Attachments | Book Review

Attachments

Written by: Rainbow Rowell

Number of pages: 323

Average Rating: 3.95/5 stars

My Rating: 3/5 stars

Published April 2011

Read in August 2017

Summary According to Goodreads

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work email. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neil can't believe this is his job now - reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers - not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained and captivated by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself. What would he say...?

My Thoughts

I had been holding onto this novel for so long, but I don't read a lot of adult romance so I was a bit hesitant. To my surprise this wasn't as romantic, and instead was very simple and contemporary. It was very relatable, as are majority of her novels, but I found this one to be overly predictable. Within the first 20 pages I knew how this story was going to play out.

The characters were real but they weren't completely flushed out. I can understand how difficult it is to build well-rounded characters that you only read about through emails, but I felt like their lives blurred together and I struggled to understand their relationship. The two main women (Beth and Jennifer) didn't suck me into their lives, and they didn't seem like girls I'd want to go have a drink with. It was just a constant circle of drama or "woah is me" between their emails. There wasn't any significant growth between these women, instead the novel was focusing on Lincoln and his development - and I was NOT a fan of his. Yes his job was to read emails, but he took it too far and if I was Beth I'd be beyond freaked out.

Of the other two Rainbow Rowell novels I've read, this one had the slowest plot. It was a very quick read, which I appreciated it, but the story wasn't a gripping one. About 20% through I was considering giving it up, but next I knew I was almost halfway through. I never connected to any characters and it overall didn't blow my mind.

Did I laugh out loud a couple of times? Yes. I read it within two days, and I did end up recommending it to my mother to read. I have a feeling this novel is just a bit older than I am, and that hindered my experience. I have now read three books by this author: one I've loved, one I hated, and one I was "meh" about. I haven't decided if I'll give her another chance, but Landline likely won't be the next one. I'll wait to see what she has coming up.