I enjoyed this book, it’s a great holiday read which unravels family dramas while taking us into the world of the rich and famous. It could have done with focussing on fewer characters as I felt the number of peripherals distracted from the main players but apart from that an enjoyable easy read.

I reviewed this book as part of a Catch Up and Currently Reading video on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/33QbRBC9gNY

My thoughts can be found from 02:07 onwards

With the overarching themes of family and betrayal, we follow the trials and tribulations of the Riva siblings as they prepare for their infamous end of summer party. Flitting from present day to past, we learn about Nina - head of the family - and her brothers and sister who were forced to fend for themselves growing up. Despite the fleeting looks at moments in time, the sites of Malibu and the ins and outs of surfing culture are tangible constant elements, even among the preparation for the heady 1980s house party that will become out of control.

Unfortunately for me this lacked the dreaminess and immersive-world building that TJR nailed in both Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I do feel as though this book's demise lies within its pacing issues - I found it trundled along for approx two thirds of its contents, before it ploughed full speed into drama, and personally I'm not a fan of a slow build with a blistering conclusion. Despite this though, the revelations that come in the latter third are exciting and unexpected, and were enjoyable but if you're impatient like me it may be a struggle to last until this point. I did love the strong bond that the Riva siblings had following all that life had thrown at them, and learning about the fallout of their parents marriage was fascinating, but I didn't warm to the characters as much as I expected to. I thought in some scenes they lacked depth as the multiple timelines at times left me feeling detached from the world, before being sucked back in when the next chapter arrived - it felt like ebbing and flowing like a wave, as if Reid lured you in and then spat you back out by the next page.

In spite of all this, I do think this would be a good summer read - especially if you're at the beach or somewhere warm, as the juttering timeline lends itself well to being picked up sporadically. I did enjoy the story but it isn't one I'd pick up again in a hurry, and if I was going to recommend a TJR novel to someone it wouldn't be this one.

3.5 rounded up

This has been on my TBR list for a while and I didn’t know what to expect but I finished it in 3 days! Four famous siblings, the book is literally over the period of 24 hours. It’s the day of the Riva’s house party, renowned every year for its epic levels of partying. The party becomes out of control and so do that of the siblings lives. Explore lives, love and secrets that are explored in this family over the years.
The shenanigans of the celebrities, the beautiful warm relationship of the siblings and the flashbacks showing toxic relationships throughout the 1950s to the 80’s. 4 ⭐️

This was an interesting family drama that delivered a satisfying read but in the end I found it less riveting than the author's previous work. Than you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

This is my first TJR book and it will NOT be my last. This was a fab summer read - I am late in posting my review due to moving house and its kept me busy, I am just getting round to updating my Netgalley.

I loved reading this book, I thought it was great and the style of writing unique to anything I've read before. TJR this was an experience that I won't forget when reading any other of yours book, this one was simply wonderful. There was some romance but not overpowering. I enjoyed the character development throughout, I loved Nina, I feel sorry for her as she has been humiliated but I think she did try her best to put up a facade. It was be so embarrassing to have her husband dump her so publicly.

Thanks for allowing me this ARC TJR and Netgalley.

A riveting family drama with great characters and a strong sense of time and place. I was immediately transported to Malibu. My only criticism is there were two many peripheral characters who served no purpose..

I absolutely loved this. A more straight-forward novel style-wise than Daisy Jones and the Six, but the same brilliant characterisation, relationships and drama. It absolutely drew me into this hot Malibu world - both the glam and not-so-glam - and I didn't want it to end.

I loved ‘Daisy and the Six’ and could wait to read this. It definitely didn’t disappoint - fully created characters and an engrossing family storyline. The timeline was also well done, flipping between the past and the present. A great read from a new favourite author

Another excellently written character driven book from Taylor Jenkins Reid. A thrilling look into the lives of the rich and famous, with the eloquent description of family relationships. Great pace and superbly written.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Destruction. And renewal, rising from the ashes. The story of fire.”

“The Malibu fire of 1983 started not in the dry hills but on the coastline”

“Because, just as it is in Malibu’s nature to burn, so was it in one particular person’s nature to set fire and walk away” 

Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

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.



I have mixed emotions about this book. There were some things I really enjoyed and things that I really disliked - I loved about 60ish% and the rest frustrated and disappointed me. Credit to Taylor Jenkins Reid for creating characters that elicit such rage in me *cough* Mick Riva *cough* where I found myself feeling physiologically repulsed every time they were mentioned and ones that I really found myself caring about and rooting for. The character creation and development in TJR’s novels are second to none. 



Things started to go downhill when we approached the big party and the story shifted to the present day. We begun to hear perspectives from random characters that made the story feel disjointed and the plot started to feel quite ridiculous. Things felt like they were just being placed in for shock value and didn’t add anything to the story.

 The climax of the party was disappointing. As much as I appreciated the character development and my faves finding their voice, it just fell flat to me.



I loved the descriptions and feel of Malibu where this story was set and the shift between past and present day where we learned about the Riva history and why the events at the big party took place. 

This was my third TJR book and although I didn’t enjoy it as much as the others, I am looking forward to anything that she publishes in future. 



As always, a MASSIVE thank you to #netgalley and #RandomHouseUK for providing me with a review copy.

Review posted on Goodreads and Instagram.

I absolutely loved this book! I am a huge fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid, having read TSHOEH and Daisy Jones. This book gripped me from the beginning and couldn't put it down for the duration of reading it. The chapters were so gripping, I wanted to keep reading on and on. Another excellent, classic read by Taylor and I can't wait to see what she has next for us.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in fits and starts over a few months, but when I sat down and read 2/3 of the book today, I really got into it and enjoyed it. This book made me think about my own family and our dynamics, and what I want for my future family. As always, Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing is great, and she tells a beautiful story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!

Thank you NetGalley for my advanced copy of Malibu Rising. I am in two minds about this book. On the one hand, there was a lot to like about this book, but on the other, there was a lot of room for improvement.

I really struggled to finish Malibu Rising towards the end and found it a bit of a chore. I feel like Taylor Jenkins Reid could have condensed it quite a bit without it loosing any of the integral parts of the story. Jenkins Reid had a habit of introducing a lot of characters who were not entirely necessary to the novel and I found this quite frustrating.

I did, however, like how Reid switched through past and present to unveil each of the main characters’ strengths and flaws. I enjoyed reading about each characters search for love and belonging. I felt empathy for the characters who set aside their dreams and passion to fulfill their familial obligations. I really enjoyed seeing how the children matured and became who they are as adults.

It is for this reason I rate the book three and a half out of five stars.



(Trigger warnings:
Alcohol and drug abuse, sexual abuse and violence/death).

A story of love, loss and familial ties, Malibu Rising captured my imagination from the start, and I was hooked. I loved the narrative structure of the story being told in and around one day, building the suspense and allowing the reader to imagine the calamity yet to come. Jenkins Reid can do no wrong, and I love how characters from previous novels make cameos and guest appearances, while new characters are given such depth and boldness it's impossible not to root for them from the off. An ideal read no matter the time of year - a perfect beach read or a winter escape.

Nina Riva and her siblings are throwing their annual end of summer party. The Riva family are famous through out Malibu due to their Father Mick, who is a chart topping singer songwriter. The siblings are also well known in their own right with Nina a Supermodel, Jay a surfer on the pro-circuit, Hud an up and coming surfing photographer and their young sister Kit all well known through out Malibu. An invite to their party is sought after as it is always the event of the year full of celebrities.

All is not as rosy as it looks on the outside for the family though as they all grew up under challenging conditions with a father that abandoned them for this career and a difficulty home life. Despite this the siblings are extremely close mainly due to Nina and her sacrifices she has made to keep the family together.

An easy read that I finished in 24 hours!

#netgalley #MalibuRising #TaylorJenkinsReid

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for providing me with an ARC of this book!

After reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as well as Daisy Jones and the Six within the last year, I'd say I'm somewhat familiar with TJR's work. I enjoyed both of them for their unique formats and accessible yet meaningful language, so I was very excited to see Malibu Rising be announced! And man, it did not disappoint.

I don't know how TJR manages to make me so emotional while making use of rather simple language and imagery, but damn, she sure has mastered that art. Malibu Rising, to me, was the most heartbreaking book I've read of hers to date, and that says a lot, because TSHOEH arguably was written with the intent of making sapphics weep.

I think the jumps between the different POVs as well as between the different time periods were very well-executed, the timing of the switches was great and gave the story of four siblings trying to get their lives in order that much more gravitas. Also, despite the many jumps and many different characters, it always made sense and managed to remain readable to an extent that made it impossible for me to put the book down.

I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid a few months ago and LOVED it. I was totally captivated by the story, the characters and the writing. I’d been waiting to read Malibu Rising for a while but after reading online that characters from Evelyn Hugo had cameos in Malibu Rising, I decided to read Malibu Rising second.

The story follows the Riva family. It’s split into two parts. The first part focuses on June and Mike Riva’s relationship and how their family grows. Interspersed throughout the chapters about June and Mick are the “present day” chapters about the four grown up Riva children. The second part of the book focuses on the annual party thrown by the grown up Riva children and an hour by hour look at how the evening unfolds.

After how much I loved Evelyn Hugo I had such high hopes for Malibu Rising. Unfortunately I didn’t love this one quite as much. I felt like there were too many secondary characters particularly in the second half of the book and for me it detracted from the overall story. At points the story unfolds in such a way that you think oh this might be what happens - it’s alluded to at the start of the book that the party changes lives forever that night - but it’s almost the very end when we reach the disaster of the story and I thought it was a bit anti-climactic.

I loved the cover of this book, it’s beautiful just like the other covers by this author. I have a few others from Taylor on my kindle to read next. What’s you’re favourite book from this author?

Yet another fantastic book by Taylor Jenkins Reid! Malibu Rising was wonderful from start to finish, I had a great time reading this book!! Reid's writing truly never disappoints. I definitely recommend this book!!

After falling in love with both The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six, this book was my most anticipated release of the year and it unfortunately just left me feeling a bit.... meh.

Though I didn't love this book, there definitely were notable moments which is why I thought a 3 star rating was best suited. Perhaps one of the biggest elements that I did like, was the family aspect. The family within this book were so heartfelt and though at times their story was heartbreaking, there were many heart-warming moments that I did enjoy reading. As well as this, this book very heavily discusses alcoholism and these chapters were so hard to read, which I think was the aim. It seemed that Taylor Jenkins Reid touched upon addiction and these harder topics with so much sensitivity.

What I didn't like about this book however.....
1. It was SO REPETITIVE.
From start to end we saw the rise and downfall of every single relationships that all of the characters had gone through. This is something I don't normally dislike in books but where was the plot??? The repetitiveness at times, made the book feel like a slog to get through despite it being fast paced in other places.

2. THE ENDING.
Perhaps the thing I disliked most about the book, was it's ending. The whole synopsis for this book was how this massive, yearly party filled with the hottest celebs, ended in the house being engulfed by flames but... it seemed like this element was discussed for 10% of the book and it was fairly confusing.

I did ABSOLUTELY adore Nina and the familial aspect and this is without a doubt what carried the book for me. But considering this was memos anticipated release of the year and how much I have adored Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing in the past... I can't deny the fact that I am disappointed.