Malibu Rising: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Letting people love you and care for you is part of how you love and care for them

Plot Overview

This is a story of four famous siblings, Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit Riva, offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva. Each of them has its own personality and character arc but all of them are linked owing to a common Riva surname and a love for surfing. They throw a party every year at the end of the summer. But in the party of 1983, their lives changed forever in a span of 24 hours.

My Experience reading it

This is my second book by Taylor Jenkins Reid, the first being, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I also enjoyed a lot. After reading both books and the premise of another famous one by the same author, Daisy Jones and the Six, I have found a common thread in her writing and that is drama, the dark side behind the glamour, and high-intensity emotions.

Malibu Rising is also a fast-paced book, where you crave to find what happens next, get high with the emotions of the character and again get to see what’s really behind the world of glamour. The characters of the book were relatable and even with the high-intensity drama, they seemed totally believable.

I loved the chemistry between the Riva siblings. I being the eldest in my family, can totally relate to Nina, when she felt responsible for her younger siblings. I felt sorry for June, but I can understand her too. I can feel how sometimes we give so many chances to people even though we know that they don’t deserve it. Each of the Riva family members has their own character arc but I guess only Nina and June touched my heart.

However, a lot of times I felt that there is a character overload in the book. There are a lot of people at the party and I can assume that a lot of things are happening around. But I wasn’t interested to know the story of irrelevant people(who are not related to the main story). But again, it’s a minor complaint.

Conclusion

I had a good time listening to this book. I drama in the book gave me an escape when I needed it the most. The story is simple, nothing out of ordinary, but I believe Taylor did a fabulous job in bringing life to it.