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Slow Dance

A Novel

by Rainbow Rowell

Narrator Rebecca Lowman

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Length 11 hours 30 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“I absolutely loved this book. Shiloh and Cary were inseparable friends as teens and reconnect after over a decade apart to explore the intense connection they both still feel. If you love second chances, right person/wrong time, friends to lovers, or nineties nostalgia, this book is for you. It’s not a conventional romance, but one rooted in real world obstacles that relates the nuances of adult friendships. Rainbow Rowell writes with such emotional acuity, it's impossible not to fall head over heels into this love story.”
— Olivia • Author's Note

Bookseller recommendation

“Old high school pals Shiloh and Cary’s achingly slow burn and poignantly realistic friends to lovers romance reminds us that some of the best love stories take the scenic route to their HEA and some of the greatest romances are ordinary, come with kids, aren’t the first marriage, take time and talking through, and are transcendent and miraculous, worth fighting for and worth swooning over. Just enjoy every single step of this Slow Dance. ”
— Megan • Underground Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Shiloh and Cary quickly became two of my favorite characters ever. Rowell uses dual POV and a non-linear timeline to explore a stunning relationship between two utterly flawed, brilliantly eccentric best friends.”
— Ebani Filbert • The Bookworm

Bookseller recommendation

“Slow Dance is nostalgic and sweet but also refreshingly realistic! It's a breath of fresh air. ”
— Aly Leibow • Beach Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Absolutely love this sweet, real and touching book. LOVE.”
— Julie • Gather Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“Rowell's Slow Dance is a SLOW BURN! Told in present day and flashbacks, Rowell infuses Shiloh and Cary with all the leftover angst of never telling the love of your life the truth. As the flashbacks unfolded, I found myself wanting to shake both characters in hopes of saving them from themselves. But in the end, we have to make the mistakes to hopefully find the answer...and perhaps, love.”
— Julie • Roundabout Books

Bookseller recommendation

“This is a sweet second chance romance about two people who had no clue they had even had a first chance. It is a delightful story!”
— Natalie • Katy Budget Books

Summary
About the author

#40 in Bestselling Romance Audiobooks

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 as sharp and compassionate as you’d expect from Rowell. Deeply, profoundly romantic, it’s a power ballad of a book.

Fiction Romance

Rainbow Rowell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and the Simon Snow Trilogy, as well as several other award-winning novels, short stories, and comics. Rainbow lives in Omaha, Nebraska, just like most of her characters.