Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Rowena’s review of Attachments by Rainbow Rowell.

“Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . “

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (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’Neill 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 . . .?

Ames recommended this book to me a while ago.  I’m talking, years ago. And I’ve been meaning to read it but never got around to it until now.

Holy goodness this was a cute read.  Lincoln is an average 28 year old male who got his heart broken in college, transferred to another college, graduated, moved home and is pretty content with his life.  He doesn’t mind living with his Mom but the one thing that he’s pretty bummed about is the new job that he has.  He was under the impression that his job as Internet Security Officer was going to be doing more than just reading people’s emails.  While going through the flagged folder in his Websense folder, he comes across two friends/co-workers email thread.

Beth and Jennifer.

Seeing Lincoln make that transformation to the man he was in the end made this such a satisfying read.  In the beginning, Lincoln is a nerd and he’s in a funk.  But over the course of the book, you see him come alive and you see him fumble his way to living a life that was for him and that made him happy.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  There were times when I wanted to smack Lincoln upside his head but for the most part, I thought he was adorable.

I really enjoyed getting to know both Beth and Jennifer through their emails.  The friendship those two shared was pretty great.  Theirs was a strong friendship that was built on respect and care.  I was right there with Lincoln, all up in their emails and rejoicing when they were happy and gutted when they despaired.

Rainbow Rowell does a great job of sucking the reader in to the books that she writes and this book was no exception.  I was wrapped up in Lincoln’s world, rooting him on to that happy ending that he was searching for.  The book is a little long but don’t let that scare you into reading this book.  It’s good, I promise so read it! =)

Grade: 4.75 out of 5

This book is available from Penguin. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.

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