Elizabeth Kelton

*Spoilers* This books had the correct setup to be good with actual twists but it just never got there. All CH had to do was add one more chapter. It was very disappointing. Instead of the actual “reveal” this would have made more sense: 1. Jeremy is actually the author of Verity’s books. He uses her as a pen name and she is the face. A lot of female romance authors are actually men. It explains why he takes care to keep her alive. 2. Jeremy is a complete narcissist & mentally abused Verity. He shows signs of this at the party when he won’t let her order drinks and love bombs her. He loves his kids because they are an extension of him. He never actually worked for the firm that had the party where they met, instead he had been stalking Verity. 3. He blamed Verity for Chastens death and became more abusive. The boating accident was her trying to escape with the kids. He beat her and staged the car accident. 4. He wrote the manuscript. 5. He read Lowens book and became obsessed with the idea of her. She mentioned this kinda happened before. Everyone at the publishing firm thinks Verity is brain dead so this is now an excuse to bring her in. 6. He stalked her from her apartment. He pushed the guy in front of the car to create a trauma bond and become the hero (remember she made note of saying she didn’t see how he died). He called her new apartment and told them about the eviction so she would have no options. 7. He placed the manuscript where she would find it. It is very much written from a male prospective. 8. Verity’s friends in the store weren’t actually being intrusive, they knew Jeremy was abusive and were concerned with the tiny, young, new woman hanging around. The nurses also suspect his abuse and keep an eye on him. 9. The letter Lowen finds in the end explains all of the above and now she is trapped due to the murder and baby. Other random tie ins: 1. Jeremy says that Verity’s parents disowned her for her novels. Verity mentioned in the letter how he was wearing a sweater her mom gave him for Christmas. 2. Verity’s writing is always from the villain’s prospective and it’s mentioned more than once how it’s hard to get into that mindset. This would fit in nicely if Jeremy had been the author. 3. Jeremy only referred to Lowen in her pen name around others. This means he’s good at deception and he’s had practice. It would make sense if he had been doing this his whole career. 4. Lowen is in a desperate situation and emotionally stunted. She’s a perfect victim for him. Overall the book is fine. I kept looking for more because the setup was there but CH delivered no execution. I could have given CH credit and say something along the lines of “the clues were there and she’s letting her readers decide” but Verity’s letter in the end destroys all that. So instead we get a watered down version where we decide if the letter is fake or the manuscript is. The book would have been better even without that last chapter IMO. It seems like CH just wanted to create the perfect man and sacrificed a good book to do so.