Slow Dance

Brought to you by Penguin.

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.

Rainbow Rowell is back with her first adult novel in ten years in this uplifting novel about star-crossed lovers and the power of second chances

Discover the big, beaming power ballad of a novel about a love so true it refuses to be forgotten . . .

Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. Shiloh was going to become an actress, and Cary was going to join the Navy. And nothing was ever going to change between them – Shiloh made him promise.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. But, somehow, everything changed.

Now it’s been fourteen years since Shiloh last spoke to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back in north Omaha living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When Shiloh gets invited to an old friend’s wedding, all she can think about is whether Cary will be there – and whether she hopes he will be.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. And what will happen when they try to make their way back to each other.

'Sexy, sweet, wise and nostalgic – Jane Austen’s Persuasion for our times’ Gabrielle Zevin

‘A gorgeous book . . . a beautiful, believable love story between two slightly broken people. So sweet, but never sentimental. I yearned for them to be happy and I miss it now it's over’ Marian Keyes
'Deeply human, profoundly romantic. Rowell will break your heart and you’ll thank her for it' Leigh Bardugo


‘Who can deny the absolute, dizzy pleasure of loving a novel so much . . . 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
'A will-they, won't-they second chance romance for the ages, this one is poised to be one of summer's breakout hits' People


‘A powerful and poignant tale of first love . . . Rich, real, and emotionally raw, this satisfying contemporary is sure to impress’ Publishers Weekly

© Rainbow Rowell 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024