ISBN-13: 9780452297548
Publication Date: March 2012
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Paperback, 336 pgs
Source: Personal Library
Do you believe in love at first sight? Maybe. But do you believe in love before that? To be precise, do you believe in liking a person before you have even met him/her? It might sound silly but it happened to Lincoln O'Neill in Attachments.
Lincoln works in the IT department and his duty is to monitor the staff's emails and to issue warnings or report to his superior should he finds the staff infringe the company's rules. Their IT department had installed a new program called WebFence on to the network and it would monitor what everyone is doing on the Internet and the Intranet. Lincoln monitors WebFence and anyone's emails which consist of nasty or offensive words would be flagged, even simple words like "secret" or "classified" since they print newspapers.
During one of Lincoln's random checks, he read a correspondence between Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder. They didn't write any offensive words, but they do chat using the office emails and at this point Lincoln should issue them a warning, but he didn't. He becomes engaged in their conversations as the days go; the two women could talk about everything from relationships to pregnancy, and any other stuff. Lincoln should feel embarrassed, but he has stepped in too deep and couldn't get out. He finds himself liking Beth the more he reads her emails to Jennifer. He may not have seen her face, but he somewhat feels he has known her through the email exchanges.
The thing is, Lincoln is not good at meeting new people. He is shy, but most of all he was dumped by a girl back in college and he isn't sure if he could like a girl so much, again. But things are always unpredictable as powerless within our control, as Lincoln would find the real meaning of love, even if it means loving a person out of sequence, i.e. falling in love with Beth before meeting her in person.
Attachments is such a wonderful read that I find myself being 'attached' to the characters, just like Lincoln couldn't stop reading Beth's emails. This story is full of charm and humor, yet it is also sweet and tender at the same time as I watched the relationship between Lincoln and Beth grows and blossoms. The setting also made me reminisce the time when we encountered the Y2K issue and how this affected us (or sent us in a panicky state) who has a computer.
A refreshing and an original plot, Rainbow Rowell's debut novel has made me believe in love before first sight, even though I'm a bit skeptical in love at first sight. Needless to say, this author has made it on to my to-buy list (You must read Eleanor & Park! And Fangirl would be next on to my to-read list).
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Fangirl is next on my RR list to read too. I loved this book and LOVED Eleanor and Park.
This does sound good! I haven't read any of the author's books, but I know they are quite popular right now.