I’m a big fan of Nicola Yoon’s first two books Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also A Star and their subsequent movies (shoutout to my fellow K-State Wildcat, Charles Melton!), so seeing a new title from her was an automatic yes. Instructions For Dancing has a cute cover which just so happens to coordinate with Nicola’s hair at the moment, and is also a pretty quick read.

Instructions For Dancing introduces us to Evie. She used to be an obsessive romance reader, but gave it up in the wake of her parents getting divorced. She is cynical about love and doesn’t understand how her mom and sister are so okay with the adjustment. While giving up her romance novels to a little free library, a woman insists she take something and gives her a copy of a dancing instruction booklet.

That leads Evie to the dance studio it came from and she meets Xavier… who just so happens to be riding her bike without permission. However, he’s hot. X is in a band and loves to live in the moment. They end up paired together to dance for a ballroom competition, so they are forced to spend time together and get to know each other.

There’s also a whole magical aspect involved after Evie picks up that dancing manual. She now has the ability to see an entire relationship from beginning to end when she sees them kiss for the first time. The problem is, this is just reinforcing her cynicism and belief that there is no point to love other than pain.

I was kinda iffy on this magical aspect of the book. I felt like it would have been a more powerful story if it was fully anchored in reality. I held off on posting this review until after a panel where I got the chance to ask Nicola about this decision. She said (and I’m paraphrasing this poorly) she was working through a question in this book of why do we try with love despite the heartbreak.

Evie’s relationship with X is just one part of this story, and Nicola does a beautiful job of balancing the struggles with Evie’s mom, sister, father, and soon to be step-mother throughout the story. Overall, Instructions For Dancing is a quick and enjoyable read.