Fourteen years after they went their separate ways, 33-year-old Shiloh, a divorced, single mom living back in the same house she grew up in, attends a high school friend's wedding in hopes of seeing Cary, the boy she never realized she loved until he was lost.
Rainbow Rowell’s new novel Slow Dance is about reconnecting with that one that got away … but in the case of Carey and Shiloh, is it possible to lose someone that you never really had?
The emotionally aching Slow Dance is told through a series of flashback moments and present-day snippets. Going back in time to the early 90s and the start of main characters and love interests' Carey and Shiloh’s nascent friendship turned not-quite-relationship, the story continues to further explore Carey and Shiloh’s feelings for each other over time up until a much-anticipation reconciliation at their shared best friend’s wedding in 2006.
Carey and Shiloh’s not-quite-relationship is complicated, having never officially been a couple, but the two have been harboring secret, bubbling feelings for each other since forever. When Carey, on leave from the Navy, is forced to spend some time in their hometown due to his mom’s failing health, he and Shiloh find themselves exploring and sharing everything they have kept from each other over the years.
This is a love story unlike any I have actually read, but I like that it rings true to so many people that I know in real life. It is common in relationship fiction for the two main characters to basically be perfect and to fall perfectly in love with each other. Carey and Shiloh are not those people, and theirs’ is not that love story. I appreciated that they are incredibly flawed and that their relationship has been built on shaky ground.
Furthermore, I like that they move forward with their feelings for each other against better judgment. I find that it is far more common in the real world for people to make the WRONG choices in love and relationships, yet in fiction, love is often displayed without grave consequence. Everything always works out just right in the end, but I do not feel that this will be the case for Carey and Shiloh. And I like it because it is real.
Kudos to Rainbow Rowell for daring to write a romance that just may not have a happily ever after. - Brooke, Public Relations Librarian