'ATTACHED AT THE HIP'....CAN A ROMANTIC TRIANGLE SURVIVE A 'SURVIVAL' SPINOFF?

  Attached At The Hip by Christine Riccio (2024)

       To start, let me credit Christine Riccio right away for drawing me into this book, even though I am no great fan of reality game shows and never bothered to watch any of them.

        But if I ever came across one these shows that actually featured characters and situations depicted in this book, I'd be sprawled on the couch with a tub of buttered popcorn.

         The adorable lead contestant, Orie Lennox, is beset with a host of relatable issues and worries. Unable to break out of the status quo she dwells in at 23, she's aware of the second-hand life she's settled for. With a longtime boyfriend she's more comfortable with than passionate about and a dead end job assisting her influencer sister, Orie longs to figure out what she wants for herself and how to achieve it.

       Impulsively to seek out new adventures, she applies for and is selected for a season of 'Survivor'.
But it's not that show she finds herself on, but a romance spinoff version 'Attached at the hip', where couples endure similar tropical island abandonment.......but tethered to each other to see how much chemistry sparks fly.

        Under the endlessly complicated reality show rules (one of the reasons I never watched them), contestant partners change based on their various wins and losses.......and Orie ends up in a romantic triangle with Remy, an unrequited high school crush and Osprey, a fierce competitor. That makes playing the game quite a challenge since Orie's fallen hard for the boys and they with her. Especially since they're forced to use Machiavellian strategies to outlast the other players and claim the million dollar prize that can only go to one of them.

        Christine Riccio somehow makes all of this fun and exciting even for a reader (like me) who wouldn't touch a reality show with a ten foot coconut tree. You can't help cheering on Orie, not just for the sometimes hilarious ways she soldiers through the game's challenges, but for her own personal quest for a future to call her own.

 
          So it came as a total surprise as to how much I enjoyed this book. Never thought I'd cozy up to a romance featuring tarantulas, crab hunting and tethered sweethearts stuck together with no bathrooms anywhere in sight. What can I say.....I got attached to "Attached".  5 stars (*****)  (and I wouldn't dare reveal who gets who....or who gets voted off the island...)