Name: Iben engeseth's review of Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
Item: Instructions for Dancing
Rating: 4
Author: Iben engeseth

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?

Instructions for Dancing

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun is Also a Star Nicola Yoon is back with a new and utterly unique romance. 'An endearing, affecting portrayal of the journey of love. Everything Yoon touches turns to gold... this cinematic supernatural romance will be no exception' Booklist Evie is disillusioned about love ever since her dad left her mum for another woman - she's even throwing out her beloved romance novel collection. When she's given a copy of a book called Instructions for Dancing, and follows a note inside to a dilapidated dance studio, she discovers she has a strange and unwelcome gift. When a couple kisses in front of her, she can see their whole relationship play out - from the moment they first catch each other's eye to the last bitter moments of their break-up. For Evie, it confirms everything she thinks she knows about love - that it doesn't last. But at the dance studio she meets X - tall, dreadlocked, fascinating - and they start to learn to dance, together. Can X help break the spell that Evie is under? Can he change Evie's mind about love? 'A story of love's unpredictability and the importance of perspective that unfolds with ease and heart' Publisher's Weekly 'A remarkable, irresistible love story that will linger long after the reader turns the final page' Kirkus Praise for Nicola Yoon: 'Gorgeous and lyrical' New York Times 'Powerful, lovely, heart-wrenching' Jennifer Niven 'This extraordinary first novel about love so strong it might kill us is too good to feel like a debut' Jodi Picoult

Shantel

“Love is the question and the answer and the reason to ask in the first place. It’s everything. All of it”

Alessia (Taylor's version) 

Happiness is tricky. Sometimes you have to fight for it. Sometimes, though—the best times—it sneaks up behind you, wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you close.

hannah 

People who say it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all have never really loved anyone and never really lost anyone either. 

I can't answer your questions, Evie. I don't know why we lose the people we love and how we're expected to go on after we lose them. But I know to love is human. We can't help ourselves. The philosopher-poets say love is the answer, but it's more than that. Love is the question and the answer and the reason to ask in the first place. It's everything. All of it. 

today I‘m proud of you. finally you dance with your heart. 

Love is too small, too singular a word for the feeling it‘s trying to hold. Just one word isn’t enough, so I want to use them all. Sometimes I think love is the reason language was invented. 

Brooke Barnett

Princess Twasam 

Sara Judy

A good ya romance book. Easy to read despite dealing with heavy themes. 

Iben engeseth

Bria

I didn't know this was gonna break my heart :/

Isabella 

This book is very quick and easy to read. Although there were times where I felt disconnected with it, I still liked it. I wish we got to see more of the relationships though. I opened this book expecting a very light book, and I guess it is, in a way. I just didn't expect the twist, and I liked it. I guess it is bittersweet, hopeful, joyful? There were parts where I wished we got to see, but I liked the message of the story. Definitely a good book to read for a quick past time. I wouldn't say this book was a favorite, but I enjoyed it.

just finished. i'm crying and feeling so bamboozled anyways yay love

the light hearted ya became a heavy hearted towards the end but still a wonderful read

love the magical element where evie develops the superpower to see the future of couples!! such a fascinating premise that i've never read about before

“love is too small, too singular a word for the feeling it’s trying to hold. just one word isn’t enough, so i want to use them all. sometimes i think love is the reason language was invented.”

just finished. i'm crying and feeling so bamboozled anyways yay love

the light hearted ya became a heavy hearted towards the end but still a wonderful read

love the magical element where evie develops the superpower to see the future of couples!! such a fascinating premise that i've never read about before

“love is too small, too singular a word for the feeling it’s trying to hold. just one word isn’t enough, so i want to use them all. sometimes i think love is the reason language was invented.”

Raven K

okay so this book was totally not what I expected. ya know what I didn't expect any of it at all, not even gonna lie. i love Evie and I love X. the dynamic of their relationship is just..chef's kiss. didn't expect to feel a lot of emotions either. with that being said, this is definitely a book I'll remember. I learned a lot tbh. loved every part of it 💕.

Kelsey Munson

Finished this in one sitting. Such a delightful and heartfelt read. I thought this was just going to be just another cute YA contemporary romance, but there is more than meets the eye with this. My heart hurts, yet I am happy.

Madhuri Kasam

It was one more of that Nicola Yoon's magical.writing. She is my absolute favourite. I love YA mostly because of her.

kels

i heart nicola yoon. her first book that didn’t make me sob like a maniac 

bree

Charlsy Sekyere

⭐️3.5

A 3.5 read that leans more towards a 4. 

Despite liking the book and thinking it was perfectly fine and sweet, I couldn’t bring myself to give it a 4 or 5 stars as I didn’t LOVE it as much as other YA Romances that I have read and adored, especially Black YA Romances such as ‘Love Radio’ by Ebony LaDelle and ‘Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl’ by Joya Goffney.

It's just that I didn't have that giddy feeling when reading this book like I did with the other Black YA romances I've mentioned, which is a shame since this book was on my TBR list as my most anticipated read of this year.

However, I did enjoy some aspects of the book, hence my rating. I enjoyed the magical element in the book. Additionally, I appreciated the message that love can be accompanied by heartbreak, loss and grief, but in the end, the experience of feeling love is totally worth it. No matter how the story ends, love should be experienced head-on and given with all that one has. Overall, the discussion on love was very well done by Nicola Yoon.

For the most part, I found this book to be enjoyable to read and hold it in high regard. I would also certainly recommend it, as I believe it is worth it and deserves its Goodreads rating.

— lae

what this story lacks in plot and writing, it makes up with interesting characters. or, to better say, interesting love interest. god, X has my heart.

the writing was corny and the plot didn’t hit as much as i’d hope it would. the concept of this book is cool, this book could’ve been something. it wasn’t that something.

i know the end is supposed to be hopeful and remind you to hold on to your loved ones but? after telling us the whole book how your loved ones will either leave you willingly or by death? it was depressing to say the least. though i’m also terrible scared of losing the ones close to me, so maybe it’s just a me thing. 

it’s an okay book. entertaining and engaging enough to finish it so bonus points for that.

Jean Alfonso

I expected a lot. Maybe because ingon sa tiktok na painful jud kaayo sya but I didn't cry at all, LOL. I mean, it's sad, but not THAT sad and murag expected kaayo nga mao to mahitabo ahhahah. Anyway, I'll give three stars because it was nice.

lea da silva

when you are heartbroken, it is hard to believe you have a chance at love or even believe that love is worth the risk. you tend to believe you are outside of it. i truly understood how evie felt, like she had to step away from it. love is complicated, sometimes painful, sometimes unrequited, sometimes grand, sometimes absolutely beautiful, sometimes all of the above all at once. i have always been a hopeless romantic so i have cherished Nicola Yoon’s work because i feel like she understood my world. she understood what love takes, didn’t shy away from it, didn’t judge people too harshly. Nicola Yoon is a fantastic writer, everything she write is full of compassion and love. she pours it in absolutely everything. this book included. this is a book filled with hope, filled with patience, filled with gentleness. being in love is always a leap of faith, trusting someone else is always a leap of faith. it is always, always scary. losing the person you love for whatever reason can stop you from even trying and the main thing you can learn from this is to try anyway, get hurt and love wholeheartedly. instructions for dancing is a perfect book for the heartbroken, people who are in love, people who found the one they consider as the love their lives, people who haven’t found that person just yet, people who are only trying to love themselves a little bit more. this is a perfect book for anyone who wants to give love a chance no matter which form it takes. thank you Nicola Yoon, once again, for sharing your love and pouring into this book

Ellen Beathe 

** spoiler alert **
           One of my favorite books so far. Incredibly sad but the theme and lesson stays throughout the whole book. Still not sure if I liked the short summary ending or if I would've liked it in more details

For me the ending was to sad. I like that it’s Realistic, but a bit too realistic for me

2,5⭐️ 

I was expecting something else. 
It had some interesting moments but overall it’s not a book I will reread. The ending was so random as well…

Cheri McElroy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This may be labeled YA, but it has beautiful lessons for everyone. 

Evie is struggling with her parents’ divorce. She no longer believes in love. Then one day she is given a book by a stranger, and weird things start happening. She ends up going to a dance studio where she meets X. As she learns how to dance with X as her partner, Evie begins to grow. 

I don’t want to give too much away. But read this book. The writing is wonderful, Evie is relatable, and the themes of pain, grief, and love are beautifully explored.

Above all, always say yes to the dance.

Tia Roydhouse 

This book made me fall in love with the idea of love, the fact that it can be scary and lovely all at the same time. Then knowing how things end can make love all that more terrifying. 

The love that is between X and Evie make my heart swell!

sofia !

i did not see that last part coming- this was so darling i loved so much

Gretchen Sartele

I wasn’t sure about this book in the beginning but dang. Dang, dang, dang. What an excellent book. Really got me.

Ashley Harris

As a child of divorce, this book really hit home for me. It taught me many lessons, one of them being how to love again. I would recommend this to anyone who has struggled with love.

sydney

how dare this book end like that? i knew it was going to be painful because of her visions but i never expected THAT

Shereen Evans

This was a cute book. The characters were enjoyable and the story has a good message. Evie has a unique gift when it comes to couples and seeing how they will end up. It didn't leave a memorable impression on me. The pacing of the book would be slow and then speed up.

june

I’m glad this book doesn’t rely on the romance but it relies more on Evie’s storyline about her perspective of love

Sara Judy &
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

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