. Def did not expect the ending but it was what we needed.

Evie doesn’t believe in love anymore after seeing her dad kiss someone else, this of course leads to the divorce of her parents. This can be very relatable for many and draw them into the book. Getting the ability to see someone’s relationships from beginning to end was a premise that I loved to see in the book and a different theme than I’ve seen in other books.

Though this book didn’t end in an happily ever after, it was still a good read

What a great cast of characters! This was an emotional read, so keep those tissues close by. This is a thought provoking and heart wrenching story. I enjoyed Evie as a main character and her relationship with X. I really loved the dance aspect of this story as well. Highly recommend!

I've loved Nicola Yoon's other books so was very much looking forward to this one and it did not disappoint. I loved the love story that unfolded (and the mini relationship stories throughout) and loved that it was all presented amidst the backdrop of a ballroom dancing competition. There is a little twist at the end - which I didn't love - but it was still an enjoyable read. Eagerly awaiting her next book!

This book was good, but I ended up DNFing just because it couldn't really hold my interest, unfortunately.

This sis such a beautiful story of love and self discovery. As Evie navigates through her changing relationships with her friends and family we see her discover how to love her life as it is now. Loving who and what you have now and living life as it is instead of worrying so much about how things may end is hard lesson to learn. This beautiful story helps you accept loving and living life to the fullest each and every day.

Evie has watched her parents break up and divorce after a seemingly very happy marriage, and now she is questioning whether she truly think love exists. She's questioning this so much that even her beloved romance novels are not doing it for her and she decides to donate all of them. After one of these donation trips (which ended up being to a Little Free Library), she sees her sister and her boyfriend kissing, which causes Evie to see the entirety of their relationship--beginning, middle, and its eventual end. Evie starts seeing this everywhere she goes, and one of her friends suggests that in order to get rid of this "curse," Evie needs to learn her lesson, which might be somehow connected to a dance studio that used to own the book she found in the Little Free Library. This dance studio is not what Evie expects, nor is the dance partner she finds there. Will Evie find love for herself (and her family), and will she be able to accept it when she finds it?

This was sweet and touching. I appreciated Evie's love for romance novels and their tropes, and her authentic grief and anger over her parents' breakup, which lead to her questioning her own life and relationships around her. A great story for fans of Yoon (and her husband), but also YA readers of adult romances will be able to find enjoyment here as well.

Nicola Yoon is the reigning queen of swoon-worthy YA romances. Her third novel Instructions for Dancing proved exactly why. It was amazing.

This super cute YA romance combines a dose of fantasy with meet-cute. Evie is given the ability to look at a couple and see their future. Not surprisingly, most of these futures end in break ups. This, combined with her parents' recent divorce, makes her less than eager to meet X at her dancing lesson. But there's a definite chemistry there, and Evie finds herself drawn to him despite everything she knows about love.

I really enjoy Nicola Yoon's books, and this is no exception. I did wish I knew a little more about the book ended, though!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Instructions for Dancing is about a girl who has given up on love. Real life has shown that love can’t last. So why even start? But then she falls for X and realizes that risking and losing love is better than not ever having experienced it. And yes, I freaking cried. Hard. Yoon, you owe us all a box of Kleenex. I did NOT see that ending coming.

Another hit by Yoon!! Very well done!!! I love how she is diversifying her writing. I can't wait to see what she writes next!

This was so cute! Nicola Yoon's books always have an element of heartbreak followed by a bittersweet ending and I've come to love that about her writing style.

In this one, the main character Evie has the power to see how people's romantic relationships will end. This has subsequently ruined her perception of love. Until she meets X. X is charming, bubbly, and warms Evie's cold, dead heart. X lives in the present and never worries for the future, which is all Evie can think about since she started being able to see people's futures. Evie's cynicism is fully understandable, considering she witnesses her father cheating on her mother, ending in divorce. When she runs into X, she slowly starts to understand what real love, (both romantic and platonic) means to her.

I will say the ending disappointed me. After everything Evie has gone through, as well as all of her character growth, I think she deserved more than a bittersweet ending.

I'm starting to think Nicola Yoon has some sort of magic when it comes to writing romance. The chemistry and heat in this book was so wonderful! The perfect blend of flirty and sweet and the story wasn't only about the romance which I always look for.

I've read Nicola Yoon's other books and enjoyed them but this was by far my favorite. I went in blind, which was great. Evie is our protaganist, and she is great. She's flawed and the book is quite meta (she references romance books where the two characters are forced to spend time together and of course, they fall in love). It's refreshing and funny and I loved Evie so much.

She ends up at a dance studio by accident and strange things start happening. She meets X, and somehow gets convinced not only to take ballroom dancing lessons, but to enter a dance competition with X as her partner. The pair start out by being snarky but it turns into more. They are real and there are no (major) communication issues (which is my pet peeve).

Evie is dealing with her parents divorce, which has negatively viewed her stance on relationships. She slowly learns that it is important to trust in love, even if you don't know how it will end. The book seemingly tries to explore the age old question: is it better to have loved and lost or never loved at all?

This is a rare book that manages to be heartwarming and completely heartshattering at the same time. This book is romantic, but to be sure this is not a romance novel. From the first page, the tragic end of our protagonists is spelled out. Watching it all unravel is poetic and beautiful, but heartbreaking. Nicola Yoon is good at writing powerful, beautiful, wonderful novels that are wildly popular -- but don't underestimate her. Yoon's musings on life and love are as perfect as one might hope.

Another great Nicola Yoon! Nicola Yoon has a way of drawing you in with her characters, her stories and ripping your heart a little bit but in a good way. As someone who doesn’t read a lot of magical realism, this was a perfect dose of reality and whimsy. Also I LOVE dancing so I definitely enjoyed all the aspects of X & Evie learning to dance and to trust each other while dancing and in their relationship. Super sweet!

I thoroughly enjoyed Instructions for Dancing. The relationships between the characters were realistic and plausible. I especially enjoyed the humor tinged, acerbic dialog between the main male and female characters. It seems to me that with this title, Nicola Yoon may be Joan Bauer's successor for the 21st century, which is high praise indeed.

3.5

Instructions for Dancing took me by surprise. We have what looks like a basic love story. Our main character is your typical cynical teenager who was hurt and now doesn't believe in romance anymore, until *the boy* comes along. Evie, our mc, also gets these visions when a couple is kissing, she sees how their love story started and how it's going to end. I thought I was going into a cheesy romance with some mildly sexy dance moments, with Evie eventually changing her mind about love and the main couple living happily ever after.
This is was what happened in a way, but at the same time, didn't happen.

I wasn't a fan of this book until the end. Having read this author's previous books I was surprised by this take. I know some people didn't like the ending, but it was truly my favorite part. I then read the author's note and this choice made so much sense. The author was going through a hard time while writing this and the emotions she felt were poured into the pages. This is what I love to see. It's heartbreaking and has a nice message behind it. As I said, it was my favorite part.

The magical realism aspect with the visions was truly a blast to read and an interesting aspect indeed. It kind of got me and almost turned me cynical too. I love how there isn't truly an explanation on the magic, it wasn't the point of the story and the magic just is.

Now, what I didn't like. For more than half of the book, I found myself skimming. A lot of the scenes were filler scenes, nothing was truly happening and I kept thinking "I wish this was written better" which is not what I would have expected to think for a fully edited and traditionally published book, and yet here we are. This is disappointing and, frankly, the main reason why I'm not rating this book higher. A strong idea, but with poor plot development, ending excluded. A lot of things frustrated me, a lot of resolutions left me unsatisfied. The main character went from "I can't dance" to "I'm going to participate in this dance competition and win" in three seconds. And this is just one example. I wish the scenes were a bit more fleshed out and impactful. The telling vs showing was BAD. If all of these things weren't this prominent, I would have liked this book better.

NIcola Yoon is a master of teen romance! Great book I think teens will enjoy especially if you like Hallmark movies.

I apparently forgot that this was a Nicola Yoon book up until the moment that I said “Oh no” aloud while reading her new novel, Instructions for Dancing. Yep, I thought I was going to get off easy without having my heartstrings tugged, pulled, and twisted up in knots, but that is never the case with a Yoon story. Instructions for Dancing, which follows a high school senior after she develops the strange and unsettling ability to visualize the start-to-end of a couples’ relationship after watching them kiss will make you smile one minute and cry the next. Yet like this novel’s theme - is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all? - the incredible journey is worth all of the insurmountable heartache.

Evie is a romance novel aficionado, although she tries to avoid all things “love” in her real life ever since her parents’ divorce. One day when she is donating some of her books to a Little Free Library, she meets an odd woman who gifts her with a book - Instructions for Dancing - and also the ability to see the journey of a couples’ relationship with just one kiss. Evie despises her newfound power, especially since it seems that relationship after relationship just ends in heartbreak.

When the book Instructions for Dancing leads Evie to the La Brea Dancing Studio, she meets a charming young man named X, grandson of the studio’s owners. When X’s grandparents pair up the two teens and insist they learn ballroom dancing and enter a competition to show up a rival dance studio, Evie and X find themselves getting close in more ways than one. After what she’s seen of relationships, the last thing Evie wants is to be falling for X, but is it possible to say “no” to love?

A satisfying blend of contemporary fiction and magical realism, Instructions for Dancing is first and foremost a story of a young girl coming into her own as she learns about life and love. The plucky and headstrong Evie sees the world in black and white, but what happens when shades of grey start to edge into her line of vision? Can she accept that her parents are not perfect? Will she learn that all love is not bad? If you enjoy coming-of-age stories, you will appreciate seeing Evie blossom and grow over the course of this heartfelt novel.

Then there is Evie and X, who make for an adorably refreshing couple … once they finally admit their feeling for each other, that is! I love how these teens, who are quite opposites, bring out the best in one another, introducing each other to new ways of seeing people and the world, while also exploring the other all at the same time. Yoon, who brings such emotion and depth to her characters, does a fine job of making you fall in love with this young couple, and will have you hanging on to every word of this novel, wishing and hoping that they get their happily ever after.

It should be said that Instructions for Dancing is actually not all about dance, as I initially expected. While Evie and X do take dance lessons (their instructor is hilarious and provides some much-appreciated comic relief) and participate in a dance competition, it is not the focus of this book, and serves only as a means to an end … the end being Evie and X’s burgeoning relationship. We get to know these two characters as they dance their way toward each other’s hearts, but the primary dancing that takes place in this book is more of the figurative than literal type.

Instructions for Dancing is an excellent choice for young adults looking for a read that has some depth. However, while it is pensive and deals with tough topics, it is also entertaining and fun. Young readers will see themselves within Evie and X, who are imperfect people, and will grow alongside them as they find their way in this world.

Nicola Yoon does it again with this beautiful and incredible book. I absolutely loved the touch of magic here and what that reveals about the relationships present in this novel. This is one that I will think about for a long time.