Skip to main content

Blog Tour | Instructions for Dancing - Nicola Yoon

 


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?

It sounds like a love story but it isn't. Although love is a central theme in Instructions for Dancing it is there without it becoming a smutty romance novel like those our main character, Evie, used to love. Evie Thomas is the biggest love cynic there is. After witnessing her dad's affair break her family apart she is adamant that love isn't real. Her hatred of love is cemented when she is awarded with an unusual gift - being able to see a couple's history from beginning to end, when she witnesses them kiss. This ability only leads to further heartache for Evie as she witnesses her sister's relationship breakdown, her friend's fall apart and the relationships of strangers disintegrate before her eyes. However, this ability also brings her to La Brea Dance School in a desperate search for answers, where she meets X and the fierce Fifi who are both determined to teach her to dance and perhaps to realise that not all love needs to be negative. 

What I loved most about Instructions for Dancing was the realism presented in all the love stories Evie encounters. Yes, she gets her prophecy powers via a strange woman in a library, but the rest of the plot is firmly cemented in reality. All the love stories presented are totally believably, including Evie and X's. I liked the fact that they weren't instantly besotted with one another, nor were they enemies that swapped to lovers. Yoon presents a slow-burning, realistic teenage romance, which relies on friendship first before turning into love. 

For a YA novel, Instructions for Dancing deals with love in a mature, yet appropriate way. Like all teenagers, Evie has an idea of what love should be, based on her favourite novels and the films she sees on TV. Yet in her story she encounters love of all ages, helping to open her eyes to what love really is as she sees realistic examples around her. 

Without realising, I read this in only two sittings - a testament to the nature of Yoon's writing that makes you desperate to learn the fate of her characters. The ending pulls at your heartstrings, but there is enough interest throughout to keep you invested in the story and ultimately, invested in love.

A super YA read, perfect for romance cynics and lovers alike! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Tour | Mirrorland - Carole Johnstone

  Cat lives in Los Angeles,  about as far away as she can get from her estranged twin sister El and No. 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing gothic house in Edinburgh where they grew up. As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs full of pirates, witches, and clowns. These days Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home, or the fact that El now lives there with her husband Ross. But when El mysteriously disappears after going out on her sailboat, Cat is forced to return to the grand old house, which has scarcely changed in twenty years. No. 36 Westeryk Road is still full of shadowy, hidden corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past. Because someone—El?—has left Cat clues all over the house: a treasure hunt that leads right back to Mirrorland, where she knows the truth lies crouched and waiting…   Mirrorland  is a thriller on paper, but very different to any I...
2 comments
Read more

Things To Do Before the End of the World - Emily Barr

1. Live your best life. 2. Uncover family secrets. 3. Trust no one What would you do when you hear the news that humans have done such damage to the earth that there might only be a limited amount of safe air left - a year's worth at most? You'd work through your bucket list, heal rifts, do everything you've never been brave enough to do before? Olivia is struggling to do any of this. What it is she truly wants to do? Who do she wants to be? Then out of the blue comes contact from a long-lost cousin Olivia didn't even know existed. Natasha is everything Olivia wants to be and more. And as the girls meet up for a long, hot last summer, Olivia finds Natasha's ease and self-confidence having an effect on her. But Natasha definitely isn't everything she first appears to be. Emily Barr is no stranger to YA literature having penned many a well-received title including The One Memory of Flora Banks and The Girl Who Came Out of the Woods. Her latest offering, Things To ...
2 comments
Read more

Blog Tour | Lies Like Wildfire - Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

In Gap Mountain, California, everyone knows about fire season. And no one is more vigilant than 18-year-old Hannah Warner, the sheriff’s daughter and aspiring FBI agent. That is until this summer. When Hannah and her best friends accidentally spark an enormous and deadly wildfire, their instinct is to lie to the police and the fire investigators. But as the blaze roars through their rural town and towards Yosemite National Park, Hannah’s friends begin to crack and she finds herself going to extreme lengths to protect their secret. Because sometimes good people do bad things. And if there’s one thing people hate, it’s liars. Lies Like Wildfire had me gripped from page one.  An opening where the protagonist is searching for a body? Tick.  A friendship group facing their ultimate test? Tick.  The threat of the police uncovering the truth on every page? Tick.  It has everything you want from a gripping page-turner and is so fast-paced that I genuinely couldn't put it dow...
Post a Comment
Read more