Slow Dance is a gem of a read. Beautiful and sad, heartbreaking and heart warming. It is the sort of book you can just sink into and enjoy the ride. It jumps around in time, building a picture of the before and the after as we understand what led Shiloh and Cary to where they are now. From kids so close and inseparable everyone assumed they were already together, to college students figuring out who they were and drifting apart, to adults fourteen years later meeting again. Despite all of the switching time period and perspectives, it is perfectly crafted to be easy to follow and immerse yourself.

A story of friendship, love and self. A beautiful, realistic, relatable romance, recommended to contemporary romance fans who want more than just the usual rom-com style tropes.

This was a gorgeous change to my usual reading habits - I loved reading all about these two. It’s called Slow Dance and it is just that. It’s intimate; it totters along nicely; it makes you smile. Just lush.

Be still my beating heart. This is such an intense and thrilling romantic ride. Cary and Shiloh are meant to be, from the moment they meet as teenagers, but they have to spend a generation working that out. Can love be so big and so scary and so right? I think so. Cary has to get out of his own way and Shiloh out 9f hers, before they can allow themselves what they deserve.

A good summer read.
Shiloh and Cary were friends from high school and meet up years later at a friends wedding.
Cary is in the navy and Shiloh is divorced with two children and both have never told each other of their feelings towards each other.
The story goes from present to past throughout the book, it`s a bit of a slow burner but gets there in the end.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review

This book was such a fun journey from start to finish. Being able to see Shiloh and Carey in their younger years and then trying to navigate adult life through the dual pov really helped create a real connection and made me root for them so hard! Shiloh was a great character and i really loved seeing her be a mum, it felt so realistic and relatable. Cary was just a sweetheart and deserved all the happiness in the world. A prominent trope throughout is miscommunication which of course was quite frustrating at times but it made sense for the progression of the story and was good to see from both characters sides. The pacing was good and I was engaged in the story the whole time, I especially loved the ending!

Cary and Shiloh have been best friends since their teens, and along with their friend Mikey made up an inseperable trio. Although everyone but them knew how they felt about each other, somehow they have not got together romantically. After school, Cary joins the Navy and Shiloh heads off to college, but despite them briefly reuniting and sleeping together when Cary gets leave and visits Shiloh, misunderstanding follows and, in what becomes a pattern for them, their lives diverge, and they do not see each other again for many years. When they both attend Mikey’s wedding in their home town, however, they are forced to confront their feelings for each other, but Shiloh is now divorced with two young children and Cary is still away for months on end for his naval duties. Does their relationship stand a chance, or will their timing be wrong again? Rainbow Rowell’s YA romance “Eleanor and Park” is one of my all-time favourite books, and I adored her unconventional, prickly heroine who was not super-slim, wore second-hand clothes and had wild red hair. Rowell also has a gift for giving even her minor characters lots of personality, and that is very much the case also- I loved the couple’s mothers and Shiloh’s children and her co-worker, Tom. Shiloh is as complex and damaged as Eleanor, although at times I found her maddening, especially the way she is always picking and poking at Cary and hitting and biting him. Her rather strange attitude to their lovemaking (finding it almost too overwhelming) struck a slightly odd note, but there are observations abouther in the book which suggest she might be on the autistism spectrum, so perhaps that would explain it. What is really absorbing and joyful about their story is that it is not a bland romance where the pair overcome obstacles to reach a typical happy ending, but a realistic look at how life can get in the way of love and take you in different directions, how relationships involve compromise and how families can be complicated in ways you aren’t always prepared for.

Honestly, say Rainbow Rowell and I am already there! I think i've re-read Fangirl 10 times at least, and Attachments always has a place in my heart. She just has this brilliant knack of writing likeable but flawed characters!

The flashbacks really sell the authenticity of the story - particularly the 00's scenes, which brought back memories! The characters chemistry is great, at times sweet and other times heated - their story felt more adult than her others, littered with the annoyances and happiness of every day life for an adult with responsibilities to others.

Unfortunately the pacing is a little off, certain sections felt needlessly long. The ending then felt a little rushed.

I loved so much about this title and couldn't wait for opportunities to read more- it was one of those where you think 'I'll read for 10 minutes before bed', and before you know it, it’s an hour later and you still don’t want to stop! I like the way the relationship between the two main characters was portrayed. The premise of them both being in the dark about their feelings for each other 16 years ago, contrasted with how they renegotiate things when they finally see one another again is nicely done and I hoovered it up! We hear a bit less from Cary’s perspective and I wondered why the narrative focussed so much more on Shiloh. My niggle with the book – and this might say more about me!- is that things seemed more or less resolved with more than 100 pages to go, so I became convinced that something cataclysmic was about to befall the couple. There also seemed to be a lot of detail gone into over Cary clearing out his mother’s home – again, I kept thinking ‘is there this much detail here because the house is now going to be hit by a meteor or something?’ But no. I’m not too sure about the extensive inclusion of that part. But Shiloh and Cary are definitely characters that I thought about long after I’d finished and had to reluctantly say good bye to them. I straight away bought another title by Rainbow Rowell and got stuck into that.

I'm sad to say that I found Shiloh and Cary irritating. It just wasnt a book that I enjoyed. But thank you for the chance to read it.

DNF

Too slow for me. I didn’t warm to the characters and felt like I’d been reading it for ages but was only 1/3 through. Couldn’t keep going at this time.

Grateful to NetGalley for the e-ARC.

this book felt really authentic and shimmered a light on adulthood. I enjoyed the angst between the characters and overall enjoyed it.

I both loved and was frustrated by this (and more accurately by Shiloh and Cary), which I think was the point.

A great read. Raw, authentic and captured people perfectly. I loved the characters and their true angst, whilst growing up and navigating life and adulthood.

*ARC received from Netgalley - all opinions are my own*

TLDR: Another fab book by Rowell that I believe both fans of hers and those new to her work will love! Slow Dance is an imperfect romance between two older adults with heaps of baggage and makes you feel all the feels - the good, bad and ugly!

The way that Rainbow Rowell writes will (at least so far) always get me. I’ve been a fan since reading “Fangirl” many years ago and she has only gotten better at creating complex characters that get you so invested in their lives even when they’re going through the everyday and mundane things in life

Even if you’re not a fan of contemporary romance I think Slow Dance is worth a look at as it’s a genre that I have no love of either and only read Slow Dance as Rowell has yet to let me down with her books.

My only gripe is that Cary gets a bit strange near the end and the dialogue takes a turn that doesn’t seem to align with his character - I’m talking about the “teeth” bit. I was thrown out of the story so quickly and had to check if it was Cary speaking. It would have been weird coming from Shiloh too, but equally could imagine it coming from her.

Overall, Slow Dance is another hit from Rainbow Rowell showing the lives of two people whose friendships have gone off track over the years and how they find their way back to each other many years later - but with some broken bits and lots of baggage. They aren’t perfect characters, living amazing lives and finding a picture book romance but that realness is what makes Slow Dance as great as it is.

My first Rainbow Rowell book but I'll be sure to look out for her in future. This book follows the friendship of Shiloh and Cary who everyone thinks should be together but them...
This book gave me the feels, I'm a sucker for a slow burn and this delivered. Great characters and a pacy plot. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is very far from a fluffy romance linking back to the good old school days. This is sad, and emotional. It shows what happens when things don’t go right and the dream that you have as a teenager isn’t the life you end up living, the plot weaves between the then of school and the now of meeting up again. Both Cary and Shiloh are different people and their nerves at being together again are palpable. The sorrow is bittersweet and very well told as part of their love story..

Shiloh and Cary were best friends for a long time and then they weren’t. After high school life went in separate directions but with the help of old friends they find each other fourteen years later… but is fourteen years too long to look down memory lane? Will life always get in the way or will Shiloh and Cary have their happy ending?

A beautifully crafted story of friendship, love and letting yourself find your happy ever after..

Slow Dance is such a perfect title for this slow-burn romance following Shiloh & Cary's relationship over decades, as they circle each other, first as friends, then as more. Yes, it is slow-paced, but I enjoyed that once I'd adjusted to the rhythm of it. The layering and deepening of the characters via the alternating time frames is such a great way of showing how a person changes and develops over time. I loved how Shiloh found herself and her confidence as an adult after the painfully awkward and spiky moments in her younger days. Shiloh's kids' personalities were a highlight for me too - give Junie her own book, please! Satisfying, quirky, believable, this is a different kind of love story, with a sweetly melancholy note at times. It made me think about my own life and the relationships that last and evolve. Many thanks to the publisher for sharing this ARC.

A beautifully written romance about second chances.. It follows Shiloh, Cary and Mikey' who were high school best friends. Shiloh, who is now newly divorced, receives an invitation to Mikey's wedding where she reconnects with Cary. The story alternates between past and present, showing how although their lives went in different directions, their feelings remained the same.
I would recommend Slow Dance to those who like slow-burn and second-chance love stories or books that focus on character development and emotional journeys.

Thanks to Michael Joseph/Penguin and Netgalley for a review copy of this book. Rainbow Rowell is an author I first read years ago and had to immediately read everything published by her at the time. I loved all of them. I have to say it’s been a few years since those heady days and I was wondering if it was a case of right time, right place for loving her books. This happily proved not to be the case as I delved into this book, thinking, ‘ah yes, this is why I loved her.’

It’s a case of misses. Missed chances and miscommunication. Two of a threesome best friends, Cary and Shiloh danced around each other through their teen years, teasing, smacking and poking each other with their own style of banter. Shiloh was convinced that Cary had nothing but a platonic interest in her, despite her own growing amorous feelings and so all her interactions were couched in hidden codes or language that would protect her heart. So when it came time for them to leave high school—he off to the marines as his only chance at an education and she to college—their promises to stay in touch were loaded with such vague terms that Shiloh was certain she’d never see Cary again. With the exception of one brief meeting during Shiloh’s college year it seemed she was right and now, newly divorced Shiloh receives an invitation to the wedding of the third of their threesome, Mikey and the past comes rearing its head, and Shiloh wonders if this is a chance to make it happen, or close the door once and for all.

Full of wonderfully poignant moments this is a novel to sink into, to immerse yourself in their world and feel all the feels. Written with Rowell’s characteristic sensitive style and understanding, it’s full of real, credible feelings and an understanding of human nature.