Review and Give Away: Attachments (Rainbow Rowell)

Title: Attachments

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Genre: Adult fiction, Romance (but not the gooey kind)

Pages: 323

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Challenges: 

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher, but that hasn't colored my opinion of the book

Summary (from the inside flap of the book): Beth and Jennifer, coworkers at The Courier, know the newspaper monitors their office email. But they still spend all day sending each other messages, gossiping about their coworkers, and baring their personal lives like an open book. Jennifer tells Beth everything about her anxieties over starting a family. And Beth tells Jennifer everything, period. Meanwhile, Lincoln still can't believe that it's his job to monitor other people's email. When he applied to be an Internet security officer, he pictured himself protecting the newspaper from dangerous hackers--not sending out memos every time someone in Accounting forwarded an off-color joke to the person in the next cubicle.

Lincoln is supposed to turn people in for misusing company email, but he can't quite bring himself to crack down on Beth and Jennifer. He can't help being entertained--and captivated by their stories. By the time Lincoln realizes he's fallen for Beth, it's way too late for him to ever introduce himself. What would he say to her? "Hi, I'm the guy who reads your email, and also, I love you"?

Review: I said yes to reviewing this book on a whim. I have such a HUGE TBR pile that it overwhelms me so adding another book to the mix was crazy. But, when I read the description it sounded so fun, light, and potentially funny that I had to get it. I realize I don't read a lot of light-hearted and fun books. I am really glad that I said yes.

I liked this book from the first page, which opens up with an email between Beth and Jennifer. The chapters alternate (one of my favorite styles) between the emails between the two women and Lincoln's life. This works really well since the story progresses with each chapter, but the reader gets varying perspectives.

The emails are really well done, they read like chat sessions between two very good girl friends. They are witty, poignant, interesting, and realistic. Lincoln's chapters are also really good. He is one of the good guys, though not boringly perfect. He is kind, good looking, smart, and has no direction in life. He keeps going back to school/college in order to avoid moving on.

I liked all the characters, main and secondary, in this story. I cared about them, looked forward to what was going to happen next, and loved that the ending was what I wanted it to be, even if it's what you will assume will happen. I liked the way it happened, which wasn't what I expected.

Geography Connection:

Click to see my updated Google Map. This book takes place in Nebraska. Have you ever been to Nebraska? I have, but only one time. One of my best friends from high school days lives there and I went to her wedding years and years ago. Nebraska is flat. And they have no ocean. But, it was really pretty. I've never read a book set in Nebraska before so I don't have any to suggest....