Instructions for Dancing
By Nicola Yoon
Genre: YA Contemporary
Recommended For: Ages 15+, readers who love a hint of magic in their rom coms, cute stories that still touch on deep topics, ballroom dancing enthusiasts
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?
Luna’s Top Thoughts:
- Fun & witty YA contemporary that tugs on the heart strings
- Sprinkled with magic that leads to interesting conflict
- Well-crafted, sympathetic protagonist in Evie
- Excellent plot development and pacing; everything fit in its place and came together well
- Story with a beautiful message about love and seizing every moment
The Review:
I am a huge Nicola Yoon fan, and Instructions for Dancing only made me love her more. The way she weaves together deep, meaningful, poignant topics with adorable, uplifting stories is inspirational. Evie, our wonderful protagonist, receives a mysterious ability to see how people’s love stories end when she witnesses them kiss. To figure out why she suddenly has this gift, she enrolls in ballroom dancing lessons and quickly falls for her dancing partner, X. But while she’s learning to dance, she’s also learning to work through her struggles and emotions related to her parent’s divorce after her dad cheated on her mom.
Evie was a delightful, compelling, sympathetic character. You really feel like a close passenger on her journey through her senior year of high school and how she processes her parent’s divorce, her relationship with her dad, her disillusionment of love, and her friendships. After my first impressions of her, I found her to be relatable, but her jaded personality made the magical twist to the story that much more entertaining. It was also really beautiful watching how Yoon expertly developed this character throughout the story.
The rest of the characters were equally enjoyable to read. X was a great love interest with a great personality and multi-dimensional. And I love when characters like X bring out the best in the protagonist. The friend group was so well done too. A variety of personalities and temperaments and the way they related to each felt realistic to the ebb and flows of high school.
This was such an engaging story. From the beginning, an intriguing premise is introduced along with compelling conflict that drives the story forward. The plot was well-crafted and the pacing was excellent. I loved the mystery and character growth triggered by the magical ability Evie gains at the beginning. The magic also created interesting conflicts. It was a fun and unique twist for a YA contemporary story. Every aspect of this story, including subplots, fit in extremely well and I could see each things purpose in the overall story, which is hard to achieve so I appreciate it when I see it.
The romantic subplot is a forced-together type trope. I found it endearing and an excellent addition to the story in that it both created internal conflict with the protagonist and provided a push for her to think differently. The foundation for the romance was well laid out. No rushing. No insta-love. And I thought the two characters complemented each other well.
This book manages to be both light-hearted and also emotionally moving, which I think expands the appeal of it to a wide range of readers. Yoon’s witty and relatable voice makes the book a delightful, yet powerful read. Her descriptions and analogies of characters, settings and situations will give you a vivid image of what’s happening. It’s a stunning book I would highly recommend to anyone searching for a fun and meaningful read.
Luna’s Lucky Rating: 4.5/5 Lunas
