Title- Malibu Rising
Author- Taylor Jenkins Reid
Series- N/A
Published- 2021
Page Count- 365 pages
Publishing House- Penguin Random House
Genre- Modern Literature
Rating- 4.5/5 stars
About the Author
Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of the New York Times Bestselling novels Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Her books have been chosen by Reese’s Book Club, Read with Jenna, Indie Next, Best of Amazon, and Book of the Month. Her novel, Daisy Jones and the Six, is currently being adapted by Hello Sunshine into a limited series for Amazon. She lives in Los Angeles.
Taken from Taylor's website.
Plot
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six.
A lifetime holding it together.
One party will bring it crashing down.
Malibu: August, 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over-especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.
The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud-because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he's been inseparable since birth.
Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can't stop thinking about promised she'll be there. And Kit has a couple secrets of her own-including a guest she invited without consulting anyone. By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family's generations will all come bubbling to the surface.
Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind.
Taken from Goodreads.
Opinions
Like almost everyone in the book community, I have been swept away by the sheer talent that is Taylor Jenkins Reid. I adored The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I consider to be one of my favourite books of all time, and I enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six. So, it goes without saying that I was incredibly excited for this book. It actually came out in May but I decided to hold off reading it until August as I wanted to read it in the month it was set. I'm actually really glad I did this as it add a bit of a special twist to my reading experience.
I could not stop reading this book. I read it in 2 days because I was just hooked from beginning to end. At no point was I bored or wanting to read something else. This story had it's claws in me and held me the whole way. I think aside from Daisy Jones, I have flown through all of Taylor's books (well the three I've read). There's something in her writing, which I'll go into more detail about later in this post, that makes it impossible to put down.
The Riva family were a very compelling cast of characters. They were all very flawed, yet they were likeable. I loved that we got all of their perspectives and we saw how events from their past impacted at them during the party. I'm not sure I could even pick a favourite because they all had different interesting aspects. I even liked Mick because you got to see into his perspective and that he wasn't a truly terrible character. They might be some of my new favourite cast of characters.
I only have one complaint about this book and that is that I didn't care for the non-family perspectives scattered throughout the book. Yes they did add flavours to the book, but I just wanted to get back to the central characters and plot while I was reading them. I also felt that some of the secrets that we learnt along the way would have had a stronger impact if the whole Riva family had learnt them. I have a feeling that this will make it onto my favourites list at the end of the year as I just adored this book.
Taylor Jenkins Reid has cemented herself as one of the most talented writers around at the moment. She just keeps on improving with each book she writes. Her characters are flawed and real, her stories have mysteries that you just need to know how they end. I need to catch up on her backlog of books because I don't know what I'm going to do until her next book is out. I cannot wait for the TV shows of her books as I know they'll be epic.
