I really wasn’t planning on spending a whole day glued to my kindle but reader, I should have known better. Taylor Jenkins Reid has a wonderful ability to draw me in and not let me go until the last page. This is comfort reading at its best and an ideal summer read although I read it in cold and wet lockdown 3.0 London. Now dreaming of sun, sand and sea.

Malibu Rising is compelling, with a big heart and an even bigger cast of characters. Aside from the four Riva siblings on the day of the eldest Nina’s famous annual party, we go back in the past to learn about their parents and childhoods, plus get a glimpse into the crazy partying ways of Malibu regulars and Hollywood celebs at the party. I thought it lighter and perhaps less memorable than Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones but hugely enjoyed it nevertheless.

My thanks to Random House UK, Cornerstone and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Malibu Rising.

An odd read for me. It started off well and I was taken in by the cover and the thought of being in Malibu but there is very little link to the place and it could be set anywhere remotely sunny. The place is secondary to the family led plot, so despite the title, don't go into it expecting a memorable visit to Malibu.

We get to see the build up to the party, and then the various flashbacks from the parents, now grown up children and a few other visitors. I found it quite repetitive and it was as if the author was telling you a lot like someone at a party, who just talks and doesn't let you get a word in. The writing style was not like I had read from this author before and I was disappointed.

I don't love family sagas but when there is a gripping plot and dark secrets, it can really work. This was sadly one long drawn out family drama that was just too much about one character and the many people they had slept with. Of course this is central to the family drama but I found the book too coloured by that one storyline.

It petered out rather quickly for me and I was left feeling tired and a bit bored. I was very disappointed by the ending regarding the fire!

Maybe someone who has read more family drama kind of reads would describe and appreciate this better, but it wasn't for me.

Despite my initial excitement of getting my hands on Malibu Rising, after reading the first chapter, I was afraid this book wasn’t for me after all. For one, I realised it was a family drama, a genre that more often than not gets a 3-star review from me. I also groaned at the combination of the location, surfers, and celebrity. However, it didn’t take long until I was completely sucked in.

The characters were what elevated me from like to love of Malibu Rising. I was gobsmacked by how enthralled I became with characters I have absolutely nothing in common with. Naturally, my attention was drawn to two of the characters: mother and daughter, June and Nina.

June and Nina didn’t just bring out my empathetic side, they dove right into my heart and dragged it out. Both are hard done by throughout the book and I felt my heart sink every time they were hurt. Of course, that also produced a flip side in that I had two characters I was rooting for every step (or should I say page) of the way. My emotions were at an ultimate high as the back story of June and Mick unravelled. Their story could have been a book of its own and I would have been completely satisfied!

That’s not to say I didn’t like the rest of the characters. I loved each and every member of the Riva family, how they are all so different yet make a strong, admirable family unit. Based on the blurb, the reader gets a certain impression of the Riva kids: spoilt, rich brats possibly? Yet, I’m grateful the author didn’t go down this route and did something different with this often stereotypical character type.

And the story itself… I loved it! It doesn’t include the gasps and shocks I usually look for in a book but it has emotion and a beautiful reflection on family, which also makes for a wonderful book.

Taylor Jenkins Reid is stellar at capturing the essence the 70s and 80s. This was a compulsive and immersive read, and with its radiant spectrum of love, grief, friendship, and Taylor’s standard rock n roll glamour, I really loved the way this book had me all up in my feels. There were definitely moments that required me to suspend disbelief (Hud? Casey?!), but the warm and loving overtone of the book meant that I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for granting me early access!

Another incredible story from Taylor Jenkins Reid, this time following the Riva family's life in Malibu from the fifties through to the eighties, culminating in the party to end all parties...

Characters pop from the page, each a flawed individual with a certain charm. Nina in particular captured my heart and as she faced her struggles I couldn't help rooting for her.

Dramatic, satisfying and full of sex, drugs and rock and roll, Malibu Rising is sure to set the book world alight when it's released in May.

This book had me enchanted from the get go. 

It is the 1980s, and everyone’s talking about the Rivas — and the party of the year. Everyone who’s anyone will be there, and it’s guaranteed to be a night to remember.

And while the Riva siblings have always enjoyed the night together, this particular night is set to change everything — for good.

I loved the unbreakable, unwavering bond between the siblings, and how we got insight into each of them and their backgrounds (as well as the secrets that they might not be sharing with their family members).

I was also a big fan of how each chapter was an hour — either of the party, or leading up to it. Not only did we get a glimpse into the siblings’ lives, but those of their parents, Mick and June Riva, and the guests of the party, too. 

It was impossible not to get invested in the Riva siblings, or to want things to turn out for the best for them — whatever the best may be.

Absolutely gorgeous! TJR at her very best! For me, it’s essentially a book of love and family unity. A total Summer read, I could practically feel the sun and smell the Ocean while reading this book. I loved the subtle mention of characters from her other novels too.

This was a great read - vivid characters, a romp of a plot, and a thrilling ride from start to finish. I loved the writing, the clipped pace, the imagery. A joy.

I knew when I finished reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo a couple of months ago that I absolutely needed to read anything and everything else written by Taylor Jenkins Reid so when I saw the opportunity to review Malibu Rising on NetGalley, I jumped at the opportunity - and it lived up to all of my expectations and more.

Taylor has an enchanting way of writing that even when you’re not reading a wild moment of action and just the mundanities of a character’s life, you’re still fully immersed and hanging on every word. Everything that goes into writing a good story, she does so well and it’s so easy to engage with the characters and their lives.

I thought Malibu Rising was a beautiful story and really quite unique which I’m beginning to think is the case for all of Taylor’s books - it was fun, emotional, tense, heartbreaking, heartwarming and everything in between. I absolutely loved the Riva children and empathised with/admired them throughout the story, especially Nina who had to become a mother to her siblings at such a young age. I also enjoyed the connection between Taylor’s books with the character of Mick Riva - I didn’t like him much at all in Seven Husbands and although he doesn’t fare much better in Malibu Rising, it’s so interesting to see how he rose to fame and how the ultimate failure he makes in amongst his success impacts his life.

There wasn’t anything to dislike about this novel - the characters, the setting (I suddenly want to be transported back in time to 80’s Malibu), the plot, the twists and the mesmerising and realistic world of the Riva’s that Taylor created. Making a prediction now that I think this will be one of the most popular books of 2021!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The first part of the story
Slow start, same old story about girl meets boy, they get married and she gets pregnant. He lives his life in full while she stays at home. On and off again and again over the years. The kids grow up and here’s where the things start to be a bit more interesting.

The second half
Way too many characters and a bit difficult to keep up with everything and everyone as we are told a bit of a back story for each one of them and how they go on their daily routine. I honestly felt like I needed a map to remember who is who and what they are to each other.
Somehow the girl gets to live part of her mothers' life and that part wasn’t funny at all.
They have a big party and there are a few twists that I haven’t seen coming my way.
Overall it’s a good book, one that I’m sure many will love and rightly so because it’s well done and it resembles the 80’s lifestyle and crazy times.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

As a huge lover of Taylor Jenkins Reid, I had high hopes for this book. They were mostly met - I didn’t love it as much as Daisy Jones and the Six or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo but I did enjoy reading it. I found the story fast paced and easy to get into but it wasn’t always as exciting as it could have been. I expected more from the ending however it was a satisfying end nonetheless.

Malibu Rising follows the four Riva siblings through the course of a single day and night in August 1983 as they hold their annual party at their clifftop mansion. The novel centres on the oldest of the four, Nina Riva, who has always held the family together after their rock star father Mick left them when they were small children and their mother June descended into alcoholism. Even now her siblings are grown up, Nina continues to put others first, pursuing a modelling career that she doesn't want for the sake of financial security as she grieves the end of her marriage. However, this year's party will throw everything up in the air for the Rivas, with both unexpected guests and unexpected secrets emerging as the night goes on.

Malibu Rising shares a focus on historic glamour and fame with Taylor Jenkins Reid's two previous novels, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six, but in terms of style, it's closer to her earlier, fluffier books like Maybe In Another Life and Forever, Interrupted, which were much more standard chick lit. (You could make the case that Evelyn Hugo is pretty fluffy, but I think Reid actually adopts a stylised mode of storytelling for that book that gave it both its humour and its edge.) It starts promisingly but quickly fades out in its second half, with none of the Riva siblings fully realised as characters except Nina - and even then, Reid has an unfortunate tendency to spell out all of the revelations Nina has about her life and exactly how they connect back to her difficult childhood. Given the lack of page-space for the other three siblings, it's even odder that Reid chooses to jump between the heads of multiple unrelated party-goers in the second half of the novel, even though we learn nothing about them except who they are in love or lust with at the time, and they have no effect on the story.

Reid still has the gift of making us care about her characters, and I was invested in Nina and her relationship with her parents - I thought the sub-plot with her father was actually resolved quite well, even if it was a bit heavy-handed, as Nina refuses to accept glib rationalisations for why he treated the family so badly. However, this was a real disappointment after the two previous novels, and felt like it had been written in a rush. Given how well Reid handled stories that are meant to be a composition of different accounts (Daisy Jones) or a single account from one potentially unreliable narrator (Evelyn Hugo), I wonder if this mode of storytelling simply suits her better than the more straightforward multi-perspective third-person she uses in this novel, which didn't do her writing any favours. A fun beach book, but I expect more from Reid.

I will post this full review to Goodreads and to my blog closer to publication date.

Malibu Rising is immersive, beautiful, tragic, funny, and uplifting. Welcome to the crazy 80s.

I've been all about anything written by Taylor Jenkins Reid for a while, but particularly I love this style of writing seen in Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo where she writes a sort of memoir about her fictional characters - in a way that is so realistic you feel like you could type their name on Google and see them featured on Wikipedia.

I'm not sure if this is a trilogy or an anthology, but Malibu Rising is set in the same universe as Evelyn Hugo (so, I'm choosing to believe Daisy Jones is part of this same world as well). Although this book is a complete standalone, one of the protagonists of Malibu is none other than Mick Riva, or husband number 3. However, Malibu Rising is so much more than an expanded universe, it's a tour de force. Raw, emotional, nostalgic, and filled with the taste of summer afternoons and salty skin.

Jenkins Reid leads us on a journey filled with heartbreak and tragedies, where it still manages to be forgiving, uplifting, and more importantly convey the wild feel of Malibu in the 80s. The setting couldn't be more perfect.

Most of the book uses a style that I love - from 7 am to 7 am - narrating each hour of the fateful day of Hollywood's most talked-about party. Anyone who is anyone will be attending Nina Riva's wild bash. A party that just gets more out of control each upcoming year. No invitations are sent out, to be a part of it you just need to know where it is.

But, to understand exactly how everything is going to burst up in flames in 1981 we get flashbacks to how the Riva family came to be - when Mick met June. Before he was THE Mick Riva (wildly known singer of Frank Sinatra proportions) he was just a handsome guy that knew how to carry a tune, and June was just a pretty LA girl who wanted to escape her square life.

Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit are their offspring, each with their own story to tell filled with their own struggles and secrets, and in 24h (just like a perfect wave) everything will come crashing down before Malibu rises again.

Go read this.

This is beautifully written, atmospheric, with great research and character insight. Jenkins Reid is one of those writers who I will always pick up their newest book, no matter what the synopsis says, and Malibu Rising is no exception. I loved it from start to finish, and although it's not quite 5* like Daisy Jones or Evelyn Hugo, it was worth the wait and worth the read!

Taylor Jenkins Reid has such a knack for character, and for weaving a story that feels so insanely real. I truly cared for Nina, and I even loved the past timelines - I loved reading about June, as tragic as her life was - and I loved how much I could feel the story like it's a living breathing thing.

Fantastic book! Brilliant plot and narrative structure, well developed characters (plus a cheeky nod to Evelyn Hugo’s husband!) and a decent pace. I’ve read a few of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books now, and I don’t think she can put a step wrong!

This book blew me away, I never wanted it to end. I am utterly in love with all of the Riva siblings and could read about their lives forever. The setting is completely immersive and Taylor Jenkins Reid really captures the feel of Malibu in the 80s. It’s not a world I’ve ever been familiar with but now I feel like I know it intimately. A novel that had me gasping in shock, and weeping in grief, this is utterly wonderful.

I have read all of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books (including her short story “The Evidence of the affair”) and there’s not one of them that hasn’t delivered a gut-punch. “After I Do” and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” are one of my all-time favorite books, so it’s safe to say I was thrilled when I got the chance to read “Malibu Rising” early!

I loved all the Riva siblings and I was truly invested on their stories, but it was June’s downfall that hurt the most. TJR did a great job alternating both timelines and, as always, the characters were raw, flawed and heartbreaking.

However, I have a main complaint with “Malibu Rising”: the writing wasn’t as polished and fleshed out as in some of her previous books. TJR is always reinventing herself and I admire that, but there were some passages that ended up being downright sloppy. As is, every time a new character was introduced, we had a detailed description of their outfit, which I don’t feel was necessary at all.

I would have loved a slower version of this book, so I could get the chance to know more about the Riva family, but I really enjoyed it as it is. I devoured it in a day and I can see myself re-reading it in the future. And I can’t wait to know what TJR is planning to write next!

"Your whole world can be falling apart, she thought, but then Springsteen will start playing on the radio" Oh yes girl I hear you on this one.

I have not read any of Taylor Jenkin’s Reid other novels (although Daisy Jones and the Six is on my TBR list), so I was excited when I saw there was a flutter on interest on this ARC being on Netgalley, and having read the synopsis was delighted to be approved. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher.

From my reading of the synopsis the party was the main event of the novel that everything was going to swing around. I suppose I was expecting family secrets and possibly a dead body. So, I was a bit bewildered when I got to 47% of the novel on my kindle and the party had not even started.

What I realised is that I expected something completely different to what I got. This was not a bad thing atall as this is an excellent read. It just went to remind me that you can’t always judge a book by the cover, or even judge a book by the synopsis you just need to get stuck right in with the reading.

What this novel is, is a character driven family drama. The young family are not victims they are plucky, stick together and know there their priorities are looking after each other. They have been horrifically let down by their parents, but the novel does not dwell on issues of neglect or abuse. Instead it gives a good glimpse into a family looking out for each other and enjoying life.

The party is a big event in the novel, and as an event it’s a showstopper. I laughed out loud at parts, thinking we don’t do parties like that anymore. I came away from the novel feeling light and refreshed. There were no bodies at the party, and no who done it.

A lovely character driven family drama set in the unusual backdrop of early 1980’s Malibu with more than a big nod to the Jackie Collin’s blockbusters of the time (and I mean that as a compliment).

Another fantastic book by Taylor Jenkins Reid!

The setting of Malibu in the 1980s was wonderfully described and I loved all the Riva siblings and their stories. I also loved all the Easter eggs from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo!

I would definitely recommend this book! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for a review.