'Slow Dance' by Rainbow Rowell

 

Received from the publisher is return for an honest review 

From the BLURB: 

Everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together – everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

‘Slow Dance’ follows these star-crossed best friends from their inseparable teen years on the wrong side of the tracks to their far-flung adulthoods – through her marriage and motherhood and his time in the Navy – as they try to work out what they’re actually supposed to be to each other.

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I was up until midnight finishing this; laughing, crying, and just having the best reading experience. I have always loved Rainbow Rowell’s adult fiction - ‘Attachments’ has been my No. 1 fave … but ‘Slow Dance’ maybe just knocked it down to No. 2.

I remember in ‘Attachments’ there was a lot of love for the 1977 movie ‘The Goodbye Girl’ - which is arguably all about another chance of romance when you think you’re down and out and nobody could possibly want you any more … and I feel like ‘Slow Dance’ is a bit of a homage to that time in life. Where so few romance novels choose to expand; Rainbow Rowell dares to tread. 

For anyone who just discovered David Nicholl’s ‘One Day’ via the new adaptation (and now you need to mend what he beautifully broke) - Slow Dance will be right up your alley. Swap out University of Edinburgh for Omaha, Nebraska - and meet Cary & Shiloh bouncing between 1991 and 2006. Where so few romance novels choose to expand on the missed loves and those that remained unrequited for so long, Rainbow Rowell bursts open this idea of approaching your mid-30s and being full of regret and “what if’s?” and choosing to explore new (old) love anyway.

And she does it with her usual Rainbow Rowell sparkling repartee and dialogue … and the most impressive ability to make characters you’ve just met feel so beloved and lived-in.

I adored ‘Slow Dance’ … it is a slow burn - that’s kinda the whole point and plot - and I feel like some people won’t appreciate how lovely it is to have a book like this. It has the hard edges of life amongst a really tender romance. But I thought it was spectacular. One of my favourite reads from Rowell and for the year.

‘Do you think that makes us strangers?’
‘No,’ Shiloh said. ‘But also, yes? Like - cells get replaced in the human body every seven years so that’s two full iterations since 1992. You don’t have any cells left that remember me.’
‘I’m pretty sure my cells remember you, Shiloh.’

5/5