hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about instructions for dancing by Nicola Yoon. i gave this 4/5 stars. first off, thank you so much Netgalley and Penguin Teen for an arc of this book! also happy pub date to this book! and also of course this is going to be an honest review and not changed by the publisher and/or the author.
trigger warning- infidelity, death, grief, child death, car accident.
honestly, i really liked the whole premise of Evie seeing how people got together and also how they broke up. like i honestly thought it was so cool to see the break up, since i don’t think i’ve ever really read a book like that, so i thought it was just so cool. and i mean, i feel like seeing how everyone broke up added so much into the story and it just added so much more depth to the romances.
but, i will say that i wish we got to see more visions. i mean, i feel like we only got like 4, with people had their own chapters and to have actual plot with them. but, i mean, there definitely was a couple chapters were they were talking about the whole visions. but, i still wish we got to see more visions and got more than just the important people in her life, and maybe more strangers.
i also kind of liked that this wasn’t your typical HEA romance book. like, i feel like a lot of romance books have these HEA and after the book, everything is supposed to be okay and nothing bad is ever going to happen to break them up. but, i really liked that this book showed and really told you that it isn’t always happy and sunshine and roses after the book, and once you fall in love, your going to be happy forever. so, i really liked that we got to see that everything isn’t going to be happy forever.
and i mean, it being a more of a bittersweet story, i feel like it added so much. like, for me, i think that it was just so amazing that it was bittersweet and that we got to see it. like i already said, i feel like to much of YA books are happy, so having this book be more bittersweet was so much more cool and i really enjoyed it not being that adorable and cheesy. since there is so much that are very cute and happy, so having it be bittersweet really worked.
but, i will say i wish we got to see more plot about the dancing. like, i feel like there was so much plot about the romance and the visions, but i feel like the plot about dancing was just kind of lacking. like, in the start there was quite a bit of plot about the whole dancing. so, i wish that we got to see more about dancing, and not just throw it aside, compared to being so much romance and friend drama.
with that being said, i didn’t really enjoy reading about her dad. like, i feel like they tried to give him this whole redemption arc in here, which kind of annoyed me, cause they kind of made him innocent, or too a degree after everything he did. and i feel like we went through a lot of this book where Evie pretty much hated him, but then she does a whole one eighty and then starts to like him again. which, just annoyed me so much, cause he was cheating and everything, and i just didn’t like that he became this good guy after she complained about him for a hot second.
and i’ve talked about this a little bit on goodreads while i was reading, but like only a little bit, so i just wanted to bring it up again. i’m not the biggest nicola yoon fan, like i dnfed the sun is also a star and everything everything is just a toxic book. so, i honestly really liked this book, which was kind of shocking and i didn’t really expect. probably cause the plot didn’t have someone faking an illness.
with that being said, i didn’t really like that their relationship moved so fast. like, i feel like it was just questionable because it did move so damn fast, which i just didn’t really like. and i mean, it just developed so quickly i feel like it was just kind of odd at some parts. but, then again it is an YA romance, so it’s not gonna be peak romance by any means. but, i feel like it did serve it’s purpose of being a sweet YA romance.
but, i will say, that it was still a very sweet romance. like, the romance did move super quickly, but i do feel like it was a very cute and they did work very well with each other. like, for one, X read her favorite romance book, which i think was so cute. and he also treated her like a queen, which i just loved so much and just made me so happy.
and i also really did like them both as characters. like i feel like they both were just so cute and i really liked how they talked about each other and how they were so nice to most people they were with other people in their life. and i thought it was just so cute and i really loved them and just their whole little friendships with people.
but, i will say that it was kind of a mess with the whole fantasy element. like, i feel like it was never very explained on why it happened or how it happened. like, i feel like it was so unexplained and i feel like it was just so messy and i feel like it was not good in a way. and i just think it didn’t work in the way that it was written.
and i honestly highly recommend this book if you want a more harder story to read, since this book does pack the emotion. and nicola kind of highlights all of this in the acknowledgements.
anyway, that is all for today! i honestly really liked this book and i really liked reading this. and thank you so much netgalley and penguin teen for an arc of this book! and also happy pub date!
r.bookish 