Lately, my coworkers and I have been on a Rainbow Rowell
kick. Mainly they hand me books and I read them. Well Attachments
by Rainbow Rowell was a charming modern quirky romance. It’s the kind of
book that is a perfect chick flick romance. You can picture the characters in
your mind’s eye, and they kind of seem like your best friends that you've never
actually met.
Lincoln is a 28 year old IT guy at a newspaper. Actually,
his main job description is email security. He’s the guy who has to monitor
company emails when certain words or phrases are detected. Think of him as big
brother. Lincoln hates that he’s an email rat, spying on his coworkers, but it
pays the bills. One night while he’s working, he runs across an email chain
between Beth and Jennifer and everything changes. Instead of sending them a
warning email, he continues reading their flagged emails. Beth and Jennifer are
hilarious and help Lincoln feel a connection. Soon, however, he wants not just
to spy on them, but to know them. One of them in particular.
I enjoyed this book. I felt for the characters, wanted them
to meet and laughed at their exchanges. Lincoln, Beth, and Jennifer are all
wondering about the next step in their lives. They’re all in their late 20s,
college educated, missing something, and unsure of what to do next. Now maybe
this is a theme that resonates with all age groups, but as a twenty something
this story held water with me. After college, we all think life will be sweet, we’ll
roll in the dough, our significant other will show up and marry us, and all
those amazing plans we have will actually happen. Then things don’t go as
planned or our plans aren't what we imagined. It feels like you have no idea
what you’re doing. This is where Lincoln's life has ended up. Jennifer and Beth are
questioning their lives and plans too. These characters are imperfect and
lovely.
An interesting aspect of the book is the relationship
Lincoln forms with Jennifer and Beth before ever meeting them. Isn't this the
same relationship we form with characters in books? The major difference being
that characters in books don’t actually exist whereas, Lincoln’s email delinquents
do in his world. Just like Lincoln, we fall in love with overheard
conversations, we want to meet and be a part of the lives of our favorite
characters and yet there’s a barrier between our world and theirs.
I enjoyed the anticipation in this book. The audience waits
for Lincoln to meet Beth and Jennifer. We look forward to him figuring out his
social life, career choices, and living situation. It was an easy read. I
looked forward to curling up with it and wishing that I had a guy as adorable
as Lincoln to stalk my emails.
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