Lincoln O’Neill gets paid to be a stalker. Ok, not really. Lincoln is an internet security officer, which means he gets paid to monitor emails, flagging those that violate company policy at the newspaper where he works.
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder, an entertainment reporter and a copy editor, frequently violate the policy. As a result, their emails often are flagged for Lincoln to read.
The women know someone is monitoring their work email but, since they never hear about violating the policy, they don’t take it too seriously. Instead, they detail their personal lives in a series of witty email exchanges, all of which Lincoln reads.
Lincoln becomes entangled in their stories, even meeting some of the characters involved. Before he knows it, he has developed a crush on Beth. But how do you go from learning intimate details of someone’s life by spending months reading her email to introducing yourself to her? Lincoln has no idea.
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell is one of the best books I read this year. It’s interesting that I loved Attachments because I tried to read Rowell’s highly recommended book, Eleanor & Park, and I hated it.
I admit that the newsroom setting in Attachments may have biased my love for the book, but I also found the storyline fast-paced and fun. In the end, the setting was just a bonus for a journalism nerd like myself.
