Saine is getting over her grandmothers death as well as navigating high school and college applications. She needs to make a documentary for an application to the college she wants. With a weird twist of fate, she needs the help of her former best friend (who also happens to be her current best friend's ex boyfriend.)
Opinion
I've read both of Kelsey Rodkey's novels. The first one, I picked up without knowing anything about her writing. This one, I actively sought. Not only do I love her writing style but they give me a taste of home. Her books (so far) are set in central Pennsylvania, where I grew up and went to college. I absolutely love reading about places I went to and hung out at during my formative years. (Sheetz run anyone?)
This book was a great read. Following along as Saine realizes what she has done and what she was willing to do can certainly make a person think about what they, themselves, have done. Of course this book ends with a happy ending but it was touch and go for a bit, making the happy ending that much more sweeter.
I highly recommend all books Kelsey Rodkey, and this one in particular.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with a copy of this book.

This was an interesting story about being self-centered and finding your way through. Saine is someone who only thinks about herself and doesn't see how what she does affects others. She is doing a documentary to get into a specific school and starts it by trying to film her mother's best friend but when she backs out at the last minute she has to find someone else to replace her. She meets the sister of Holden, who was once her best friend when they were younger, and who just broke up with her current best friend. She decides to use him as the focus of her documentary but when she tries to come up with an angle of why he is trying to win these new VR glasses. She makes it out to be that he is doing it for money and internally lose the final match for him. In the end, she finds out he was doing it for his brother who has cancer. She then decides to try and help Holden create their own VR glasses and world so he can see outside of his hospital room. She makes like of mistakes throughout the book by only thinking about herself and not looking at how her action affected others. This is a good story about learning how your action can affect others even if you don't mean them to.

This was a fun friends to enemies to lovers story.
I feel like we kind of jump into the story quickly which kind of threw me off. We start with Saine getting ready to start filming a documentary for a college. Her subject is trying to catch the attention of someone in charge of a gaming contest. She bails at the first trial and Saine is left without a subject for her documentary. This happened very fast and left me a little confused. Then who does she happen to see at the contest? Her ex-best friend and her best friend's ex, Holden. They make a pact out of desperation. Holden can be Saine's new subject for her documentary as long as she helps him with a school project in photography. As we go along, Saine learns about how different Holden's life is from when they were friends and thinks she might be catching some feelings...
I liked Saine and Holden as the main characters, but I honestly liked some of the side characters more. I loved Holden's little sister Mara and I also really liked Saine's friends Corrine, Kayla and Juniper. They were a really great friend group and very supportive of each other.
This book has the typical contemporary plotline with everything going well and then the "fight" scene. A lot of the times I feel this scene is kind of blah or doesn't pack enough punch to be a good reason for a fight/break up etc. It really made sense in this one. It was a really big thing that happened and I really felt it. And I appreciated that it wasn't automatically resolved because the person who did the dirty just wanted it to be resolved. This person (no spoilers!) had to work for it.
The only thing I disliked was that there was a synthetic narrator, but nothing to do with the actual book!
Overall, a really fun contemporary with a fun story line to go with it!

I personally did not enjoy this book at all - the storyline was very weak and the protagonist who you should be cheering for was extremely unlikable which made it hard to care about the actual story. If I had not requested the ARC it would have been a DNF for me. In this genre there are much better stories with more fleshed out storylines to recommend.

I love the witty banter and the sarcastic protagonist. This held my interest and normally I find it hard to concentrate on audiobooks but even with the computerized narrator, I found myself fully invested in the story. I was rooting for Saine to get her documentary made and the relationship between her and Holden was realistic and filled with conflict. I enjoyed learning about the film-making process too. Entertaining and compelling.

This was not for me at all. I think this is meant more for a 13 -15 year old, so it missed the mark.

Saine and Holden used to be best friends. After an awkward spin the bottle encounter, their friendship ends. Flash forward to Senior year, Saine's is trying to make a documentary as for Temple University as part of an admission process. Her subject backs out at the last second and enter Holden. He is competing in the same competition as Saine's subject and steps in to help in exchange for her to pose for his photography assignment.

Saine annoyed me. She is completely selfish, manipulative and lied to everyone. I get she wants to go to Temple, but my gosh. She created a back story for Holden that was not accurate at all and paints him in a not so great light. She blows the competition to get the angle she wants on her story. She really thought she was going to get away with all of her lies.

Saine's best friend (I can't even recall her name) was selfish as well and everyone had to walk on eggshells around her.

Holden was the only character didn't suck. He was selfless and cared for those around him.

I really had to power through this. It would have been a DNF if it wasn't for a long car ride.

I thought I was going to DNF this title but anything that references Napoleon Dynamite peaks my interest!

At first I had a hard time following everything going on with Saine but I will say the rough hitting topics for a teenager like body image, sexual orientation, therapy/feelings, loss/ death, and financial struggles kept me hooked into having to see what happened with her. Not just with her love interest but also her bestie, too!

I love how Rodkey effortlessly talks about therapy and it's normalcy something important for young YA readers. I ended up adoring this friends to enemies to lovers YA and I think you will too!

‘A Disaster in Three Acts’ by Kelsey Rodkey is a messy, funny and relatable book. It follows a fat cheerleader who is complicated, yet loveable through all her teenage ‘mess ups’. She is dealing with a lot of heavy emotions. Especially those surrounding the death and grief of her grandmother; her complex web of friendships along with ‘normal’ teenage troubles. Her relationship with therapy was discussed so transparently (and personally I found her caution fairly accurate to real life). Saline is such a relatable character, she makes a lot of mistakes but also experiences a lot of growth. I was upset about how she handled things often and a little bit of communication could have proactively saved a lot of upset, however; they were also very expected choices for someone of her age given the situations. I loved the dog named Bagel, and found the dialogue and banter between the friend groups to be very accurate to what I remember from High School. My favourite ‘line’ was “I don’t follow for a follow” I can totally imagine someone saying that in a petty high-school fight and it made me laugh. I loved the childhood friends, to enemies, to friends, to lovers story line and again the timeline of events and explanation for their actions were relatable and realistic. Holden is funny, awkward and so loveable, although at times he could use some…confidence, but again they are 18 and after all, are meant to grow as often as they can.

I got this through NetGalley as an ARC and it was in an auto generated voice, despite that, the writing was still funny, captivating and messy in the best, most relatable ways. It was a YA style but I personally found it started to lean a bit towards NA at times, I would say it leans more ‘older’ YA if that exists.

I opted to read this book on a whim, and I’m glad that I did! NetGalley emailed me with a few audiobook previews that were read by a synthetic voice, and I was between books, so I chose this one because I love to read YA books and the premise sounded fun, interesting, and entertaining.

The characters in the story are lovable and compelling. The plot line was intriguing, and the dialogue was pretty on brand for what I expected from a YA novel. The main character, Saine, was the character who I connected with the most. Her thoughts and actions we’re definitely relatable, especially when I consider my own thoughts and actions when I was a teenager. Her relatability was the main draw of the book for me. There is also a very sweet romantic element and family theme that drew me in.

All in all, this was a fun read that I would recommend to my older high school students because I think they would enjoy the realistic element of the story, the humor, and I hope they would find some inspiration in the main character’s passion and drive.

This book was everything it presented itself to be. A very coming of age story of a high school girl, learning the importance of communication. You read the story expecting a bit of a train wreck ( as disaster is in the name of the book & this is high school ), but it was done in a very entertaining way. You see the character development, as she learns from her mistakes and works to fix them. The romance is friends to enemies to friends to lovers. Overall it was a cute YA romance novel.

Overall a cute and funny YA novel. It was slow at times for me but then there were some funny and cute parts that kept my attention. If you love ex best friends to lovers troupe then this book is definitely for you! I really liked that Saine was making a documentary as that is different school project then most do! There was a lot of teenage drama that I feel would be very relatable to high school students in similar situations today.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for this ARC audiobook in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to NetGalley / VoiceGalley and the publisher for this Audio Early Release!

I cried tears of laughter, I cried tears of heartbreak! A Disaster in Three Acts embodies everything that an ex-friends to friends to lovers in high school could be! I felt like I was actually friends with these characters! Our protagonist, Saine Sinclair is very relatable and hilarious that it had me laughing loudly at the sheer unexpectedness of her quips. I even wrote down some quotes because of how much I loved them!

This was my first time attempting audio books and I really did enjoy the experience!

If you are looking for funny book with relatable characters that will have your heart aching with their conflicts, A Disaster in Three Acts is for you!

You know a book is awesome when you are three minutes into the audio and you click that "pre-order" button.

Do yourself a favor and go ahead and line this up for your classroom library!

Synopsis:
Saine Sinclair knows a little something about what makes a story worth telling.

Your childhood best friend refuses to kiss you during a preadolescent game of spin the bottle? Terrible, zero stars, would not replay that scene again. The same ex-friend becomes your new best friend’s ex? Strangely compelling, unexpected twist, worth a hate-watch. That same guy—why is he always around?—turns out to be your last shot at getting into the documentary filmmaking program of your dreams.

Saine hates to admit it, but she’d watch that movie.

There’s something about Holden that makes her feel like she’s the one in front of the camera—like he can see every uncomfortable truth she’s buried below the surface. Saine knows how her story’s supposed to go. So why does every moment with Holden seem intent on changing the ending?

Rom-com lovers will swoon for Kelsey Rodkey’s next reluctant romance, packed with snark, banter, and inconvenient crushes.

The banter is the best part of the book --so witty! There are too many side stories and "hot topics" going on throughout the story and some things we never circle back around to...

Thank you to #NetGalley, Kelsey Rodkey , and the publisher for the ARC copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
" A Disaster in Three Acts" was a cute YA novel following Saine Sinclair. Saine was sad when her childhood best friend refused to kiss her in a game of spin the bottle. The next thing she knows, this childhood best friend is her best friend's ex. Slaine is stuck between choosing her best friend and her childhood best friend. How can she have everything she wants?
I enjoyed this YA but there was a lot of teenage emotions and drama, but that's part of some YA novels right? I loved the movie making aspect of the book! I would recommend this book to others.

3.75 stars

Fortunately for readers, the titular "disaster" unfolds through a generally amusing set of circumstances and highly entertaining dialogue. This is a friends turned enemies turned more-than-friends experience, and it's an entertaining journey.

Saine, the m.c., is making a documentary as part of her application to a program, and through a short series of events, she ends up featuring Holden, who used to be her close friend and is now connected to another current friend. It's complicated, but it didn't have to be. These two fell out years ago over a Spin the Bottle gone wrong miscommunication. As is the case in so many fictional and real life circumstances, it seems to readers that just one quick convo about that incident could have prevented years of struggle. However, their drama results in readers' wins: this three act reunion.

The romance is charming, but the highlight of this book - and what has made me add Rodkey's previous work to my queue - is the dialogue. It's pretty funny. Full disclosure: I listened to an auto generated audio version of this book, so what would have been funny dialogue on its own became hilarious with the bot's inflections and generally stoic nature. I am already planning to read this again by sight because I truly cannot tell whether the Tig Notaro style deadpanning of some of the bot's delivery is what took this to another level or if it really was the writing.

Odd format aside, the crux of the novel - the main character, her friends, and the general plot - are engaging and formulate a YA romance that features the aforementioned trope. If that's your jam, add this one to your list.

A Disaster in Three Acts is a hilarious teen romance about a cheerleader/high schooler/aspiring filmmaker, Saine, and her attempts to navigate her high school relationships as well as take steps to ensure her future.

Saine needs to make a documentary to get into a pilot film program at a university, and when her first subject bails on her, she convinces her best friend's ex-boyfriend, Holden, who is also her former friend, to step in. As she gets closer to Holden and her friend starts to resent the time spent with him, Saine attempts to keep everyone happy by not telling anyone the full story, which in a natural progression blows up in her face. None of the teens involved have been completely honest with one another, and they all must decide if their friendships are worth giving one another a chance. All of the characters were flawed, but likable, and the plot and subplots kept the story interesting and well-paced.

Although I listened to the voicegalley of this title and Robo Madame usually does a terrible job conveying humor, this book was still hysterically funny. I wish all of my friends were as funny as Saine and her friends and family. I will definitely be reading any other titles by this author I can get my hands on.

Harper Audio,
Thank you for this wonderful audio book.
I had the best time listening to this story.
The narrator did a fabulous job here.
And not to mention the writing of this story is so beautifully done.
The characters were amazing to follow along to.
And getting to know.
The romance was sweet.
With a fast paced plot.
This was a fun, light read.
I can't wait for the physical copy to hit.

VoiceGalley Review. This is another fantastic book from Kelsey Rodkey! Cleverly written with flawed, but very relatable characters. I can't wait to see what this author writes next!