Oscar-nominated screenwriter and novelist, Jeff Arch’s debut novel is a feast for the mind’s eye. Set in a 1970’s Pennsylvania boarding school, the story centers on the entanglement of Laura, an unhappy, grieving parent, her husband “Pick,” the son of a mob boss, and their mutual friend “Goody,” who seems to have vanished after high school. One person, the compassionate and all-knowing school master knows everybody’s secrets. But he’s not talking. They are grown kids finding their way through challenges that all link back to the time when they got know one another. And it’s shatteringly beautiful.

It took me some time to get to this review and I’m surprised when I hear others read this astonishing book in just 24 hours. Maybe I’m a slow reader but I like to think it was more because I took my time with a story that I didn’t want to end. It sticks to you. I felt like I was cheating or neglecting these characters each time I put the book down because I wanted to be with them and life kept getting in the way. And I wished it was winter, because curling up in front of a fireplace and savoring this book every day for a week felt like a long overdue voyeuristic vacation. Like finally finding out what your old friends were up to…and learning the truth.

Jeff Arch is a masterful visual writer. His work entertains the imagination while dancing with serious underlying themes. Attachments is one part mystery, one part love story, and a window into an entire generation of secret-keepers. The eclectic way the characters take over and offer perspective and backstory is masterful. The rhythmic inner voices are captured on the page. It’s a distinct writing style, and it works. Beautifully. It propels us deeper into the initial core wounds of each character and the stinging realizations of adulthood.

Such care is given in developing these compelling characters that even a fleeting influence in their lives, like a hilariously accurate menopausal Spanish teacher as viewed from a teenage boy’s perspective manages to impart life-altering truth around a romantic debacle. It’s a scene that left me thinking of a dozen actresses who’d love to play that part when this book becomes a film. Which it should.

Attachments is a book to be savored. It earns its place in your heart. But don’t wait for winter to read it. Pack it in your beach bag. And remember, don’t rush it. You don’t need to skim Arch’s writing to get to the good parts – they are all good parts.

Thought-provoking and complicated. I am a PA resident so I always appreciate books written in my area. The characters were rich and complicated, which is something that is always appreciated.

Genre: Family Drama
Publisher: SparkPress
Pub. Date: May 11, 2021

The author is most known for the screenplay "Sleepless in Seattle." His debut novel is not a romantic comedy but also looks closely into love relationships. Two male students are in love with the same girl. One marries her, and the other leaves the country and becomes a monk. A bit over the top to buy. When their Pennsylvania boarding school's headmaster has a stroke and is on the verge of passing away, these three students, now middle-aged adults, return because he called for them before losing consciousness. The mystery of the tale is why he asked them to return to the school. Arch does a good job of getting into his characters’ heads. However, I found this to be a melodramatic read with a relatively easy-to-guess twist.

This is a story of adults going back to their boarding school in Pennsylvania when the headmaster has a stroke and is dying. Told in alternating points of view and time frames, Attachments is the story of best friends Stewart (“Goody”) Goodman, Sandy (“Pick”) Piccolo, and Laura Appleby, the girl they both love. The friends meet in 1972 at a boarding school in coal-country Pennsylvania where they encounter Henry Griffin, the school dean, whose genuine fatherly interest and deep human bond with them is so strong that when he has a severe stroke almost twenty years later, he uses what could be his last words ever to call out their names. The story has a few surprises and twists. I liked the characters and their families. A good read. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A triangle of young love, tangled emotions, an unplanned pregnancy. Here are the driving forces that are revealed in the last days of a respected, dearly loved teacher. Three friends caught up in a moment of youthful surrender and the lifelong reprocussions gather at the request of Henry Griffin. Their mentor, teacher, guiding hand and at one point savior. His last wish brings them back to face that moment in time when Laura,pregnant makes a deal with the devil and lives to regret it until the truth spills out and the consequences carry the day.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! It was a delightful and poignant exploration of what it is to be a human, a friend, a parent and a teenager. Arch displays a deft hand in his creation and rendering of characters and the way the novel moves backward and forward in time lets the story unfurl in a tantalizing way. With the characters of Pick and Laura he also presents an amazing (and accurate) portrayal of married love after the glow is gone and nothing is left but the mundane. Just an excellent read. Definitely buying copies to give as holiday gifts!

This book is a slow burn, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The plot flows well and the characters are well crafted, with their motivations being clear and their feelings explored well.

Good story here. I would definitely read more from this author. Unique story line, good characters.

Thank you Net Galley for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

A shout out to #NetGalley, #SparkPress, and author #JeffArch for the ARC of #Attachments.

Have you ever read one of those books that's so good and thought provoking you just have to stop and take it all in? This book was exactly that for me.

The characters are unique and complicated. They all are friends, but there are just so many secrets. Griffin is the dean at the boarding school where him and his family live. He's been there for quiet some time and has seen many students pass through his halls. There are a few of those students who have been his favorites throughout the years. Two of them are very special and when he suddenly becomes very ill he asks for them.

The things that happen before you graduate high-school should be things that are easily forgiven and shouldn't keep two all around good guys from being friends, right? Not exactly because not all mistakes we make before graduation are "children's" mistakes. What happened? What come between these two very different men who became best friends? You guessed it. It's a story old as time, a girl.

What you can't know is all all the other things that came into the decision making and other things that happened back then. However, if Griffin needed them there then hopefully they will both return to the town and school that raised them before it's too late.

At first I was unsure of how much I would like this book, but I hung in there and before long these characters became old friends. I rooted for them, yelled at them, (at least in my mind,) and even wanted to slap them a couple of times. I will remember this book for a long time. It's one of the few fiction books I've read where when I finished I felt like I understood people just a little better.

As always all these words and thoughts are mine and mine alone. If you want to grab a copy of this book you will be able to do so at your favorite retailer on May 11,2021.

This book may be set at a boarding school, but it's really about love in all it's stages, from teenage lust, to marriage, to the strains and joys of having children, all the way to the loss of a spouse. It really encompasses so much. I haven't had a book make me ugly cry in a long time. But this book was so moving, that I cried several times. While there were many heartbreaking moments, overall this was a well written novel that I will remember for a long time.

What I Liked:

Structure:

The story begins with the dean of the boarding school having a stroke and going into a coma. Before he loses consciousness, he says the names of two former, unforgettable students. Everyone is confused, but the dean's wife knows her husband wants to see these two former students who were best friends.

The book moves back and forth between the present, and the past. We learn how the two young men became friends, their love for the same girl, and how it tears their friendship apart.

In the present, the dean's teenage son, Chip, grapples with his breakup with his first girlfriend. He is devastated, unable to understand what went wrong. With his dad in a coma, he (understandably) wonders why his dad said the names of some former students, and not Chip, or his wife. Chip tries to unravel the mystery of why the names are important.

Characters:

Pick, Goody, and Laura are such wonderful characters. As Pick tries to deal with his dad seemingly dumping him at a boarding school, he is paired as a roommate with Goody. Pick is angry, embarrassed by his crime-boss father, and still mourning the death of his mother. Goody (what a descriptive name!), is super chill, but also filled with an awareness of social justice issues. He is the type of student who will organize a student strike to protest the firing of a teacher. And he will be able to get everyone's support, due to his popularity. Goody's girlfriend, Laura, adores Goody, but feels an instant connection to Pick that she can't deny. Ah, teenage love!

I also really liked the dean's wife, Mary, and Pick's mobster father, Carmine. Mary is such a rock during her husband's crisis. This can't be easy for Mary, as she knows the reason her husband wants Pick, Goody, and Laura to come together, one last time. But she realizes the time has come for some secrets to be revealed. She also reaches out to Carmine, Pick's dad. He is a very complicated character with hidden depths to him I didn't see coming. What seems like a caricature of an Italian crime boss, isn't. Carmine has regrets, loss,and acutely loves his son. It's heartbreaking because Pick can't understand his dad at all.

Themes:

The story and characters really go through all the stages of love. Pick, Goody, and Laura (and later Chip) experience the sting of teenage lust and love. Later in life, Laura and Pick get married (not a spoiler), and must learn to live with the specter of Goody in the background. Anytime things get tough, both Pick and Laura wonder if Laura should have chosen to be with Goody. It puts a strain on their marriage. Mary and Henry (the dean) demonstrate how love mellows and grows as we get older. As Mary prepares to say goodbye to Henry, she looks back on their marriage and the choices they made. It's wasn't all roses and champagne in their relationship. Mary had to make some compromises to be with Henry. But she comes to a place of peace with her choices.

Story:

The story was familiar, but also went in directions I wasn't expecting. Once you know about how attracted Pick is to Laura, you know there will come a time when the teens will act on it. But so much more happens in the story that will affect their entire lives. Even though he is mostly in the background of the story, Goody's journey is fascinating, and heartbreaking. I think I cried over him most of all.

𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞. 𝐒𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰, 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭. 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬.

Everything ends, but endings can also be the beginning for new stories or a catalyst for unfinished ones. When the Dean of a boarding school in Pennsylvania is clinging to life, he says two names, those of his former students- Piccolo (Sandy “Pick” Piccolo), and Goodman (Stewart “Goody” Goodman). To his perplexed son Chip, the association between his father and these men, one a local and the other a mystery, is lost on him. He wonders, how two men who haven’t been in his father’s life for decades could now, as grown adults, find his father so important that they would ‘jump out of their lives just because he asked.” It’s a complicated story, one that is full of secrets, betrayals and promises that not even Pick nor Goodman are fully aware of.

In 1972 Pick and Goody become unlikely best friends when they meet at boarding school in Pennsylvania. It also where they both fall in complete and total love with Laura Appleby, who is destined to come between them. The dean has been a strong presence in many students lives, but it is these three who have altered his own future. Laura decides she too will make her way to Mr. Griffin’s deathbed, unsure what it means for her own marriage. When they are all once again together, they will finally face the pain they caused each other and question the cost. Intentions, passion, regrets, it is about the secrets we keep, the paths we chose and what we destroy in the process. It is how we are present and how we disappear when those most precious to us are in need. Each carries the weight of life, for some it is lies of omission, and with sealed lips life goes on until silence becomes transgression. Henry has brought them together, it is time to confront the mountain of time between them to get at the heart of everything that happened.

Henry’s son Chip, at eighteen, is already feeling crushed by the burdensome ache of first love. Now with his father in a hospital barely alive, this new mystery has become a thread, one that if pulled may unravel what he thought he knew about his own dad. Worse, there are things Henry kept from Chip about himself. How does Laura, Goody and Pick fit into his story? How will Chip’s own broken heart help him understand the choices of veritable strangers or teach him about forgiveness and love? Each character’s voice speaks to the reader, getting to the heart of why they did the things they did, as best they themselves can understand. Laura, Pick and Goody’s turmoil about what occurred while they were young has never left them, and without unpacking those feelings openly it has grown into wounds. The tale asks us how we confront possibilities and if we chose to wreck what we have, are we happier in the end? Can there be second chances? Can we be forgiven our youthful mistakes, often made in fear or without malice, ill intent? How do we bridge time? Are we punished for our decisions? The story dips its toes in both past and present, because one cannot exist without the other. These are all the steps that have led them all to a dying man’s bedside.

It was a decent read. Who doesn’t reach a certain age and wonder how things could have been different or regretted the hurt they’ve caused? Secrets grow into beasts out of our control, a sort of snapping animal on a very short chain and you can’t ignore it forever. A tale about endings that have to happen in order for the birth of something new, even if it hurts everyone in the process.

Publication Date: May 11, 2021

SparkPress

the book was okay. not necessarily my fave book or even in my top ten. i would probably forget about it immediately. this had so much potential tho but at some point, it wasn't carried out. waste but i'd still rate it 2.5 stars.

🧸 Book Review 🧸

🧸 Attachments by Jeff Arch

🧸 Publication Date - 11th April 2021

🧸 Trigger Warning- Attachments talks of the death of one on the main character children. It has already happened when the story began.

🧸 Attachments is a puzzle—and the only one who knows how all the pieces fit is in a coma. In the process, longtime secrets are unearthed, revelations come out into the open, and Young Chip Griffin is about to learn something he may or may not be able to handle.

🧸 Jeff Arch is best known for being a screenwriter for movie such as Sleepless in Seatle and Disney's Iron Will. Attachments is Archs first novel.

🧸 Attachments is a deeply felt, incredibly human story about love, loss, friendship, grief, and renewal. Arch brings the characters to life - as the reader you feel you've known them forever!

🧸 Letting each character tell his or her own tale, Arch has created people, you'll follow them eagerly as they move through love, loss, acceptance and forgiveness. Attached is a deeply felt, intensely human story about love, loss, friendship, grief, and renewal

This book has some meat to it. It has complex characters within an intricately woven story - not necessarily in plot, but instead, in emotion.

People are generally not one-dimensional, and this novel does a really good job of conveying the entanglement of human emotions. It’s a book about relationships - sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always messy.

The only criticism I have is actually more about editing versus content. There is a constantly shifting perspective/narrator (something I often enjoy), but occasionally while being guided through the eyes of one character, there would be an inner monologue of another character, which I found distracting.

Something I appreciated about this novel is that it gives weight to something I like to call: “The past present history of your future”. Sounds dramatic, I know. But really it just means that your past helps shape your present, creating a foundation for your future, and this book really brought that to light.

‘Attachments’ by Jeff Arch will be released on May 11, 2021, and is worth a read.

Sincere thanks to Spark Press & Net Galley for this digital advanced readers copy.

That's just how it goes, trouble's just not the one who likes to travel alone.

At his deathbed, the boarding school dean makes an unusual request: he wants to see some of his former students. The story behind that request unfolds through this novel.

I'll keep the harsh parts of this review for myself and just say that this novel just didn't work for me.

The plot of this novel has been seen loads of times and there is nothing special about it. Yet again, it doesn't have to be. It is, after all, just a regular life story. But almost every aspect of this novel fell flat for me. Most of the characters are just plain and flat letters on the piece of paper, the way they ride through life most of the time is astoundingly silly, and the grand reveal of the novel is not a grand reveal, since it was poking my eye from miles away.

Hate to say it, but I regret the time spent with this novel. Nevertheless, I thank Net Halley and SparkPress for the ARC.

This was an amazing story of choices, love, heartache and making your path through life. Pick, Goody and Laura are all friends instantly upon meeting in boarding school. Mr. Griffin, the headmaster, becomes a father figure and takes them under their wings and helps them through life‘s traumas. Lots of interesting twists and bumps along the way. This is a great book and I highly recommend it!

I loved this book. There was a whole lot of everything, and I’m still thinking about it even now that I’m finished reading it.

Attachments is a book about life— growing up, choices, consequences, death, grief, love, secrets, hope, uncertainty, marriage. There is so much to relate to and connect to as a human, a mother, a wife that I found myself constantly going back to read more. I wasn’t expecting it to be as powerful as it was. There is no way to read this book without feeling something. You might not agree with the characters or like them, but I felt, more so in this book than in others that I've recently read, that these characters are real.

The plot is very structured and well thought out. And that’s why you connect and feel the pain, the heartache, the hope and at times the desperation. The characters are all brought back together after more than a decade apart after tragedy strikes at the boarding school where they all meet as teenagers.

The nasty love triangle of the three main characters during their adolescents still haunts them. But, mix in the mystery of why they were summoned to the school out of the blue, and now you have some extra drama.

I love multiple points of view and non-linear timelines. So getting flashbacks from each character at different moments while seeing them struggle with their current lives caught my interest from the beginning. These perspectives include those of the new generation at the boarding school. Needless to say, the connections and attachments run deep.

The characters are so strongly developed; their emotions so raw. Each one is so different and yet you can understand and feel everything that they do. They are all searching for something. For some it’s answers, for others it’s closure, for others is to remember or forgiveness. It’s about not forgetting how to live even when life seems impossible. It’s about recognizing that people have motivations and rationales for decisions they make. Those reasons may not make sense to us, but for them it could be the hill they choose to die on and will stand beyond until the end of time.

This book benefits tremendous from the flashbacks as they just pull you in. You don’t have the whole story of their time at Pocono Prep at the beginning. As a result, the flashbacks are all delivered as jagged little jigsaw puzzle pieces that you are trying to put together and connect to the events of the present and the other snippets of the past that are slowly provided. There isn’t full clarity until the end when all the puzzle pieces have been neatly put together.

Throughout all of it, you get the parallel experience of Chip as he is a present day student, and directly impacted by the tragedy. Not much has changed in the world of the school in the 15ish years that has gone by for the main characters. Can’t say the same for their lives.

There are attachments that these characters have that they don’t even realize until more and more details begin to be exposed. It’s like an uncomfortable reunion where everyone knows a piece of the story, but no one actually knows the whole thing so no one wants to share what they know because there is so much uncertainty and risk. In the end the truth always comes out.

This was such a great book. I’m so glad I had the chance to read it and highly recommend that you add it to your TBR list. It is due to be released on May 11, 2021.

Thank you @netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Thank you for the chance to review Attachments from Jeff Arch, I look forward to other books from this author. I have trouble saying no to any book involving boarding schools, especially those embracing the messiness of adolescent and young adult transitions and relationships, and add in a plot with a mystery/unresolved relationship and I am very excited.

I did enjoy reading this book for these very reasons, I liked how the story unfolded and that characters had some interesting life histories, journeys, and that the characters were allowed to grow and change; I dislike books when characters feel stuck in adolescence. I was less excited about the multiple perspectives not because they did not add to the book but as I would get into one story and then the focus would shift; not a limitation per se but more a comment that I liked each character and I wanted to stay with each of them to see how their story would develop.

This story was told in alternating points of view, which I love. I think it helps build the story and flesh out the characters.

It was a really interesting story and a good read.

I want to thank #JeffArch, the publisher and #netgalley for the ARC.

A decent book and I liked the cover too. I would read another book by this author.

Thanks to Netgalley., Jeff Arch and Spark Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.