Slow Dance is the third book that I've read from this author. Prior to this I read one YA and one adult novel by her. This new release is an adult contemporary romance novel, but it is quite different tonally from what I would consider a romance novel. I think Rowell veers more towards women's fiction. Overall, I don't quite vibe with her writing style, and this is precisely why I docked one star and gave it four rather than five stars. Her novels and by extension her characters "sound" the same in the three books that I've read. I think she is trying to go for vulnerable and authentic, but the way she describes the world and the way her characters see it is so different from how I perceive or relate to things, that it is difficult for me to buy it as authentic. But I do appreciate it, and I do allow that some people might see the world as she describes it.
Ok, with that aside out of the way, let's get to the characters and the plot. Slow Dance is a second-chance romance. Shiloh and Cary were inseparable in high school. But then she moved away to college and he joined the Navy. In high school, they never dated, but it is clear that they were absolutely in love with one another. Then in college, Cary came to visit her and they gave in to physical attraction, but things somehow still did not work out between them, and they ended up completely losing touch with each other. This was the part that irked me. I really dislike miscommunication or lack of communication tropes in romance. However, Rowell did somehow manage to make this more realistic and thus more palatable for me.
Fourteen years later, Shiloh and Cary run into each other at a friend's wedding and have a second chance at happiness. What I truly liked about this book is the messiness that you can never find in a romance novel, but which abounds in our every day life. Shiloh is divorced with two kids, her ex-husband is very much in the picture and is NOT a nice guy. Cary's family is a complete mess. Adopted by his grandmother, he calls his real mother a sister, who clearly has alcohol problems. His biological sister Angel has a creep of a boyfriend and is barely making enough money to be able to support her three young children. The entire family clearly relies on his financially supporting his grandmother/mother and by extension the rest of the family with all the half and step-siblings.
Sex in this book is definitely not the "spicy scene" from a typical romance novel. It is awkward, filled with anxiety, and for Shiloh, at least in the beginning, it is more about intimacy and connection, than passion and orgasm. It felt very human and real. I really appreciated this about this book.
Yes, there is an HEA (happy ever after). This is the one thing I love about romance novels. It alleviates my anxiety of not knowing whether the main characters will end up together. There is however no third act break-up, which I dislike, so this this was just fine by me! So overall, Rowell managed to write my ideal romance novel: with realistic characters and life situations, realistic libidos and sex scenes, with HEA and no awkward break-up in the second half of the book.
Now, I do want to say that it is a slow read. Not much really happens. Right before Slow Dance I read Ever Summer After by Carley Fortune, which is also a second chance romance, but it had much more drama and tension, and had a much more emotional impact on me than Slow Dance. But then again, it might also be Rowell's writing style. I do recommend this book as a great alternative for your run of the mill "spicy" romance novels that we've been inundated with lately.
I received an e-ARC copy of this novel from NetGalley.com.
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