Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this title. Rainbow Rowell does it again. She has written such a beautiful book.

Rainbow Rowell is my comfort author. Everything she writes is just instantly nostalgic and all-encompassing and Slow Dance is no different. This book is everything I love about Rowell’s writing and more. I don’t need fancy plots and sweeping storylines - just give me two fundamentally flawed characters learning and growing together, and I’m a happy girl. Slow Dance gives you that in droves. It’s a slow burn of monologues and frustrating interactions, but it’s real and it’s honest. They’re just two people in different stages of their lives and it’s such a beautifully raw story.

Watching Cary and Shiloh's love story unfold, in both the present and the past, is just magical. This story is told is dual timelines which doesn’t always work for me, but it’s critical here and done exceedingly well. You have to see how Cary and Shiloh were as teenagers to understand their hesitations in the present. I especially enjoyed Shiloh's character as she evolves and opens back up with Cary - I love how honest she is about her experiences and her fears. And I love how Cary's guards continue to slip ever so slightly. There's moments that peak out where you're just like "oh, Cary's secretly a freak," and it's just fun. Shiloh is Simon-esque at times, and it’s fun seeing aspects and continuations of stories and characters I love brought through in her writing.

I also adored all of the side characters too, especially how Cary interacted with Shiloh’s kids. Both of them have serious familial trauma, but I loved how it expands on the reality that when you’re a teen, you don’t know everything about your parents, and growing up is realizing that no one has their lives together.

At its core, this story is a romcom. It will make you laugh, and it will bring you to tears. It’s unfailingly honest and breathtakingly beautiful. I already know this will be a story that I want to come back to over and over again.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy!

Slow Dance is a slow burn romance between high school best friends Shiloh and Cary who reconnect in their thirties after spending fourteen years apart.

Shiloh is a single mom and Cary is in the navy. They start by rekindling their friendship and then try to figure out how to find time and space for romance while dealing with all the normal struggles of adults in their thirties.

Their story was down to earth in a way that I think will be more relatable to a lot of readers than the many, many romances set in NYC and LA. I liked that it was set in Omaha, NE of all places.

I did feel that it was probably 100 pages too long and dragged for me at times. And the language occasionally felt a little clunky – I’m thinking of a number of mentions of Shiloh’s sexy crooked teeth …..

Fans of Rainbow Rowell and fans of slow burn romances are sure to enjoy this sweet and realistic romance.

I'm a fan of Ms Rowell. So I enjoyed this book she always does terrific characterization, you want to know about all her characters. She also excels in her settings, the descriptions are always thorough and detailed for the location and time-period, so the reader is full immersed in the story.

What a read. this reminds me of Rowell's best books--the characters shimmer, the world is real, and the moments stay with you. A heartfelt, comforting, memorable read that aches with nostalgia and love.

2.5
Middle of the road read.
I liked some of the flashbacks and the awkward feeling of being a teenager and how to show feelings without being too vulnerable or having "an out".
But then they didn't actually grow up. Adult Shiloh was unlikable and difficult, average looking slob. Their marriage ending up showing business arrangement vs childhood safe place that became love.
None of the adults actually seemed like they had changed and grown up.
Junie was a bright light of entertainment when she was around.

Imagine the most annoying theater kid in your school as the main character in a rom com. That’s how I felt reading this book, which was a little too long, a little too angsty, and a little too reliant on flashbacks to try to tell a compelling story. I didn’t understand why the two main characters couldn’t be together, even though I wasn’t necessarily rooting for them to be together either. While there were some beautifully written lines, this was unfortunately my least favorite Rainbow Rowell.

This one didn't pull me in quite as fast as her other work has - maybe it's been too long, but it felt like the pacing was a bit off. I enjoyed her YA books more. This one made me kinda sad, so it wasn't the right book for my current phase of life.

I have been waiting for years for Rainbow Rowell to publish another adult book. I love the banter she writes between her characters. She does banter with the best of writers. The story of the relationship between Cary and Shiloh was sweet and I loved how it covered so many years. I gave the book 4 stars for the banter and just because I am so happy to have another Rainbow Rowell book. The aspect of the book at wasn't as satisfactory to me was that the challenges the leads characters faced were not really believably significant challenges in my mind. All said, though, I really enjoyed the book and can't wait for Ms. Rowell to publish another!!

Rainbow Rowell has wrote some AMAZING books that I absolutely loved and devoured. Slow Dance is not one of them.

It does start out great. Gets you hooked in the first couple chapters then... fizzles out.

Chapters are short and flow easily. Easy to read.

The timeline jumps around a lot which isn't enjoyable.

The story was just awkward. Wasnt my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Carry On series will be my forever favorite Rainbow Rowell series. I do think she writes enjoyable adult books, but once again her strength is in YA.

Personally, this book just didn't vibe with me. 😬 I've always enjoyed Rowells books! And I'm so bummed with how I feel about this one.

I really liked Cary and felt like he deserved so much more in everything. He had a good story. Navy, resolving family issues, friendships.

I won't get into great detail, but a couple things that bugged me...

Shiloh... 🫣 I just couldn't get into this character. The way she acted, the way she talked... I kept forgetting she was a 33 year old single mother. The flashbacks made sense with how she acted in high-school, but it was like she acted the same way.

The intimate scenes were pretty cringy. It was like a fluffy, cute read and then suddenly throwing out the f word, and d word. (Don't get me wrong, I read lottts of romance so it's nothing new) but for the tone of the book, it felt like to much. Like it was trying to hard to be romance spiceyness when the whole book was not.

While I did like the flashbacks, it felt like it jumped around a lot. Not in any order. Though I understand a lot of times it would relate to the present situation. But still threw me off sometimes. And also I'm not sure how far into the book it was, but all of a sudden it was Cary's POV?? That was a twist I didn't see coming 🤨

Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a huge fan of Rainbow Rowell since first reading Eleanor and Park so many years ago -- so I was so excited to get an early copy of this book. I absolutely loved it and instantly missed Shiloh and Cary.

It has been fifteen years since their high school graduation when Shiloh sees Cary at the wedding of their good friend Mickey. They haven't spoken in fourteen years, and it is emotionally charged for both of them. Shiloh has two young kids and is still reeling from her divorce, and Cary is in the Navy and has moved around for the past fifteen years. The book switches between present day, and moments in the past, including high school, college, and as adults.

My favorite part of this book was Shiloh and Cary -- I loved both their characters so much. While I could see their flaws, I also could see where they came from, and it made me have so much empathy for them. I loved the side characters too, I loved Mickey, and loved Junie and Gus.

I think Rainbow Rowell really nails what it's like to be a teenager and in college -- all those emotions and hormones and feelings that seem so much bigger than yourself.

I would recommend this book to anyone who can handle a little second hand embarrassment in their rom com. I couldn't put it down and the short chapters made me race through to see how it would all come together.

I continue to be a huge Rainbow Rowell fan and cannot wait to read whatever she writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Rowell writes well from the female point-of-view. This romance was fun, while being grounded in real life for the characters. I thought the exploration of a military/navy element to the relationship was interesting. At times the barriers between the two main characters were tiresome. I always enjoy when Rowell includes multi-media elements like email.

Rainbow Rowell does it again! I’ve read several of Rowells YA books in the past and was delighted when I heard they were writing an adult romance!! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Shiloh and Cary are friends in high school and life takes them down very different paths separating their friendship. 14 years into the future they meet up again at a wedding and try and discover is this their second chance at romance?

In summary, this book follows two people who are perfectly designed for one another but miscommunicate at every, single, turn. If I read that description I’d be immediately turned off from reading the book, but somehow, someway, Rowell found a way to hook me and keep me on the line for the whole story. Shiloh is a hyperaware, blunt single mother whose big dreams of making it out of her small town stalled years ago, and left her living with her mother and children in the same house she grew up in. Cary is a principled and stubborn marine who fled said town for the ocean, but has never forgotten about the girl who occupied his everyday growing up, and never left his mind afterwards.

Both Cary and Shiloh are imperfect creatures who self-sabotage and overthink, but reading about them falling apart, then slowly stitching back together was addictive. I thought about this book when I wasn’t reading it, and when I opened it up I was fully immersed in rooting for them to come clean and be together. The injection of flashbacks from their shared youth made me long for them to set their prides and protectiveness aside in the present. I do wish we saw a little more of their times at university/marine boot camp to flesh out the brief time they did get their act together. This book was full of frustration, but Rowell’s writing and complex characters made it fly by in a blink.

I have been a huge fan of Rainbow Rowell for years and was really excited to see her release an adult romance!

Rainbow Rowell is a master of writing characters. While I often didn’t really understand their motivations, the author does a wonderful job detailing who Cary and Shiloh are. They were definitely flawed and at some points Shiloh annoyed me but I appreciated that they felt like real people.

This book is not your typical romance but rather a book about people and character development. Yes there is a romance in it, but I wouldn’t go in expecting it to be a romance or you might be disappointed.

The pace of this book was a little slow for me but it also didn’t take me a long time to get through it. I think most people will find it to be a slow burn. It alternates between present day and when Shiloh and Cary were in high school. I loved the glimpses back at their friendship, it gave a good context for where they were now in life.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc. 4.5 rounded up

I will start off by saying that I am a fan of Rainbow Rowell. There is something about her writing style and characters that appeals to me immensely. I think she is very good at writing awkward, wallflower-y characters, and deep relationships between her characters and this book is no exception. Slow Dance tells the story of Shiloh and Cary, best friends from high school who drifted apart after Cary joined the Navy and Shiloh got married and had two kids. They reconnect at their friend's wedding in Omaha to find all their old feelings flare up again. The story is told in alternating timelines with some chapters being set in the present and others set in the past, exploring their friendship in high school and the years right after graduating.

I will say that I found the Shiloh character of the past to be very obnoxious. She was always poking and prodding at Cary and pulling his hair, it felt like she was in elementary school with a crush. She was also very stubborn about her worldviews that were obviously very narrow because she was in high school, which while annoying is very realistic. It was just sort of difficult to see what exactly Cary would have liked about Shiloh when they were younger. That being said, Shiloh grew up a bit, so her character was much better in the present chapters. There was also the miscommunication trope in play, but it was in situations where it was so obvious that the characters had feelings for each other that you just have to roll your eyes. All that being said, I did enjoy the characters and their story, and of course I enjoyed the writing. This is a good one for people who are interested in second chance romances. It will also appeal to adult readers who enjoyed Rowell's earlier Eleanor & Park.

I did not finish this one. I was frustrated that the characters were having the same conversations/issues over and over again, just in different setting. Maybe I’ll try it again at some point!

Rainbow Rowell is a master at making you know characters immediately, but something about these two took a little longer to click. The book has a compelling story of two friends who just could never make it work, and shows how real life--adult life-- is hard, demoralizing, and sometimes seems an impossible obstacle to romance. That being said, it just felt like too much was happening, and yet not enough. I didn't particularly care about either of these characters as deeply as Rowell's usual protagonists. Not quite enough pining, too much middle aged angst!