Attachments

This book is for you if you: like stories set in offices, were alive in the 90's (you'll probably get the references), love romantic comedies that aren't so cliche, like Dungeons and Dragons, love the 90's, and if you feel like you can't move on.

I think this might make it onto the list of books that stay with you for a long-ish time. I might be too generous to give it 5 stars, it could be 4.5 stars, but right now I'm still a little too invested and think it deserves 5 stars. Moving on...Our main character gets to know two women, but not in the traditional sense. Lincoln works in computer security, which means part of his job is reading peoples emails that get flagged. Beth and Jennifer constantly send each other personal emails at work, and they almost always get flagged. Lincoln's job is quite boring, and he slowly starts to get attached to those emails, but more importantly to Beth. I don't think there was anything I disliked about the book, I tried to, but couldn't find anything. However, a whole lot of references completely went over my head because the book is set in 1999, so I felt like I was missing out a little. I loved that Rowell showed us the excitement about the new year, and new millennium. I loved how sarcastic some characters were about it, and how others stocked up their basements with canned food. Some expected the worst, others just wanted something different to happen, even if they didn't quite say it out loud. You could almost feel everyone's disappointment on the first of January 2000. I really enjoyed this.I loved how Jennifer's character develops throughout the book, even though she would be just a sidekick. I really liked her character, I was happy whenever she was, and really upset when she was. When Beth and Jennifer stopped sending each other emails for weeks, I was unsettled. But I was glad that they were back eventually. I think I was worried they found out Lincoln was reading their emails.Lincoln's mother and sister are represented realistically and you can't help but dislike them sometimes, and love them at other times. They always wanted the best for him, and I liked that Eve always gave him little pep talks in her own bossy-older-sister-way. I don't completely hate Sam's personality, what she did to Lincoln was mean, but it was inevitable. I thought he should have moved on earlier, 9 years seemed quite long, and naturally I was happy to see him move on throughout the book. I almost wanted him to storm off when Sam just came up to him and rambled on about her life, even though it would have been childish of him to do so. I was proud of him for not reacting dramatically about it, or calling her back. Now, onto the main plot, Lincoln and Beth's complicated and somewhat nonexistent relationship. To be honest, I thought it would be wrong for them to end up together, what with him reading her email for months. I didn't think it would go well at all to tell her that, but also it wouldn't be right if he never told her. Especially after she and Jennifer have been calling him McG/YcG (My/Your cute Guy). Towards the end, when Beth starts moving on with her life, and Lincoln quits his job, I thought that was the end of it and was slightly upset, but it was the right thing to do. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the anonymous letter he left her. He should have known that Beth could easily ask around and find out, which is okay if he actually moved away. But he stayed in the same town and running into each other was inevitable (especially in a cinema, I thought he might be going to the cinema for that very reason, but it wasn't explicitly mentioned so I don't really know). So when they do run into each other at the cinema, it was only right for him to try to escape, but I didn't expect her to go up to him. I thought it was weird, they had a lot of talking to do but they didn't do that then. I was glad that they finally spoke and got all the weird and creepy stuff out of the way. This isn't a proper review, I know. But .. meh? It's a great book, hilarious, somewhat sad, but mostly just fun. It is a quick and easy read, but not the kind of quick read that you can't ever put down. I loved the alternating chapters; Lincoln's pov, and Beth and Jennifer's emails. I didn't get terribly excited about anything, the book didn't have my heart aching with pain/happiness (most of my 5 star books fit in that category), but the story was always on my mind. The characters grew on me, even though it is a relatively short book (I think that might be what makes me want to give it 5 stars). I think I'm rambling. I have too many thoughts on this book. 4.5 stars. (5 because I'm already attached to this book).