Achingly beautiful & painfully honest, Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell is like giving in to the urge to stare into the beauty of the sun. If a reader comes to this book expecting a commercially standard romance, that’s not what this is. But it IS another example, maybe the perfect example, of why Rowell is one of my favorite writers of all time - no one else writes a love story like she does. And this love story is real & complicated in ways that break your heart & put it back together over & over & over.

It’s the love story between childhood best friends Shiloh & Cary, & while it’s set in ~their~ now (the early 2000s), we get to experience their journey from high school to college to their time of disconnection to the now. We bounce back & forth between time frames & points of view, getting a chance to witness their love from every possible angle. It’s not quite a “will they, won’t they” but rather a “will they just sort out their shit already?” And I love it so goddamn much.

The Shiloh & Cary of it all is that their love is a slow dance. We experience them pulling apart & coming together over & over until they are finally dancing to the same song, at the same time. They show us that there can always be another chapter, even if you think the story has already ended.

(Slow Dance also reminded me just how much I used to love wearing dresses over jeans &, well, I’m not sure what to do with those memories now ha.)

Thank you to NetGalley & William Morrow for providing a digital advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions & thoughts expressed are my own.

The only other Rainbow Rowell book I've read before this was Eleanor & Park, which I really enjoyed. Slow Dance had some similar elements, particularly the strength of the characterization and the opposites attract romance storyline. This was one of my favorite contemporary romances so far this year!

I love Rowell's great writing and the authenticity she brings to her characters and dialogue. But I didn't love this book because I just couldn't jump on board with these characters... I didn't need to root for them, but I had to care about finding out what happened to them and honestly I just didn't.

The writing is wonderful as always, it just wasn't for me. The narrator of the audio was also great.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eAudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For fans of “One Day.” I loved meeting the characters in this book. The secondary characters were so well-developed with deep personalities. I appreciated seeing representation of characters who grew up in poverty and the pressure they feel to support family as adults.

The book switches between now and the past, and the main character switches in each chapter. I found it challenging to follow who was stepping into narration and the time period for each chapter.

Overall, emotional, lovable characters, great representation.

An endearingly ordinary and romantic novel. Rowell writes so much love and longing and hunger between her two lead characters, and she grounds this romance in the mundane, domestic details of their lives—there’s often descriptions and discussions about their schedules, jobs, bills, families, messy homes. Much of the novel feels like a negotiation between the characters: It’s not a question of do we want to be together but how will we make our lives fit together. And that’s where the book feels more mature than other romances I’ve read recently; the characters talk and talk and talk, trying to find ways to be together and build a life. (“Slow Dance” is dialogue-heavy, and their banter is book heaven for me.) There is also specificity and idiosyncrasies to the characters that bring the story to life (“His elbows were still knotty and chapped-looking. She felt almost painfully fond of his elbows. Like she might cry if she kept looking at them.”)

As always, Rainbow Rowell's latest title makes me wish I could write the way she does. Her descriptions of places, people, emotions are just MAGICAL, even if, as in Slow Dance, the people and places are messy and less than glamorous. I fell a bit in love with these realistic characters, their challenges, and their big (and repressed?) emotions. Rainbow Rowell writes in a variety of genres, some I am going in sure are not right for me, but I always end up loving at least some element of it. I want to consume every word she ever writes.

this was so good! I saw so many positive reviews that it made me curious. I didn't think I would like it based on what others were saying but holy wow this was amazing. I totally related to the characters and I couldn't get enough.

the thing about Rainbow Rowell that I've loved since Fangirl is her ability to write characters that feel so REAL. They're never perfect, and I feel like I could know them or see them at the grocery store. They're flawed and in a way, that's whimsical as it's hard to capture that in a romance. The same can be said with Slow Dance. We follow Shiloh and Cary as they reconnect after being high school friends, and ultimately this is a second-chance romance the story is littered with flashbacks to their first attempt as teens. But remember how I said these characters are flawed? They struggle with communication as the reader I wanted to hit them, but I'd recommend picking this up for a more grounding romance read.

I’m inclined to say I’ve never read a book by Rainbow Rowell before but Goodreads says otherwise. In the 11 years since the last one I read I have completely forgotten what it’s about, so I am counting Slow Dance as my first redux.
Shiloh and Cary were best friends in since middle school. Platonic friends only, they just got each other. After high school Shiloh went to college and Cary joined the Navy and, as sometimes happens with good friends, they grew apart and lost touch. Now, 15 years later, Shiloh is a divorced mother of 2 living with her mom in the house she lived in before college. Cary is home on leave for a friend’s wedding and both he and Shiloh spit each other from across the dance floor. 15 years have passed, but they pick up directly from where they left off, only with the wisdom and mature of adults.
This second chance romance is unlike any other I read. While there are funny moments and romantic ones too, this is definitely not a romcom. The depth Ms. Rowell puts not only into her writing but also into each character elevates this to the next level. Her characters are lovable yet flawed and feel like real people.
I loved how this goes back and forth between present day and the past seamlessly. In my mind, the present day scenes leading in to and out of the past dissolved much like what happens in a movie flashback. I cannot believe this is the first book I’ve read (in more than a decade) by Ms. Rowell, but it certainly won’t be my only.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advanced copy of this. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to it. Slow Dance hit the shelves on July 30th.

This was a nice Rowell book, if a little simple. A fast and enjoyable read, but nothing special for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of Slow Dance.

There were bits throughout the book where the moments of connections seemed genuine and hit well, but they were outweighed by angst, miscommunication, and assumptions that seemed overdone. I can’t say that I liked Shiloh or Carey very much, neither seemed to grow out of adolescence. Shiloh was abrasive and Carey seemed underdeveloped. I also couldn’t get past the teeth and biting line.

That being said there were moments of writing where I appreciate Rowell’s way with words and nostalgia. I really enjoy her other adult novels and was looking forward to this one a lot. It feels very YA in character maturity, and while I expect the “before” sections to read this way, it seemed to still hold true for the 30 something versions as well. That could be where it didn’t fit well with my expectations.

I really ended up enjoying this book a lot. It was a really realistic portrayal of a relationships ups and downs. And the progression of their reconnection and ultimate happy ending felt earned and believable. Contemporary romance can sometimes feel a bit fantastical even despite its roots in reality but this story read as something real. Something that could and has happened in real life. It was a breath of fresh air.

Highlights:
- While Shiloh did frustrate me at first, this was largely because I related to her anxiety spirals and her self-sabotaging thoughts. It was hard to watch from an outside perspective and see myself reflected there. However, as the story progressed, she became more clear to me as a character and I very much enjoyed her perspective.
- Cary was adorable and so sweet. I also respected that he admitted when he was wrong - what a treat, what a dream! My only qualm is that I wanted more of his POV.
- Their emails back and forth when Cary was deployed. Top notch banter.
- The flashbacks had such a nostalgic feel to them. Definitely had me reflecting back onto my high school/childhood experiences.
- Juniper and Gus were hilarious.
- Shiloh constantly wearing dresses over jeans cracked me up. What a 90s/00s vibe.

Slow Dance was really interesting. The story is told through flashbacks and current times, the characters are complex but also definitely suffering from childhood trauma. They are neurodivergent characters even though never explicitly said but it comes through on the page. It was also an interesting approach that was unexpected a bit about a borderline asexual character. I enjoyed reading it, I wanted to see how it ended. I was frustrated with the miscommunication but happy with the ending.

This book was...fine. Not bad, not great. The flashbacks to Shiloh and Cary's high school lives was interesting, as I was of similar age. But other than that, I found most of their relationship tedious and both of them irritating in their indecisiveness and boringness. It was never really explained why they parted ways without talking for so long, nor how they and Mike became such good friends in school, nor even really what Shiloh looked like until the very end. Could've been better.

there is something about a rainbow rowell book that soothes my soul (fangirl is my comfort read for life), and this was no exception. i read this when i was mostly reading things that weren't drawing me in, and curling up with this was such a treat.
this did not meet my standards for a great romance (why on earth these things happened in this order i will never understand), but it did meet my standards for having fun.

A really sweet second chance romance. I love Rainbow Roswell’s romances because they are grounded in reality with flawed characters who have difficulties with real life things like communicating clearly. I also identify with the main character’s social anxieties. I wish there had been dates (month and year) at the beginning of each chapter because it was a little hard to track time passing in the contemporary story and the flashbacks were all over the place. But it was so enjoyable I read it twice in a row.

While I loved this book, I think mileage will vary for most readers. So, why did it work for me?

I loved the messiness and chaos of Shiloh and Cary's life. It felt so real. I adore contemporary romance but often sense the couples' lives are out of reach for most readers. Yet, there is something about Slow Dance that is raw and emotional. It is equally as frustrating to watch two people do everything possible to ruin everything they know they could have.

If you love a little bit of a mess and emotion in your romance this might work for you.

Thank you to William Morrow for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Rainbow Rowell consistently writes the most human characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Cary and Shiloh are SO MESSY and deeply flawed in the most perfect, human way. I was in pain reading about them and everything that had happened with them over the course of their long friendship, I was rooting for them and crying and laughing. It was a big, beautiful, messy, lovely thing to read.

Slow Dance is perfect for readers who love big feelings and real people. It’s perfect for those who would love a love story that doesn’t follow the usual format, it’s a little unpredictable, I couldn’t see how it would end until it was happening. It’s nonlinear in a way that’s easy to follow, and I always love a timeline that touches on the past in order to give us the deep history and connection with the characters. Highly recommend!

I love Rainbow Rowell's books and was so excited to read her latest, Slow Dance. Cary and Shiloh were best friends in high school, and there was always a hint of more, but now it's many years later and Shiloh is newly divorced with two kids and Cary has been in the military for the past 15 years. They reconnect at a mutual friend's wedding at the start of the story. The rest of the book flips between present day and flashbacks to the past. It was a little bit too much of a slow burn for me, with too much of an angsty-high school vibe. I got a little frustrated with some of the lack of communication and the will they/won't they aspect. There were definitely some enjoyable aspects, and if you like feelings of nostalgia and second chance romance, you would likely enjoy this one.

This started off SO STRONG and was giving me all the feelings. And then the second half kind of went off the rails for me. It was like slow burn straight to inferno and sadly, I was left wanting. The story went in a direction I wasn’t totally happy with, which I could have accepted, however the uneven pacing from the first to the last half made it hard to move past. Id say still worth reading if you were otherwise planning on it.