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Slow Dance

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Slow Dance

By: Rainbow Rowell
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.

Rainbow Rowell is back with her first adult novel in ten years in this uplifting novel about star-crossed lovers and the power of second chances

Discover the big, beaming power ballad of a novel about a love so true it refuses to be forgotten . . .

Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. Shiloh was going to become an actress, and Cary was going to join the Navy. And nothing was ever going to change between them – Shiloh made him promise.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. But, somehow, everything changed.

Now it’s been fourteen years since Shiloh last spoke to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back in north Omaha living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When Shiloh gets invited to an old friend’s wedding, all she can think about is whether Cary will be there – and whether she hopes he will be.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. And what will happen when they try to make their way back to each other.


'Sexy, sweet, wise and nostalgic – Jane Austen’s Persuasion for our times’ Gabrielle Zevin

‘A gorgeous book . . . a beautiful, believable love story between two slightly broken people. So sweet, but never sentimental. I yearned for them to be happy and I miss it now it's over’ Marian Keyes
'Deeply human, profoundly romantic. Rowell will break your heart and you’ll thank her for it' Leigh Bardugo


‘Who can deny the absolute, dizzy pleasure of loving a novel so much . . . 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
'A will-they, won't-they second chance romance for the ages, this one is poised to be one of summer's breakout hits' People


‘A powerful and poignant tale of first love . . . Rich, real, and emotionally raw, this satisfying contemporary is sure to impress’ Publishers Weekly

© Rainbow Rowell 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

 Coming of Age Contemporary Family Life Genre Fiction Women's Fiction

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Critic reviews

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
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. I will miss being in this world.
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
This slow-burn romance follows Shiloh and Cary, best friends who fell in love in their late teens, then split. In their 30s, they find themselves drawn together again, but will their history of misunderstandings get in the way? I loved this for its realism and the flawed, complicated characters.
Rainbow Rowell has an incredible ability to hide an emotional wallop in the middle of a light and romantic story
Rainbow writes such complicated, quirky characters - it's a great one (-)
A beautiful 'will they, won't they' love story from the author of Eleanor & Park. . . . I loved these characters and the realness of their story
Rainbow Rowell returns with a gorgeous, slow-burn second-chance love story . . . Raw, real and romantic, this got me right in the feels
'A will-they, won't-they second chance romance for the ages, this one is poised to be one of summer's breakout hits'
If you adored One Day, make this your next read
All stars
Most relevant
Eleanor&Park is one of my favourite books so of course I give Rainbow Rowell always a try (Fangirl was a hit but Attachments a miss for me). This one was really good. I liked the story, liked learning a bit more about the Navy and liked that the characters had flaws (inside and outside). It seemed to drag a bit in the middle with the Shiloh and Cary‘s one step forward and two steps back - why the four sta

Lovely Story

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Really liked this story, the narration is fantastic and the narrators voice is quite calming. The story is just generally easy to listen and lovely, funny at times. It’s not especially gripping or anything life changing but it’s a nice listen. I liked Carey he’s a great character

Heartwarming

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Loved every minute of this, wonderful narration too ♥️. Listened to the last 8 hours back to back

Beautiful !

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This is not the most exciting of books but I liked the characters. Therefore I was happy just living in their world for a little while and listening to what happens.

Overall enjoyable

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I found the first third to half of Slow Dance really dragged as it was difficult to always like Shiloh as a character - she was over the top neurotic - if we had been given more of her back story earlier perhaps it would have been easier to empathise but I really struggled to like as a character until later. It became much more interesting and easy to digest once you started to get both insights into Cary’s life and his perspective. He was a wonderful character in comparison- perhaps a little idealised but he had his faults. He was a great romantic male lead and his care for Shiloh helped me as a reader see her in a different light. Perhaps this was the author’s intention? However, this book could have done with a quicker start. The other flaw for the audiobook was how slow the narrator read. I usually am not one to need to up the pace as I like to listen to relax but with this narration it seemed like the regular recording was slowed down and I would lose the gist very easily. I recommend trying it at 1.2 or even 1.5. And this is the first time I have ever had to do this.
Overall, it is a decent story and the author created a believable world, I would tentatively recommend because I got so fond of Cary. I could imagine this as a much better movie than book with the right cast due to the nostalgia and romance aspects.

Picked up in the second half, great male lead character

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