would it do to him to find out that she was not the culprit? And what if Lowen is right, and Verity only wrote the letter recently, to cover her tracks or if she survived his attempt on her life? So, that leaves one final question on what to believe.

Are you team manuscript or team letter?

You can add Verity and the rest of Colleen Hoover's books on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!