Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting
Bookseller pick
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Slow Dance

Due to publisher restrictions, this audiobook is unavailable for purchase in your selected country.
Narrator Rebecca Lowman

This audiobook uses AI narration.

We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
Length 11 hours 29 minutes
Language English
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

Summary

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

Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Reviews

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 maybe even people you’ve been. Slow Dance is sexy, sweet, wise, and nostalgic—Jane Austen’s Persuasion for our times This slow-burn romance follows Shiloh and Cary, best friends who fell in love in their late teens, then split. In their 30s, they find themselves drawn together again, but will their history of misunderstandings get in the way? I loved this for its realism and the flawed, complicated characters. Rainbow Rowell has an incredible ability to hide an emotional wallop in the middle of a light and romantic story Rainbow writes such complicated, quirky characters - it's a great one A beautiful 'will they, won't they' love story from the author of Eleanor & Park. . . . I loved these characters and the realness of their story Rainbow Rowell returns with a gorgeous, slow-burn second-chance love story . . . Raw, real and romantic, this got me right in the feels A gorgeous and warm will they, won't they story Praise for Rainbow Rowell Rowell is talented enough to be uncategorizable Cracking, laugh-out-loud dialogue, characters that feel painfully real Reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book A breathless, achingly good read about love and outsiders This sexy, smart, tender romance thrums with punk rock and true love. Teen readers--not to mention their Gen X parents--will swoon Sweet, gritty and affecting...an unforgettable story about two misfits in love Rowell shows us the beauty in the broken Reading [Rainbow Rowell's] work feels like listening to your hilariously insightful best friend tell her best stories Rowell is, as always, a fluent and enjoyable writer--the pages whip by Keen psychological insight and irrepressible humor The dialogue flows naturally; it's zippy, funny, and fresh A joy from sentence to sentence, and on that intimate level there's absolutely nothing unoriginal or clichéd in the way Rowell thinks. Her work is dense with moments of sharp observation...and humor If you adored One Day, make this your next read Rowell's signature warmth and authenticity shine through, with its heartfelt narrative and relatable characters . . . brimming with hope. 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. I will miss being in this world. ‘A powerful and poignant tale of first love . . . Rich, real, and emotionally raw, this satisfying contemporary is sure to impress’ 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 'A will-they, won't-they second chance romance for the ages, this one is poised to be one of summer's breakout hits' Expand reviews
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting