Lincoln is a single twenty-something working in the IT department of a newspaper office just before Y2K. The problem is, he still lives with his Mum and his job is to read the emails of his fellow workers, reporting any inappropriate contact. The personal emails of two women in particular keep getting flagged up, day after day. The more Lincoln reads the conversations between Jennifer and Beth, the more he learns about Beth's relationship dilemma and Jennifer's decision about whether being a parent is for her, the more he can't bring himself to report them. In fact, he finds himself falling for Beth. But with no way to introduce himself without coming clean about his 'snooping', is there any hope for Lincoln and Beth?
I downloaded Attachments on to my kindle as I really enjoyed Rowell's Eleanor and Park, and was interested to read her adult fiction. And for the most part, Attachments met my expectations - it was a fun, quick read with well written characters that I ended up rooting for. I liked Lincoln because he wasn't perfect, and because I think his struggle to know what to do with himself after university is something that most people of my generation can relate to. Beth and Jennifer's email conversations really bought the book to life, and allowed Rowell to deal with some difficult issues with a light touch. In fact, the emails were my favourite part of the book, I thought both women were very well written and the dialogue between them felt true to life.
However, I didn't enjoy Attachments as much as I did Eleanor and Park. One reason was that it was annoying how often Lincoln was described as being perfect in the looks department. There's one too many sentences about how big and dreamy he was, and it became irritating. Beth too was apparently stunning and this was a bit of a shame since Rowell had gone to so much trouble to make their personalities flawed and real. Also, I found the end of the book overly sweet. I'm as big a fan of romance as the next person, but it was just too saccharine and this killed my enjoyment of the book a little. So Attachments was a fun, light read but it would have benefited from just a little more depth.
Source: Personal copy (kindle)
First Published: 2011
Score: 3 out of 5
I really liked this one but I can agree with your feelings about Lincoln's dreamy looks! If the man is so handsome, shouldn't he be turning down women all the time?
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ReplyDeleteI loved this one, but kinda disagree about Lincoln's looks. As I remember, there are multiple people who describe him as not particularly good looking, or ordinary looking. That was part of the charm for me, that Beth finds him so attractive from the start.
Hmmm... I've never really thought about how they're both really good looking, because I'm basically just like OMG THEY ARE AWESOME! And that's that haha. I'm kind of with Sarah on this though- what if Lincoln and Beth are just averagely good looking, but like each other so much that they see them as especially hot? I like!
ReplyDelete(Basically I love Attachments and want to believe that's true haha)
Having loved Fangirl I tried to give this a try but I couldn't get passed that he was snooping in on their conversations. It's a very cute premise but it just seemed creepy to me. Maybe I'll give it another shot sometime. Nice review!
ReplyDeleteI quite enjoyed Attachments, but I haven't read anything else by Rainbow Rowell. I could never get very comfortable about the snooping aspect, though (I mean if someone did that to me it would feel really, really spooky and I'm not sure I could get over it). I don't remember how it was with Lincoln's looks exactly but it might have been that Beth just went on about how good looking he is because she thought she liked him, and since all reader learns about Lincoln's appearance was by her only, it kind of made sense, though it can still get annoying of course.
ReplyDeleteOf all Rainbow Rowell's books, Attachments seems like the one I'd enjoy the most despite it being the one I often hear reviewed of as 'okay'. I have this on my wishlist but I don't know how soon I'll get round to purchasing it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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Bits & Bobs
I couldn't deal with Attachments. I was just too bothered by the premise, and it made it impossible for me to get invested in the romance. I'm worried about her new book, Landline, actually, for this reason! I've loved all (two) of her YA novels, and disliked all (one) of her adult novels, and Landline is an adult novel! Eeek!
ReplyDeleteI loved this book more than I expected to, but mainly because this was the first Rainbow Rowell I read. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it if I read this later. But it wasn't perfect - there were some sappy stuff going on too.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this book - and recommend it all the time - despite totally agreeing with your two complaints. The looks thing was annoying. It's a flawed book but still such a fun read. Eleanor & Park and Fangirl are better, but I'll still read anything by Rowell.
ReplyDeleteAlso wanted to add that is a truly horrible cover! I would never pick up this book. The first cover was so much better.
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