Book Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Orion, February 2012
It’s 1999 and for the staff of one newspaper office, the internet is still a novelty. By day, two young women, Beth and Jennifer, spend their hours emailing each other, discussing in hilarious detail every aspect of their lives, from love troubles to family dramas. And by night, Lincoln, a shy, lonely IT guy spends his hours reading every exchange.
At first their emails offer a welcome diversion, but as Lincoln unwittingly becomes drawn into their lives, the more he reads, the more he finds himself falling for one of them. By the time Lincoln realizes just how head-over-heels he really is, it’s way too late to introduce himself. What would he say to her? ‘Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mails – and also, I think I love you’.
After a series of close encounters, Lincoln decides it’s time to muster the courage to follow his heart, and find out whether there really is such a thing as love before first-sight.
Attachments was a book I had been looking forward to reading. I had heard great things about it. It was my introduction to Rainbow Rowell.
Lincoln works nights at a newspaper. He spends his shifts monitoring the e-mails of his colleagues in a time where e-mail was still pretty new to offices. The e-mail exchanges between two of his colleagues catches his eye and soon he feels as though he knows Beth and Jennifer. He even starts to fall in love with one of them.
by 
Book Haul: September (So Far…)
I do love buying books. I love it even more when friends give me books and that is what one friend did recently (I was a very happy girl.) I like the look of all these novels and I wanted to share these books with you.
The Last Honeytrap by Louise Lee (Headline, 4th June 2015)
The first one is The Last Honeytrap by Louise Lee. I really love the look of this book. This looks great – a good, old-fashioned romantic comedy and I am really looking forward to reading this.
Scot ‘Scat’ Delaney is a world famous jazz singer. He has ample opportunity to stray and his girlfriend, Alice, needs to know she can trust him. Introducing Florence Love, Private Investigator. Florence has just ten days to entrap an A-Lister. Whilst sticking to her cardinal rule: One kiss, with tongues, five seconds – case closed. A master of body language, evolutionary science and nifty disguises, her approach is unconventional, her success rate excellent. But targets are rarely as beautiful as Scat. Never fall for the target. That is very bad form indeed.
View at The Book Depository.
I Followed The Rules by Joanna Bolouri (Quercus, July 2015.)
The book cover for this one is so lovely. The plot for this book looks great and it sounds as though it will be a great read. I am looking forward to reading this.
Rule 1: Never ask him on a first date. Rule 2: Laugh admiringly at all his jokes. Rule 3: Always leave him wanting more.
. . . wtf?!
Have you heard of The Rules of Engagement? It’s a book that promises to teach you to find the man of your dreams in ten easy steps. Unsurprisingly, I don’t own a copy. What is it, 1892? But I’m a journalist, and I’ve promised to follow it to the letter and write about the results. Never-mind that my friends think I’m insane, I’m stalking men all over town and can’t keep my mouth shut at the best of times.
My name is Cat Buchanan. I’m thirty-six years old and live with my daughter in Glasgow. I’ve been single for six years, but that’s about to change. After all, I’m on a deadline. I Followed the Rules and this is what happened.
View at The Book Depository.
by Quick Spotlight: Shiraz Notebook from Paperblanks
Drawing inspiration from one of the most glittering periods in artistic history, The Shiraz collection from Paperblanks is a glimpse into the elegance of the 16th century Ottoman Empire.
The original cover artwork from which this dish hails was commissioned by one of the Princes of Shiraz, decorated with rows of golden lockets and overlaid with filigree. This royal Persian design provides the ideal place to house your history.
If you’ve been visiting my blog for a while then you will know my obsession with notebooks. I am a writer, I need notebooks. You never know when you’re going to need one…. right?
I’ve been sent this lovely Shiraz notebook from Paperblanks and this made me very excited. I’ve always been a fan of these notebooks. The particular one I’ve been sent is A6 in size and is lined.
The cover is stunning and what I love about these notebooks in particular is that the covers are also very good quality. I also like the fact that there is also a black elastic band to hold the book together which means it’s not got damaged whilst I’ve been using it. I tend to carry the kitchen sink around with me and so notebooks can get damaged in my bag.
by Blog Tour: Sewing The Shadows Together by Alison Baillie
I am very happy to be welcoming Alison Bailee to Novel Kicks today and her blog tour for her debut novel, Sewing The Shadows Together. Thank you so much for joining me, Alison. Can you tell us a little about your writing day?
I don’t write as regularly as I should. I tend to write in bursts – and at the moment I’m not really writing because I’m concentrating on getting Sewing the Shadows Together launched.
Do you have any rituals when writing?
Not really – I’ve got more rituals about avoiding writing. I’m really bad about getting started – I have to sharpen numerous metaphorical pencils and get myself into the right writing mood before I can begin. But once I’ve started I get so immersed in my other world that I lose contact with the real world and can’t stop..
Your book is called Sewing the Shadows Together. Can you tell us a little about it and how the idea originated?
Tom and Sarah have both been scarred by the murder of Shona more than thirty years ago. They meet up again and their lives are thrown into turmoil when the supposed killer is proved innocent. The people around them fall under suspicion, and they uncover dark family secrets before the truth finally comes to light. The idea has been in my head for more than thirty years, since I was teaching in Edinburgh secondary schools. There were several high-profile murders at that time, and even after the cases were closed I couldn’t stop thinking about the people left behind. How do you ever get over something like that?
What’s your writing process like – do you plan much and edit as you go?
My novel was in my mind for a long time so I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen before I started – even though I hadn’t written anything down. However, the story did take on a life of its own as I wrote and then I always went back and rewrote the earlier chapters if anything was changed.
by My Favourite Books: Three Books I Couldn’t Be Without….
One of the questions I ask many of the authors I interview is ‘if you were only allowed to own three books, which three would you pick?’ I know, it’s a wicked question but it always yields such an interesting answer. Of all the times I have asked this question, I have never had the same selection of books (very rarely do people pick the same books at all.)
It got me thinking which three I would pick. It is so hard to decide on just three and in the end, I just picked three from my list that really meant something specific to me. (although it would have been easy for me to just say all the Harry Potter novels as I love them.)
Which three would you pick?
Ralph’s Party by Lisa Jewell (Penguin, May 1999.)
Meet the residents of 31 Almanac Road …
Ralph and Smith are flatmates and best mates – until, that is, the gorgeous Jemima moves in. And suddenly they’re bickering about a lot more than who drank the last beer. Of course, Jem knows that one of them is the man for her – but is it Ralph or Smith?
Upstairs, Karl and Siobhan have been happily unmarried for fifteen years – until, that is, Cheri moves into the flat above theirs. Cheri’s got her eye on Karl and doesn’t see why she should let a little thing like his girlfriend stand in her way …
Sooner or later its all got to come to a head – and what better place for tears and laughter, break ups and make ups than Ralph’s party?
The first one I thought of when thinking about this question was Ralph’s Party. A friend recommended this novel to me. This was the first of Lisa’s novels I read and it was the beginning of a life long love of her novels. I adore this book. It focuses on the five people living at 31 Almanac Road but the main story is about Ralph and Jem and their blossoming love story. These two characters were perfect in my opinion.
by Book Club
