Book Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

You know those books that hook you right from the beginning and pull you through the whole story, page by page as you eagerly await to see how the author will wrap up the book? By the time you get to the end, you’re so invested that anything but the perfect ending will leave you satisfied. And as you close the book, there’s an ounce of disappointment that the book didn’t conclude with the same level of perfection that the rest of the book called for.

Rainbow Rowell doesn’t write those kind of books.

Attachments is the second Rainbow Rowell book that I read in January. As the calendar flipped over, I picked up Landline because Goodreads named it as the best Fiction book of 2014. As I was halfway through the book, Greta chose Attachments as Moms Reading‘s first book club choice of 2015 (discussion date Wednesday, February 25th). I don’t usually read multiple books by the same author so close together, but Rainbow Rowell’s books are certainly popular, so I was happy to oblige for my online book club.

With the caveat that I have only read these two Rainbow Rowell books, I have come to notice a distinct story style that this author uses to write her books. She comes up with one interesting but simple premise for her books: “What if one guy got to know a girl by secretly reading every email she sends?” (Attachments) or “What if someone discovers she has a phone line to the past?” (Landline). The author then fleshes these What If statements out to create setting and characters and then these characters spend the majority of each novel living out these What If questions. Apart from these very unique story focuses, the reader watches characters live out their relatively monotonous daily lives, until the very end of the novel. And then, BAM! Rainbow Rowell wraps up the story so perfectly, you become glad you slogged through the chapters upon chapters of those repeating What If questions in story-form.

Does this make for a good read? I suppose so. Ms. Rowell’s books are popular and enjoyable. I felt satisfied both times I finished the books, though by the time I read Attachments, I was pretty convinced that the pattern I had read in Landline was repeating so I was expecting a happy ending. It left me less than shocked when things wrapped up as they did. I think with this in mind, I would have rated Attachments higher had I not read it so soon after finishing Landline. Still, it is definitely fair to say that I liked the book and would not hesitate to pick up another book by this author in the future (I’ve heard Eleanor & Park is amazing!).

Have you read Attachments? What did you think? Join us on February 25th to discuss this book with our online book club. If you haven’t read it yet, there’s still time! Pick it up today!

Moms Reading (or, #MomsReading) is a book club designed for busy Moms in mind. It is an online book club that meets once a month on Facebook to discuss that month’s book. Check out the MomsReading page, Like us on Facebook, or join the Goodreads group to keep up to date with our book choices and the book chats.

February’s book club meets Wednesday night, February 25th when we’ll be discussing Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. Tune in and join the discussion at 9pm Eastern on Facebook. If you can’t join us in February, then start reading our March book! We will be reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. The discussion will take place on Wednesday, March 25th at 9pm Eastern.

*all links are affiliate links. Need to get something from Amazon? Consider getting it through that link so that I can afford to do book giveaways and the like.