Malibu Rising: A Read with Jenna Pick
A Novel
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4.1 • 6.1K Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • From the author of Carrie Soto Is Back, Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo . . .
“Irresistible . . . High drama at the beach, starring four sexy, surfing siblings and their deadbeat, famous-crooner dad.”—People
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Time, Marie Claire, PopSugar, Parade, Teen Vogue, Self, She Reads
Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, the family drama that ensues will change their lives 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Do you love soapy historical dramas, but are getting tired of Regency fashion and world wars? You need Taylor Jenkins Reid. The author follows up her dishy love letter to ‘70s rock, Daisy Jones & the Six, with a beachside melodrama set over one August weekend in 1983. Even though her failed marriage is all over the tabloids, supermodel Nina Riva feels obliged to throw her annual blowout party. All three of Nina’s siblings are dealing with romantic baggage, too—including a love triangle involving both of her brothers. Reid also flashes back to the whirlwind 1950s romance of the pack’s parents—teenage waitress June and aspiring rocker Mick Riva—and tracks them through the implosion of their marriage. And we’re treated to vignettes of the bad behavior of guests at the Riva’s boozy-druggy-sexy bacchanal. Malibu Rising is a gleeful melodrama that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reid (Daisy Jones and the Six) unfurls a fast-paced and addictive story of a group of celebrity siblings in Malibu. There's model Nina Riva, pro surfer Jay, photographer Hudson, and Kit, an aspiring professional surfer. The Rivas' absentee philandering father, Mick, won over their mother, June, with a sultry singing voice that propelled him to stratospheric fame in the 1950s. This setup launches the novel's two braided timelines: Mick and June's love story and tragic unraveling, and the narrative of what happens on Saturday, Aug. 27, 1983: the day of the Riva siblings' legendary annual party. Everyone who's anyone in Los Angeles attends, the rule being, "If you were cool enough to know about the party, you were cool enough to come to the party." The author capably tracks the siblings' emotionally fraught journeys—especially that of Nina, whose husband has run off just before the party—and evokes a bygone Malibu's natural and social hazards in sharp, descriptive writing, connected by a leitmotif of fire. "Malibu catches fire. It is simply what Malibu does from time to time," the opening lines read, foreshadowing disaster. 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.
Customer Reviews
Another good TJR read
I’ll always be a sucker for a TJR book. I appreciated how the storyline moves from the past to the present. It helps to see to whole picture. TJR is so good at writing books that make you feel such anger, suspense, and sadness. This read was no different. I would recommend to anyone!!
Entertaining and easy
Fun characters, twisted family histories, surprise ending. What’s not to like?
Absolutely loved this book!
I laughed and cried! I can’t wait to read more of her work!