Evie Thomas does not believe in love, especially after watch her parents, two people who had a beautiful story, fall out of it.
But one afternoon when she suddenly gets the ability to see someone’s entire love story, she can’t see this new ability as anything but a curse. It opens her eyes to her newfound truth, love HURTS.
By chance, she finds herself in a dance studio and suddenly she’s signed up for a dance competition. Her partner? X- a guy who never says no to what life has to offer to him.
As the two start to get closer and closer to the dance competition, Evie starts to wonder. Is love worth the risk?

Okay, I am going to be completely honest. I wasn’t a huge fan of this book at first.
The main character’s attitude was not my favorite, and her constant mood switches and despair infuriated me.
But then I tried understanding it from her point of view, and I realized how bleak the world can look like when something negative happens in your life.

Evie is the epitome of a broken-hearted teen. The world hurts and life doesn’t seem to look up, you know nothing but misery. And for that, my own carefree outlook wanted to despise her. Yet, I still found her relatable and understood her range of emotions- especially after reading the author’s note at the end.

The relationship in the book is unique. When you combine a thinker and a freedom planner, it’s bound to be interesting.

So if you’re wanting a story that’s like nothing you’ve ever read before, that digs into the highs and lows of relationships and the actual reality of love, then I recommend you check this out!

(Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book in return of an honest review)

My heart is broken and I have all the feelings after finishing this book which I could not put down!
Evie is ripped apart after her parents get divorced, she decided to even give away her beloved romance novels.
Suddenly, Evie has the ability to see couples entire relationships from start to finish, confirming her beliefs love isn’t real.
Evie finds a dancing instruction book in a little free library, the book belongs to a local dance studio that Evie starts attending. She meets X, soon she starts falling for him.
This is definitely my favorite book by Yoon, this story is beautiful and had me in all my emotions.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for my advanced ebook copy.

"Instructions for Dancing" by Nicola Yoon
Publication Date: 6.1.2021

Evie Thomas, a high school senior, no longer believes in love. It's not real. If love existed, then her parents would still be together. She gives away all of her romance books to the Little Free Library in town. While there, she meets a mysterious woman who tells Evie to read the book "Instructions for Dancing." But then, Evie can foresee a kissing couple's entire relationship, from the beginning to the breakup, and this just reinstates her believe that love isn't real.

Evie is drawn to a local dance studio and begins learning ballroom dancing, her partner, X, a gorgeous high school dropout musician. She notices that she is learning about herself, and she is falling for X! After agreeing to enter a dance contest to help the studio, Evie needs to decide if she can believe in love again.

It's been quite some time that Ms. Yoon published a novel, and this one did not disappoint! Fast-paced read with a simple but powerful message, plus a focus on dancing! I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC for my honest opinion.

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This was a cute book. There was humor and some teenage rom-com, which I enjoyed. I didn't like the ending though. I know it was a major point of the "why is this happening to me?" but I wish it had ended differently.

5 stars.

"Just because everything is different now doesn’t mean we didn’t love each other once. Maybe we will again."

Not only did this book make me stay up til 2 am to finish it, it also had the audacity to give me a puffy face from all my late night crying the next day. I desperately needed some help from Dr. Danica to get my face back together.

I surely did not expect this level of a pull from a romance book but Nicola is incredible at yanking at the heart strings where you least expect it. I see this in all her books, even the happy endings are twinged with sadness. Even the sad endings have a bit of hope in them. To write a ending where Evie chooses to stay in love even when she knows X will die... there was nothing more beautiful and bittersweet than that.

I liked that there was no "gotcha" moments. Her visions did come true. Her dad did cheat and get remarried. Her friends did break up and the group didn't last. But even in all those cases she is able to see the good side in it. The past and all the beautiful memories they shared. And I think that's the true magic of this book, to show that no matter how painful the end might be, the love in the middle and beginning is worth it.

Disclaimer: I got this ARC in exchange for an honest review from @NetGalley!! All opinions are my own.

AHHH THIS BOOK WAS A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED 2021 read and i'M so happy it lived up to my already high expectations. Full disclaimer: I'm a huge Nicola Yoon fan. Evie doesn't believe in love and X believes in saying yes to everything which includes entering a dance competition with a strange girl he just met. This is an ADORABLE rom-com book!

Evie is a high school senior with a gift (or a curse) - when she sees a couple kissing. she can see the past, present, and future of their relationship. Add that to her father's new life with a new woman and Evie's pretty down on love. But a mysterious encounter at a Little Free Library leads her to the La Brea Dance Studio and entry into a dance competition with partner X. Slowly Evie learns to trust her heart and open herself to the Argentine Tango, and to embracing life!

What a beautiful book this was! Having never really experienced lost loves and grief the way that Evie has in her life, I had a hard time relating to her struggles. Then, I read the note that the author left at the end about what was happening in her life at the time she was trying to write and it all came home. I loved this lovely salute to enjoying life in the moment. Sometimes that's all we can do.

Nicola Yoon does it again! I devoured this book! This is an easy and light read, which is everything you want in a good romance book. Typical with Yoon, there are strongly developed characters. Evie is reeling from her parents’ recent divorce. After catching her father having an affair, Evie shuts out those she loves. Here enters X, who is grieving the loss of his friend. That death has taught X to appreciate every moment with those you love. What a combination of characters! With a bit of magical realism, these characters are brought together through dance. You’ll fall in love with these characters as your heartstrings are pulled.

I read this book in one day. And although my first reaction to it was a total delight, I finished it with my heart a little broken. This story is cute and tender, but it will also leave you in tears.

Essentially, Instructions for Dancing is about this - how do you allow yourself to love, when you know this love will almost always leave you miserable?

Evie is already skeptical about love when she finds out her parents' marriage ended because of her father's infidelity. But when she miraculously acquires an ability to see any kissing couple's future, her belief in love wears out even more, because she witnesses every love story's end. The same miraculous fate leads Evie to a ballroom dance studio, and there she meets X, who, somehow, is destined to teach her a lesson about love, but what lesson is it?

There are many aspects of this story that I loved - for one, how no one in YA has had dance lessons in a plot before? How? That's a gold mine right there. Dirty Dancing-redux! Secondly, the touch of magic was just right - the replays of people's love stories was a tremendously successful gimmick (which I can't say about Instant Karma, where the magical realism bit was wasted).

All in all, Instructions for Dancing is a touching YA story, which you can tell, came deep from Nicola Yoon's heart (just read her afterword). I personally would have shuffled some parts around for a better story flow, but you know me, I always have something to complain about.

This will be a great companion to E. Lockhart's Again Again.

P.S. I liked this novel, but I think it has a terrible title.

Endearing, enchanting, and bittersweet. This is not a love story that you walk away from believing in love everlasting, but instead, about living in the moment and opening yourself to life's possibilities.

A sweet, touching, heartfelt story that draws you in with the characters and their depth, and the wonderful plot!

I really, really loved this book. It was a quick read but impactful. The characters were relatable and I loved them. This was a really wonderful book. It was sweet, sad, thoughtful, funny, and delightful. I will book talk the hell out of it.

Wonderful. Magical, Bittersweet. These are just a few of the words I would use to describe Nicola Yoon's latest book: Instructions for Dancing. This story is very fun and mixes contemporary & fantasy extremely well. I love the different writing styles Yoon uses throughout the book to tell the story (future visions, texts messages, etc.). I loved the main character, Evie, being a cynic in regards to love. I love X and how cool and great of a character he is. I love the romance between X & Evie. I love that this is not even scratching the surface of everything I adore about this novel. I think that anyone who reads this book will find at least one thing about it that just fills them with pure joy. I know I did & I hope you all will too.

I was expecting a fairly lighthearted romance. What I got was a gut-punch to my emotions. This book is so much deeper than the cover and description implies. As much as I enjoyed the relationship between Evie and X, I loved seeing the relationship between Evie and her dad, mom, and her sister. The book explored not just romantic love, but love for parents, siblings, and friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for access to this arc.

Where does one even start? “Instructions For Dancing” swept me off my feet. Rarely have I read a book so touching that managed to be so fun at the same time. (Fifi is the love of my LIFE. I want one.) I loved the magical realism aspect, loved the characters (FIFI! But I also especially adored Martin), I loved the dancing scenes, I loved the lessons learned, and the final twist nearly took me out. My heart is in the sort of happysad shreds that it’s always in after a bittersweet ending right now, and I feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to read this wonderful novel ahead of its publication date.

I loved this book! It was cute, fluffy, and the perfect read for a cold winter day.

For as long as I can remember, I've been watching Dancing With the Stars with my mom. Because of this, I absolutely loved the focus on dancing! I really wish that there had been more of it, because it disappeared throughout the entire middle of this book, but I still really loved it.

I also loved how little of the "magic" was in this. I'll admit, I was skeptical when I read the blurb, and Evie could see the end of people's relationships. Thankfully, it was a minor part of the book.

And finally, the relationship between Evie and X was adorable!! I will admit that it was kind of insta-lovey, and might’ve bothered me if I was in a different mood, but I loved it so much! It felt realistic, and not like it was constructed for drama.

If you're in the mood for a light and romantic read, this is for you! I fell in love with this immediately, and read the entire thing in one sitting. I'd definitely recommend!

Thanks to Nicola Yoon and Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's and Delecorte Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

Instructions for Dancing is the latest book by Nicola Yoon, I was excited to read this and it didn't disappoint. Evie Thomas is jaded by love - formerly a romance novel addict, she soon becomes cynical after her parents' divorce. One day she comes across a Free Library box and encounters a mysterious woman who will change her life. It's hard not to write this review to give away too many spoilers, but Evie ends up training for a dance competition with X, a teenage musician who has some sadness in his life as well.

The characterization is great, the writing is skilled, and the plot is very thought provoking. It deals with the themes of growing up, life, love, loss and trying to get the most out of what you have and not always think about how quickly things might end. I thought it was going to be a fun and lighthearted tale, and there are definitely happy and humorous moments, but this book really made me think about life itself and made me really care about the characters.

I know that a lot of people will have this book on this TBR lists, I think they will enjoy it as much as I did!

My Review will be on my blog, The Reading Fairy, on May 28th.

TW/CW: Grief, death (mentioned), neglect (mentioned)
Rep: Black (Jamaican-American) MC, Black Love Interest, birracial (Korean, Black) prominent character, sapphic side romance, BIPOC side characters

Disclaimer: I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. This does not affect my opinion. All thoughts are my mine.

“If you get very, very lucky in this life, then you get to love another person so hard and so completely that when you them, it rips you apart. I think the pain is the proof of a life well lived and loved.”

This book was just too adorable and honestly I am okay with that. The stress that this year have brought alone with some hopes of it being back too a little bit of pre-pandemic times as long as the hygiene and masks wearing are normal. I haven’t read Nicola Yoon’s books since I was a little freshman brand new to high school life. My junior self is just really into romance, anything with socialization and just cuteness in general.

This book did not disappoint. Ever since I was scrolling on Twitter like I somehow always do, I was got wind that something like a certain cover reveal and the title was in the works for Nicola Yoon’s newest book. Of course, that day passed and I saw the cutest cover belonging to Instructions for Dancing. I immediately got hooked, practically wanting to give this book five stars for the cover alone. Somehow, scrolled through Netgalley despite not reading my ARCs oops and discovered this book was available for request. And I immediately jumped into the book with the confirmation that I was accepted.

And y’all this book was so soft, so precious and in the adorable way ever 🥺🥺. This book would probably rival Kristina Forest’s books or even S.K. Ali’s, Love From A To Z, with the cuteness, and just somewhat adorable.

Instructions for Dancing follows Evie, a once-proclaimed boookworm who always loved reading rom-coms, at least until she found out that her father cheated. With her broken heart, Evie sets out in giving away her books that no longer gives her joy to her local library. There she meets a mysterious person who gives her a book called Instructions for Dancing and a gift/curse that will allow her to be able to see people’s romance when it begins and how it ends (with heartbreak) . Evie travels to a place where she learns how to ballroom dance and meet someone unexpectedly.

Nicola Yoon has done it again. Can I say, this maybe one of my favorite books by her ever? I actually grew attach with Evie and her story about her heartbreak, than her passion for dancing and than meeting X, her dance partner for the competition. I can’t. MY HEART. Of course, it wouldn’t be a classic Nicola Yoon story if their wasn’t a bittersweet ending. Why does this author like destroying me with her endings because this isn’t fair!

The characters were one of my favorite characters ever. We have Evie, our protagonist, who is Jamaican-American, suffering from heartache about her father’s betrayal who was gifted a book from a strange woman and the return address was a local dance studio-La Brea. She learns to waltz, fox-trot among other sorts of dances with a boy named X.

She was so likable. I felt her emotions and I felt so sad that Evie’s heart was broken because of her family, happy when she was with X etc. This book dealt with quite a bit of emotions and how difficult love can be when it comes from people you trust. It’s also quite possible to find yourself falling in love with a person despite a heartache from your past.

We also have Evie’s love interest, X. X is so sweet, so special and the fact that he is in a band and plays the guitar. Yes, I am swooning over a fictional character. I am now wondering where I can find a guy like this in real life, and maybe teach me how to dance because I am hopeless at it.

This book is so sweet. Y’all the chapter titles is just also adorable, and made my heartache at times. Like it was just so adorable, just like everything else in this book that it’s hard not to give this book five stars alone.

I do have some criticisms about this book. It’s just slight ones that doesn’t affect my opinion. It kinda felt like the last 30 pages didn’t really go well with this book and that threw me off. There was also some nit picky things about it that I am sure will get corrected in its final version.

5/5

I'm-

I will need a few business days to recover and process this book.

This was such a cute, heartwrenching, sweet read. Nicola Yoon has done it again, but I think this is my favorite of her books so far.

The story follows Evie and X as they get paired up to compete in a dance competition. Evie is struggling with love and whether she believes in it after her parents' divorce, and X complicates things further by being perfect for her.

It seemed like a pretty solid, cute YA Contemporary Romance, but I should have known better. Things took a little bit of an unexpected turn, and it made me like the book even more. I won't say more because I think this book should be read without knowing too much.

All in all, the moral of the story is simple, but important, and I think this book does a wonderful job of delivering its message. I'm so glad I got to read this!