I'll admit, I was a little skeptical going into this. I've loved some of Rainbow Rowell's books in the past, and while I've enjoyed her adult books, I didn't LOVE them.

However, this book completely swept me off my feet. (Pun not intended)

I couldn't get enough of this story. I was totally invested in Shiloh and Cary in a way I didn't see coming, and honestly loved the tropes used here. So many romance books move along quickly, which is TOTALLY fine, but it was kind of nice to see such a slow burn. Admittedly, I'm also a sucker for friends to lovers and back-and-forth timelines. I only wish that we had more of Cary's POV, but this didn't bother me enough to take away from my rating.

Something I also really appreciated was Shiloh's thoughts about her sexuality. Being divorced, Shiloh was considering whether she was also attracted to women. While she felt that she was, she wasn't really sure what that meant for her or her sexuality. She discussed with Cary exploring the label bisexual, but didn't really settle on it completely. On the one hand, this seemed very random, as it didn't have really anything to do with the plot and was just kind of there, and I worry that some might find this almost like a "checkbox for representation" sort of moment. However, Shiloh's thoughts honestly reminded me a lot of the beginning of my sexuality journey. I mean, sometimes figuring out your sexuality IS random, and when you have other things going on, it's not necessarily the main "plot" of your life at the moment and that's okay! This personally felt very realistic to me. I'm not sure what Rainbow's intentions were with this, but I personally appreciated this take. As much as I love books focused more on queer themes, sometimes it's nice to have queer themes more in the background, as oftentimes that how it plays out in real life too.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox here. In summary, if slow-burn romances, friends to lovers, multiple timelines and POV's, romances where at least one person is divorced and/or has kids, or stories that include family drama interest you, I say you give this book a try!

TW: absent parents, ailing parent, divorce

Rainbow Rowell’s "Slow Dance" tells the story of Shiloh and Cary, childhood best friends who dreamed of escaping North Omaha and never losing touch. While Shiloh went to college and Cary joined the Navy, life took unexpected turns. Now, at 33, Shiloh is a divorced mother of two, living back in her childhood home. After 14 years of silence, she reconnects with Cary at a friend’s wedding.

This poignant tale explores themes of lost opportunities, rekindled connections, and second chances. Rowell captures the complexity of friendship and love, making the story both nostalgic and fresh. "Slow Dance" is a compelling read for anyone who has ever wondered about the one who got away.

I gave "Slow Dance" 4 stars for its engaging and emotionally resonant storytelling, showcasing Rowell’s talent for touching the heart and leaving a lasting impression.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love Rainbow Rowell and this is her highly anticipated first adult romance in years, featuring Shiloh and Cary who were best friends in high school. They haven't spoken in years, but they've always probably maybe have been in love with each other. Now they're adults, meeting again at their mutual friend's wedding and the story takes us through how they can eventually learn to allow each other into their lives again.

The characters, as I expected, were so real. I cared about Cary and Shiloh very much, but also they were super imperfect and they really irritated me sometimes. Their romance is incredibly complicated and this often made me feel impatient with them and the plot. This is one of those sad romances vs. rom-com (and I'm not talking about the ending here- it's still a romance!) and it made me feel things and reminded me a lot of high school. It had some really wonderful moments and sometimes I felt like it plodded by. Overall I enjoyed it and I think 3.5 stars is underselling it, so I'm keeping it at 4.

If you've enjoyed RR's work before, I encourage you to pick this one up!

The miscommunication trope is not for me. This will be for many people. Thanks to Netgalley for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

This was my first book by Rainbow Rowell. I saw a lot of people liking this one and I was excited to receive a copy. A story about two HS best friends, Shiloh and Cary, who everyone was expecting to end up together. Cary ended up joining the Navy and Shiloh went off to college and they haven't spoken in 15 years. Now, they are invited to a mutual friend's wedding. They end up connecting at the wedding. Could they find their connection again? This one is told in the present and past when they were friends in HS. This was a slow burn, second chance romance story. It was definitely realistic and relatable. Some of the miscommunication between the characters got on my nerves at times. Made me wonder if they'd make it as a couple for long. Either way, and enjoyable read.


Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

There is something about the way Rainbow Rowell writes feelings that makes you experience almost every emotion the characters do on paper. I'm a fan of both Rowell's adult and YA books and after being heavily invested in her fantasy series, Slow Dance was a welcome return to the power that two well-written characters can bring to a story.

There's nothing really gimmicky or flashy about Slow Dance. There are tropes, second chance romance, friends to lovers, and hometown romance, but this book is at its core about Shiloh and Cary and their slow dance to each other. We do get "before" chapters of Cary and Shiloh in high school and college and glimpses as to what happened, and why they weren't together previously. My favorite bits, though, were the present-day (well, the 2006 chapters) that showed you who the two of them became. We do get both Shiloh and Cary pov but Shiloh's journey as a divorced mother of two was especially poignant for me. Shiloh is back in her hometown, not the successful actress she desperately wanted to be when she left. Even if you aren't a mother in your 30s, there is something so relatable about wanting to escape your hometown but finding your way back AND becoming ok with who you are and what your life is rather than what you wanted it to be.

There is so much pining in this book, it was deliciously painful. You are rooting for both Shiloh and Cary to get over themselves and just BE together while also recognizing their baggage that may prevent that from ever happening. Nothing really comes easy for either of them in romance or otherwise and watching them work through their slow dance to get to the ending the book has for them was a tremendous joy to experience.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

One day some years ago, I was futzing around in Libby or something like it and this book popped up with two guys on it, smirking me down with weapons drawn, looking like they were about to step into some significant caper and aggressively overwritten with CARRY ON and RAINBOW ROWELL like it was some kind of old-timey pulp fiction novel. I thought "wow" and to this day, it's the only time I've read a book by cover alone. I didn't read a single review (and honestly now that Slow Dance just joined Reese's Book Club, I really don't need to review it either so just gloss over this then go get it), just casually dug into one of the books that would change my trajectory as a writer. Weird connection, but here's how it comes together.

Carry On was my introduction to Rowell and her singularly wonderful writing about emotions and the people they inhabit. At the time, I'd just started a creative writing MFA after a slow realization that I could and very much wanted to write genre fiction so I better go study it. (I thought I couldn't be a fiction writer because I didn't want to write strictly literary) (I was just too ignorant at that point to understand the genre wealth available) (Also, I'd gotten a kindle a couple years before that made it possible for me to read so much more widely than I had and there was a lot of catching up)

While waiting for Any Way the Wind Blows, I had time to read Rowell's backlist and it was the first time I'd really fangirled for an author since Madeline L'Engle in third grade. And it was like she knew it because Slow Dance is a beautiful, perfect, Rowell-style love story dialed right into my elder xennial high school years. It feels like a love letter - to that time period, to the adult ways we clean up childhood trauma, to second chances, to being young and stupid but still worthy, to being on that steep learning curve of knowing you need to learn to communicate but what if that communication ruins everything or what if...?

Right person, wrong time is a favorite theme of mine and the exploration of what makes Shiloh and Cary (are the Easter eggs deliberate, Rainbow?? I mean, of course, right??) tick through their wonky path to that second chance is a lovely, frustrating character study and fun and funny and really super poignant, and it made my heart squeeze. Once I picked it up, I didn't put it down.

I was sucked in from the very first sentence, and by the end of the first page, I was all in. Who am I kidding? I was all in the second I saw that Rainbow Rowell had a new adult romance coming out. For me, there’s no author who writes longing the way she does, and not miserable painful, longing, but the kind that makes me want to sink all the way in.

Slow Dance begins on the night recently divorced single mom Shiloh goes to a high school friend’s second wedding secretly hoping she’ll run into their friend Cary. In high school, everyone thought Shiloh and Cary were together, or would end up together, and after fourteen years of not talking Shiloh wonders if Cary will even want to see her. The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

This story is not linear. It’s sort of a dual timeline, but even that isn’t really the correct phrase because the backstory isn’t told in order. But we have the current timeline where Shiloh and Cary are trying to make sense of their history and figure out who they can—and are willing to—be to each other in their current configurations and then we get to see slivers of their history. A school dance. A fight about ROTC and Cary’s plan to join the Navy. A weekend visit when Shiloh is at college.

I fell completely in love with Shiloh and Cary and was so, so sad when the book was over. Somehow Rowell writes characters I want to stay with. I still think about Eleanor and Park and Georgie and Neil and longing swells up in my chest. And now Shiloh and Cary are added to that list.

I will never not need a finished copy of a Rainbow Rowell book, but I will also listen to anything by the author that Rebecca Lowman narrates. It’s a perfect narrator/author pairing and I can’t recommend the audio version enough.

Great book! You kind of know where it’s going the whole time, but there are still surprises along the way.

Slow Dance
I have really enjoyed Rainbow Rowell in the past and I still haven’t Scattered Showers on my shelf to be read, but this book did not do it for me! I did not connect with either of the main characters and the slow burn was a bit too slow. I wanted to DNF this earlier because of Shiloh’s insufferable character but I waited until I got to 50% to see if things improved. Unfortunately they did not. The MMCs continued their miscommunication. I’m not even sure what the attraction was between them. They seemed to be good friends but that was about it. And even their friendship was strained it was hard to root for them. The repetitious conversations were tormenting and the prom scene was so awkward that it was hard to get through.

You might like this if you enjoy short chapters, banter, and don’t mind the second chance romance that comes after years of miscommunication. If you can tolerate that then this book might work for you. There were also really cute kids in the book that might have saved it for me had I not DNFd.

Thanks to @netgalley and William Morrow for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Back in high school, everyone thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together - everyone but Shiloh and Cary, who were just best friends.

Now, it’s been fourteen years since Shiloh’s talked with Cary. She’s been married, had two kids, and then divorced. She’s also moved back in with her mom and living in the same house she grew up imagining running away from.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all she can think about is whether or not Cary will be there. Would he even want to see her?

I’m going to start off by saying I don’t read a lot of romance - adult or YA, and if I do, that’s not usually the main focus of the story. But, I love Rainbow Rowell and will always read anything she writes so I was all about giving this one a chance.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Shiloh’s. I found her incredibly annoying and I honestly don’t know how Cary put up with her half the time, especially when she would continue to mess with him after he clearly told her to stop (if someone continuously poked me or tugged on my hair, I would have stopped speaking to them so fast). Shiloh’s kids were fun! I adored Cary but wish his character was a little more flushed out. We got a few pieces about his not so great childhood, but sometimes he would do things that I wish I had a better understanding of his background to then understand why he did what he did.

Overall, I’m still going to recommend this book. To me, it’s on the “softer” side of the romance - fluffy if you will; there’s nothing majorly spicy in it, definitely more cutesy with that “just get together already” vibe.

*Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an e-arc of this book in return for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Shiloh and Cary had my attention the whole book and I read this book rather quickly, but I also wanted to shake some sense into both of them the entire time.

This book is like just a series of miscommunications and I really hate the miscommunication trope. Shiloh and Cary both kept making assumptions about what the other person wanted and made decisions based on that without ever having real conversations with each other. They were a little more honest with each other at the end, but even then I felt like the conversations were rushed and I’m not totally sure how they came to their decisions.

I’m not usually a big fan of friends to lovers stories, but that was actually one of the main things I liked about this particular book. I enjoyed getting to see their friendship throughout high school and I especially loved the parts with Mikey because he was the best.

Overall this is a quick easy romance read, but beware of the miscommunication trope.

Sad, Heartbreaking and full of longing. It was pure Rainbow Rowell. Personally, I love it when her books are more hopeful, but perhaps only because when her bppks have a sadder tone, it rips my heart out in the most beautiful way. I will read anything Rainbow writes.

Slow Dance is a beautifully written story about two best friends who fell in love as teenagers and reconnect later in life. Through alternating timelines we see how Shiloh and Cary’s relationship evolves through high school, the beginning of college, and when they reunite again in their thirties. These deeply human characters have grown together and apart but their feelings for each other have remained the same. It’s charming, funny, heartbreaking, and nostalgic. A heartfelt second-chance romance about growth, forgiveness, friendship, and the enduring power of love. Highly recommend for fans of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

Shiloh, Cary and Mikey. They were best friends all through high school and did almost everything together – even as Shiloh and Cary’s bond extended beyond friendship and always felt like more. Post-high school, Mikey went to New York to pursue his art career, Cary joined the Navy, and after college Shiloh returned to Omaha. Fourteen years later Shiloh is divorced, a single mother of two, and back living in her childhood home with her mother. When Mikey returns to Omaha to get married, Shiloh accepts the invitation with one thought in mind: Will Cary be there? What follows is the story of Shiloh and Cary, both then and now, how they got here, and if they can finally get it right.

It's been so long since Rowell released a contemporary novel that I almost forgot why I love her contemporary stories so much. Then I started reading Slow Dance and it was like, oh yeah, this is why. When it comes to snappy, honest, believable dialogue, Rowell just gets it. Her signature funny, clever (without being overly so), realistic banter was in full effect here, right along with deeply flawed characters whose lives were messy and relatable. Shiloh and Cary always had something special, and their reunion showed the spark was still there, but it also proved that their old patterns were alive and well. Cary always gave vague indications of his feelings for Shiloh, while her insecurities ruled her decision-making.

For Cary, Shiloh was always The One. His pining for the girl he’d wanted since they were teenagers was everything. The responsibility he felt for his elderly mother and the ripple effects of trying to improve her living situation was developed so well and I empathized with him deeply. Shiloh was a little trickier with her acerbic personality and I often felt frustrated as she continued to be her own worst enemy. Overall, I just never felt that I understood her.

Slow Dance was a second (or third?) chance romance and it reflected how much more complicated life is at 33 than at 17. There were many obstacles in Shiloh and Cary’s way – some legitimate and some self-created – especially as they both had the tendency to avoid the hard conversations.

It’s worth mentioning that while the present and past chapters allowed for a fuller, richer story, the fact that past chapters were not chronological often threw me off and I frequently had to reorient myself to what time period we were jumping to.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Slow Dance and its tale of missed opportunities, and what happens when you find your person just a little too early in life.

I will 100% give this book 5⭐️ for being so very emotional and tender. I love a slow burn that reveals the longing, the yearning, the pining, and (at some points) the sheer angst of its characters.

Shiloh, Cary, and Mikey were best friends in high school. The story starts at Mikey’s wedding with Cary, a Naval officer, coming back to stand as Mikey’s best man. At this point, he and Shiloh haven’t seen each other in 14 years. Shiloh is now a divorced mom with 2 young kids. Told in two timelines, (past and present) Shiloh and Cary’s friendship has been anything but simple. Their feelings were always complicated, their ability to communicate was always stunted due to how they saw themselves. They grew up on the wrong side of Omaha, both desperate to escape, to achieve more for themselves yet unwilling to ask for anything from each other that would jeopardize their futures.

Cary holds himself together tightly, unable to express what he feels, stretched thin by family, his job, his desire to finally make Shiloh see him. Shiloh is exhausted, by her ex, her young kids, her job, and living with her mom as a 33 year old. I love how opposite they are, until it’s revealed over time how alike they are.

Honestly, I just want to return to the first page and start all over again.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Shiloh and Cary were inseparable in high school, but only as friends... At least that's what they kept telling themselves. Afterwards, they went their separate ways and haven't talked in over fourteen years. Now, at thirty-three, divorced, and with two kids, Shiloh isn't sure if she is hoping Cary will or won't show at their friend's wedding. Maybe, there could be something between them after all!
I loved that this was a story about that innocent high school love (that they don't even recognize as love), and yet also a story about thirty year olds dealing with the messiness of life. These characters were flawed and relatable!
Thanks to @netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this one and provide my honest opinion! It is set to be published in the US tomorrow, 30 July, so definitely add this one to your TBR!
#NetGalley #SlowDance

High school best friends Shiloh and Cary have had a tumultuous relationship since high school, with a handful of “will they, won’t they” moments, followed by years of no communication while Cary served in the Navy. With Cary back around for their friend Mikey’s wedding and Shiloh fully divorced from Ryan, has timing finally worked out for Cary and Shiloh to reconcile their friendship and see if it can blossom into something more?

This was my first Rainbow Rowell book and while I’d definitely give her another chance, this one was not it for me. While the book was an easy read, I also was not super invested until the last 25% or so. I did enjoy reading a book about imperfect people, and people that showed they were imperfect, rather than just saying they felt that way. Junie was definitely the highlight of the book and both of Shiloh’s kids were absolutely precious. The 2006 touches throughout the book was fun, and I overall enjoyed the setting of the novel.

I found both of the main characters so incredibly frustrating, and the book was ripe with miscommunication. The book was very slow-moving and in-depth for the majority of the book and then the end went so quickly and there were conversations that I felt should have been had, but never happened. For example, Shiloh and Ryan’s rules around dating around the children were a major part of the conversation, but then that was suddenly forgotten at the end.

Cary and Shiloh are high school best friends. Two parts of a trio (completed by their friend Mikey) who grew up together on the wrong side of the tracks in 90s Omaha. After graduation they largely go their separate ways as high school friends often do. In 2006 they reunite at Mikey's wedding. Now in their 30s, Shiloh a single mother whose life doesn't look anything like she expected, and Cary, an officer in the navy, a path he always intended; the two are given a second chance, but will they take it?

Slow Dance is a familiar, comforting, but somehow fresh and different, friends to lovers romance. It reads like something of a John Hughes film in the absolute best way. Told with dual timelines, set in 2006 with flashbacks to their teen years in the 90s, the story is chock full of nostalgia and youthful missteps, the kind of almost romance that makes your heart pitter patter, or it did when you were 16, and realistic romance your heart recognizes in your 30s.

Rainbow Rowell is a favorite of mine, but it had been so long since I read one of her books I was almost a little nervous about how this read would go. I needn't have worried though as Slow Dance reminded me exactly why I love Rowell: she writes perfectly imperfect characters SO well! You can't help but get all tangled up in these characters and their story, cheering them on along the way. I loved this one and couldn't put it down once I started reading! One of those books I wanted to slow down and savor, but couldn't help but inhale as quickly as possible.

A moving second chance romance between two high school best friends who find themselves reunited at a friend's wedding. I loved the friendship between the two main characters and how they were always there for one another through ups and downs over the years. It was great on audio and highly recommended for fans of authors like Christina Lauren or Casey McQuiston. Many thanks to NetGalley and @Libro.fm for an early digital and ALC copy in exchange for my honest review!