Skip to main content

Instructions for Dancing - Nicola Yoon

 


Genre: Young Adult | Magic | Romance

Release Date: Expected 3rd June 2021


Evie had always thought books held their own type of magic - but recently they're just words on a page. She had bookshelves full of meticulously organised romance novels but now she's giving them all away along with her own belief in love. Since her Father announced he was leaving their family for another woman, love has lost its appeal.

But now, when she's given a beaten old book called 'Instructions for Dancing', it takes her on a completely dfferent journey to small struggling dance studio just minutes from her home where she starts to look for answers about the unwelcome gift she's starting to develop - she can see the whole stoy of someone's love right before her eyes; fro but m their first kiss to their last goodbyes and it just further proves Evies theory that love isn't made to last.

But then there's X - a tall mysterious stranger who gets roped into a dancing contest right along with her. Of course, if this was a love story they'd be married and live happily ever after but Evie knows better than to believe in love stories.


"The problem with broken hearts isn't that they kill you. It's that they don't."

 

Instructions for Dancing was Yoons first foray into the world of the magical, an inspiring, ethereal look at the ripples love can create in our lives with all that patented Nicola Yoon Fuzzy Feeling. We follow Evie as she goes with the tide on her journey, going wherever it may take her whether that means following strange return addesses in old books or learning to dance with strangers. I loved her and her friends right away - the love and the loyalty between them was beautiful and they all worked together to navigate the problems of growing up.

Full of hilarious cutaways with Evies thoughts about novels and the whole romancere genre which as a writer made me crease up all the way through. This story was painfully funny and sweet but full of truth - that heartbreak is only one part of love, that pain and happiness often go together and you can't keep avoiding happiness because you're scared of pain. 

"Just because a thing ends doesn't make the thing any less real."

 

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐


Thank you to Nicola Yoon, Penguin Random House Children's UK and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: This Could Be Us by Clare McGowan

Genre: Fiction | Literary Fiction Release Date: Expected 1st June 2023 Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group | Corsair  Kate has done the unthinkable. She'd worked hard to build a perfect life for herself, while ignoring her growing unhappiness. But when her second child was born profoundly disabled, reality hit. Unable to cope, Kate left - disappearing without a trace. She ends up in LA, with a glittering career and a new family of sorts, but the guilt is still suffocating. Husband Andrew was left to pick up the pieces and care for their disabled daughter and angry, confused son. Bereft and broken, he leaned on Olivia, Kate's best friend. She's been by his side ever since, ignoring her own needs to meet his. Years later, Andrew has written a memoir about his daughter learning to communicate against all odds. But when Kate's new producer husband decides he wants to make a film of it, their worlds collide once again. Now, Kate must return to the life she abandoned and reck...

REVIEW: Live, Laugh, Lesbian by Helen Scott

Genre: Non-Fiction | Memoir | LGTBQ+  Release Date: 19th October 2023 Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Part memoir, part guide, part conversation and all queer joy — Live, Laugh, Lesbian is a brilliantly warm and friendly journey into the queer experience, not only from the author but from plenty of other lesbian, queer, bisexual and pansexual contributors who bring a unique viewpoint and voice and also show a beautiful diverse, intersectional scope of the queer spectrum and welcomes in queer people and allies of any kind to come feel the love. The book is very conversational, talking to the reader in a fun, friendly way — at times I rolled my eyes as the use of “famalam” but as a previous patron of Colours and Chicagos I’m not in a position to judge the Essex-isms. It’s full of anecdotes and observations that were witty and relatable as well as talking is through the more difficult side of queerness like dealing with workplace discrimination, religious trauma and coming out to family...

BOOK TOUR STOP x RANDOM THINGS TOURS: Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen

  " This town has secrets that are best left alone." Author Hannah is a success, on paper at least. She's receiving critical acclaim and praise worldwide and her work is regarded as some of the best. She writes literature, not just books. But the reality is, outside of the literary circles nobody actually reads her work. But when she finally snaps at a book event and publicly criticises the genre fiction books that outsell hers, claiming they're easy and mindless she's challenged to write her own crime fiction novel in just thirty days by an author she loathes. Desperate not to lose to him, her editor arranges for her to spend a month in a quiet, cold village in Iceland hoping that the solitude will spark inspiration.  But instead of writing a murder story - she's in one . Just before she arrives, the body of a young man is pulled from the icy waters and her search for ideas soon becomes a search for a killer. And if she's not careful, she might end up the...