It's very rare that I finish a book in one sitting due to so many commitments and distractions throughout the day, but I managed to finish Attachments in one, cloudy, wintry day. When I finished it I had a big smile on my face and if you're in the mood for an incredibly sweet and quirky romance then this book is for you. With her hilarious and heartfelt characters, Rowell has managed to give the banal office romance her own unique spin.

Description: 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 . . . ?

Review: Attachments takes place before social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter dominated our lives and the uncertainty of an event called Y2K was starting to cause hysteria. Beth and Jennifer are news journalists and best friends who share news and trials of their lives in email exchanges at work. Beth wonders if her marriage-phobic, musician boyfriend, Chris will ever settle down and pop the question while Jennifer is terrified of the prospect of being a mother for the first time with her baby-mania-stricken husband, Mitch. What Beth and Jennifer don't know is that the newly hired Internet security officer, Lincoln, is charge of
filtering emails and watching for things like pornography and language that goes against the news company's Internet user policy, is reading their messages and unknowingly begins to fall in love with Beth.
  I loved how this novel was structured. Beth and Jennifer's communications are written out as emails, but they read as if they were sitting across from each other in a cafe. Through written communications their unique personalities and vulnerabilities shine through and make them come alive. I felt as if I knew Beth and Jennifer personally and could picture them in my head without really needing Rowell to tell me what they looked like. Interspersed with the emails are Lincoln's slices of life, but eventually both of these separate worlds meet.
 Like Beth and Jennifer, I completely adored Lincoln. Lincoln is an incredibly smart and sweet guy who is also very shy and lost. Still recovering from his first serious relationship that has bruised his ego and self confidence, Lincoln is in need of guidance. Though feeling incredibly awkward about reading people's emails at work, he reads Beth and Jennifer's emails because they make him laugh but they also make him think and reflect. From Beth's replies he connects to her own questions of self worth and self doubt. Lincoln actually transforms to a shy, awkward guy to being confident, alive, and happy by using Beth realizations and implementing them in his own life. Ordinarily in books, it's usually the female character that goes through this transformation but it was really refreshing to have a guy to have these epiphanies and watch his journey of self discovery.
   The romance in Attachments is slow burn as the characters get to know each other through written words before they actually meet. For the longest time, you don't really know what Beth, Jennifer, or even Lincoln look like but that's the beauty of this book. There are many missed opportunities where Lincoln and Beth are in the same room, but they don't know it until the moment has passed. The anticipation of these two finally meeting had me giddy and impatient. Some readers felt the book's resolution of the book's ending to be rushed but I didn't feel like that at all. Of course I would have loved more scenes of Lincoln and Beth actually together and know who they are together, but I loved the open, hopeful and happy ending. I would absolutely recommend Attachments if you are looking for a contemporary romance read that has depth, heart, and extremely likable characters. Rowell has become one of my auto-read authors and I can't wait to read more from her.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Words of Caution: There is some strong language and sexual situations implied but never discussed in detail. Recommended for teens and up.

If you like this book try: Quite a year for plums by Bailey White, The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, Adverbs by Daniel Handler