Blog Tour – Instructions For Dancing

Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little corner of the internet! Today I’m bringing you my review of Instructions For Dancing by Nicola Yoon. This young adult novel tugged at all possible heart strings, even those my heart shaped ice cube thought I had lost along the way.

Synopsis
#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.

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?

Review
I must admit, when it comes to love, I’m rather cynical. I have a wonderful husband whom I love dearly and who I know loves me, but in general? Nah. I’m a cynic. So when it comes to relatable characters, I could totally understand Evie from the very first page. X surprised me by how much I took to him, on the other hand. He was immediately a big presence in the room, even through the pages, and I really loved that.

The way they formed a connection that was honest, open and trusting, sharing the pain they had both gone through to heal themselves and each other was truly beautiful, and I really respected the way Nicola Yoon wrote that development. It was a genuine pleasure to read something that was so meaningful, and the emotions I felt while reading were just as genuine.

I’m not generally a fan of very short chapters, but in this instance it worked very well, allowing the topic to change at appropriate moments, and meaning that the visions that Evie starts to have can jump off the page.

Aside from Evie and X as lead characters, one of my favourite people within this book was Fifi, their dance instructor. She was absolutely hilarious, and added a great balance to some of the more serious things that were going on within the pages, and within Evie’s head.

The take-away from the book of making the most of every moment, and that love is worth the pain that sometimes comes with it, was endearing, and gave a truly vivid quality to the story. I’d highly recommend this for any contemporary romance lover, or even for cynics like myself who are starting to believe in love again.

Thank you to The Write Reads for organising such a wonderful tour, and to Penguin for supplying me with a copy of the book. Come back again soon for more posts, fresh every day.