This is now my favourite Nicola Yoon book! I loved the characters, the story, the writing, and the ending (even though it made me bawl my eyes out).

In short, the story is about Evie, who doesn't believe in love anymore after catching her dad cheating on her mom. She meets a mysterious woman who gives her a book called Instructions for Dancing. After receiving the book, Evie starts having visions that allow her to see how couples' relationships started and how they will end. As she tries to understand what's happening to her, Evie finds herself at La Brea Dance and meets a boy named X.

This was such a quick and fun read, well, at least until the ending because the ending was not fun AT ALL. I have not much more to say about this book, just that I thought this was perfect, and that if you are into reading YA romance books you should definitely pick this one up! It's worth the read!

Thank you to PRH International and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc. This did not affect the honesty of my review in any way.

Let's talk about how this book possesses every possible human emotion-- I was smitten and sad and angry and inspired. I loved the way that the main character, Evie, is totally dynamic and changes over the course of the novel. I fell in love with the characters and genuinely cared about their outcome. While some parts of the writing style weren't my absolute favorite, I thought that the story was genuinely wonderful.

This book made me SOB. I thought it would be just a sweet, YA book and I was completely wrong. It was well written, deep, and beautiful.

This is beautifully done and heart-wrenching. The story really takes readers on the journey Evie is experiencing to understand love and relationships after having her faith shattered. There's definitely a moment in which my stomach bottomed out in sadness for her, but the story, fortunately, ends on a bittersweet high note.

Once again, Nicola Yoon creates interesting characters who must navigate issues that will be familiar to a wide variety of readers: love, friendship, divorce, grief, and risk-taking. Fans of Yoon's work will be happy to have another story to read.

The first book I read by Nicola Yoon was Everything, Everything. I mean, I had to read it before I saw the movie (I have yet to see the movie). Besides the point - it tugged at my heart strings, was impossible for me to put down, and made me cry and want to throw the book across the room because "HOW COULD SHE DO THAT?"

Instructions for Dancing was no different.

I'm obsessed. I love Yoon's writing style, I love her character development, I love how this plot was partly inspired by the movie "Big" (and is even mentioned in Evie's story), I love how there was a ballroom dance competition involved. I'm serious... I'm obsessed.

I related to Evie as I'm not really a "romantic". I despise Valentine's Day, I make comments about couples PDA and dating..? Don't even get me started. Ironically, I happened to be reading this book at the perfect time in my life because it reminded me that endings are brief compared to everything else that unfolds in a relationship. I needed that reminder and I will continue to tell myself that truth when things get challenging.

This book was filled with everything - family, friendship, love, loss, and heartbreak. But it was beautiful. Like I said, I felt all the feelings and wanted to yell at Nicola for what she wrote, but I would recommend this book in a heartbeat and would absolutely re-read it again. It was so, so good. Yoon is quickly becoming one of my favorite YA authors.

Absolutely adorable! This little gem blends magical realism with a modern YA romance to create a one of a kind story about first love, loss, grief, and acceptance. I have yet to read anything like this and I doubt I ever will again.

The story opens with our main character Evie in the midst of the personal crisis of her parent’s divorce. In an amusing twist of fate, Evie meets, love interest, X and the story spins into an enemies to lovers romance trope. What makes the Yoon’s YA writing skills so observant so that Evie recognizes her own romantic tropes. She tries ineffectually to not fall in love with X for fear of love’s outcomes, which are varied and surprising. All the while, Erie’s family and friends play minor but supportive roles that move the plot along. Did I mention that there is an amateur ballroom dance competition?

Instructions for Dancing warrants a quick read for all of us who are young at heart and recognize the fragility of human spirit… Yet we dance anyway !

Sadly this didn’t grab me like it did to so many others. I held out for a could of chapters but wasn’t feeling it as all. I may try again at a later time but until then I’ll give it a 3 cuz I know this was a “It’s not you, it me,” type of situation.

Instructions for dancing by Nicola Yoon is one of my most anticpatied reads for the month of June/the whole year of 2021 because it's Yoon's third novel which is crazy to me because I loved her other two books but this one might be a new favorite.
In this YA Contempoary novel we follow our main character name Evie Thomas and in the beginning of the book she doesn't believe in love because she has this "curse" placed on her where she can see vision and look at couples to see how their story will end. So one day she goes to her little free library she finds this book call instructions for dancing and it sends her to this dance studio. So as she learns how to dance she's also learning how to fall in love with her new friend X or also known as Xavier. Xavier is a high school drop out who wants to purse rock and roll band. This book deals alot with self discovering and griveing and learning what needs to be let go in life.. This cover might be cute and light hearted but it has some deep topics. So check out trigger warrings for this one before reading. Also read this book in 2 days, it would've been one day but I was working this past weekend! Five out of five stars

Thank you to Random House Children's, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. As soon as I saw that it was by Nicola Yoon, I knew I had to have it. Her first 2 books were both 5-star reads for me. While I didn't love this one, quite as much, it was still cute and enjoyable.

Evie is a high school senior who used to love reading romance books. After her parents' divorce, she stopped believing in love. On top of that, when she witnesses couples kissing, she also glimpses their futures - futures which always end in breakups. Evie has given up on love. When she meets X and agrees to enter a dance competition with him, she starts to rethink her stance on love. Is the chance to fall in love worth the potential heartache?

Thank you NetGalley for an e-ARC of Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon.
Nicola Yoon doesn't disappoint with her most recent novel, Instructions for Dancing. A romantic story that intertwines elements of magic and ballroom dancing make for perfect YA story. Yoon helps the reader to understand the sacrifice that goes into loving someone and allows the reader to experience heartbreak and hope. I appreciate that Yoon created a book that will be enjoyed by older teens and appropriate for younger YA readers.

i am terrified of love. i believe in it and i want it fervently but i am terrified of it. i’m terrified to fall and i’m cynical and basically what i’m trying to tell you is that i really saw myself in Evie as a main character. this book i think will be my comfort novel in all my heartbreak in my life. to remind myself that yes — that pain is real and that pain is a reminder that happiness existed, that it’s just love in a different form. my heart hurts and i’m going to go cry myself to sleep but i will carry these words with me, always.

In true Nicola Yoon fashion, this story blends sugary sweet romance with tough emotional themes. In this case, it’s divorce (w/ cheating) and grief. Our main character was a hopeless romantic right up until her parents announced their divorce and she caught her father kissing his secret girlfriend. She feels so betrayed that her dad cheated on her mom and turned his back on his family. But her dad isn’t this evil villain. He’s still that loving father she grew up with and is constantly reaching out to her to make amends. I thought Yoon did an amazing job of realistically portraying characters grappling with major life changes.

The romance was so beautifully developed. I love that Evie goes through this journey of healing through her dance lessons with X. Their relationship started off rocky but I loved seeing these moments of vulnerability and trust from Evie. Their gradual friendship to romance relationship was paced well. I thought they brought at the best in each other.

I typically don’t like fantastical elements in my contemporary books, and that stands true for this book too. I loved the emotional journey Evie goes through but the fantastical aspect was the weakest part of this story for me. Nothing is explained as to why she had this power to see couples’ fates. It felt like a plot device to wring out the most emotion from the character and readers, especially with the direction Yoon took the ending.

Overall I enjoyed it and would recommend!

I ended up getting a physical copy of this to consider for YALSA, so I won't be finishing the e-arc, but so far the book is great, and I can see a lot of teens loving it.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the magical elements and the character development throughout! I loved the romance and I thought that the characters worked so well together.

Nicola Yoon never fails to deliver swoon worthy reads that tug my heartstrings, and Instructions for Dancing was no different! Throughly enjoyable, captivating, and charming I was swept off my feet just like the main character while reading this one. I appreciated the growth and experiences of the characters in this book, and the romance was heartfelt and genuine. All in all, and beautiful and enjoyable read!

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.

This is not a lighthearted story. Evie's family has broken up and her father is about to get remarried. She all of a sudden gets a power where where she can see an entire relationship when she sees a couple kiss, she becomes even more down on love. This is a great story with an uplifting ending.

Very interesting book. It sounded good but then there was magic involved and it got a little weird. I was disappointed that the ending was not that happy. She has very interesting young adult writing. I liked how I did learn a lot about different types of dances so that was really fun to read about and some of the characters were really fun and had great personalities.

So I only got to read about 50% of this one before it archived but I plan to check it out at my local library as soon as it is available. I really am interested to see how everything ends up.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I got a slow start to Instructions for Dancing, which started off on a rather sad note by contemporary standards, and I didn't expect the magical realism element. I also thought this was an adult contemporary romance, not a young adult contemporary romance, but I still enjoyed it. The story quickly grew on me, and I can always count on loving anything by Nicola Yoon.

If you are looking for a Happily Ever After story, this is not it. But it is a Happy For A Little While story, bittersweet but well done (and I should've expected this from Yoon by now, shouldn't I?)

I really enjoyed the cast of characters Yoon put together to support Evie and X, and the many, many love stories that were represented in the book, too – not everyone ended up together forever, and it was OK and healthy. You don't always get that, especially in YA.