It’s hard to even list all the different emotions that Nicola Yoon made me feel while reading her upcoming novel, Instructions for Dancing (out June 1st). I’m not as familiar with Yoon’s writing as I would like, but I was blown away by how much she made me feel in what was relatively a short book.

In Instructions for Dancing, Yoon succeeds in taking on themes of grief, love, and fate in a book that made me laugh and cry and ultimately leave feeling differently than how I felt when I began.

IFD tells the story of Evie, who begins the book packing up all her romance novels in order to donate them because she is done with love and romance after watching her parent’s marriage implode. Evie meets a mysterious woman who insists she take a book from the donation pile and it begins her journey at a la brea dancing studio where Evie meets X, her new dancing partner with a new life philosophy of saying yes to everything.

As if that wasn’t enough, Evie realizes she has the ability to see how entire relationships begin and end if she witnesses a couple kiss.

Yoon says she wrote this book while dealing with various family health issues and uses this book in order to process her thoughts on grief and love. Would you make the same choices if you knew the ending? Would you go through all the pain even knowing what would happen?

This book will sit with me long after I have finished. A powerful, stunning meditation on grief and love and dancing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was exactly what I needed. This is a great romance that focuses on Evie, a young 17-year old senior who has lost hope in love and her romance novels after parents divorce. While making a donation to a Little Free Library, she receives a stereotypical rom-com curse that leads her to a dance studio and X. X is her complete opposite with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dreams, a “Say Yes” philosophy, and his own share of grief and parent issues. Through learning the Argentine Tango, Evie learns more than she thought she would.

This story does an amazing job at illustrating the effects of lost on love. Nicola does a wonderful job at describing both the effects of love lost and the importance of savoring love all while introducing the passion of dancing. I honestly loved this story, and I finished it in one day. This is a great love story that mocks romances while simultaneously making you fall in love with modern romance.

I will say that the title and cover had me thinking it was a sweet young adult romance to cleanse my palette. Nicola fooled me really well because she definitely did an amazing job of weaving in real life problems into this story without making it feel too heavy or forced. Beautiful character development with an amazing story and meaningful ending. I’m also probably in the minority, but I loved the ending as it showed the growth in Evie and honored X’s, Maggie’s, and Archibald’s beliefs.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I thought this book was so original, and really fun to read. Evie Thomas is a teenager who just doesn't believe in love anymore, after her parents get divorced. And she has somehow acquired the ability to see visions of how a couple's relationship will end, if she sees them kissing. So knowing that everything has an inevitable end, she is not at all interested in finding a romance of her own.

Until X walks in. They are partnered together to compete in a junior ballroom dance championship, and they very quickly act on their attraction for each other. But will Evie stick with it, even if she knows that they will most likely break up some day?

A really clever premise with great, nuanced characters. Highly recommend.

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon is a very sweet book that emphasizes finding love and enjoying our relationships every day. The story revolves around Evie, a 17 year old high school senior in Los Angeles. She is a formerly hopeless romantic who has become jaded about love ever since her parent's recent divorce. A strange incident brings her to a dance studio where she begins taking classes. There, she is paired with handsome, adventurous X (Xavier) who helps her open up and start taking risks again. I loved how Evie's character grew and developed and she became more accepting of others and open to new experiences and joy.

Thank you Random House / Delacorte Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I loved how this wasn't a straight-up contemporary. If you've read it you know what I'm talking about ;) I loved how this twist came into play quite a lot.

Characters:
Alright, can we talk about how much growth Evie went through? I loved seeing her character development throughout the story. I loved how her dad came into the story.

X was super funny, I could imagine the smile he would give to Evie. I really loved him, he was great for Evie. I love the friend group, their relationship was super fun to read about. All the little quirky things they did were super cute. I also loved how Martin always believed Evie. He never said how crazy she was and I loved that. I know I'm really bad at explaining why I love characters but I really did love the characters! Although I did kinda prefer the plot in this one. I loved Fifi, she was amazing!

Plot:
There were a few things that felt off to me, that's why I gave the book 4 stars. I kind of felt like the romance was a little insta love. But to be fair I read the majority of this in a day. Plus the story was spread out over a few months and my brain didn't compute that., but I did love the romance non -the-less!. I also kinda wished dance was more at the forefront. I felt like there was a small chunk of the book without the dance part, even that's a huge part of the book.

Despite these little issues I absolutely loved this book! If you love contemporary with a little twist, I highly recommend this!! Super fun, super cute, and super quick!
(also there's an lgbtq+ side romance!)
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I received an ARC of Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon thanks to the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review:
Nicola Yoon is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine. She also wrote Everything, Everything, which is an incredible story of someone who is extremely immunocompromised (essentially) and struggle between that and a being a teenager. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend. She also wrote The Sun Is Also A Star, which is just as amazing. This is why I chose to pick up Instructions for Dancing (plus the cover is fantastic and super eye-catching!).

I'm happy to report that I am just as satisfied with Instructions for Dancing as I was for Everything, Everything. Nicola Yoon takes a complicated situation and weaves a story around it and coming-of-age. Evie is attempting to cope with her parents' divorce and that overwhelming feeling that love only exists to cause pain. And the glimpses she sees only proves it. Then enters X. X is a go-with-the-flow, always-say-yes person that goes against everything Evie believes. So, of course, she hates him. However, they still need to work together to save the dance studio that Evie was guilted into joining.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story and how it progressed. It had really good pacing and development. I loved Evie's character arc and the ending was so good there were tears. I highly recommend reading this if you like cynical teens and bittersweet romances.

***NOT A ROMANCE***

Disillusioned by her parents' divorce, Evie no longer believes in love. Her views are reinforced when she begins having visions of how a couple's love story begins and ends, after seeing them kiss. But when she meets X and practices with him for a dance competition, she can't help losing her heart. Will Evie learn to trust in love again?

The sweet love story between Evie and X filled my heart. It was lovely to see how Evie learned to value love even when it doesn't have a happy ending.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

went into this story not expecting much maybe just a fun ride of a stubborn, been through a lot protagonist learning how to open up to the concept of love again, but i'm stunned as it was a much bigger story than that in terms of meaningfulness. still this book was a very quick read that you can't put down as the short chapters helped that i consumed in about less than 2 hours not including breaks, though my younger self would've definitely loved this a lot more than i do now with most ya romance contemporaries since this was a swift read i didn't connect on a super deep level. yet this story does get a lot of messages across that truly hit home when it comes to dealing with broken families, trust, and love specifically all the pain that it will always come with. this was a solid 3 star for me in terms of just overall fast plot and characters but upped a star with the emotions in made me feel and resonating dialogue during profound conversations between characters. evie and x's relationship and dynamic provided such good contrast to the other with x's careless, free, living in the moment persona giving a new perspective to post parents' divorce evie's self who's cautious of feelings and of pain itself with the future holding many possibilities of hurt. i'll say nicola yoon really knows how to throw in some good plot twists quite literally twisting the knife in readers' hearts. the character growth and realizations especially on living life and all its moments of happiness it will give you if you look past your grudges was well done along with learning to love without overthinking the future of it all. i would highly recommend this to anyone who needs a good brisk read that will take you for a whirlwind of emotions of laughs and tears, you can tell yoon really is good at her genre of rom-contemps that provide situations of reality that can resound with most readers.

I first thought this book would be a cute romance, but honestly I should've expected a lot more since its Nicola Yoon!
This book made me so emotional. It is just packed with such a powerful story and it really isn't just a cute romcom at all.
This is about a girl going through a hard time in her life, and she feels like everyone has moved on except for her. This story shows her growth and I think this might be such a good story for people who may be going through similar issues of families getting a divorce or kids with parent issues, especially younger teens.
Yoon gives this powerful story and then adds the really interesting ballroom dancing plot to it, which I really enjoyed because I used to take ballroom dancing classes so it was fun for me to read this and then in my mind see the dances that they are doing on the page.
The way that this "power" that Evie has is also really interesting and really helps her grow as a person, I think.
I also really liked the love interest, he was a really interesting character and he was such a great person to be there for the main character during her hard times.
I also really enjoyed the sort of open ending that happens, it doesn't really tie everything completely up, it leaves it open to let the reader wonder what really happens and if Evie's vision really does come true or not.
I did think the ending of the ballroom dancing, like the end of the competition could've been explained a little better. The way it was written seemed a bit rushed and wasn't as descriptive as I would have liked it to be, but other than that I thought this was a great book!

Nicola Yoon just writes beautiful works of art and this is no exception. Instructions for Dancing is a story following Evie, who doesn't believe love is forever (based on circumstances in her own life) and receives a book where she's given these visions to see into the future at how a relationship ends. It affects how she falls in love herself, with her dance partner, X. I liked how the story was a mix of Evie's POV, the visions, and cute little chapters in between. It was an emotional story that also was swoon-worthy and I think anyone who likes YA will enjoy this.

4.5. This is less cutesy and fated-mates than Yoon's other books, and I think that's to its benefit. Sure, there's hope in the end, but there's also a lot of cynicism, emotional moments, and darkness in narrator Evie's story as she not only navigates her own family and relationship issues, but also shoulders the burden of seeing entire relationships play out in front of her eyes.

I would recommend not only reading this book, but also the author's note at the end; Yoon was going through the pain of losing family while she wrote, and it's clear that she channeled this pain into Evie's story.

Nicola Yoon is an author that I absolutely adore. I will read any and everything she writes. I am a hopeless romantic and her books just speak to my soul and brings so much joy to my inner teen/young adult. This book left me absolutely gutted yet incredibly. As someone who seat with my parents divorcing when I was in high school, I could not help but to empathize with Evie. It’s complicated trying to navigate change and grieving. Not just in death but relationships and for those still loving. I couldn’t believe I read this book in a few short hours although I sent the last quarter of the book reading through my tears. The complex and honest relationships in this story were touching. Evie and X’s relationship was incredible. So much tenderness and vulnerability. Black love. Sigh... I’m starting to tear up mentioning it. This story definitely gave Tom Hanks Big vibes mixed with a bit of That’s So Raven in a heartfelt and nuanced way. I did feel things wrap up or resolved a bit to quickly which is why my actual rating is 4.5 but the third time is definitely the charm. This book is a worthy read and one that will stay will me for a long time.

I didn’t receive this book in time, but this did end up getting selected for one of our boxes! I’m so excited!

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

As soon as I saw that Nicola Yoon had a new book coming out this summer, I knew it would be high on my TBR! I loved The Sun is Also a Star and Everything Everything, and this one definitely lived up to my expectations. Yoon has such a beautiful way of telling stories that always draws me in and keeps me thinking about her characters long after I've finished.

More than just a love story, this is a story of Evie learning to believe in love again. Evie and X had such wonderful chemistry, and I also enjoyed the dynamics between Evie and her friends and family. This is a coming of age story that I would wholeheartedly recommend to teens and adults alike.

Add this one to your TBR if you enjoy:
💕 forced proximity
💕 slow burn
💕 coming of age YA
💕 strong friendships
💕 complicated family dynamics

Thank you Delacorte Press and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

First of all I love X . I did not expect this book to be so bittersweet and the ending crushed me 😭 however Evie grew and learned a lot in this book and the overall message was beautiful ! The writing was amazing I laughed out loud and felt every emotion possible for these characters. Evie was a bit annoying to me at first but I grew to understand why she was so stubborn and how hard it is to forgive sometimes. This book was amazing.

The last several YA books I’ve read led me to believe that I was kind of over the genre, but honestly this one turned it around. Instructions for Dancing is a sweet book about Evie Thomas, who is navigating through growing up, first love and separating parents.

Evie’s voice wasn’t as immature as some YA main characters and I really appreciated that. She develops complex emotions and her struggles give great depth to her character. Her romance with X was sweet, and not unrealistic.

I would have liked a little more interactions with Evie’s friends, but I thought there was a good balance between the group. The focus on healthy relationships with her parents was good but I did feel that she maybe matured a little too quickly in her interactions with them than was realistic.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I haven’t read Nicola Yoon before, although her books have been hyped in the YA book community, especially with both her previous books having been adapted for film. So, I didn’t have much of a frame of reference for what to expect with Instructions for Dancing, although it looked like a great mix of fun and heartfelt. What I didn’t expect was that it would be a balm for my soul coming out of a particularly challenging couple weeks, complete with a min-reading slump.

Evie is immensely relatable, being a formerly romantic soul whose heart has been hardened by her parents’ divorce. Where once she could catalog her love of romances by genre and trope, she now sees doom and gloom everywhere, even in the “gift” given to her where she sees the trajectory of entire relationships before they happen, or while they’re in their early stages.

There were moments when I feared the turn this would take, especially when she saw the potentially dark fate of her own relationship. But while many people dwell on the idea that love is always doomed, those people will fail to see the beauty in love itself while it happens. While the book still has a happy ending (and I would have broken things if it didn’t), I think it’s much sweeter when reinforced by the fact that endings aren’t the sole thing worth dwelling on.

But ultimately, this is super sweet, and X is a great love interest who is totally perfect for Evie, even though she spends most of the book being a pessimist toward the idea of their relationship.

This is a cute book that hits the essential romance plot beats while also tugging on your emotions as it unpacks those essential elements. Anyone looking for a sweet YA romance will love this.

Engaging characters whom you root for, dancing lessons, and the fun twist of the ability to see the future of relationships (good and bad) made for a delightful story from Nicola Yoon. She always has a wonderful sense of romance instilled in her stories.

this book was everything i wanted and more. the premise was so interesting. the main character evie can see what happens to people’s love stories when they kiss. isn’t that the coolest plot point ever? the love interest x was amazing. i couldn’t put this book down. this book made me so happy, but also broke me. please read this masterpiece!

This is my 2nd book I've read by Nicola Yoon. I remember reading everything everything for the 1st time and thought this is such a wonderful story I cant wait to read the stories she creates.

This is a magical heartbreaking finding who you are and what you can trust type story.

This is a beautifully written story this story shows Evie and her family and friends. She one day starts seeing visions of relationships from start to end when she sees people kissing. She doesn't understand why she sees it. With being able to see peoples relationships she starts questioning everything. During this it leads her to a dance studio where she learns the art of dance. Where she lets herself start opening up to new experiences and to new and old people in her life.

Evie meets X and he's a yes man and she starts to open up about her pain and angry and he does to her and a great friendship starts
I dont want to give anything away on this story but there was so many strong moments in this story. Of just understanding life and you need to stop running from what hurts you and your past and the fear of tomorrow and just live. No matter how hard it is no matter if you know the outcome. You need to live

This has probably been one of my favorite stories of the year. I'm so happy I read this it made me laugh and cry and just really made me think. I will come back to this story and once it out in the world add more details to the review. 5 stars!! Go read this trust me its a must read Beautiful and Nicola Yoon stories just keep getting better as she writes. ❤❤

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Childrens Delacorte Press For Sharing this reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions