Week 22 Review: A Disaster in Three Acts

From Goodreads:

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

Your childhood best friend refuses to kiss you during a pre-adolescent 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.

And working with Holden Michaels on this doc is going to get her into college—even if she has to take a few. . . cinematic liberties as a director. But 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?

My Review:
I just had to read this book, the synopsis sounded really great, and once I started reading, the pages just flew by! This story about a girl who is a filmmaker whose initial subject of her documentary dropped up, leaving her to scramble and end up with her old, ex-friend, and her friend's ex-boyfriend. Can you say entertainment? 

Saine's life is kinda of falling apart. There's her home life, where her mom says they have to downsize, leave the home that has her grandmother's art on the walls. Her ticket to college, a documentary about a woman reconnecting with this host of a competition, but drops out right before the first round? Yeah, not fun. And the only way to salvage the documentary, the only contestant that she knows, well, they have a past friendship that ended.

I really enjoyed her dynamic with Holden, they did have that past relationship, but then Corrine entered the picture, and he's since dated (and have things end) with Corrine, which means a romance between them is even more fraught with drama. That she doesn't want to fulfill her end of the bargain by taking the photographs, and adds his personal life to the documentary even though he asked her not to...yeah, not the best look.

This book has a lot of fun, hilarious moments, with the filming of the documentary, but it also deals with more serious topics, like illnesses and grief, which made for a well rounded story. And made that ending more satisfying, that they worked for it, well, she worked for it, because she was the one who sabotaged things in the first place, she had some ground to make up.

Loved reading this book and I can't wait to read more by Kelsey Rodkey! 

Author: Kesley Rodkey
Read: May 30th, 2024
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a SAC 2024 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Harper Teen
Published: July 5th 2022

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars