Book Review: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Book Details:

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Series: Standalone

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Adult, Chicklit, Family

Page Count: 369 pages

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: June 1, 2021

Blurb:

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.

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.

Review:

Rating: ★★

I started reading Malibu Rising after I finished reading Daisy Jones and the Six earlier in the afternoon and was experiencing the high one gets after finishing a satisfactory book. I had read both of the books in the TJR fictional Hollywood celebrity-historical fiction and so, I was not even a bit apprehensive about starting Malibu Rising.

The synopsis for Malibu Rising had intrigued me a lot, it being one of my most anticipated reads of December and then I start reading it and nothing clicked for the first 100 pages- the interest was on and off like a light bulb in a horror story. Then it clicked and I began to enjoy it. It got better after a while. Nina Riva is one of the most selfless characters I have read abt 😭

In the second half, I guess the author didn't have enough material(or idk for what abominable reason), so she started introducing random character pov. We already had like 6 main pov and now we r listening to the thought process of other random people too. Granted a few were connected to the main set of characters but it doesn't mean they all deserve a pov chapter. There were so many random people, I was like- okie so this guy/girl is supposed to be famous in the world of the novel but can anyone tell me why am I even supposed to read through his pov?

Finally final few chapters returned to our main characters and the ending was pretty satisfactory when u consider the uneven quality of the book

I was initially gonna assign it 3.5/5 but then those aforementioned chapters happened and well, docking a star is only an expected consequence.

Final Thoughts?

Goodreads Review here