NetGalley Review: Attached at the Hip by Christine Riccio
Hey all, Sam here.
Blogging catch up continues. I have so many books that I’ve read this year (I’m at almost 70 books already) and I still need to review them. I can only blame myself for not getting the posts drafted and scheduled in a timely manner. Anyway, I’m trying to get myself focused so I can actually get more reviews up.
Honestly, for me, that means pulling out my spare keyboard and connecting it to my laptop. I bought this fun USB keyboard that makes delightful “click clack” noises when I type, and I don’t know y’all, but I just really enjoy listening to the melody of the keys when I type. It just hits my brain in a happy way. So if pulling out the extra keyboard is what will get me back to blogging more regularly, I suppose I’ll do that.
Let’s go ahead and jump into today’s review, featuring a recent book release, so you can definitely go grab your own copy if interested.
My Thoughts
Survivor meets The Bachelor in Attached at the Hip, an irresistible, romantic adventure by New York Times bestselling author Christine Riccio.
Orie Lennox has spent her entire life prepping for her happily ever after — and now that she’s graduated, she’s low-key wondering, when the heck is it gonna hit. Her love life, her new job, her relationship with her sister: none of it is quite what she envisioned it to be.
One evening, on a whim, she applies for a reality show where she’ll be stranded on an island, with a bunch of strangers, to play a game of human chess for a shot at a million dollars. What better way to force herself to break up with the things that aren’t bringing her joy, than to abandon them all on short notice to live off the grid on a beach in the South Pacific!
Orie’s shocked when she ends up cast in an experimental romantic edition of the show: and even more surprised to find that her old high school crush, Remy, has been cast as well. Orie’s one of ten contestants, set to compete in formidable challenges, while speed dating, in the wilderness: without deodorant, toilets, shaving cream, or showers. (How!?)
She finds herself tied up — literally — in a game of risky alliances as she navigates ever-growing feelings for her one that got away, alongside an exciting array of budding new relationships.
Rating: 4 stars
This is probably my favorite of Christine Riccio’s books, followed by her first book Again, But Better. I was drawn into the characters and the relationship dynamics and the story concept so quickly, and I just wanted to keep reading….which is why I have read my e-galley of this MONTHS before it is to be released. There were plenty of other galleys I should have prioritized, but the concept of Attached at the Hip just intrigued me so I couldn’t resist it as soon as I realized I had been approved for it on NetGalley.
Okay, so that was what I wrote as my brief thoughts on Goodreads when I finished reading this book at the end of January…yes, I read my e-galley of this book roughly four months before it was to be released.
And I want to say, in the moments after closing the file and opening up Goodreads to update my reading status, I definitely felt like this book was a 5 star read. So I want to explain why I only have it as a 4 star read now. I also want to state that this is just my personal thoughts on it, and I don’t expect this to apply to everyone else who reads it.
There is a scene where Orie is talking to a fellow contestant named Kennedi and talking about relationships and romance and desire, and Kennedi brings up Asexuality. Orie basically agrees that it’s something to consider and then….that’s it. Of course, we the reader can look back to the beginning of the book when Orie was still dating Wes and talking in the narration about how she wasn’t really attracted to him, and they were just together because it was expected or whatever. And I just….I was excited about the possibility of Orie looking more into Asexuality, perhaps after the show’s filming wrapped and she went home. But that didn’t happen. I don’t think it was intentional to be so queer-bait-like in this story, but that’s how it felt to me. And that is especially disappointing for me as an Ace person, because there is not a whole lot of Ace rep out there, not yet anyway, and it would have been great to have that representation gaining a bigger foothold for Young Adult/New Adult/Adult readers.
Aside from that, I honestly enjoyed the fun, chaotic, drama filled romantic-“Survivor” spin-off. There was the challenges and alliances and backstabbing that a fan of “Survivor” would expect from this kind of story.
While I have seen a number of other reviewers criticizing Orie’s decision/attempt to use the name Piccadilly on the show “in order to be more unique” when Orie is already a perfectly unique name, I understand that part of the reason Orie decides to do the show is because she’s trying to prove that she can do things without her sister or her family or her boyfriend…..and most know her online as Orie because of her social media work with her sister…so the attempt to be known as Piccadilly instead on the show is supposed to show that she’s trying to do it without the influence of being Orie. Or, at least, that’s how I view it.
I do think that certain sections of the story could have been drawn out a little more. It felt like the set-up took way longer to get through than the actual “Attached at the Hip” show filming portion.
But I read this very quickly, and it held my interest. I suppose I should say that I did miss some of the cameos of previous Christine Riccio character’s (like I noticed Shane’s cameo, but totally missed out on most of the characters from Better Together because I didn’t enjoy that book as much.
Anyway…it was an overall enjoyable story…and part of me hopes that Christine Riccio will address the Ace queerbaiting from her story, I doubt it will happen.
Perhaps this is just more reason for me to focus on getting my own Ace novels finished. I can’t say that my representation of the Ace community will be accurate for all on the Ace spectrum, but it will at least be accurate for my lived experience.
Well, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
