Slow Dance - by Rainbow Rowell

About the Book

"They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh's porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha--Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change. Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed. Now Shiloh's thirty-three, and it's been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She's been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she's back living in the same house she grew up in. ... When she's invited to an old friend's wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there--and whether she hopes he will be"--

Book Synopsis

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell comes Slow Dance--her smartest, funniest, most powerful novel yet

"If you, like me, think thirty-somethings methodically working through their issues is very hot, Slow Dance is the book for you. The people in it feel like people you know or maybe even people you've been. Slow Dance is sexy, sweet, wise, and nostalgic--Jane Austen's Persuasion for our times."

-- Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Shiloh Butler was supposed to get out of north Omaha.

She used to sit out on the front porch with her best friend, Cary, and plot their escape. Shiloh was going to be an actress - she had a scholarship to a good school - and Cary was laser-focused on the Navy. Sharp, stoic, golden-eyed Cary . . . thin as a stick of gum and poor as dirt. He was probably the most decent person Shiloh has ever known. She hasn't spoken to him in fourteen years.

When Shiloh gets an invitation to a high school friend's wedding, Cary is the first and only thing on her mind.

She desperately wants to see him again, but she doesn't know if she can bear being seen by him. What would Cary think of Shiloh at thirty-three? A divorced mom living in the same house she grew up in. Someone who works behind a desk, not onstage.

Would Cary even want to see Shiloh after all this time? After everything?

The answer, it turns out, is yes.

In her triumphant return to adult fiction, Rainbow Rowell has written a love story so honest and human - so cathartic - you'll feel it in your bones. Slow Dance is a power ballad of a book, brimming with Rowell's signature compassion and wit. It's deeply affecting and profoundly romantic.

Review Quotes

"Fans of Rainbow Rowell may already know her signature style: Her books will make you gasp with recognition, laugh along with the characters' hijinks and probably leak a tear or two as they figure themselves out." -- People

"Who can deny the absolute, dizzy pleasure of loving a novel so much that you cannot bear to put it down, that you want to do nothing but keep flipping pages, that you want to immerse yourself fully and not come up for air until you are finished. I read Slow Dance in just that way, breathless and weeping. There is no one better than Rainbow at creating flawed, deeply human people. I loved every page of Slow Dance, a book that is romantic to its core, and as funny and smart as its wonderful characters."
-- Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author

"Rowell takes her time revealing the couple's origins as high-school besties, the conflicts they helped each other through as teens in working-class families and those they're dealing with now, the long period of silence between them, and the undeniable glimmers of their enduring mutual attraction. Their dance is sweet and sexy, and Rowell draws out the whole, simmering affair as she ping-pongs through her characters' past and present. . . . [Slow Dance is] sure to be a crowd-pleaser." -- Booklist (starred review)

"Deeply human, profoundly romantic. Rowell tackles the challenges of love lost and rediscovered with nuance and candor. She will break your heart and you'll thank her for it."
-- Leigh Bardugo, New York Times bestselling author

"Rowell does longing like nobody's business. She pits epic love against relatable, painful foibles. ...Chapters that dip back in time play to Rowell's strength writing the confused passions of teenagers and show just how long these two have been absolutely gone for each other. Readers will be desperate to see them work it out. A treat for fans of Rowell and of realistic romance." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"If you, like me, think thirty-somethings methodically working through their issues is very hot, Slow Dance is the book for you. The people in it feel like people you know or maybe even people you've been. Slow Dance is sexy, sweet, wise, and nostalgic - Jane Austen's Persuasion for our times." -- Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

"A gorgeous book. Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell is a beautiful, believable love story between two slightly broken people. It was so sweet, but never sentimental. I yearned for them to be happy, and I miss it now it's over." -- International bestselling author Marian Keyes?

"Rich, real, and emotionally raw, this satisfying contemporary is sure to impress." -- Publishers Weekly

"With tenderness and charm, Slow Dance describes what happens when someone finds their person, within a life and in a place where they'd rather not be, and how moving forward from calcified hurt is possible, given the brevity of life." -- Shelf Awareness

"Witty, insightful and uncompromising, Rainbow Rowell's Slow Dance is an emotionally charged and beautifully real romance." -- BookPage

"Readers who enjoyed Landline and Eleanor & Park will be glad to return to Rowell's unique storytelling style and lyrical prose... It's guaranteed to make hearts flutter, likely while bringing tears to readers' eyes." -- Library Journal

"Rowell pulls off this impossible premise with great charm, and her depictions of the couple's sweet courtship and their later compromise-filled marriage are equally unsentimental and knowing." -- The New Yorker on Landline

"Rowell is talented enough to be uncategorizable. . . . Landline belongs to a genre of its very own." -- New York Times

"Her writing swings from profane to profound, but it's always real and always raw." -- NPR on Eleanor & Park

"The funny, wised-up dialogue, the tumultuous, sweet, and sexy love story is grade-A Rowell . . . a book that readers will find almost impossible to put down." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Carry On

"Perfectly mixing sweet romance with deliciously tart wit, Rowell's literary debut is a complete charmer." -- Chicago Tribune on Attachments