Publishers Weekly
04/01/2024
Bestselling YA author Rowell (Eleanor & Park) serves up a powerful and poignant tale of first love for adult romance readers. Growing up in underprivileged north Omaha, Neb., best friends Shiloh, Cary, and Mikey relied on each other—but Shiloh and Cary always had something more than friendship simmering between them. Shiloh asks Cary to be her first sexual experience shortly before he leaves for the Navy. Mike, too, leaves town, heading for New York City, where he becomes a sought-after artist. Only Shiloh is left behind. Fourteen years later, she’s still stuck in town, divorced, with two young children, and living with her mother. After Mikey moves back to Omaha and invites both her and Cary to his wedding, the old friends have a chance to start over—but will they take it? Rowell’s skillful plotting makes the path to the answer deeply affecting, illustrating how regret holds back her imperfect but appealing characters. Though readers may be irked by some of the obstacles Shiloh and Cary toss into their own paths, it’s still easy to root for these two to get a happy ending. Rich, real, and emotionally raw, this satisfying contemporary is sure to impress. Agent: Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists. (July)
From the Publisher
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.” — Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author
“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 may 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
“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.” — Leigh Bardugo, New York Times bestselling author
"Rich, real, and emotionally raw, this satisfying contemporary is sure to impress." — Publishers Weekly
“Rowell pulls off this impossible premise with great charm, and her depictions of the couple’s sweet courtship and their later compromise-filled marriage are equally unsentimental and knowing.” — The New Yorker on Landline
“Rowell is talented enough to be uncategorizable. . . . Landline belongs to a genre of its very own.” — New York Times
"Her writing swings from profane to profound, but it’s always real and always raw.” — NPR on Eleanor & Park
“The funny, wised-up dialogue, the tumultuous, sweet, and sexy love story is grade-A Rowell . . . a book that readers will find almost impossible to put down.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Carry On
“Perfectly mixing sweet romance with deliciously tart wit, Rowell’s literary debut is a complete charmer.” — Chicago Tribune on Attachments
Library Journal
05/01/2024
Rowell makes a triumphant return to adult fiction with her latest, a sometimes-melancholy but ultimately uplifting women's fiction/contemporary romance crossover. The novel follows Shiloh and Cary, teenage best friends who drifted apart before they slam back into each other's lives at a friend's wedding years later. Shiloh, now divorced and with two small children, is living at home with her mother in a run-down Omaha neighborhood; Cary, now a grown man, is a naval officer. Both Shiloh and Cary are intensely relatable, though portions of the book may bring back uncomfortable memories of awkward teen years, and their courtship is simultaneously romantic and full of the practicalities of two people with established lives trying to become a family. Rowell uses a deft hand while building the story, moving seamlessly between past and present as she excavates those embarrassing high school years and uncovers the adults Shiloh and Cary grew into. Readers who enjoyed Landline and Eleanor & Park will be glad to return to Rowell's unique storytelling style and lyrical prose. VERDICT While this novel doesn't follow all the traditional romance beats, it's guaranteed to make hearts flutter, likely while bringing tears to readers' eyes.—Jenny Kobiela-Mondor
