Oh I enjoyed this. If you like a good slowburn, childhood friends, with light military, this is a great pick for you.

Slow Dance is an adult romance from Rainbow Rowell. You have Shiloh, a divorced mom of two living with her mother in North Omaha, and Cary, a career Naval Officer, who grew up together and have not seen each other since they were nineteen years old. The meet up again at the wedding of the third member of their high school group. The question is can they work past what made them stop talking. This is a story of miscommunication/lack of communication where each other thought they were doing the right thing and being clear but they were not.

Here you have two adults in their early thirties that have clearly grown since they were eighteen and didn't know what they wanted. This is so nice because so often with the miscommunication trope you get two adults that meet at the beginning of the story and it feels so unbelievable that the miscommunication is happening at that point. You end up wondering why they are behaving like teenagers in their thirties. With Slow Dance, it feels right and you have characters who spend the book breaking down the past and saying what they want and are willing to accept.

Rowell has the narrative bounce back and forth between current and flashback with most of the story in the current time. This is great because we get to see the relationship from back then and what caused the break without just being told. We also get both perspectives so we as the reader are understanding what each of them meant and how they actually received what they heard. I read this book in less than 24 hours and it has been a long time since I have done that. I have to say Rowell is just as good at adult stories and YA ones.

Unfortunately, this one was just not for me in spite of having been such a fan of Rainbow's backlist.

Rainbow Rowell's signature voice shines through in "Slow Dance". I was swept off my feet and immersed in the story from start to finish.

I actually adore everything Rainbow Rowell writes. Her books feel so singular and distinct and I think she brings a perspective that is so uniquely her to the page. In a world where a lot of romance novels can feel the same, hers always stand out for characters and backstories she creates.

Another amazing rainbow rowell book! It's not my favorite of hers but I loved the love in it and the writing of course as always was superb.

I am a big Rainbow Rowell fan but this book did not work out for me. This is the story about Siloh and Cary and they have been friends since childhood. This book was very slow burn and I liked it for the most part.

Dear readers,

I did not like this one ... Shiloh was insufferable as the fmc. She was negative, borderline emotionally abusive, and lacked chemistry with our mmc, Cary. Labeling this as a romance is criminal.

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell offers a nostalgic return to her signature themes of young love and awkward charm. Set during a high school dance, it’s sweet and familiar, with flashes of her trademark warmth and wit.

But for me, the magic didn’t quite hit—I’ve outgrown her style. It felt more like a memory than a story I could fully feel.

This is my second book by the author, the first being Attachments. I love her style of storytelling and this was skillfully written.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is Rowell doing what she does best...writing tender, nostalgic, emotionally layered stories about people who don’t quite know how to move on. The romance is understated but real, and the writing is so emotional. If you’ve ever loved someone for a long time but didn’t quite know how to say it, this will hit. Lots of yearning, but in a cozy, typical Rowell-esque way.

I've really enjoyed Rainbow Rowell's other writing and was therefore so excited to receive an ARC of SLOW DANCE, her latest adult novel, in exchange for my honest review.

SLOW DANCE tells the story of childhood friends, Shiloh and Cary, and how their lives and paths intertwine as they grow and change. I appreciated elements of this story - Rowell's writing is lovely as usual - but it felt a little slow at times for me. Overall, not my favorite of Rowell's but still a sweet and compelling read.

I sat on this one for entirely too long but I finally got an opportunity to pick it up. I love second chance romance and loved the ending of Shiloh and Cary’s story. I enjoyed seeing their background stories and how they ended up where they were. I did feel the story could have been shaved down a bit making it a shorter novel, but all in all I did enjoy it.

Not my favorite Rainbow Rowell book, but still one that made me want to wish for the happy ending. I'm glad it all worked out in the end...spoiler alert? LOL

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Slow Dance is such a well written romance book. It doesn't even feel like a romance book. It feels like a love story that could happen to you, your friend or your cousin. Romcoms are neat and happy. Slow Dance is messy and true to life. There are kids, an ex-husband, family issues, all the things that just make this feel like a true story, more slice of life. This is a second-chance romance meets slice of life fiction.

Rainbow’s writing in this book shows her trademark heart and emotion. This is a sweeping story that covers years of complex emotions and relationships. Very enjoyable to read!

While I wasn’t IN LOVE with this book, I do see the appeal! So if you adored this one that is amazing and I am so very happy for you. I think it was written well and a good story but I just lacked the ‘WANT’ to continue reading. I felt kind of disconnected from the characters and the little connection I did have I didn’t enjoy nearly enough. While I can handle miscommunication.. this story just had a little too much for me.

I haven't read any of Rowell's books before, but I've always heard great things. I think maybe this wasn't the right book to start with. While I loved the characters, the storytelling felt really repetitive to me. I get that it was supposed to be a slow-burn, but the pacing felt super slow. The jumping back and forth between time frames also felt confusing, so I felt taken out of the story at odd moments. I know these types of books rely on a lot of the same themes, but this one just had too many for me (homely girl is beautiful in boy's eyes, lots of obstacles in the way of the couple, plenty of misunderstandings that keep them apart, gay best friend, etc.). It's not that I won't give her other books a try, but at this point, I'm kind of skeptical that she's a writer I would enjoy reading.

A friends-to-lovers romance that gave "Will they, or won't they?" up until the very end! Truly had no idea where the story would end up (even with a very frustrating FMC).

This was a sweet, slow romance. I appreciated the build, and my favorite bits were the moments of the two main characters in high school, and how the ways they related to each other then versus now were both different but also very similar.