Instructions for Dancing

by Nicola Yoon

I made Instructions for Dancing my BOTM last year sometime, because I loved the color and the way the cover made me feel happy. Little did I know how much this book with break my heart and make me laugh all at the same time. I praise Nicola Yoon for her writing and how she can make you fall in love with a character, or several.

Evie Thomas was once a young woman who believed in love, and she had the bookshelf of romance novels to prove it. When her parents go through a bitter divorce, she donates all her romance books to a little free library. The woman she meets at that library, changes Evie's life in ways she could never imagine. This book is filled with magic, love, some heartbreak, and all around great feelings every time you turn the page.

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

Evie's book choice from the free library lands her in a latin dance studio where she meets X. X and his grandparents teach Evie things she didn't even know she had within herself. But will she be able to handle a new special power she has learned she has? Being able to see someone's future is not as wonderful as you might think, and Evie is forced to deal with some horrible consequences for this power.

"Mothers take care of their children, Not the other way around. I wipe your tears, you're not supposed to wipe mine"

Through out the book there are themes like divorce, love, same sex relationships, and heart break. I think these are all great topics to include in YA books today, I enjoy learning more and more about different themes in YA novels.

I give this book 4 1/2 stars. I love Nicola Yoon's writing style and hope to pick up some more of her novels this year. I will be loaning this one to my teen daughter as well. I think it made me appreciate the time we have with people a little more, and really makes you think about how you spend that time with the people that you love.