ARC Book Review: Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Slow Dance
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: July 23rd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Attachments comes Slow Dance—a bright, 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. 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. Her life is nothing like she planned.

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. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.

Thank you to William Morrow for the gifted ARC.

HOLY DIALOGUE.

You will rarely find me saying too much dialogue, but y’all, there was too much dialogue. And I didn’t realize how much of a disconnect that created for me in understanding the main character’s emotions and decisions, and even their basic personalities. I struggled so much to FEEL something reading this.

The bones are there. It’s a second chance romance, there’s a lot of real life stuff to work through and talk, and I liked scenes here and there throughout.

This writing style got to me enough I was missing too much to reconcile my overall thoughts. I also think when I’m reading a romance, I want it to be realistic, yet I am cool with a level of romantic delulu because it’s a ROMANCE book and that’s fine. This was almost so realistic that it came across very bland and I watched the day to day of these characters without any true plot line woven in.

Overall audience notes: