TITLE: Attachments
AUTHOR: Rainbow Rowell
PUBLICATION DATE: April 14, 2011
PUBLISHER: PENGUIN GROUP Plume
PAGES: 336 pages
FORMAT: E-ARC / Audiobook
SOURCE: Publisher via NetGalley / Borrowed
RATING: 5 bows
Lincoln is the newsroom’s internet security officer. It sounds like a great title and when he applied for the job, he thought he would be building firewalls and securing company data. This, however, is not the case. Lincoln is paid to not only read through any flagged emails, but his boss openly encourages him to snoop through the employees emails and computers anytime the mood strikes, to keep people from wasting valuable time while at work. He absolutely hates it. Then Beth Fremont & Jennifer Scribner-Snyder’s email conversations get flagged and he can’t bring himself to report them. They are witty and heart-felt and enrapturing. By the time he realizes that he is falling for Beth, it’s much too late to just walk up and introduce himself. Is there possible relationship doomed or with Lincoln find a way to make it work?
All the main characters in this novel are equally lovable. Lincoln had adorable geeky nature and an addiction to school, which is an addiction I can completely understand. He can’t stop. He has finally gotten out into the real world with a job and he still finds himself eventually taking more classes at a community college. He just loves to learn, something I think all nerds can relate to. He’s so earnest and sweet and he hates feeling like a peeping tom by reading people’s emails….except with Beth & Jennifer, or maybe even more so with these two, but he can’t stop. The more he reads, the more attached he becomes and the more he wants to learn about these two.
Beth and Jennifer themselves are just as awesome. Beth’s obsession with cinema and her rocker boyfriend keep you wondering and Jennifer’s struggle with her husband’s desire to have a baby when she doesn’t feel ready is wholly relatable to me. Not that I’m at the point when my husband is demanding a baby, just that I wonder if that’s how I’m going to be when it’s really time to start having kids. Kids scare the shit out of me, they can be little monsters. But, that’s beside the point! Jennifer’s struggle makes the novel easier to relate to and Beth’s wit makes it funny. This is a girl who manages to make me laugh out loud with every snide comment. You don’t realize that shit is about to get serious until halfway through when it does start to get serious.
One of the things that was entirely lovable about this story is that it is an awkward romance that isn’t really a romance. The story if largely about Lincoln and Beth and if Lincoln will find a way to confess his feelings to Beth (and if it’ll work out), but you don’t get any of the over the top romance smexy scenes. Now don’t get me wrong, I like a sexy scene just as much as the next romance addict, but it was refreshing to see one focus more on the relationship rather than the bow chicka wow wow. So for all of you romance-phobs, don’t worry, you’ll find no bad euphemisms here.
I started this novel with a little trepidation. It sounded interesting and I really wanted to read it, but it’s my first Rainbow Rowell book and I’ve been told not all of her novels end happily. I like happy endings, in fact, that are required. So the closer I got to the end, the more I worried if this would all work out as beautifully as I imagined. For all those with the same fears, this works out well. It’s exactly the ending you hope for.
The only issue I had with this was a very tiny one. The name bugged me. The whole novel, I was expecting things to be attached to the emails, but nothing ever was. I think there was a singular time that there was an attachment and that bugged me a bunch. I think the meaning of the title was more of the attachments people form, but I just felt a bit mislead because I was expected actual email attachments to at least be mentioned in the novel. I know, it’s a stupid complaint, but it would have made the title that much more perfect.
The bottom line is that I loved this novel, a lot. It kept me smiling and laughing and crying and emoting in general the entire way through. We get to see a lot of ups and a couple of downs from the amazing people who I have formed and attachment to. It was the perfect starter novel in Rainbow’s writing and if I didn’t want to read her novels already, this novel alone would have me adding them to by TBR pile. I don’t know really know how else to articulate that. I loved it, it was amazing, go read it now, k?
****Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Plume for providing me with an eARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review****
Bows & Bullets Reviews 