Secrets Beneath the Floorboards

Verity is a 2018 psychological romantic thriller novel by American author Colleen Hoover. The narrative follows Lowen Ashleigh, a writer who is hired to complete a bestselling book series after an accident leaves its original author, Verity Crawford, unable to do so. While staying at the Crawford family home, Lowen discovers an unfinished manuscript that reveals unsettling details about Verity's past. It was originally self-published on December 7, 2018, and later republished by Grand Central Publishing (an imprint of Hachette Book Group) in 2021 following a surge in popularity. The book represents a departure from Hoover's earlier works, which are primarily contemporary romance. Hoover incorporates elements of suspense and psychological tension, with themes including obsession, deception, and the shifting boundaries between truth and fiction in this novel. The novel received generally positive reviews and was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance in 2019 and won the British Book Award for Pageturner in 2023 and the Lovelybooks Leserpreis for Romance in 2020.