Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Millions of readers have come of age with Rainbow Rowell’s books. Titles like Fangirl, Carry On, and Eleanor & Park made a lasting impact on young adult readers for the past decade. Now, Rowell returns to the adult fiction world for the first time since Landline in 2014. With Slow Dance (Morrow), Rowell shares a love story for her long-devoted readers who are all grown up now. Her new novel is a poignant, funny, and big-hearted story about the confounding twists and turns of adulthood: the dashed dreams, lost loves, roads not taken, and, through it all, the struggle to figure it all out … again.
People call it, “A will-they, won’t-they second chance romance for the ages, this one is poised to be one of summer’s breakout hits.”
A Story of Second Chances
Once upon a time, Shiloh and Cary had promised each other that their friendship would never change. But when it needed to change, it broke. In high school, 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. Everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together … everybody but Shiloh and Cary.
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.
Rediscovering Love
In Slow Dance, these star-crossed best friends come crashing back into each other’s orbits years later. Told in alternating timelines between past and present, Rowell tells 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. And maybe it’s only now that they can finally work out what they’re supposed to be to each other. It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, trying to find their way back to the start.
About Rainbow Rowell:
Rainbow Rowell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park, Fangirl, and Landline, as well as several other award-winning novels, short stories, and comics. Rowell was hailed by the New York Times as “talented enough to be uncategorizable.” The threads that run through all Rowell’s work are her sunlit, knife-sharp empathy and unflagging sense of humor. She writes about life—and usually love—in a way that feels painfully, wonderfully, breathtakingly real. Rowell and her family live in Omaha, Nebraska.
