Member Reviews
Wowwowowowowowow, I loved this from start to finish! The competition, the drama, the intrigue, this has it all! I loved how you get brought on a journey thinking that Orie will have her happy ending only to discover her Prince Charming is nothing but a putz? Sign me up! Loved the competitiveness and real life scenarios that Christine Riccio draws and that Orie did indeed find her way in life AND her Prince Charming!
A very fun story with an engaging New Adult voice; overall, a charming take on a familiar premise: aka a romance set on a reality TV show.
This was a cute book and had a lot of overlap with the show Survivor. If you liked that show and rom-coms you will enjoy this book. This was my first book by this author but I would absolutely read another.
I absolutely loved Attached at the Hip! Attach the Hip is about a 23 year old named Orie, who is freshly at college and is trying to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life, so she auditions for survivor but instead of being put on Survivor she gets put on a survivor spit off show called Attached at the Hip.Which is Survivor with a Bachelor in Paradise twist where she is literally attached to the hip with another contestant. 6 out of 5 stars, definitely would and have been recommending to all my friends.The writing was smart and funny, I could not put the book down. And it fits perfectly into the CCU ( Christine cinematic universe) It was fun revisiting old characters from her other books and falling in love with new characters. It's been an amazing process watching Christine writing grow with each book she writes. I can't wait for the next one she writes and this one isn't even out yet!
Not a perfect book by any means, but I had a great time with this one! I’ve been watching Christine’s youtube channel since I was twelve or thirteen, and I’ve obsessively watched her writing vlogs ever since she started her first book, so it’s always fun to read her new work and see the outcome of things she was talking about in her videos a year ago. I’m not a Survivor watcher, but I found the premise of this book surprisingly compelling - it was paced pretty well and the characters were fun (I think it was a good decision to focus on only a few of the contestants rather than trying to give them all major roles to play/relationships with Orie). I was genuinely surprised by aspects of the plot, and I was rooting HARD for the main ship.
In terms of my own personal taste, I don’t know if I would rank this one above Better Together (I need to do a reread), but I think out of Christine’s books, Attached at the Hip definitely has the most potential for widespread popularity. It has less of a YA feel than her previous novels, isn’t overly saturated with pop culture references, and just feels more grounded overall. It’s not as emotionally heavy as Better Together, which I think works in its favor in terms of adding to the realism. When your characters are in a naturally heightened physical situation (marooned on an island, tethered together as part of a weird game show), it would be easy to go really overboard with dramatics, but she wisely shies away from that, which ends up adding a lot to the story.
While there were aspects of the plot outside the island that didn’t quite work for me (some of the drama in Orie’s family felt half baked), I thought everything on the island worked pretty well, which is more important anyway. If I had one recommendation for Christine, I would say she needs to cut back on the character cameos. Again, but Better is really not good enough of a novel to justify shoehorning Shane into every book… but that’s just personal preference, I guess. Overall, I had a really fun time reading this one and I can’t wait to see what Christine has in store next.
I absolutely fell in love with this book! I read it in one day!
The challenges, the surviver atmosphere, the romantic interests...so much fun!
I loved Orie! She's perfectly imperect and so relatable! She was quirky and fun and real!
And the twists with some of the characters really kept me entwined in the story! I had to see who everyone would end up being friends, enemies or lovers with...and who was real and fake! What a fun ride!
I loved Kennedi and Osprey and Lark!
Highly recommend for a fun story of character growth, challenging reality show, friendship building and, of course, some love stories, too!
So let me just say, I’m a HUGE lover of reality tv, reality game shows and romantic comedies, this was all of those things in one! It was a fun light read and would be great book to take with you on vacation! I loved the banter and big personalities in the characters! The cover is what drew me in,
I received this ARC via NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday books in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you net galley and the publisher for the ARC!
I tried my best to get into this book but with the clunky writing and unlikable main character narrator I DNFed this book. The chapter names took me a long time to catch on to which made the book even harder to follow. Not going to lie I don’t typically pay attention to chapter names - it’s clever for sure but left me scratching my head.
If you like super extra and high maintenance female leads who see a spider and act like the world is ending this book is probably for you!
This book was SO GOOD! I am primarily a fantasy reader with some romance sprinkled in and this book took me by surprise! The premise is as if survivor was mixed with a rom-com. I absolutely loved the concept and felt like the author did such a great job with executing the twists and turns, relationship dynamics and all of the quirky details. I really loved that this book had so much more than just a traditional rom-com which personally can feel a little redundant. I could feel the joy and fun that the author had with this book and I really loved the outcome of the story and where the characters ended up! I finished it in 3 days and stayed up way too late reading because I couldn’t put the book down! I can’t wait for this to release, I will be buying a physical copy! There were some minor grammatical errors but aside from that, the book was amazing! Thank you so much for the publishers for sending me an ARC copy! ❤️📚✨
Well, this was a fun little read one part romcom, one part survivor one part find yourself. I really enjoyed this book as the main character faced herself and knew she needed to make some changes even if she went about them in some pretty unconventional ways. If you’re looking for a book that will make you laugh and help you pass a dreary day this might be the book for you. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
This is my first Christine Riccio book (I own Better Together but haven’t had the chance to read it just yet) and I thought it was great! I was honestly so conflicted about Orie at first because holy shit the girl has some of her own issues but then I realized the real reason I was so annoyed with her is because she is actually me. I have attachment issues and sometimes I just need a body double to get anything done. I felt more annoyed with myself because I felt like I was being put into writing and didn’t like it. I saw one reviewer say, “Being in the headspace of this character was one of the worst experiences I've ever had while reading a book.” and frankly THANKS THIS IS HOW I ACTUALLY LIVE. 😝
Needless to say if you like any of the below, I think you’ll enjoy this book!
✨ Survivor 🤝 The Bachelor
✨ Forced Proximity
✨ Easy Read
✨ Fluff Romance
I loved the friendships Orie made with some of the fellow castmates more than I cared for the romance. Every scene with Remy made me cringe (felt very immature and high school and yes I understand why) and yet every scene with Osprey gave me hope for a ship to set sail. I’d say in the end it wasn’t really the romance that kept me going but Orie finding her truth and deciding to go at life with everything she has. Besides the unrealistic job offers just because she won the show, I wish it would’ve ended with her actually having to work towards that job/goal instead of just wrapping it up in a pretty bow cause you won a show and now have money to move.
Either way, it was an easy read that made me excited to jump into her other book and see if it’s good (maybe even better) then this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book!
DNF. I'm sorry, but this main character... I can't. Personally, the fmc is the single most important part of a romance to connect too, but I couldn't find anything I really could grab onto to get on her team. I am polar opposite in every way to this character. This was my first time reading this author's work, so maybe we're just not a good match. Which is super disappointing because I love survivor and was stoked for a fun, survivor themed romcom.
The writing style is definitely aimed at the younger, 15-25 year range with lots of social media, influencer, and pop culture lingo that may go over the heads/annoy some readers. I think if the character got aged down a bit to her later teens and this was marketed more as a YA book, things would make more sense. The big disconnect here to me is that main character is her 20s and seemed very juvenile.
Oh my god. I don't even know where to start. It is 5 in the morning and I have stayed up all night reading this. The fan girl in me is bursting at her seams with the amount of joy this book gave me. I am absolutely a Survivor fan, being the reason I wanted to read this in the first place, and was just ecstatic getting to have all the iconic Survivor moments, such as the food challenge and beautiful loved one moment. With Survivor 46 having premiered 3 days ago, this was the perfect read. And the mentions of Taylor Swift and Marvel made everything literally 10 times better. I am so thankful to have been able to read this on NetGalley and cannot wait for everyone else to be able to enjoy it as much as I did when it is finally released on May 21st!
Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for sending this ARC unsolicited. All opinions are my own.
Attached at the Hip follows Orie Lennox who wants a fairytale love. She feels her life is perfect being a social media influencer with her sister. But when her sister goes off on her, she signs up for Survivor on a whim. However she doesn't end up on Survivor but a new spin off with a romantic twist called Attached at the Hip and she finds herself attached to her high school crush. As the game goes on, she finds that everything might not be what it seems.
Oh geez. I really appreciate the fact that I received an ARC of this book but it was very much not for me. I thought the premise sounded so interesting but the execution was not the best.
The good things were that I liked the game aspect of this book and thought the challenges sounded interesting. Christine did a good job of describing those aspects of this book. I thought the use of the confessional bits was good as well. Now onto what I didn't really click with.
First off, this book doesn't know if it's YA or Adult. In my mind, it falls into the New Adult category because the character is in her early 20's and has some elements that are more for a New Adult audience. And for a character who is in her 20's, she is extremely annoying. This character does not under any circumstances act her age. The way she acted like a teenager drove me nuts. And the biggest thing that really drove me nuts? The use of Caps Lock. It was so excessive and pretty much every single chapter of this book It felt like I was being screamed at by the character every time it showed up and I would say 99.9% of the time it was completely unnecessary.
I also found that this character was trying too hard to be quirky which is something I don't vibe with. There are ways to write quirky characters and not have it feel too try hard but this one felt very try hard.
I also felt uncomfortable with the fact that it seems like Orie is alluded to being asexual but it's dropped pretty quickly. I am not asexual myself and cannot speak on representation so please seek out own voices reviewers.
I also just didn't believe any of the guys in this book would fall for her. The relationships didn't feel that well developed and I didn't really believe them except the friendship she makes with one of the female contestants. I also found that what happened in this book plot wise felt very unreal which doesn't bother me as much as this is fiction. However, if you like things to be a little more realistic you might not like that aspect.
Overall, this book was just not for me. But if the premise interests you I encourage you to pick it up! This was just personally not for me.
This story idea is so incredibly fun and intriguing! There were lots of things I really liked about this book and other that made me debate not finishing it. However, if you get through the first half, it’s a such a good read! I’m glad I got the chance to pick this up and experience this book. The ending was wild and so entertaining! My jaw was on the floor!
Things I loved:
- Orie and Osprey
- How contemporary this was
- Jamie and the whole show
- THE PLOT TWISTS!!!
Things I didn’t love:
- Orie as a character (why was she so annoying? She wasn’t cute weird, she was WEIRD like too cringey to read for several chapters. And she couldn’t ever form words?)
- How contemporary this was (sometimes it was too much meta book universe)
- It was kind of slow for the first 33%
- Lark and Orie (their dynamic was weird and slightly off putting sometimes)
This was such a fun read!
A Survivor-esque reality show with a focused social experiment on relationships - think island adventure speed dating - would make for a can’t miss show, but you can go on the journey when you read Attached At The Hip by Christine Riccio when it comes out on May 21st (it does not disappoint)!
I loved the journey this book took me on. Some more intense themes (anxiety, addiction) were mixed into the adventure and romance, which made the story feel more relatable and not too heavy. Highly recommend!
Thanks to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy!
Cute fun little romance! Love the dynamic! Bachelor plus a survivor type situation? Sign me up! Thanks NetGalley for letting me read before its release!!
This was a fun and funny book; lots of humorous moments in this survivor-spinoff themed book. I enjoyed the major characters, especially Orielle, Osprey and Kennedi. I also liked that there was a true villain, who engaged in some pretty spectacular gaslighting. Right before Orie heads to Fiji for the show, her life comes tumbling down in multiple ways. I enjoyed how the author uses the competition and the interactions with the other contestants to build Orie back up and give her the courage and motivation to risk failure and chase her dreams.
Attached at the Hip is a reality tv show YA romantic comedy about 23 year old Orie, an influencer who has grown overly dependent on others in her life trying to gain some independence on a speed-dating-esque spin-off of Survivor.
This was a really fun concept! I struggled with the beginning of this book but it definitely got better the further in I got and by the end, I was invested. I really enjoyed the short chapters containing the confessional transcripts and the challenges were fun. Orie’s character development and coming into her own also was very satisfying. The romance was sweet.
There were several little things that took me out of the book at times. The biggest one being the generous use of all capitalization. It also felt strange that Orie did not seem overly concerned with her mic and the cameras from day one (sometimes she did note these things, but I would think that anxiety over that would be more pronounced before adapting to the show). In the first cycle of the show, it was really easy to forget that this was set in a reality show. I think more references to Orie being interrupted by production or cameras, her feeling self conscious about being filmed and people in her life hearing what she said, etc. would have helped keep me grounded in the setting. The book made more references to these things later on though.
Having not seen an episode of Survivor in about two decades (wow), I am especially interested to hear how Survivor fans like this!
All in all, this was a cute read!
Thanks very much to NetGalley and St. Marin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
This was such a cutesy, feel-good story and I ate it up! It was definitely a lighter, more upbeat, quick read for sure!