Reviews - Instructions for dancing

5.77k reviews for:

Instructions for dancing

Nicola Yoon

4.01 AVERAGE

caggylovesbooks's review against another edition

3.75

lighthearted medium-paced

impalalibrary's review against another edition

4.0

funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Super quick and easy book, easy to follow and easy to love.
Nothing super crazy or complicated, which is exactly what I needed right now

im_laura_by_the_way's review against another edition

3.0

If I were a teen, this would get four stars. As an adult, it’s more of a 3-star situation. I like YA when it transcends the label, but this truly is YA for younger folx…

lacyerh's review against another edition

5.0

When I requested the ARC for this novel, I didn’t know what to expect but I’m so glad I did. [b:Instructions for Dancing|55600878|Instructions for Dancing|Nicola Yoon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611784820l/55600878._SY75_.jpg|86708659] is a surprising, sweet, romantic, funny, suspenseful, angsty, original, and beautifully written young adult romance that left a huge smile on my face and a pang in my heart. It’s a novel about more than dancing, it’s about friendship, family, creativity, trust, and most of all, love, and the beauty, wonder, life, pain, strength, and growth it brings into our lives if we are brave enough to take a step of faith and the risk it requires.

[b:Instructions for Dancing|55600878|Instructions for Dancing|Nicola Yoon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611784820l/55600878._SY75_.jpg|86708659] is written from Evie Thomas’ POV in first person. She’s a high school senior with Jamaican heritage, who no longer believes in love anymore.

Spoiler

Evie was once a total romantic who loved reading romances and believed in happily ever afters. She wanted a love just like her parents until the day, she caught her father cheating on her mother, and he left her family for another woman. After that she gave up on romance and became a cynic.

When she begins experiencing visions of how couples’ relationships begin and end after she sees them kiss, her cynicism only increases. Evie’s investigation of her visions leads her to La Brea Dance studio where she signs up for dance lessons, meets X, and enters a ballroom dance competition. She and X become dance partners, learning to waltz, tango, etc., together. While Evie is a practical, reserved, risk-averse planner, X is adventurous, passionate, daring, and open to all the possibilities life has to offer. Evie cannot resist X, finding herself falling for him despite the risks as he challenges her ideas about life and love and even how she sees herself. But is she able to risk it all knowing for certain now not only that love ends, but also how, when, and why because of her visions?

I love Yoon’s lush description, and lyrical writing style that wonderfully brings the characters and this original story to life. Specific details and wording that is relevant to who each of the characters are and the story is consistently used throughout the novel to describe and make them feel real. The interactions between Evie and X are filled with chemistry and develop not only their relationship, but also the characters as the story progresses. Yoon’s prose is concise, flowing naturally from scene to scene, drawing you in from the first scene to the last word. The characters and the story from this novel stay with you long after the novel ends. Perhaps my favorite part is how Evie, a reformed romance lover, tells her story by relating it to different tropes, characters, and scenes from romance novels. It’s something romance lovers can relate to and will love. It also lets you know that for all her cynicism and talk of having moved on from romance, she hasn’t really let it go deep in her heart and soul – in her being.

Fantasy, magical realism, and romance lovers will love this emotional, humorous, romantic, insightful, entertaining, and beautiful love story that brilliantly explores the themes of friendship, family, taking risks, trying new things, forgiveness, and a young woman learning that the value of love is the experiences it brings into our lives – both happy and sad – and discovering that is always worth the risk.

ARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

dienerreader's review against another edition

4.0

emotional sad fast-paced

clare_xo's review against another edition

4.0

I really hated "Everything, Everything" by Yoon, but I gave this a whirl via BOTM. Ended up being one of the most worthwhile and unexpectedly rich books. Just fabulous.