I don't think I've enjoyed a YA/New Adult romcom more than I did this one in a long time!! Survivor meets The bachelor in this reality show, forced proximity romance that sees Influencer Orley competing in a remote island competition for $1 million dollars and falling for two of the finalists. Twisty, exciting, fast-paced and AMAZING on audio narrated by my very fav, Brittany Pressley. I can't recommend this book enough! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio and digital copy in exchange for my honest revivew!

Steam level: kissing only

DNF'd at 51%. This book was really goofy, but not in a good way? The endless silly dialogue and pop culture references got to be too much at points. Orie is meant to be this awkward, unique character, but I feel like it was just too much at points. The insta-love feelings were cringy not cute. I was really excited for this, but sadly it was a let down!

I loved this book! Orie has graduated college but still has no clue what she wants to do with her life. Going on "Survivor" seems like her best option so she competes on a spin-off for a million dollars. The rom-com, Survivor, Batchelor vibes make this book so enjoyable to read! I highly recommend!

This book hooked me at the premise: Survivor meets The Bachelor. I absolutely love both shows so I knew this book was for me! I am also a big fan of Christine Riccio's who has an incredible talent for creating vibrant characters and intriguing dialogue!

This story was so relatable with the main character feeling lost after graduating from college. I personally had a similar experience and Christine did an amazing job of representing this intense moment in one's life. The setting of the South Pacific was a great way to force the character to seek new joys and escape from her real life. I also love the twist of having her old high school crush as part of the cast!

Overall, this book made me think about the power of second chances and how we are never too old to get a fresh start. I absolutely loved it!

Thanks to Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC! So cute! Loved the romance and the setting. Also definitely really enjoyed the banter. Will read more from this author.

oh my goodness this book was such a fun and silly read! I spent so much of this book laughing out loud. It's a perfect mix of Survivor and Bachelor in Paradise and so fun to read as a reality TV lover. If you've liked Christine Riccio's past books you'll definitely love this one. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC :)

DNF AT 26%

I just couldn’t physically continue this book, I really tried. I’m sorry!! Hopefully I can give it another chance soon🥹🫶🏼

4.25/5 stars, rounded down

Thank you Wednesday Books for the advanced reading copy!

SYNOPSIS -- Orie Lennox is doing her best, but nothing is turning out the way she hoped. Between her job, her relationship and her family, things just aren't what they should be. When pushed by her sister to be more independent, Orie applies for a reality TV show a-la Survivor. She heads to a deserted island without any of the things getting in her way and finds herself thrust into an experimental romantic edition of Survivor, attached via a rope to her high school crush. Between difficulty challenges, long-term speed dating (lol), no privacy and intense alliances, there's no telling who will walk away from this show with the money, or with true love.

I really enjoyed this book! After reading EVERYONE IS WATCHING earlier this year, I've been really intrigued by the reality TV premise of books. I think it's pretty hard to execute the play by play of a reality TV show in print, and this book did a great job. I LOVE Survivor, so that aspect of this book was really important to me, and I think Christine Riccio nailed it.

The premise was super cute and the characters adorable and easy to like. The romance was fun and way less predictable than it seemed; I thought I was in it for a simple and easy story at first, and that was NOT the case. Orie's character development was fantastic -- this was unexpectedly a great coming-of-age story! Though there were a few cringe moments, they were painfully relatable and easy to laugh at. I do think that the ending could have been wrapped up a bit better... things seemed to drag off the show and though I can see where this was integral to Orie's character arc, it just felt boring at times.

This one is labeled as YA, but don't let that deter you. While some aspects were a little immature, most of this book was easier to connect to than I typically feel in YA. The romance wasn't shallow and, while there wasn't any spice, there was some great tension building that still felt meaningful. Overall, I really enjoyed this and struggled to put it down once I started!

I DNF at 60% this was just too immature for me. Orie is 23 yet she acted a lot younger. I totally get that she is a crossroads with her life with breaking up with her high school sweetheart and this is the first time she is doing something on her own. She just had a lot of growing up to do and this survivor game type place was not the place to do it.

The surviver game setting is fun but doesn't give you too much background with all the contestant and didn't have the depth at the point I stopped reading.

I am probably not the right target audience for this book.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but the farther I got into it, the lower my rating of it went. The overall plot of the game show and all of the challenges was actually quite interesting and really the only part of the book I enjoyed.

The dialogue was cringey and very millennial-esque. The writing was very juvenile and almost felt like a Disney Channel movie, especially with the ending. There was also an absurd amount of pop culture references that pulled me out of the story. The main character was insufferable, incredibly whiney, and constantly yelling. The names had me eye-rolling constantly; like what kind of name is Osprey!? Don’t even get me started on “Piccadilly”.

As a long time supporter of Christine through her YouTube channel, I was really disappointed with this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I was immediately intrigued by the premise of Attached at the Hip and hoped it would be just as good, and it absolutely was! I ate this book up, it was SO good.

When I say I could not put this book down, I mean it! I lost sleep 3 nights in a row devouring it. The main character was great. I see lots of reviews calling her a “random girl”, which I guess I understand, but don’t really agree with. She was quirky but also seemed pretty normal to me? Maybe that also makes me a “random girl” which is apparently an ick, but oh well 😅
Her life felt real, her family was flawed, she had flaws and realistic fears and dreams and hobbies.
The cast of supporting characters were great. I loved Orie’s family, I loved what we got to see of the other competitors. The bonds and alliances formed were interesting to experience and the twist was so suspenseful I couldn’t stop thinking about it until I was able to finish.
This book was also just so FUNNY. I thought Orie was funny, personally. The banter between her and all her competitors and family was fantastic. I laughed out loud so many times I woke my husband up while reading in bed.
The way the show was written in was FANTASTIC. Christine Riccio is a huge Survivor fan and it shows. The thought put into the game aspect of the book was outstanding. It genuinely felt like I was watching a game show competition on a page, it was so suspenseful.
I also really loved all the pop culture references included. I love being able to connect to a book through things like that.

This book was absolutely everything I hoped it would be when I read the synopsis. I genuinely loved it and am excited to read more of the author’s other work.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for this ARC.
Publication date 5/21/24

I was really excited to receive the arc of this book! I love a good reality show in book format and I love Survivor, but this wasn’t it for me.

I ended up DNFing around 20%. The FMC was insufferable. It was painful to read. Lots of whining inner monologue, referring to people by the entire full name (Remy Orlando Lasorsa a million times, it was so cringy to read), and putting the blame on everyone but herself. I am hoping she started to mature by the end but I could not bring myself to continue reading.

Thank you NetGalley & Wednesday Books for the free arc of this book for an honest review.

Attached at the Hip is such a cute rom com and I loved it! As a big Survivor fan I enjoyed trying to pick up on all the references, both subtle and obvious. This has been a book where I really wish I would talk to the author and ask them lots of questions! I was excited to get sucked into the story of it all and I wanted to know more, just like when watch Survivor. For example, did she mean to make Osprey and Orie kind of look like Franny and Matt from season 44? Did she put in the Sherlock Holmes quote because she likes Sherlock Holmes or because that’s what Tarzan always said in Season 24 and it’s the name of a challenge? I also felt like I really resonated with the main character and really enjoyed her character development aside from any romance aspects of the book. Definitely recommend!

Not sure why but this one just didn't do it for me. It was just lacking something for me. I think maybe some of the characters were just a bit, blah, in my mind.
Also, I think the ending kind of killed it for me. It was a "happy-for-now" kind of ending (which is fine), but I just don't think I bought the love story too much.
I really wanted to love this one.

This was a really cute, quirky, easy read! I loved the subject and how different the plot was! I am a huge survival/game show fan so this was very interesting to me. The only only thing that I wanted more from was more of an explanation on Remy at the end. I felt like part of that was left open for interpretation and I wanted more of an explanation. Highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Ohhh boy I have a lot of thoughts on this book.

Let me start by saying that honestly, I was not at all sure I would get through it. I love Christine Riccio and have been following her since I was probably around 14, but I really did not enjoy this book for a good majority of it. I liked the beginning and the end, and that was about it.

Orie drove me NUTS. I was dying and begging for her to have some character development, and she definitely did grow into a better version of herself, but getting there was ROUGH. At the time of writing this, I am the same age as Orie, and I know VERY few people who are as naive and whiny as she is. This is touched on a little during the show, as lot of her costars pick on her a little for the way she acts, but god she felt SO YOUNG. And she was so loud. I still don’t understand all the yelling. Why were we yelling so much? And saying things like “Mental Gasp” ?? I don’t know. It felt like she was trying to be SO quirky and different and cool, and it got old Very quickly. I don’t know anyone who actually says the things that Orie says out loud.

That said, I kept reading for her costars. I loved Kennedi and Osprey, and I saw myself a lot in Lark. They seemed to be more interesting to me than Orie was, which is hard when Orie is literally the main character.

The other thing I had an issue with was the SHEER AMOUNT of pop culture references. I understand that sometimes it’s hard not to reference things like, I don’t know, Titanic, for example. But this felt like there was a pop culture reference on every page. How often do you have to mention Taylor Swift or Katy Perry? And you bet your bottom dollar I also wasn’t expecting to see anything about DIVERGENT in this story. It feels weird to me to reference such popular stories in your own story, but I guess inspiration has to come from somewhere. I just think there’s a way to include that inspiration that doesn’t mention it so directly on every single page.

The ending did make me feel like it had all come together though. Aside from the plot being pretty predictable, in my eyes anyway, seeing Orie finally come into herself and be confident in her own decisions and actually do things for herself rather than whining and relying on other people - that was very refreshing. It just took like.. 350 pages to get there.. so, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a fan of reality shows such as The Bachelor, Love Island, and The Circle, I was super excited to read this one! When Orie spontaneously applies for a reality show, she thinks she is signing up for one of her all-time favorite shows, Survivor. However, she soon finds out that she’s actually been casted onto a brand new romantic version of the show instead where she is literally attached at the hip to another person. What’s even crazier? That person just so happens to be an old high school crush of hers. Over the next few weeks she is competing for a million dollars while simultaneously forming new friendships with her competitors and possibly a new romance…

I thought this book was so so cute and fun! The characters are likeable, and the bonds that Orie forms with her castmates are heartwarming. The reality show aspect also keeps things interesting. I found myself having a tough time putting this one down once I got into it.

However, there are some moments that are maybe a bit on the cheesy/quirky side, which I know isn’t for everyone. But I still think the story was worthwhile. And it was definitely a quick and easy read!

⭐️ 3.5 ⭐️

This was a fun concept, but fell a little flat for me. I'm a huge fan of survivor and thought a little romcom twist would be fun, but ultimately the compete priorities of mashing two games was a little rough for me.

But! I do think it would be appealing to a broader audience that isn't me. There was a lot to love and a decent build up of tension. I definitely giggled a few times and rolled my eyes (in a good way) at others.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. I love reality tv and was excited for a fun light read set in that world, but this read like fan fiction. The characters were flat with too much forced quirk. The writing was juvenile and needed an edit from top to bottom.

This was so cute and really funny in some parts. I loved it! I loved the concept of the reality show our FMC is on and the fact that she’s awkward and clueless at times was super relatable.