Blurb from Goodreads:
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.
The first book I read by Taylor Jenkins Reid was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I was captivated. Daisy Jones and the Six was almost as good. While One True Loves didn’t really enthral me so much, and none of her books are flawless, they’re the kinds of books that I want to be flawless. Malibu Rising came as a surprise to me; I had no idea Taylor Jenkins Reid was published a new book until I saw on Goodreads that a friend had read it. The blurb was intriguing enough and, honestly, it’s the kind of setting that this author writes so well: that intersection of celebrity and humanity. It’s clearly set in the same ‘universe’, so to speak, as Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones, with the most obvious overlap being Mick Riva, the absent father of the main characters, but one doesn’t need to read either of those books to enjoy this one.
The story is told in multiple timelines and from multiple points of view; the main thread is the day of the big party that the Riva siblings have thrown at the end of every summer, but the story flits back and forth to their parents’ relationship and the struggles of their mother, in particular. We also get glimpses of some of the other people who’ve crossed paths with the Riva siblings.
This is the sort of book that picks up momentum; we know that there will be a fire and we are promised confrontations but we don’t really know how or who or when. More and more characters appear as the book careens onwards, and many of them are little more than wallpaper and don’t warrant a second thought. (Aside from Tarine; give me more of her, please.) The real substance of this book is in the Riva siblings: Nina, the eldest, who had to support her younger siblings, Jay, Hud and Kit, for most of their childhood. All of the siblings have issues to deal with, relating to relationships and health and sexuality, but the one thing that holds them together is their loyalty towards each other.
I am a sucker for this kind of story. There is conflict, and I’ll admit that Jenkins Reid sometimes resolves conflict a little too cleanly; it was certainly the case in One True Loves. Here, though, I’m satisfied with the conclusion and everything is resolved enough to be rewarding but not so much as to be unrealistic.
Rating: 4 Stars
TL;DR: Four siblings survive being their father’s offspring.
whelmed.blog 