Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon || Super Sweet Black YA Romance

Instructions for Dancing

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?

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Perfect for readers who want:

• A sweet romance with Black protagonists.
• A snarky, fun friend squad.
• Heartwarming story of overcoming heartbreak.
• Reasons to learn how to love again.
• Adorable banter.
• A journey of forgiveness and healing.

Many thanks to Delacorte Press and Rockstar Book Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I know what you’re thinking. What’s Sammie doing reading a romance book? Has the world ended? It’s okay. The apocalypse hasn’t come yet . . . that I’m aware of. You know, I could just be late getting the news. Who knows? I wasn’t going to read this book at all, since romance books really aren’t my thing. But you know what? It seemed like everyone was talking about this book, and several people with similar taste to me actually read it and enjoyed it. So I thought, why not? So here we are.

Instructions for Dancing is more than just a sweet romance (though it is that, too). It’s one girl’s quest to restore her faith in love and learn how to forgive.

I will say that I thought the plot was fairly predictable from the outset, but I think that about pretty much every romance book I read (mostly because you already know what the outcome is going to be, obviously). Despite that, though, this was a very sweet read. I loved Evie’s voice, which is the main reason I enjoyed this book so much. It leapt right off the page and pulled me in and held me fast.

Evie’s voice is delightfully teen: snarky with a little bit of cynicism, which makes it really fun and easy to get into the story.

This was the first thing that struck me before I even picked the book up. While I was deciding whether or not I wanted to read it, I actually read an excerpt from the opening and was immediately drawn to Evie’s voice. She felt familiar and comfortable and I wanted to know her story. It’s been a minute since I was a teenager, but there were so many things about Evie’s voice and story that I could remember and relate to.

Being a teen is hard enough without losing your faith in love, but it’s not hard to see why Evie would. Her parents split up, and she caught her father cheating on her mother. That’s enough to throw a wrench in anyone’s world view. I loved the relatability of Evie’s struggle. It’s easy to lose faith in something you once thought was solid when things change. Despite her cynicism, she’s a teen, and teens are prone to attraction and drama, so this whole “avoiding love for eternity” thing was bound to end poorly, right?

The romance is sweet, if not predictable, but the banter was absolutely brilliant.

If you’re into books that will feel like a warm hug, this is one of those. Even though it delves into dark places, it’s forever reassuring and uplifting the reader. It never leaves you in the darkness for too long. Just enough to get the point across.

The banter between X and Evie is just *chef’s kiss*, though. It’s snarky and adorable and often comes out not quite as intended, like you do. As I said, the romance is sweet, which means there’s not really much struggle and many things to overcome. If that’s the way you like your romance, this’ll hit the spot. As unrealistic as it may be at times, it’s hard not to root for X and Evie, because they’re just too cute.

Evie’s friends—or maybe more accurately partners in crime?—are a ridiculously fun bunch.

They’re sarcastic and their banter is on point. Do you really need more than that? Evie’s friend group has been together for years, and they’ve got that broken-in feel to them. They’ve been with each other through thick and thin, but now they’re growing up and things are changing. Change is hard as a teenager. It’s even harder when you’re actively trying to avoid it and pretending like things can always stay the same.

What I loved most about this friend group is that it felt familiar. I acted similarly dorky and silly with my friends, so these scenes always put a smile on my face! Like I said, it’s been a minute since I was in that spot myself, but boy did it make me nostalgic for a little bit.

There are some big conversations in this book about love and heartbreak and disappointment that I think fit really well in a young adult book.

First, there’s the conversation around Evie’s father cheating and her parents’ divorce. It’s hard to forgive a parent when it feels like they’ve betrayed you and lost your trust. I actually wish this storyline had been dragged out and explored a little more, because it felt kind of easy and like everyone was trying to convince Evie that she was wrong for being angry. To heck with that! She had every right to be mad! But people cope and forgive in different ways, and I did like the message of learning how to forgive, even if it’s not an easy journey.

The journey Evie takes to trust in love again, though, is even more powerful. It’s really easy to always see the negative side of things when you’ve been hurt. Evie believes love just ends in pain, and she finds ways to convince herself that since that’s always the case, it’s better to simply avoid it at all costs. I really enjoyed the narrative of learning to love again and all the forms that takes, from finding a romantic love to just seeing the people around her testing the waters of love, to relearning how to love her father after being heartbroken.

There’s a magical realism element in this that I wasn’t expecting that added some interesting depth to the conversation around love and heartbreak.

In some ways, this was a weaker part of the story, because it was never explained or explored. It just came and then sort of went, with no real explanation. I didn’t entirely need an explanation, but for me it felt sort of tacked on, in a way, rather than solidly part of the story. That being said, I did enjoy it. Basically, Evie can see the love story of the couples around her. Love stories that often end in breakups and heartache, which maybe isn’t too surprising considering she’s often surrounded by teens and young people, who don’t generally meet one person and then stay together forever. But is love even worth it, then, if it always ends the same way?

About Nicola Yoon

Nicola Yoon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Instructions for Dancing, Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star. She is a National Book Award finalist, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient and a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner. Two of her novels have been made into major motion pictures. She’s also co-publisher of Joy Revolution, a Random House young adult imprint dedicated to love stories starring people of color. She grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the novelist David Yoon, and their daughter.

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3 winners will receive a finished copy of INSTRUCTIONS FOR DANCING, US Only.

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

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