5/5 - ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone
Family Drama

<b>Nina didn’t hate Carrie Soto for stealing her husband because husbands can’t be stolen. Carrie Soto wasn’t a thief; Brandon Randall was a traitor.</b>

In the Summer of '83 four siblings touched by fame throw the party of the year in their beach house in Malibu. Each with their own flaws, we follow the 12 hours leading to the party, followed by the 12 hours after the party starts, ultimately ending with the beach house going up in flames.

<b>Our parents live inside us, whether they stick around or not, Hud thought. They express themselves through us in the way we hold a pen or shrug our shoulders, in the way we raise our eyebrow. Our heritage lingers in our blood. The idea of it scared the shit out of him.</b>

This book was so quick and easy to read. With captivating characters and a strongly driven plot we learn about the Riva family and their lives so far, their relationships, their parental influences and the drama surrounding their lives. Taylor Jenkins Reid has written another celebrity based drama, this time focusing on the power of siblings and the implications and trauma brought on by absent parents.

<b>Every day of your life feels like you’re climbing up the mountain. And then you get there and you stay for a bit. And it’s nice at the top. But then you start sliding down the other side.</b>

Each hour we get a glimpse into each of the siblings lives, a chance to look into the past and examine each of their relationships with friends, family and partners. We get to see their careers, the tough choices they made, and the pivotal moments in their lives that helped them grow to who they are today. Although this book only covers the span of 24 hours (it does feel short), we get a macroscopic view at these characters and I wanted to keep reading. Perfectly tied up at the end, this book was a great family drama spliced with celebrity and fame.

<b>What a world she must live in, Nina thought, where you can piss and moan and stomp your feet and cry in public and yell at the people who hurt you. That you can dictate what you will and will not accept.</b>

If I had the energy to rewind to all of the blog posts from December 2020 titled ‘Most anticipated books of 2021’, I suspect that Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid would feature heavily. Because even if Daisy Jones & The Six wasn’t your usual genre, there was something appealing about it – the nostalgia, the music alive on the page, the glamour and grunge of the industry.

Reid has used the same ingredients for her latest novel, Malibu Rising, but unfortunately the result lacks the magic of Daisy. I’m not sure why because the ‘ingredients’ are solid – professional surfers, Malibu beach, set in the eighties – but these scene-setters were diluted with too many superfluous characters, and a house party that is described in laborious detail (a stark contrast to the first half of the book which covers decades of the family’s history).

The eighties references read like an afterthought, and were almost exclusively about what people were wearing, or what they were listening to on the radio. In fact, they were so clumsy, I wondered how old Reid was – did she have to research the eighties because she wasn’t familiar with them? (she was born in 1983, so yeah, she would have had to do her research).

The best part of this book was the story of Mick and June, and their ill-fated relationship –

And on and on it went. Small boundaries broken, snapped like tint twigs, so many that June barely noticed he was coming for the whole tree.

Mick and June were believable. Their children, described through the eyes of June, were believable. When the children first surf, June observes –

…the children had found a previously undiscovered part of themselves that day. She knew that childhood is made up of days magnificent and mundane. And this had been a magnificent day for all of them.

‘Magnificent and mundane’ is a lovely description of time passing for children.

While Malibu beach was idyllic, home life for the family was not. Mick left, money was tight, and June drank to obliteration each night. The children soon learned to recognise alcoholism as ‘…a disease with many faces, and some of them look beautiful.’ Their devotion to their mother is what binds and motivates them.

I’m sure many readers will enjoy this book, especially if the expectation is that it will be a light beach read. I found it uneven and ultimately I wanted more of the first half (the family life) and less of the second half (the party).

2.5/5

I received my copy of Malibu Rising from the publisher, Random House UK, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Taylor Jenkins Reid has fast become one of my favourite authors. I adored Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones, and now this has joined them as another book of hers that I loved. There is something intoxicating about Taylor’s writing. She draws me in from the first line of every book, and I can easily binge read them all.

This is brimful of showbiz glamour but alongside pure grit, raw emotion and lots of layers and depth to the storyline. The first half of the book is at a slow pace and gives you more of a background to the main characters in the story. But the second half is more chaotic and dramatic. It has lots of strong themes such as drug use, suicide, family estrangement, sexuality and much more.

The family relationships are written superbly and the females particularly I really admired. Nina especially! Her character progression was brilliant to read especially when it is only through a 24hr period.

I definitely need to read more of Taylor’s backlog of books as I am sure I am missing out if these last three of hers are anything to go by!

This book is a Malibu dream that sweeps you away into a compelling, heart wrenching story. If you love a family drama that packs a punch then this is the book for you.

Having read and loved Daisy Jones and the Six I was really excited to read Malibu Rising. Taylor Jenkins Reid has an extraordinary writing talent which evokes a time and place so you are immediately transported. Malibu Rising varies in time frames from just one night and a house party to the back stories of Mick and June Riva and their four offspring. These six characters are beautifully drawn and observed. I really enjoyed reading Malibu Rising and look forward to reading more from this wonderful author.

I absolutely adored this book! What a sensational read. I could not put it down. This is the second book I've read from Taylor Jenkins Reid and I will definitely add her to my TBR lists for the future.

The story is about four famous siblings who, in a single night at one of the most notorious parties of th year, all have to find themselves and their way. The character development is exceptional, the storyline engaging. All the characters are flawed, normal, humans, I adored them. And I was so sad when this book ended. I loved how clever Taylor Jenkins Reid is about weaving in real celebrities too.

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this book and will be telling everyone I know to read it.

To be honest, I'm not sure this really needs any introduction and the fact that I really liked it probably won't come as any real surprise. I loved Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Taylor Jenkins Reid's latest was much hyped and was on a lot of other people's lists this summer. Centred around the night of a party in 1980s Malibu that ends in a house burning down, it tells the story of the Riva siblings. Children of a legendary singer, they are themselves in the limelight. Nina is a surfer and model, Jay and Hud tour the world together on the surfing circuit - where one surfs and the other photographs - and their little sister Kit. They shared a troubled childhood and they all have secrets. Over the course of the book you learn what drives them and watch them figure out what next and what their relationships with each other are going to look like now they're adults. It's perfect sun lounger reading, gloriously page turning escapism that looks at family ties, fame and obligations.

Singer Mick Riva was a womaniser, everyone knew that except his wife June - at first. Mick and June had three children, then Mick left and his lovechild joined the family. After June's death Nina, the eldest, has to drop out of school and raise her siblings to be happy confident individuals. All the stories collide at the annual Riva party at Nina's beach house in Malibu.
There are very mixed reviews for this book which I can understand. It is both a frothy holiday read and also a family drama, what Reid has done is to hide the pathos under the veneer of glitz and glam. Flitting in time frame to give the family history as well as set the scene for the crazy denouement, this book is handled very well. I loved it!

There's great narrative drive in Taylor Jenkins Reid's Malibu Rising, which starts with portents of a coming disaster - some sort of natural conflagration - suitably topical in our current world. That opening sets up a rising sense of doom and keeps the reader on tenterhooks for the final denouement. The end, when it comes, is pleasingly unpredictable.

Taylor Jenkins Reid topped the best-seller lists with her 2019 book, Daisy Jones and The Six - a fictional "oral history" of a 1970s band with close similarities to Fleetwood Mac. Malibu Rising takes a different form - not an oral history, but another story of the perils of fame and social media fortune, this time centered on the famous Riva family - kings of the California surf and social media, with Mick Riva, a famous singer, the father figure.

Amusingly, Mick Riva was a small-part player in Daisy Jones and the Six - appearing as a Frank Sinatra-style King of Croon. In Malibu Rising he's fleshed out as the delinquent patriarch of the fours siblings who are the focus of the story. Nina, a talented surfer turned swimsuit super model ,recently dumped by her world class tennis-player husband, and her brothers Hud, Jay and youngest sister Kit.

All of the younger siblings are big names on the surfing circuit - either as champions, (Jay) a celebrated surfing photographer, (Hud) or the would-be greatest athlete of them all (Kit.) The notoriety of their famous absent multi-wed father just adds to the tabloid frenzy.

The action centers on Malibu in August 1983, and Nina's legendary end-of-summer party. If you have to ask for an invitation, you're not meant to be there.

The only one not looking forward to it is Nina herself, who has never desired to be the center of attention. As the story loops and circles to the big night, the evolving roles and emotions that play out amongst the siblings give us a heartfelt picture of what's important to them and what they are missing out on.

Taylor Jenkins Reid weaves back and forth, from birth stories to the present day with seamless skill, and the various threads all come to a climax in a chandelier swinging party of rock 'n roll excess - the last celebration of its kind the Rivas are ever likely to throw.

Some memorable secondary characters, like Tarine the supermodel who lets no-one push her around, add some great cameos. There's also a tantalising hint in the author's end notes that this might not be the last of the Mick Riva story.

Captivating, funny, and touching by turns, Malibu Rising gives us entertaining insight into the world of the mega-rich and famous and reminds us they are really just human beings, like us all. A fun summer read.

I’ve been a TJR fan from book 1, and it’s been thrilling to watch her career develop, with each book better than the last. This family story has a little something for everyone - and the Malibu setting perfect for Covid times reading.

This is easily one of the best books I've read this year. I've been a fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid since I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo a few years ago, and immediately fell in love with Malibu Rising. It sets up a TJR 'universe' of sorts as there are characters who cross over between the two books.

TJR's strength is in her character development and with each book she just gets better. I found Nina Riva a fascinating and complex character much in the way Evelyn Hugo is, and while they are wildly different in many ways I found myself able to relate to both. They are both extremely likeable while also having obvious flaws.

A glorious story centered around the famous Riva family and their annual end of summer bash in August, 1983. It's a literal beach read and pure escapism and I loved every second.

This is wonderful. The story of the 4 Riva children through their childhood with the story of how their parents met and then the night of the party of the year, that everyone who is anyone will be seen at.

This reads like a big blockbuster movie, and I loved it. I liked the two storylines playing side by side - the past with the parents story and the other perspective from the early morning hourly through the day to the big showdown at night. It's an easy, entertaining read. I was thinking about it when I wasn't reading it and couldn't wait to get back to it. There was a few cliche moments that slightly took away from the enjoyment, but for the most part it really is a pleasurable novel.

If you like Taylor Jenkins Reid's previous novel Daisy Jones and the Six, then you'll enjoy this too. I found Daisy Jones a bit more riveting, but this is absolutely great too.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review</i>

I loved Malibu Rising! I was worried initially that I wouldn't love it as much as Daisy Jones, but in the end I loved it just as much.
This was an easy, light read most of the way through, but it still tackled some big subjects (family, divorce, affairs (and the impact on children), fame, addiction being just a few. I felt the issues were dealt with exceptionally well and in a way that felt real. A friend of mine said she experienced similar family issues to Nina growing up, and that her experiences in the book felt very relatable and real, which only added to how impressed I was with the way the book was presented and written.

I also loved the characters and the Riva family dynamics between the siblings. It would have been very easy to make them bitter, resentful characters, but they were definitely the opposite, and I enjoyed watching how much they supported each other through everything they faced.

I especially enjoyed that the book switched between two different timelines - the build up to the party and also the past of the siblings' mother and father meeting and what happened to their family to get the characters to where they were.
This meant that it was the perfect blend of character-driven and plot-driven and made for a really well-paced and exciting book all the way through.

I would definitely recommend this book, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the author releases next!

Book Review: Malibu Rising | Taylor Jenkins Reid

O.M.G This book is totally WORTH ALL THE HYPE! I Loved loved loved! The story of the four Riva siblings and their parents unfolds via flashback and hourly "party time" increments to develop a deep narrative questioning whether your parents lives become your own and if we really do inherit traits that enable history to repeat itself through the younger generations. The book is humming with lavish outrageousness and stupendous characters (lots and lots of periphery characters some needed, others just brief glimpses of their lives and first world problems) but all adding a layer of colour and depth to a wonderfully crafted story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the atmospheric setting of Malibu in the 1980s and the title is fitting of the settings journey as well as the characters, I will most certainly be picking up copies of the also hyped Seven Husbands and Daisy Jones and the Six as the style of writing really hooked me - I have no doubt her other novels will have the same impact.

An exceptional 5/5 read for me and I am so grateful for the ARC from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for the review.

I really liked this and what it did. It wasan't my favourite book by TJR but i liked what it did do. I wish that it focused more on the 1950s to 70s as those sections were my favourite and there was more on Kit as she didn't have enough and it felt like Nina had way more than the rest. Kit's "revelation" should have been expanded on more as there just wasn't enough there for me and it was mentioned brefly over 60% of the way through.It would have been nice to have less chapters from the party guest perspectives as it got confusing who they all were. I did like the ending but i wish there had been more fall out about what happened at the party as everything was wrapped up a bit too neatly.

I loved this book. My first by this author but I will be getting her others following this. A wonderful family saga covering from the 50's to the 80's in Malibu. Starting as a regular beach town to the glamour Malibu became the story follows four siblings. Most of the story is set over one day and one night. The famous party thrown each year by Nina. So many secrets, surprises and mystery guests form a stunning end to the party. A fabulous read.

Once again Taylor Jenkins Reid’s knocks it out of the park with her vivid and dynamic characters. Set over one day with judicial use of flashbacks, it follows the trials and tribulations of the Riva family and how it all blows up at their famous annual party.

The sheer drama packed tightly into it was riveting and I was engrossed from the first page. Like with Daisy Jones we get multiple points of view from a wide cast of characters who all help in telling the story of the Riva’s. From legendary musicians who are serial adulterers, bombshell surf models, and famous tennis players this is another tale of rags to riches, glamour and all the pitfalls that come with fame. Even with characters that we only spend a chapter with we get a clear sense of who they are and it’s a testament to Reid’s skill to write such real characters.

We get another powerful story of people thrust into fame and especially the horrors that come with being a famous woman in the 20th century. The main character Nina Riva spent her teenage years sacrificing everything to support her family but eventually finds financial security in being a surf model. We see how men treat her based on her ad campaigns and feel like they have the right to touch her because she’s a poster on teenage boy’s walls.

Overall, this was a book I could not put down like Reid’s other books. A perfect summer read and a heart-warming story of siblings who have each other’s back when it seems no one else will.

Thanks to Cornerstone for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review

This is the third book I have read by this author, and she is certainly making a name for herself with her excellent writing style!
I had seen this book a lot on my social media platforms with rave reviews, and now that I have read it, it is easy to see why.
This book really held my interest all the way through. The story reverts back and forth in time and centres around the Riva family, from the 50's to the early 80's.
I loved the family drama, the setting of Malibu, and the clever story. Highly recommend it and look forward to seeing what Taylor comes up with next!

The date is set to August 1983 and the Riva sibling are about to throw their annual party for the rich and famous. But before we visit that we are taken back through time to explore the dysfunctional relationships of the Riva's parents and discover how they were led into their lives.

Malibu Rising delves into the family life of the famous Mick Riva and his wife June. Mick is dishonest and unloyal to his family on more than one occasion. We seen the heartache experienced by June and as struggles to raise her now 4 children. Once this all becomes too much the eldest daughter Nina steps in to raise her siblings on her own.

The story focuses on 6 main characters of this family and alternates between times frames of the past and present. Even though Malibus Rising is not directly linked to Taylors previous book Evelyn Hugo, I really enjoyed the way the characters linked up and was glad I had read the other book previously.

I did relate to these characters and really felt the heartache along with the Riva siblings. Although I feel the book did drag on a little too much therefore not quite hitting a climax at any one point. Once the party finally starts so many new characters start to emerge. But with so little time each I felt they all started to meld into one another.

I really enjoy Taylors writing style and will definitely continue to read her books. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was a huge fan of "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" and have been dying to read Malibu Rising. When I read the blurb of this book, I thought it was going to be about a bunch of rich people and their socialite problems but man, this is SO much more than that.

This book is full of fiercely strong, self-made people who you will root for from beginning to end. I didn't think of this as a beach read but rather as a wonderful portrayal of a family that tries to be better than its previous generation.

I cannot wait for what TJR comes up with next!

Thanks to Netgalley and Randomhouse UK for the e-ARC but I was so impatient that I'd already gotten the physical copy by the time my request was approved. I really appreciate the approval.

This was the first book I have ever read by Taylor Jenkins Reid and I wasn't disappointed. There's a lot of hype around their previous work so I came into this one hopeful and I wasn't let down.

I loved the flashbacks that told us the story of Mick and his wife. Their story pulled at my heartstrings and I wanted to find out more about their relationship than I did the events of the party. The entire family was interesting and learning more about the Riva children was thrilling. Unfortunately, the story centred on the unlikable Mick and his exploits.

The character development in the story was second to none. A wonderful holiday read that will have you yearning for the gorgeous descriptions of Malibu that Reid so effortlessly weaves. A thoroughly enjoyable book!