Instructions for Dancing

By: Nicola Yoon

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

An Instant Number-One New York Times Best Seller

"A charming, wholehearted love story that's sure to make readers swoon." (Entertainment Weekly)

"Nicola Yoon writes from the heart in this beautiful love story." (Good Morning America)

“It’s like an emotional gut punch - so beautiful and also heart-wrenching." (US Weekly)

In this romantic pause-resister from the author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star, Evie has the power to see other people’s romantic fates - what will happen when she finally sees her own?

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?

©2021 Nicola Yoon (P)2021 Listening Library

Critic reviews

A 2021 Kids' Indie Next List Selection

A New York Times "10 YA Books to Add to Your Reading List This Summer" title

A Parade Best YA Book of 2021

A TAYSHAS Reading List selection

A GMA June pick

A Junior Library Guild selection

“No one can spark more joy with her writing than Nicola Yoon. Instructions for Dancing is poignant, heartbreaking at times, but woven throughout is hope, light, and love. Yoon has written yet another book that will live rent free in my heart.” (Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties)

"Evie’s, and Yoon’s, musings on life and love will be appreciated by Y.A. readers of all ages.” (New York Times)

“Yoon's latest tackles the magic of first loves with unexpected gut punches tied together with meaningful storytelling.” (Buzzfeed)

Best thing ever

I love the magical aspect of this wonderful book! The story is charming and relatable.

Omg

I am sobbing, I don’t know what else to say. I read this for my school Book club, I have to somehow talk about this tomorrow and not sob😶😭 I love it

I will not give spoilers

I loved it and be ready that’s all it had me all in for days.

Amazing

This is the first book I’ve bought simply because the author was one I like. I didn’t read the synopsis, didn’t pay attention to the cover...nothing. Someone posted that her book dropped on June 1 and I bought it. I started it yesterday night during wash day. I went to sleep listening until 2:30 AM, thankful that I thought to put a sleep timer on but listening through it anyway and cutting myself off.
It was a slow build in the beginning and I wondered if I had made a mistake while listening to the first two chapters and trying to see where the story was going. When I got to chapter three, I was hooked and thankful that I had already completed my assignments for my course this week.
Evie (I don’t know if that’s the correct spelling since I only listened) is a senior in H.S. who is struggling with the thought of love after the dissolution of her parent’s marriage. She gets rid of all her favorite romance novels at a “give one, take one” outdoor library. Later she starts to see people’s love story from start to finish and vows to keep heartbreak out of her life by blocking love. She starts learning how to dance and meets a guy, BUT this is not a love story...
Bravo to Nicola Yoon for another really good book. The anguish that Evie felt around chapter 41 was so real I wanted to hug her. If you knew your love story, from start to finish, from a loving kiss, would you be willing to keep falling in love?

Fantastic

I loved this book, the performance was especially good. As someone who used to take ballroom dance lessons and compete, I found myself transported back to those days and the emotions that came up. I hope the author will continue to write and partner with the same narrator!

Enjoyable

I briefly heard about this book and did not realize that it was about teenagers which was a little bit of a turn off initially for me. I chose to continue reading and I am glad that I did so. This was a cute book about real things that young adults or teenagers experience feelings that are real and strong and discovering yourself. with so many things featuring teens in the media right now being hypersexualized it's nice to read a cute team love story. 4 out of 4 who would recommend lol

Wow just wow!

This book was so amazing! I really felt everything absolutely beautiful 10/10. Excellent performance as well.

Beautiful, precious, powerful

I first fell in love with Nichola Yoon’s work when I read The Sun Is Also a Star. Instructions for Dancing left me feeling just as warm, lifted, and satisfying. The story and characters are beautifully human. I know them, and I am them. And, her writing met my already high expectations. Read it. You’ll be glad you did.

Good story

Good story and performed well. I laughed a bit, got excited for the main characters, and shed some tears for Evie.

Focus on the journey

An engaging tale with characters that dig into your emotions and make you question how you yourself would react. What would you do? A teen that has yet to experience much of life, believes that self-protection is the key to surviving the various relationships surrounding her BUT grows into the understanding of where the value in relationships really lies. While I dislike that it was not a straight happy ending, I found more value in how the author tied off the character stories as it shifted the focus to what the author's underlying point was. Nicely done and worth a sit down to read.