I’ve realized that I’m an odd sort of Rainbow Rowell fan. I liked Eleanor and Park ok-enough. I think I liked the idea of it more than the execution of it. I embraced the nostalgia of the time and of first love but it’s not really a book that I’ll revisit…nor do I ever recommend it to my friends (that’s telling to me). I know that this is blasphemy in these parts and I apologize. But I liked Eleanor and Park enough to read Landline…and you know what? I LOVED Landline (which I think is also blasphemy around here, but y’all are too nice to tell me that I suck…I like that about you!). So I was like,”Hey, Attachments is on BookBub for $1.99, you should give it a shot” and I agreed with myself and I purchased it. And I’m kind of back in the E and P state of mind. I liked it, I really did! I read it with lightning speed because I was into it…and then after I finished it, I was less excited or even sad (which is what usually happens when I end a book I really dig).
The story of Attachments has been told numerous times on this site, I’m sure I’ll add nothing new but I’ll give it a shot! Lincoln is in a holding pattern. Still wounded from his first girlfriend, he has returned to his mother’s house after several forays into the college world (successful forays), and has gotten a night job doing basically nothing. He reads emails that get flagged by the computer filters and then he has pretty much nothing else to do with his nights. As he reads the emails he finds himself not writing up the two girls who are constant offenders but instead falling in love with one of them based on her witty interaction with her best friend. He feels like he knows them and has a connection to them. So when he realizes that he’s “cute guy” in Beth’s emails, he doesn’t know how to make the romance happen, or if he even can since he’s basically been spying on Beth and Jennifer. You should read the book to find out what happens between Beth and Lincoln because I don’t want to give anything away.
The book was cute and I really liked the idea of it. It was inventive and I loved the way the relationship between Jennifer and Beth is developed over the emails that both the reader and Lincoln read without them knowing. The more I talk about it (write about it), the more I actually think I liked it (this is a thing that is literally happening right now…so yeah). Like Eleanor and Park though, I think it ended more abruptly than I expected. I’m looking forward to Fan Girl and Carry On because I think I will most definitely love them. I clearly don’t convey that I love RR as an author, I know that I do because I space out my reading of her work so that there will always be a little something waiting for me when I need it. If you’re looking for a book with a strong female friendship and a guy who’s working on figuring out what he needs to be happy, this book won’t disappoint you.