I found this piece to be exceptionally well-crafted, and I'm eagerly anticipating the opportunity to delve into more works by this author. Given its potential popularity among our library patrons, we're certainly looking forward to adding it to our collection

Slow Dance is a poignant and beautifully crafted story of love, friendship, and the passage of time.
Shiloh and Cary were once inseparable, dreaming of futures beyond their small town. But as life took them in different directions, their friendship faded into distant memory. Now, years later, with lives that look nothing like they imagined, they find themselves drawn back together by the pull of old memories and unspoken feelings.
The author masterfully captures the bittersweet essence of lost love and the longing for what could have been. Through Shiloh and Cary's journey of rediscovery, we are reminded of the enduring power of connection and the resilience of the human heart.
Slow Dance is a tender and heartfelt exploration of second chances and the complexities of growing up. It's a story that will linger in your mind long after you've turned the last page, reminding you of the beauty found in the most unexpected places.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Rainbow Rowell, keep breaking my heart with your books! Slow Dance is romantic, it's nostalgic and it's heartbreakingly lovely. It's a second-chance romance without feeling trope-y, with two characters who are both determined to get in their own way and *still* keep sliding towards each other. The writing and story pulled me right in and took me along for the ride, peeking through time at Shiloh and Cary in high school, Shiloh and Cary in college, and now 14 years later, in 2006, reunited as adults. I loved the way Rowell flips through each of these vignettes, each one bringing more depth and context to the way these characters move around each other and through life. I loved the way you get to see these characters change and stay the same all at once, how reuniting forces both of them to take control of their lives and themselves in new ways. Rowell is the queen of character-driven stories and Slow Dance is one of her best yet. I loved it and highly recommend.

**Many thanks to the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Rainbow Rowell has done it again. I didn't think I could love her stories, her characters, her dialogue any more... but this was so lovely!

Loved it! Such a beautiful, nostalgia filled story. I loved the little flashbacks. It was painful but also beautiful to experience the story of a couple who has loved one another when they were kids and, as adults, face the reality of the time that was wasted. A lovely reminder that you can always change course and not to let a second chance pass you by.

Ratings
Quality of Writing 5/5
Pacing 4/5
Plot Development 4/5
Character Development 5/5
Overall Enjoyability 5/5

Thank you NetGalley for the fre ARC in return for an honest review.

Rowell writes great characters and dialogue. I enjoyed the banter between Cary and Shiloh… and Mikey. As their relationship progressed, I was so worried something wouldn’t work out. I recommend this to fans of Emily Henry. Romance for moms.

i read this book as slowly as possible because i couldn’t bear for it to end. this was the most beautiful love story i’ve ever read. i want to read it again and again and again. rainbow rowell’s “fangirl” changed my life when i was a teenager and sent me down the english major/writer path that im on today. and reading this book just confirms to me that i made the right decision and that she is and always will be my favorite writer. goddamn.

Landline one of my favorites and Slow Dance did not disappointl. and SLOW DANCE did not disappoint! The characters were so real, so achingly authentic and relatable, that I was rooting for them from page one.

Thank you NetGalley.

I received a copy of this book as an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. Slow Dance is told in a way that mimics a slow dance, meandering back and forth between the past when the main characters (Shiloh and Cary) are 16-20 years old and in the "present" (2006) when they are 33. Shiloh is an interesting main female character in that her eyebrows are a little to thick, she's not perfectly thin nor exactly fat, her dark hair is very thick and long (usually) and she has strong opinions which may be uninformed. She was raised by a single mother who works in an airport bar in Omaha. She is described as "too much", "incessant", and quite frankly half the time I found her unlikeable and unnecessarily miserable, yet I still rooted for her. Instead of manic pixie dream girl, I think she was more manic super-tall chaos agent. But by the end of the book I was fond of her.

Cary is a stoic, serious, handsome guy who's hair smells of apples when he is young. He joins the Navy immediately out of high school as a way to earn a living and get away from his fractured home life (he finds out the woman he thought was his mom is actually his biological grandmother, and his "sister" is really his mom).

Cary, Mikey, and Shiloh are inseparable best friends when they are younger and this story shows them falling in and out of love, navigating life sometimes together and other times apart, and drives home the fact you can't make new old friends. There is a lot of untraditional home life depicted in this story and the characters are very well developed. I don't want to give too much away because I think the story developing and unfolding is what makes it shine.

Somewhat YA, somewhat women's lit, somewhat romance, this book has elements that I think will allow it to be appreciated by a wide audience. Definitely light enough to be a beach read but deep enough to keep you interested.

Oh my god I loved this! I love a sweeping, torturously slow burn friends-to-lovers romance that takes place over years and years. Rowell's prose is sparse but specific and cutting. It's clever, but never silly. Shiloh and Cary felt 100% like real people, just so perfectly drawn, perfect for each other but in imperfect circumstances that requires a lot of growth on each of their parts. I loved the title and the conceit, I loved how the narrative took us out of order between years and perspectives. It's a character study for sure without a fast-moving plot, but if you love Normal People or even Emily Henry I think you'll love this as much as I did. Just gorgeous.

Thank you to William Morrow and Net Galley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read other books by Rainbow Rowell and I always find them entertaining and worth a read and Slow Dance was no different. I enjoyed the pace of this book and the short chapters. It was a quick, cute, and loving story. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t my favorite Rainbow Rowell book.

A heartfelt and intimate second chance love story with layered characters and an engaging plot, this was quintessential Rainbow Rowell. A fantastic contemporary romance that I will definitely be rereading time and time again. Would definitely recommend!

I read this book through NetGalley.

I really don’t have much to say other than this was okay. I didn’t connect with the characters and some of the chapters were short and choppy. It was cute. But just okay.

I loved getting to read this ARC. Slow Dance was one of those books that as soon as I started I could not put it down until I finished it. I was immediately sucked into Shiloh and Cary's world and I just wanted to keep reading to learn more about them. I don't typically like books that do flashbacks or time jumps this frequently, but in this case I did like getting to see glimmers of their relationship then compared to now. The last 10-15% of the book did go by really fast details wise compared to the others and I would have loved more detail but I do think it added to the slow burn feeling that once things were out in the open between them it just sped right up.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6467548104
StoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/9d20518a-30d0-4b5a-a68e-e072ea55d4e2

This was a relatable story with characters that felt like they were in real situations. The book did drag a little with the repetitive nature of the meet ups and flashbacks. Overall, library patrons should enjoy this story.

Oh, this story tugged so much at my heartstrings. After a close childhood friendship and some rocky college events, estranged friends Shiloh and Cary reconnect as adults at a close friend's wedding 14 years later. Shiloh is now a divorced mother of two young children, and Cary is a Naval officer who is posted on a ship for six months at a time 2000 miles away from where Shiloh still lives in their hometown. Over the course of this wonderful story, prickly Shiloh comes to understand that Cary is her person, something that quiet Cary has always known about Shiloh. And Cary comes to understand that Shiloh is worth fighting for and being honest with. I guess you'd call this a second chance romance, and honestly it has my favorite trope which is childhood friends-to-lovers. Also, I originally thought maybe grumpy/sunshine, but really it's grumpy/grumpy (which I also love). They seemed opposites attract at first: Shiloh was a little too much when she was younger, in that way that energetic and intelligent girls are who don't fit with their surroundings but can't leave; and Cary was her calmer counter-part. But as we watch them get older they seemed more like two sides of the same coin, wounded by their families and life and looking for acceptance and love and friendship while dealing with their own demons. When you know people through the stages of your life, it can be tricky for both of you to be at the same emotional place at the same time. Throughout the course of the book, we see this to be true for both Cary and Shiloh, although they realize this at different times. I liked that their reactions to each other were realistic, and I liked that they didn't have all the answers but still saw the value in trying.

I really enjoyed this poignant and at times bittersweet story, and I loved watching the journey they went on. Hopefully it's not a spoiler to say they finally got their HEA, thank goodness. Just a warning that the POV kept changing, which was a little confusing at times but I'm very glad we got to see both perspectives. I liked the use of flashbacks to fill out pieces in their backstory and to further inform why Shiloh and Cary were drawn together as children and then back together as adults. I have read this author in the past and enjoyed her immensely (I highly recommend "Attachments"), and this newest book did not disappoint. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book, this is my honest and objective review.

I was absolutely overjoyed when I saw that Rainbow Rowell had a new adult fiction novel coming out and even more so when my request to read and review an early copy was granted!

Slow Dance is an absolute slow burn of a romance with a non chronological timeline showing the beginning of Shiloh and Cary's friendship and how it developed, or stagnated over time. Shiloh is a recently divorced mom of two who has recently moved back to her hometown to live with her mother. When her high school best friend Mikey invites her to his second wedding she cautiously accepts because well, she loves Mikey and this one is close to home, but also because she is hoping to see her other best friend, the third part of their higschool trio, Cary.

One slow dance at their best friend's wedding unlocks both of their lives to the possibility of second chance romance and the ability to make up for and learn from all of their past mistakes. Both Shiloh and Cary felt like very real, fleshed out people to me and I was yelling at them and fighting for them up until the very end.

I am so happy that Rainbow is back with adult fiction for us <3

I devoured this book. I love this trope and everything about it. The writing was done so well and kept the story moving through multiple timelines and characters. It was heartbreaking, tender, frustrating, enlightening and beautiful. The book had strong themes of growing up, learning how to communicate and accepting what makes you most happy even if it isn’t the easiest path. I thought the relationship was beautiful and I just wanted more of it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of <i>Slow Dance</i> by Rainbow Rowell.

<i>Slow Dance</i> by Rainbow Rowell was an incredibly sweet read that brought a lot of high school nostalgia and angst. I loved the back and forth of the time lines of "before" and then current day to show the growth of the characters bond and love for one another. It was clear the main characters were very much in each others corners from the get go and would do anything for one another. I was slightly disappointed with how quickly the ending seemed to pass. It felt like all the previous chapters had some length to them and then all of a sudden, the chapters at the end were just a page or two and then bam, it was all over. This was an overall enjoyable read that seemed to go by too quickly and I am sad it ended and I had to say goodbye to this lovely story.

Slow Dance… so aptly named, is like a slow dance. I’ve always enjoyed Rainbow Rowell and this one did not disappoint.

Shiloh and Cary grew up together and drifted apart. This book explores what happens when they are together again and pursue the “what might have been.”

I loved this book and its quirky characters. It took me a little while to get a grasp on who Shiloh is but once I understood her, I couldn’t help but love her. I highly recommend this one!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this free digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review!