I have been WAITING for a new Rainbow Rowell adult romance, and I was absolutely not disappointed.

This was a second chance romance between two best friends who couldn't speak their feelings for each other in high school/college and then reconnect fifteen years later at their third best friend's wedding. Complicated family dynamics, plus Cary's Navy life and Shiloh's divorce and kids, made this really really interesting to see how everything would be navigated. SO MANY FEELS!!!! I loved it. 4.5 stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my thoughts.

I’ve been patiently awaiting a new romance by Rainbow Rowell for years and she most definitely did not disappoint. This story line was especially intriguing to me because I am also a recentlu divorced single mom of two kids. Shiloh was so well developed and I loved watching her grow and find herself (and Cary, again) after so much hardship and trauma. Couldn’t recommend this one more. For fans of Emily Henry and Annabel Monaghan.

I love Rainbow Rowell. All of her books seem to strike a chord with me weather or not its something I've actually experienced. As for this gem? Thank you, Rainbow, for giving me characters that I was able to so immediately and so deeply fall in love with. And to all the best friends secretly in love with each other out there? I'm rooting for you to figure it out. However long it takes, I'm sure it will be well worth the journey.

I am so sad I didn't love this book. I have adored Rainbow Rowells past books. Fan Girl, Eleanor & Park, Attachments love them! So I was super excited for Slow Dance. I honestly got tot he 85% and just didn't want to finish it but knew I'd be upset with myself if I didn't finish it.

This landed at a 3.5 for me

I still love her writing style but the story felt like the end was 80% on and that needed flushed out for me more and a lot felt rushed and I was missing that something. I don't want to get into a lot here for spoilers.

Shiloh and Cary are the main characters and I loved the kids more than them. Cary felt like he was quick to getting mad but he NEVER fully expressed how he felt and Shiloh I didn't like her the flash back scenes mad me like her less. She also couldn't express how she felt and both of them wasted so much time and then it was all or nothing really out of left field.

I am very sad I didn't connect to the story more and that the end felt rushed.

Thank you to NetGalley for this Arc in exchange for my honest review.

The sweetest second chance book ever! Relationships never last from high school, but Shiloh, Cary and Mikey gave it a go. After fourteen years of not seeing each other a wedding brings the band together. Mikey is the third wheel, sort of, and is secretly supportive of his friends. Cary is a career Navy man with some familial issues he’s working out. Shiloh has two kids, a manipulating ex, and lives with her mom. Every person has changed and evolved since high school, except how Cary and Shiloh feel for each other. Their path is slow going, bless Cary for being an understanding and patient man. Their story was a joy to read, easily losing my thoughts to their world, and wanting to witness their relationship in person. I was thrilled to get an early copy from NetGalley and have left my review voluntarily.

Sometimes you really just need a light read. I was captivated right away but lost interest in the last part of the book. The characters became less likable and story kind of dragged on and the outcome was always a given. 3.5 stars rounded up.

By Gail Pennington
Special to the Post-Dispatch

Free spirit Shiloh and upright Cary were best friends in high school. But she headed off to college, he joined the Navy, and their lives went in different directions.

Now, though, 14 years after they last spoke, their friend Mikey is getting married, and that will bring Cary back home to Omaha. What will Shiloh say to him? Will he even want to see her?

Rowell, author of the first-love classic “Eleanor & Park” (2012) and the delightful “Fangirl” (2013), which spawned a fantasy trilogy based on its protagonist’s fan fiction, may be best known for her Young Adult novels. But her newest, “Slow Dance,” is for adults, albeit ones for whom high school still resonates.

Shiloh, free spirit no more, is a divorced mother of two, living with her own mother and helping to run a children’s theater. Cary, a career Navy officer, spends months at sea. Can they find common ground to restore their friendship? Do they even want to?

If this were just any author, we might expect a will-they-or-won’t-they scenario to follow. Rowell, though, gives us a leisurely back and forth of “why did they never” and “might they still,” told in 84 chapters bouncing from the present (it’s 2006) to “before,” high school in the 1990s.

“Slow Dance” is a slow dance indeed, but a charming one. Over 400 pages in which nothing really happens, we learn about Shiloh and Cary and their intense young friendship, with Mikey as the third Musketeer.

Shiloh, then, was pointedly quirky, a girl who “would shave her head not to look like anybody else.” A teacher once commented that “a little of her goes a long way,” and that’s true — teenage Shiloh is sometimes so annoying, we might not want to spend time with her if we didn’t know her adult self.

Even the grown-up Shiloh has a crippling fear of exposing herself, of being seen, whether on the dance floor or in bed.

All she had to do, she tells herself in one happy moment after reconnecting with Cary, “was keep her self-consciousness at bay. (Her self-consciousness. And her bone-deep desolation. She could be desolate tomorrow. And the next day. She could table her ennui.)”

We learn little, initially, about Cary. His family life is messy. He believes in duty to his country. He lets Shiloh and Mikey supply the crazy for their friend trio.

Rowell cleverly delays bringing adult Cary’s (eventful) story into the picture until we’re wondering whether this yarn is ever going somewhere. Hang on; it will and it does.

Throughout, “Slow Dance” really triumphs with its supporting cast, each one richly detailed. (My favorites: Shiloh’s 6-year-old daughter, Junie, and Cary’s ailing mother, Lois.) This could make a fun TV miniseries with very little adaptation, just some good casting.

What I’m trying to say here is that “Slow Dance” won’t be for everyone. You can probably tell already whether you’ll take to the floor or sit it out. But if you already are a Rainbow Rowell fan or are ready to become one, she’s playing your song.

(Reviewed in print and online for the St. Louis Post-Dispstch.)

Mikey, Cary, and Shiloh were a closed-knit trio at their Omaha, Nebraska high school. Fourteen years later the three meet are together again in Omaha at Mikey's wedding. Cary is in the U.S. Navy; Mikey is an artist; Shiloh is a divorced mother with joint custody of her two children. The novel is constructed of "before" chapters that tell of the trio's high school friendship and messy family lives; alternating chapters detail the trio's current lives with taking care of their mothers and managing daily life. What unfolds is the romance between Cary and Shiloh--it was the spark that was never lit in high school. Readers will enjoy discussing finding a love from years ago and acting on a crush or curiosity. Recommended for escape weekend or long plane ride reading.

Adult! Romance! From the queen herself!! Gosh I loved diving back into a Rainbow Rowell world - I have loved her YA books for what seems like my entire life and I was not left disappointed by her foray into the world of adult romance. This was genuine and authentic and awkward and everything I expected from someone who took me through the awkward and difficult stories of my teenage years.

DNF'd at 35%

I usually love Rainbow Rowell's works, but this one is falling flat for me. The premise is really interesting, but God can I NOT stand Shiloh. I won't spoil anything, but her character is very unlikable to me and I hate that she treats Cary.

I can see it turning into a great second-chance love story, but all of the build up has only put me against our main character and I do not really want to spend the time to see if she is redeemable.

I would perhaps pick this up as an audiobook once the wait on Libby is down, but I have been putting this off reading this for a month and I rather dnf it than feel like I should be forced to finish it.

I see other people really like this book so maybe you will as well! It just was not for me!

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC!

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024, and it was everything I hoped it’d be and more. Ever since finishing it I’ve wished I could crawl back in its pages and spend just a little more time with Shiloh and Cary. Rowell’s portrayal of the teenage years, in all their awkwardness, is authentic and refreshing. What I loved most were the characters (Shiloh’s kids, Junie especially, are some of the best I’ve read) – from Shiloh and Cary, to each of their complicated families, and everyone in between – were so carefully crafted. The dialogue is sharp, the humor is spot-on, and the emotional moments are poignant without ever veering into melodrama. In Slow Dance, Rainbow Rowell has crafted a story that resonates with anyone who has ever experienced the bittersweet journey of growing up and finding love. It’s a celebration of the small, yet significant moments that shape us and a testament to Rowell’s enduring ability to touch readers' hearts. For fans of Eleanor & Park and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.

I love this authors work for years and this book is no exception. The characters is the dialogue the plot the story. Everything is quite delectable! Really can’t wait for her next book.

Rainbow Rowell is SO GOOD at writing dialogue. The conversations between the characters in this book make up the vast majority of the words in the novel, and her dialogue writing is truly some of the best I've ever read. So realistic, so believable, to the point that it feels like you are a fly on the wall in these characters' lives. The excellent writing almost made up for the fact that I found these characters, especially Shiloh, absolutely insufferable. I actively hated both of them and could not stand how they were incapable of having an actual conversation about anything substantial at all. They talked around their feelings and thoughts, hopes and dreams, for almost the entirety of the book. This is forgivable and completely understandable in the childhood/teenager portions of the book, but as thirty-somethings? No. Come on. I enjoyed reading this book, but it could have been so much better if the characters were even a little bit likeable.

It took me a while to get into because the beginning is pretty melancholy and I didn’t really want to read something that would make me sad, but I thought the story really picked up at like 20%.

Shiloh in the flashbacks was pretty obnoxious, but in a way that feels deeply relatable, because she becomes much more thoughtful as an adult. This book was romantic in a very pragmatic and realistic way - two people putting in the work to understand and forgive each other.

Friends since high school, Cary and Shiloh haven’t seen one another in years, until they meet up again at their best friend Mike’s wedding. Shiloh is now divorced and Cary is never in one place since joining the Navy. But there is still something simmering between them, there always has been.

This book is essentially Normal People with slightly less toxicity. And if you’ve heard my feelings about Normal People, you know that isn’t a compliment. I wanted to like this one, I had heard great things about it, but I think I’m in the minority in saying I just really didn’t enjoy it like I wanted to.

I found Shiloh to be incredibly frustrating and I wanted Cary to run far, far away from her. Even when he was explicitly telling her what he wanted, she found a way to spin it around that he didn’t know his own mind. And so by the end I wasn’t at all rooting for them. And the drag out of their relationship felt needlessly long. I wanted to finish it to see how she would sum up their time together but I think I likely could’ve skipped about 50 pages and just read the end.

I know a lot of people are going to love this book and I wish I had been one of them but sadly, it just wasn’t for me.

I'm an absolute sucker for second chance romance, and this one quenched that thirst. The characters really shown in this one with how real, vulnerable, and raw they were throughout.

Cute romance and a quick read.
Two teen-age friends reunite and try to figure out if there is something more. Flashbacks to teen/college years and previous relationships help give context to the relationship and provide character development.
I grew attached to Shiloh and Cary. Their friendship suffers its ups and downs but it comes down to being there for each other. Plus, I’m a sucker for a happily ever after ending, it’s takes a while but they get there..

I enjoyed this more than I thought I was going to! It had It Ends with Us feels to it. I love friends to lovers tropes and really felt for these characters immediately. I can totally see this turning into a movie or a show. This was my first Rainbow Rowell book but definitely wont be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the chance to read an early edition of the novel, "Slow Dance," by Rainbow Rowell. I could not put it down. In fact, I read it in one sitting. It transported me back to highschool and what falling in love with your best friend was like as a teenager.

Shiloh, Cary, and Mikey were the best of friends in high school and they spent all of their time together. They were all incredibly close to one another, but everyone could see that Cary and Shiloh were madly in love with one another. The only problem was neither of them could admit it to themselves.

When highschool ended they all went their separate ways. Cary joined the Navy, Shiloh went to college, and Mikey became an artist. Later they would all come together when Mikey got married and both Shiloh and Cary attended his wedding. They soon had to face the strong feelings they obviously still had for one another.

This novel was a compelling story of first love and how sometimes it also turns out to be a young couple's last love. Cary and Shiloh soon discover they had always been more than just friends, but it also took a lot of time for both of them to realize they were meant to be together forever. By the time they find their way back to one another, both of them have had other love interests, including a marriage, children, and divorce. After quite a bit of time had passed, they then had to sort out whether or not they could make a relationship work between them.

I truly loved this story and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves young adult books, especially a great wholesome love story. I personally thought it was a five star read.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC!

Let me start off by saying, I’m a huge fan of Rainbow's book FanGirl and I had been wanting to read more by her. I loved this cover and honestly, I requested this book without reading the synopsis. I think if I would have, I probably wouldn’t have requested.

The writing is wonderful and I enjoyed the characters and the realness of Slow Dance. I myself don’t have children and don’t plan on having kids, so the single mom trope didn’t really work for me. I did love Junie and Gus though! Not my favorite romance book, but I feel I will be in the minority with this.

All that being said, if you enjoy the childhood friends to lovers trope you will love Slow Dance!