7 Books To Read Next If You Loved Verity

It’s increasingly looking like “verity” might be the word of the year in 2026. Not only is it a new part of Gen Alpha slang, but the Colleen Hoover adaptation of the same name – starring Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett – has proven a hit.

(In an unexpected crossover, Anne seemed to reference the meme in a promo clip, too).

Verity is Hoover’s fourth book to make the big screen, after It Ends With Us, Regretting You, and Reminders of Him. Many viewers will have already read the author’s works, which have sold a staggering 35 million copies globally.

Which begs the question: what should you read next after her latest on-screen instalment?

Psst – We’ve left other Colleen Hoover books off our list of recommendations, because we think fans of the flick will likely have already heard of, and probably read, those too. If you haven’t, find a full list of her titles here.

Verity director Michael Showalter has worked with Anne Hathaway in the past for the 2024 movie The Idea of You. The film is based on a book of the same name, which was described by Vogue as the “sleeper hit of the pandemic”.

It follows 39-year-old Solène Marchand’s torrid affair with famous boyband frontman Hayes Campbell. Expect steamy scenes and complicated conflicts.

Showalter also directed 2022’s Spoiler Alert, an adaptation of 2017 memoir Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello. As its title might suggest, the book follows the death of Ausiello’s partner, Kit, by cancer over the course of 11 months.

People described the work as a “heartbreaking but surprisingly hilarious memoir”.

Verity’s screenwriter, Nick Antosca, has form when it comes to adapting unsettling stories. He’s written for the Apple TV miniseries Cape Fear, which is based on MacDonald’s 1957 novel.

If you loved the dark thriller elements of Verity, you might like this sordid story, which follows brutal criminal Max Cady’s release from prison and obsessive stalking of the lawyer who helped to put him in jail. Warning, though: this Stephen King-approved work is definitely not a light read.

Toxic marriage? Check. Absent wife? Check. Eerie autobiographical diary-style entries? Check, check, check. If you haven’t read the book behind the 2014 hit, you might want to give it a go after Verity.

Fans often recommend this courtroom thriller to people who wish Verity had never ended. Lawyer Sarah Morgan is left with an impossible choice: she has to defend her husband Adam, who’s been accused of murdering his mistress.

The book has reportedly sold over two million copies, and there’s good news if you’re a fan: it’s followed by another hit, The Perfect Divorce.

Stats on the social book site Goodreads suggest people who like Verity usually enjoy this 2019 psychological thriller – and it’s easy to see why.

Even though protagonist Alicia Berenson’s life looks perfect from the outside – she shares a beautiful home with busy fashion photographer Gabriel – she inexplicably shoots her husband, refusing to speak about why (or utter a single word) afterwards.

When criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber eventually gets to meet her, he finds himself on his own troubling journey into his past.

Verity co-star Dakota Johnson is pretty well-known for appearing in adaptations like 50 Shades of Grey and The Lost Daughter. But she also appeared in 2011’s romance/fantasy flick, Beastly.

And – you guessed it – that was based on a 2007 young adult novel of the same name.

The book tells the story of Kyle Kingsbury, an ideal-seeming man who slowly turns, well, beastly. It’s loosely adapted from Beauty and the Beast, but this time, it’s narrated from the perspective of the cursed “monster” himself.