Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell - Review

I love Rainbow Rowell and I've read a lot of her Young Adult stuff, so when I saw this on Netgalley I was intrigued as it's an adult novel. I wanted to read it, and was pleased to get it approved. Thank you so much to Penguin Random House for granting me access to this book. I was provided with an electronic copy of the book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The book is about Shiloh and Cary. At the beginning of the book they are both in Omaha, their home town, for a friend's wedding. They are about thirty three at this point. Their mutual friend Mikey is getting married to someone he knew in high school, Janine. Shiloh and Cary were best friends with Mikey at high school; the three of them ran together and were pretty attached at the hip. Shiloh got out and went to university elsewhere. Cary joined the navy, where he still is. Mikey is an artist and was in like New York or something but he's now back at home too. Shiloh never really felt like she fitted in at high school, I think, but she met Ryan at college and was lucky to find a job in theater in Omaha, so ended up living there. She and Ryan had two children, Juniper and Gus, who in the book are six and three. She and Ryan got divorced and she is now living in her childhood home with her mother, Gloria. She and Ryan supposedly have 50/50 custody but he isn't that reliable. He is also seeing someone new, which Shiloh isn't happy about. 

She and Cary had this kind of mutual attraction in high school but never really acted on it. There are flashbacks to high school in the book, which really reminded me of Rainbow's YA novels, and I do think this is where her strength lies. I love how painful it is to be seventeen and eighteen in her books; I think those bits work really well. Especially as all three main characters desperately want to get out of Omaha and be someone. Shiloh's mom was not the most reliable of parents (although she seems a better grandmother) and Cary's family is complicated. The woman he calls Mom, Lois, is actually his grandma. His real mum is his 'sister' Jackie. This is never spoken about, though, but it is painful for Cary. 

When they meet up they dance and they leave together, but they don't end up having sex. Cary is leaving again for his deployment on a ship, but there is obviously chemistry between them. Then Lois falls and Cary asks Shiloh for help. When he comes back they meet up. He meets her kids. They almost get together - and then don't. It's an absolutely delicious dance, I really enjoyed it. Shiloh and Cary are both great people and I liked the depth of their feelings and self awareness. Shiloh almost seems asexual, which she seems pretty okay with, and I liked how this was dealt with. Her kids are a little precocious, which is a criticism, but I sort of forgave them. 

I liked the kind of romancing part, when Cary is away and they're emailing each other. The latter part of the book, when Mikey gets married, is set in 2006, so the internet does exist but smartphones don't. I think this was a deliberate choice because Rainbow is the same age; she would have been the same age as them in high school in 1991. Shiloh is coming into herself in her thirties which I think is something a lot of women do. I would love to see this book set today and then high school in the mid noughties, but I liked it this way too. 

I liked how much of their lives just happened. They want to be together but LIFE keeps happening and happy endings are rarely straightforward. I really liked the book and am glad I read it. I'm giving it four out of five.