Thank you to William Morrow and Netgalley for this advanced copy!

I love Rainbow Rowell. She creates just these perfect novels that are all of the emotions (but usually end happily) and tell stories of two imperfect people being perfect for each other in an imperfect world. Shiloh and Cary are so wonderful and I loved how Rowell used the back and forth in the chapters to give readers insight into their past relationship as a way of understanding their current relationship. The throwbacks jumped around a bit, but I didn't find them jarring or hard to follow, instead they were the perfect level of informative and lovely. At times I thought the two of them were a little hesitant with each other, but as the book went on I appreciated where the characters were coming from to get a sense of where they were going.

I honestly just wanted to hug Shiloh and Cary through most of this book. It was wonderful. I stayed up late to read it. Rowell is a must read for me, forever and always.

I'm just a simple gal with a deep love for Rainbow Rowell books. So when I saw her latest adult title, you better believe I added it to my TBR faster than you can say "fangirl."

I was excited to get my hands on a copy, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. I devoured this book in two sittings, which is unusual for me.

Shiloh and Carey's relationship had me swooning and laughing out loud. Sure, there were some moments that made me want to shake them for not communicating properly, but hey, that's real life for you. And it only added to the charm of the story.

I had missed Rowell's writing, and this book was like a warm hug. Do yourself a favor and pick it up ASAP. You won't regret it.

Big thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for giving me the chance to read this gem of a book early!

Normally, I struggle if the MC is an odd/quirky character. I’m not sure why since I love when they’re supporting characters so once I realized Shiloh fell into that category, I kept my fingers crossed for a story I would enjoy. Shiloh wasn’t always likeable and she did drive me a bit crazy, but I loved her honesty about herself and what she needed.

Miscommunication is my least favorite trope, but this one worked for me. I enjoyed learning about Shiloh & Cary from the alternating perspective of past and present.

The book felt a little long. I reached one point where I thought surely we’re getting near the end and could I stay up and finish it? Checked my kindle and no, I wasn’t that close to the end. I do like how it ended, but it definitely could’ve been shorter.

3.75 stars

I could not put this book down. I have always loved Rainbow Rowell's characters, they have so much uniqueness and dimension. Slow Dance was did not disappoint. I love the dual timelines and POVs. Shiloh and Cary were everything, but I loved the supporting characters too.
While it was not outright said, there did feel like an underlying neurodivergence in both main characters. I could relate to Shiloh and the way she often felt left out, different or too loud. Honestly, even with her choice of husband and getting married. She never saw herself in the best light, rather just the way those around her thoughts and judgements.
Cary too was a little different, quiet and fighting his own battles. Dedicated and responsible because of his upbringing and fighting for the family he did love.
The friends to lover theme was so well done, so much more than other romance books I have read. It felt real and messy, but perfect. There was the perfect amount of spice and drama. Loved it so much.

Tells the story of Cary and Shiloh follows them through high school when they were best friends to in their 30s trying to figure out life, family and love

3.5

Slow Dance is a slow burn. Shiloh and Cary were best friends in high school, but haven't spoken in 14 years. This book explores their relationship in dual timelines, going back and forth between the past and present. It goes through their friendship in high school and the beginnings of college, and shows what happened and why they haven't spoken in so long. The present starts with them reuniting at a friend's wedding, and goes through the beginning stages of a relationship everyone thought they should have been in years ago.

While the setting and story are great, the characters can be so damn frustrating at times. I get that teenagers can be irrational and incapable of having a real conversation, but you'd think after 14 years people would have done some growing up in that department. But even after all that time, Shiloh and Cary are still incapable of having a conversation. There's lots of them getting upset with each other, but neither of them can use their words as to why they're upset. I get that some adults are also incapable in this area, but my god it gets so annoying, especially because Shiloh just assumes everything is terrible and won't work and half the time is actively trying to sabotage things. Even when Cary is attempting to talk to her, she just doesn't comprehend stuff, which made it hard to like her at times.

Though the miscommunication between Shiloh and Cary is extra frustrating, I did like the second chance at romance they got. There are also a lot of good side characters to be had, and I enjoyed the times they were featured, especially because it gave a nice break from Shiloh and Cary and their epic failures at talking. I think people who enjoy slow burn romances will enjoy this; just be prepared that it can feel beyond slow at times.

Thanks to @williammorrowbooks for an advance copy of Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell, out July 24th! I was so excited to hear she was coming out with another novel and couldn’t wait to pick it up.

It’s been almost a decade since I last read Rainbow Rowell— Landline! Attachments!!! — and it felt like catching up with an old friend. I fell into this story from the first pages and didn’t want it to end.

Brought together for the first time in fourteen years by their best friend’s wedding, Cary and Shiloh are finally forced to confront the feelings they’ve been running from. Cary and Shiloh are the epitome of “It’s always been you,” and their story is told in dual timeline as they revisit the past and determine where they go from here. I STAN AN EPISTOLARY NOVEL and this one delivers (with baked goods!).

I did find it jarring that the novel is very clearly set in the 90s/00s because the references made my millennial brain short circuit, but that’s an issue for another time. In a lot of ways, this book felt like a love letter to Rowell’s home of Omaha, and to the idea that in spite of what they say, you can go home again. Rowell continues to write stories that feel real and messy and romantic all at once, and while I thought that she was exclusively focusing on YA these days, this novel signals that she’s still got adult stories to tell, and I for one couldn’t be more pumped.

3.75 stars. I was absolutely thrilled to get the chance to read an eARC copy of Rainbow Rowell's new book, as I was such a fan of this author's work growing up. She mentions in her blog that she thinks of this as the older sibling to Eleanor & Park. While I loved Eleanor & Park as a teen, Slow Dance didn't give me the same amazing feelings I remember from my youth (though I haven't reread it since, so I might feel differently now). The last half/third of the book really picked up speed and had me hooked, and saved the book for me. I found the FMC Shiloh to be...irritating and hard to identify with. Perhaps I'd feel differently if I was also a divorced single mom, but even the teen flashbacks had me shirking of secondhand embarrassment. We really do see Shiloh grow though throughout the years (...slowly), and that's the beauty of this book. Rainbow Rowell has a talent for writing about REAL people; she always has, and that's what makes her writing so special and so loved by so many readers. If you're a fan of Rowell's past work, I would encourage you to pick up this one too, especially to readers who love a second-chance romance/rekindling story. A big thank you to William Morrow publishing and NetGalley for the eARC, and for the opportunity to leave an honest, voluntary review.

This “Slow Dance” was unfortunately too slow for me. It just felt cumbersome, and I couldn’t get into it. I love so many of the author’s other books, but this one wasn’t for me. DNF.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

This book is such a huge departure from some of her work I’ve read recently, specifically her book ‘Attachments.’
Rowell always has a “sunshine” MC or Love Interest, and Shiloh and Cary both dump water on that trend and entrench themselves in clouds of teenage angst and communication barriers.
One peeve of mine was that Shiloh‘s constant derision of Cary’s decision to join the Navy, while understandable from a high school perspective,can really be overly repetitive and make her seem more petulant and harder to relate to that I think Rowell might have intended.
Both Shiloh and Carrie are much easier to hang out with in the present day chapters and I think that Rowell does a great job of showing the growth they’ve had to endure as a result of their circumstances. However, I think one of my issues is that especially for Shiloh all the changes that she’s gone through have been forced upon her and haven’t been part of a journey that she’s consciously undertaken making her seem like someone who maybe hasn’t changed that much at heart.
My favorite character throughout the book is Mikey. He abuse every scene with so much energy and I wish he had been more of a presence throughout the book because his contrast to Shiloh and Cary provides a lot of context and balance whereas when it’s just Shiloh and Cary together on a page, their mutual irritability can sometimes overwhelmed you.
Where this book really kicks into high gear is in the emails that they sent to each other while Cary is deployed. Rowell shines when she gets to transform her novels into letters and emails and it’s what I loved the most about her book “attachments.”

My Grade: D ⭐️⭐️

Overall Impression: I am a huge fan of the authors YA Lit, but this book just wasn't for me. The miscommunication trope was so overdone that it became uncomfortable to read. Combined with a very unlikeable FMC, I unfortunately cannot recommend this book.

What I Loved:
~The character of Mikey was wonderful and a much needed stability in the chaos.
~Childhood friends to lovers and second chance are two of my favorite tropes.
~Military (Navy) representation.

What I Didn't Love:
~The FMC Shiloh was incredibly off putting and I just could not connect with her. Was she just quirky or was there some unaddressed mental issue happening?
~The dynamic between her and Cary made zero sense, and the constant arguing and miscommunication became impossible to read. This is one situation that I didn't want a HEA.
~Repetitive flashbacks.
~Really awkward sex scenes. How many times can he mention that he wants to 'fuck her crooked teeth'?
-The dialog coming from Shiloh's children was really weird and unrealistic.

Well that was wonderful. Rainbow Rowell has such an amazing way of breathing life into her characters. They feel real and flawed and tragic but are still lovable and interesting. I always find myself rooting for the characters in her books.

Shiloh and Cary and Mikey were in school about the same time I was and a lot of this book felt very familiar to me. I spent a lot of time in drama and yearbook classrooms while I was a teen. I want to be friends with them.

I am so happy that Cary and Shiloh found their way back to each other. I’m also happy that it felt like a real relationship. It didn’t seem too easy and that’s what made it genuine and authentic.

Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins for the advanced copy.

Rainbow Rowell's writing just hits . I was immediately drawn in and totally engrossed.

As the title would suggest, this is a slow burn. This is a slow and steady romance about missed opportunities, second chances, and finding the right timing. Shiloh and Cary's journey is messy and poignant and bittersweet, and I loved reading it.

As much as I loved it, the plot did drag a tiny bit towards the middle. The writing switches back and forth between timelines and perspectives and in the middle it felt like we were just rehashing some of the same angst from just a slightly different angle. Some people might love that, but it got a little repetitive for me.

I binged this in a day!!! 4.5 - 4.75 ⭐️

A beautiful story about two best friends who fell in love before they even truly understood what love meant. Rowell does a great job at balancing the past and present chapters. A will they won’t they vibe that keeps the edge of your seat.. I COULD NOT PUT THIS ONE DOWN. I love the past chapters took place in the 90s and present chapters in the early 2000s it felt so nostalgic. Not a perfect love story, but a breathtakingly beautiful one! Fans of Before We Were Strangers WILL EAT THIS UP!!

For my Taylor swift fans: The entire time I was reading this all I kept thinking was that this book was SO “Peter + I Look at People’s Windows” coded!!!!😭🫶🏼

Rainbow Rowell does it again! Slow Dance is the cute tale of two high school best friends who don’t realize they are in love, allow themselves to drift apart after graduation, miss their second chance connection, and then finally come back together at a high school friends’s wedding many years later.

The characters Rowell writes are just regular people with their own issues and quirks, making them feel very genuine. The two main characters in this book had rough upbringings but find happiness and love despite it all. You can’t help but root for them even throughout multiple miscommunications and missed connections.

I’ve enjoyed many of Rainbow Rowell’s rom coms and I hope there are more to come!

THANK YOU to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Grab your copy on July 23rd!

2.75 ⭐️

I don’t think this was a bad book, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I think fans of ‘alone with you in the ether’ and ‘normal people’ might like this a lot actually. A lot of repetitive words, short sentences, periods and exclamation points! Perhaps that’s just the style of writing the author chose to go with but it wasn’t my favorite.

These characters felt so real, although I didn’t really like them. I liked that they weren’t “perfect” physically. They had normal things like body hair, crooked teeth, scars, etc.

I found Shiloh really annoying, her “don’t tell me what to do” attitude, especially in the before chapters made her difficult to like. The way she was constantly poking/grabbing/touching Cary and wanting to ruin his clothes, bite him, and literally set him on fire.. like what?? Both of them were extremely reticent which caused so much miscommunication and misunderstanding and it just kept on repeating. I didn’t really care for them to even be together.

This was my first read from Rainbow Rowell but I’ve heard great things about her YA novels so I’m open to trying those in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the arc

A bit of a slow start for me, but overall going to give this a 4 out of 5. Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC.

The title of Slow Dance is one of the most accurate book titles I have seen, because boy oh boy is this a slow burn. A friend-for-decades-to-maybe-sorta-lovers-then-not-then-yes story. This story is very character driven and Rainbow Rowell is a master of writing human emotions and internal conflicts.

Each chapter switches between perspectives and timelines, which at first can be a bit confusing but obviously things come together the longer you go through. Shiloh reminds me a lot of myself, so there was a degree of secondhand embarrassment I experienced while reading this, because I saw so much of myself in the thoughts and decisions Shiloh would make. In the middle of the story it got really stagnant, because you just went around in a cycle of non-development of their relationship which made it tricky to get through, but it resolves itself in the end.

Overall a cute read.

Slow Dance is one of those books that is less a story that you're reading and more of a journey you are going on with the characters. Cary and Shiloh have been the best of friends (along with Mikey) since high school, though they had hidden feelings for each other then, and went their separate ways after graduation.

The story is told in vignettes, flashing back and forward in the timeline and between Cary's and Shiloh's perspectives, letting the reader know just how into each other Shiloh and Cary really are (which somehow the two of them don't realize, even though everyone else seems to know).

Slow Dance is NOT the title just because Shiloh is self conscious and hates to dance. It has to be a reference to the story itself. Rainbow Rowell takes such care with her characters, and their journey through their own lives and to each other is the best kind of slow (burn) dance. Cary and Shiloh are just so REAL. Reading their story is like reading the HEA of friend that you grew up with that didn't have the easiest life, but finally ended up with happiness, while you were cheering them on the whole while as they changed, grew, and finally actualized into their happy, adult selves.

I just loved it. I finished it before bed last night, and was still thinking about it when I woke up this morning. I am so much of a character driven reader, and Rowell's are just SO dimensional. Slow Dance is a lovingly written and hopeful tale, different from the average romance, and I'm 100% here for it.

Thank you to Netgally and William Morrow for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My 15 year old self is screaming - a new Rainbow Rowell romance, especially a contemporary adult one? While I haven't kept up with the Simon Snow series, I always remember being charmed by Rainbow Rowell's books. Naturally, I was super excited to pick this one up.

Slow Dance is about Shiloh, an educational director at a local children's theater, and Cary, a sailor fifteen years into his career in the Navy. After not speaking for fourteen years, Cary and Shiloh meet at a friend's wedding. After that night, the fourteen years of silence feel both insurmountable and senseless - how different are they, and who are they to each other now? Told through dual-timeline and split-POV, we follow Shiloh and Cary's relationship from high school to thirty-three. Can they find each other again, as life seems to slip from the fingers? Can they heal from their past to save their relationship?

I really liked Slow Dance. It felt much more like a contemporary fiction book with romance as a central plot point. Because this doesn't follow the same three act structure as most popular romance novels, we are able to explore the flaws and conflicts beneath the chemistry. I love that even though they fall toward their romance impractically, the main conflicts are so practical - Shiloh has kids, Cary lives on a boat wherever the Navy takes him. Neither of them can admit their feelings at the right time, and communication is shaky at best.

While I enjoyed this immensely and liked the flawed nature of their relationship, I couldn't help but get annoyed at the extent of their miscommunication. It wasn't just that certain feelings or memories were left out of their conversations, but rather that one character did not consult the other in some big life decisions, and assumed that everyone else would be on board. That stressed me out because I saw not just an inability to explain feelings but a blatant disregard for the other character's autonomy. Maybe I just have certain feelings about proposals, but that plot point stressed me out!

Read this if you like stories about lifelong connections and complicated family history, a la Seven Days in June.

I have loved Rainbow Rowell’s books since the first (and second, and third) time I sat down to read Fangirl. While it took me a minute to get into her style again, I was drawn in by the characters who were so real and flawed, it made it hard not to be invested. Shiloh and Cary may not be perfect, but they are perfect for each other. Their story was written so tenderly and with so much care there were times there were tears coming to my eyes. Though there were moments where I just wanted to shake them and tell them they belong together, they walked their own path and got there just in time.