Name: Malibu Rising
Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

About this book

Summary

Book Summary

From the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six. 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 for him 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 rising 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.

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Media Reviews

"Malibu Rising will be the sought-after book of the summer." - Booklist (starred review)

"Reid's descriptions of Malibu are so evocative that readers will swear they feel the sea breeze on their faces or the grit of the sand between their toes. The Rivas have a believable sibling dynamic, and the family members are complex and delightfully flawed...A compulsively readable story about the bonds between family members and the power of breaking free." - Kirkus Reviews

"[A] fast-paced and addictive story...Reid's handling of the various arcs is impressive, but the novel's climactic scenes verge on melodramatic. Still, this page-turning indulgence hits the spot." - Publishers Weekly

"It's 1983 in Malibu, and the famous Riva siblings are hosting their annual end-of-summer party—a legendary affair. By morning, the house is in flames, a blaze fueled by smoldering secrets and long-simmering drama. [Taylor Jenkins] Reid has once again crafted a fast-paced, engaging novel that smoothly transports readers between decades and story lines." - Washington Post

This information about Malibu Rising was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Cathryn Conroy

The Literary Equivalent of Eating Ice Cream for Breakfast: Sexy, Entertaining Summer ChickLit
This book is the literary equivalent of eating ice cream for breakfast. Wickedly fun, but not something you want to do on a regular basis. It's entertaining, engrossing, and sexy summer ChickLit. Nothing more. And sometimes that's just what you want.

Written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, this is the story of a house party for 200 guests in a beachside Malibu mansion taking place on the last Saturday in August 1983. By the end of the wild, out-of-control party, the house will be on fire. (That's not a spoiler. It's revealed within the first few pages of the book.)

The party host is Nina Riva, the daughter of the famous singer Mick Riva (think Mick Jagger or Steven Tyler) and the wife of the international star tennis player Brandon Randall. But that's no way to define Nina, who is a wildly famous model in her own right. Besides, Mick abandoned his wife and four kids years ago and they haven't seen him since, and Brandon just left Nina, his wife of one year, for the tennis player Carrie Soto. Once again, Nina is on her own.

The novel takes place over a 24-hour period with lots of flashbacks to the past. Nina is the oldest of the four Riva kids, followed by Jay, a surfer; Hud, a photographer; and Kit, who is still trying to figure out who she is. The children's mother is June, who Mick married and divorced twice, leaving her with no money the second time. June had a tough time of it, eventually dying and leaving the kids—all minors—to fend for themselves. It's quite the tale. Lots of tears and drama, but riveting reading.

The house party, which is an annual event, draws beautiful, wealthy, and famous people from movie and TV stars to writers to athletes to musicians. It's the kind of party where the guests come to see and be seen. At this event on August 27, 1983 they are on their worst behavior. (It's shocking what they do to the house!) The party itself ignites (figuratively) hours before the actual fire.

This is a book about what it means to be a family—the good and the bad—as well as what it means to have fame and fortune. It's also a book about surfing, so get ready to hang ten. And while the dialogue is cheesy at times and rife with expletives, the story is imaginative, albeit a bit like a soap opera, with obvious themes of destruction and renewal. Overall, it's an enjoyable escapist read.

Emily

Malibu Rising
4 stars, but Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo is better and I knew the characters better by reading that first.

karen s

MR
I loved Daisy Jones & the Six and went into this one excited. The first section with Mick and June was the most interesting alternating back and forth with the Riva siblings. But once it got to part two with the party I lost interest. So many characters dropped in that I didn't really care about. And what was up with Casey? Long lost sibling with really no time to build an emotional connection to her. And the climax with the fire just fizzled out. I Was really anticipating a real wow moment at the end.

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Author Information

Biography
Books by this Author

Taylor Jenkins Reid Author Biography

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, Forever, Interrupted, and the New York Times bestseller Daisy Jones and the Six. Her novels have been Indie Next Picks, chosen by Book of the Month, and featured in People, US Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, and more. She lives in Los Angeles.