Slow Dance: A Novel

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.

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400 pages

Average rating: 5.75

60 RATINGS

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2 REVIEWS

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Community Reviews

jenlynerickson
Aug 22, 2024
10/10 stars
“I love a marriage proposal that starts out ‘I can’t give you the life you deserve.’” Shiloh, Cary, and Mikey have been best friends since high school. But “Things change…whether or not you participate in the rituals of transition.” The three reunite at Mikey’s second wedding, Cary has joined the Navy and Shiloh is a divorced mother of two. “It occurs to me that I wasn’t really considering where you might be in life. When I…asked you to dance.” “Cary made Shiloh feel like she was the same person she’d always been…But he also made her feel like she could be someone new…With Cary, Shiloh wanted to push through her own discomfort. To get over herself. To look directly into the sun.” “If Shiloh had learned anything about herself, it was that she couldn’t hold onto people. She could only really deal with the people in front of her.” “All Shiloh had to do 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.)” Cary has seventeen days of leave. “I need to get my mom’s house on the market before I go. And I need to convince you to spend the rest of your life with me. Those are my two objectives. They’re both of highest priority…No more extensions. No more waiting. I want the rest of my life to be about building something with you…We’re engaged. Asterisk….The footnote now reads, ‘This is an active, developing scenario. Both parties are at the table working toward a mutually beneficial agreement.” “You don’t get to make new old friends.” Marriage isn’t easy with anyone–it may as well be ‘not easy’ with someone you love.” Bookended with two weddings and a rollercoaster of nostalgia and argument, “backwards and forwards. Coming and going” in between. Pour yourself a cup of lemongrass tea, cut a slice of hummingbird cake infused with pineapple, bananas, pecans, and cream cheese icing, and grab your dancing shoes. Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance is a disco constellation!
LMahoney
Aug 12, 2024
4/10 stars
I hate read this book. Literally from page one, read it to get it over with. I was not invested in the plot, the characters, anything. Reading other's reviews I guess I am the weird one for not liking this book but it was a def no from me.

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