While some readers may only know Rainbow Rowell for her young adult bestsellers, she is just as good when writing for adults. This is exemplified by Slow Dance, a tender and heartfelt novel of rekindled friendship (but you can also read Attachments and Landline for further evidence). Slow Dance follows Shiloh and Carry, weaving together their inseparable teen years and their reunion more than a decade later.

Shiloh is a theatre teacher whose house is filled with second-hand knickknacks. Carry is a naval officer who feels like he’s carrying his family on his shoulders. At the wedding of an old friend, they meet again after years of alienation. While neither wants to fight the magnetic pull between them, there’s lingering scars of hurt and confusion that make it impossible to forget the past. Can they wade through their history, and rebuild their friendship? What if ‘friends’ isn’t what they’re meant to be?

I loved Slow Dance – at times it broke my heart, but it was also deeply satisfying. With interwoven timelines, we see the incredible intimacy Shiloh and Carry once shared, contrasted with their frosty estrangement in a way that ensures readers feel all the characters’ pain. Rowell dances masterfully across the timeline of their lives, letting us sit in the moment long enough to fully appreciate the impact of each meeting, but jumping back in time at just the right moment to give context to everything the characters are doing, and not saying, in the present.

Rowell has a real gift for characterisation, and her use of multiple perspectives further fleshes out the characters in new ways. This is a delightful read for anyone who enjoys nuanced conflict and stories that deal lovingly with the unglamorous realities of life.