Instructions for Dancing

by Nicola Yoon

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun is Also a Star Nicola Yoon is back with her eagerly anticipated third novel. With all the heart and hope of her last two books, this is an utterly unique romance.

Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually. 

As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything -- including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he's only just met.

Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it's that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?

• ISBN10: 0735271232
• ISBN13: 9780735271234
• Publish Date: 1 June 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Publisher: Tundra Book Group
• Imprint: Penguin Teen Canada
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9780735271234

Reviews

[Angie]

Instructions for Dancing is about avid Romance reader turned romance skeptic, Evie. After her father cheated, and her parents got divorced, Evie has given up on the idea of love. Why bother if it's just going to end in heartbreak? Then one day, she visits a Little Free Library and picks up a book and suddenly her life is changed. And no, that is not metaphorical. She gains the ability to see couples' entire history and future, which Evie, of course, continues to interpret as love sucks because it always ends. Whether by choice or by something more permanent. Obviously, this story is about her changing her mind about all of this, but it doesn't go quite like you'd expect.

A good chunk of Instructions for Dancing is Evie getting to know her new dance partner, X. He's the type of person who lives every moment to the fullest, and he wants to share that with Evie. They're relationship was super cute to watch develop. I do think declaring someone "the love of my life" after a couple months was a bit over the top, but I was rooting for them! Evie also has to learn to forgive her father and move on as a family. I was less interested in this part, especially since she was acting like him cheating on her mom was this big huge secret that she must protect her sister from. I wasn't under the impression that her sister was some wilting flower who needs lies to get through the day, but whatever. Internal conflict I guess.

Other than that, I really enjoyed Instructions for Dancing. It was quick and fun and at times sad.

[Kim Deister]

Do NOT let the gorgeous cover fool you into thing that this is a softly sweet YA romcom! It is not. It pulls at every single heartstring. It is magical. It is thought-provoking. And it’s incredibly emotional, running the gamut of the spectrum. It is simply… beautiful.

The magical realism element is one I’ve never seen before, and I really liked how it was used to structure the story. Evie has gained the magical ability to see the romantic history, at least the high points, of a kissing couple… but only the first time they kiss. This is hard for her to accept, as she is still struggling with the demise of her parents’ marriage. Nor does it help that virtually every story she sees ends in heartbreak, not helping her increasingly cynical outlook on love. But then one thing leads to another, and she meets X, who slowly chips away at that wall of cynicism.

This book is so much more than a love story. It’s so much more than a love story. It’s a story about friends and family. It’s a story about finding yourself in a new normal, and finding a way through it. It’s about love and loss, and everything in between.

Such a beautiful read!