Every book for me starts as a 5 star read, and loses point as it goes along.

Lowen behaving like an idiot over her mom and Random Citizen (aka Future Love Interest) and just generally being whiny made it a 4 star read pretty quickly, but that's still solid in my book.

We got to a 3 star on page 103 when Verity has an entire page describing how one's "conscience" is "our mind, our soul, and all the intangible parts." Babe, no. Your conscience is what stops you from stealing and makes you give a sad friend a hug. Consciousness is the noun you're looking for, and I'm embarrassed for Hoover and her editor.

It became a 2 star read

Spoiler

when Jeremy fell for Lowen, because it made literally no sense except that he was looking for someone to be the mother to his children again, which is hella icky. And predatory, because Lowen has so many issues. Normal people don't encourage men they have known for three weeks to murder their wives in cold blood because they want to sleep with him.

This was all still fine because the thriller parts did thrill me and the sex parts were pretty entertaining so I was happy to be along for the ride.

But it became a 1 star read for me

Spoiler

at the very end when Lowen finds the letter that Verity left, claiming that the entire autobiography was a lie and she loved her children blah blah blah. Jeremy didn't even know about that hiding space, which made the whole thing feel almost as stupid as the fact that she printed the autobiography in the first place. Who does that? Also, it's not even an autobiography, it's a memoir, because it's about a portion of her life, not the whole thing.

Firstly, even without addressing whether Verity lied or not, it's canon that Jeremy already read the autobiography, and lied to Lowen. She needs to leave him because he is unhinged at best and now the new baby's parents are both murderers, so perhaps we should do something about that.

So let's say Verity is a monster. She's dead, everyone is safe (for now, because Lowen and Jeremy are still murderers). Personally I choose to believe she was a monster. (I think Crew's name is the biggest clue for me, because she writes that she wanted him to have a nautical name because he was conceived in the boat.)

But let's say she was innocent. Well. She's still dead, and Lowen and Jeremy are still murderers.

I think this reveal happened too late to really make a difference, which is a shame, because it could have been interesting. But the real problem is it's just lazy. Hoover put it at the end so you would go "ooh" and then move on with your day, but all I can think is, if Lowen just asked Jeremy about whether Verity breastfed, she would know the answer immediately. That was such a big scene when Verity actively rejected her baby for nursing, and if she really did , then Jeremy would know that the autobiography was a lie -- and if it was, well, HE'S STILL A MURDERER.

It seems to me that Jeremy is the real villain no matter what.