I really, REALLY, tried to like those book. Rainbow Rowell write all ages of characters and writes them well, but Shiloh and Cary are 33 year old characters who behave and speak like 60 year olds.

The mundane love story and oddly old language made this book very boring to read. There's no chemistry between the leads, just uncomfortable fumbling and constant misunderstandings. And while I like imperfect love stories, SLOW DANCE was a bit too awkward to engage me.

DNF at 21%

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell is a second change romance between Shiloh (F) and Cary (M), told in a past/present timeline. The before starts in 1991 when they are high school seniors. The now is 2006. In the now, Shiloh is invited to a High School friend's wedding, where she sees Cary again after years of not speaking. They were almost together in HS, sort of together for a weekend in college, and now they may have a shot at making it work again, but now, Shiloh is a single mom and Cary is still in the Navy and only in town for the wedding. Still, something is between them that has lasted through the years, and all they need to do is figure out if they are meant to be together or meant to remain friends. These characters are real and flawed and hopeless, which is what makes a Rainbow Rowell book so great, in my opinion. RR does so well with authentic characters and pithy dialogue. The miscommunication trope is strong in this one. Just have a conversation! But who wants to have the hard talks? I have loved Rainbow Rowell since Eleanor and Park, and this one brings back all the vibes of that book, only more adult. Fans of RR will not be disappointed!

Slow Dance is a near perfect love story in my opinion. Three high school friends stay friends for life and readers get to follow them through the years. All the characters and situations were so well written they felt real. Highly recommended!

3.5 stars, rounded up

Rainbow Rowell continues to deliver amazing, sweet, realistic romance. This one focuses on Shiloh and Cary, high school best friends who never got their “Some Kind of Wonderful” moment, had a brief affair and severe miscommunication in college, and have continued to pine ever since. They meet again in their mid-thirties, at a mutual friend’s wedding reception. The sparks are still there, but is it too late?

The romance is believable and lovely. The last 20% of the book felt like filler/epilogue, though? It worked, it cleanly wrapped everything up, it just felt off in terms of pacing, particularly in comparison to everything that had gone before.

It’s decent, but not Rowell’s best.

I enjoyed this one so, so much. Shiloh and Cary's love for one another felt like a separate character in the book – this big thing that the two of them carried around and nurtured throughout their lives. It's that first big love, first true connection feeling that is unforgettable. At times, it felt hard to breathe while I was reading this. That's how much you feel the connection between them as the story progresses. Their high school hesitations and college miscommunications felt typical of that time in their lives, so while agonizing to read, their decisions made sense because of how similar Shiloh and Cary were. Watching them navigate their choices as they grew up, constantly pushing forward toward one another, had me rooting for them. I'll be thinking about this book for a while and will likely reread it soon.

Thank you to author Rainbow Rowell, publisher William Morrow, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of Slow Dance in exchange for my review.

This was really cute and I enjoyed it a lot! Especially the first half. I do think it drags a bit at the end but I think that this is a fresh approach to the friends to lovers/something happens where they don't talk for a while trope.

This is the first book by Rainbow Rowell that I have read, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Believe me when I say that I was blown away - this book gave me ALL the feels! I loved it so much that I devoured it in a day and then immediately regretted that I finished it so fast. Shiloh and Cary are now one of my favorite all time literary couples. The nostalgia, the romance, the drama...I loved every bit of it. This is one that I will be recommending to anyone who will listen!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell. How can you not love books by Rowell? This is about two best friends, Cary and Shiloh who go there separate ways after high school Cary joins the Navy and Shiloh gets the acting bug after college. Even though they went in different directions, they vowed they wouldn’t lose touch. Now it’s been fourteen years. Shiloh is divorced with kids and has moved back to the house she grew up in. An upcoming wedding has Shiloh wondering if Cary will be there and if he would still want to talk to her after all this time and everything that’s happened. I read an article where Rowell discussed this book and described it like adults going to a prom, meaning it’s this big event that a lot of people look forward too. I thought that was a neat comparison. I definitely recommend this book.

3.5 stars:
After a slow start I became invested in knowing the ending of this story. These characters were flawed, messy, and real, and their relationship was the same. This wasn’t a sparkly, idealistic romance, it was gritty and realistic. Read if you’re tired of tropes and looking for something that feels like real life.

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