From the Bookshelf of forever and evermore swifties…

Malibu Rising

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Start date: February 1, 2023

Finish date: March 31, 2023

Why we're reading this: we are comparing to tlgad, the last time, illicit affairs, starlight and exile :)
[close] we are comparing to tlgad, the last time, illicit affairs, starlight and exile :)

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What Members Thought

Jul 19, 2022 kashel rated it liked it · review of another edition

This was good. But if you've read the other TJR books, you'd understand why this is a 3 star. ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Jun 09, 2024 lj ♡ rated it really liked it

Shelves: family-dynamics, romance, summer-reads, historical, completed-review, adult

tjr puts something in her books istg. i couldn't put this down.

but it was missing something. something crucial. because i didn't quite connect with these characters. i really liked them, i felt really bad for them, but i didn't connect. kit was my favorite - i would've liked more time with her. nina i felt extremely bad for, but again. the connection wasn't exactly there.

now that that's out of the way, let's talk about what i did like!

i loved the family dynamics. the rivas are a broken clan, and tjr puts something in her books istg. i couldn't put this down.

but it was missing something. something crucial. because i didn't quite connect with these characters. i really liked them, i felt really bad for them, but i didn't connect. kit was my favorite - i would've liked more time with her. nina i felt extremely bad for, but again. the connection wasn't exactly there.

now that that's out of the way, let's talk about what i did like!

i loved the family dynamics. the rivas are a broken clan, and their relationships are complicated, but the siblings felt truly like siblings, and my heart broke for all the trauma they endured. fuck you mick riva you fucking dickhead asshole.

*cough* moving on. i loved the character development, the character complexity, the way tjr builds a character's past in a way that lets you see how they become the person they are. it just makes so much sense and i love having that kind of bird's-eye-view of a character.

her writing, as always, is incredibly simple, and it works. this book, or any tjr book, isn't supposed to be a tapestry of purple prose. it's an intricate exploration of characters, especially famous people, and their relationships. she's good at this. we've seen it before.

she's also good at creating tension. i could feel it throughout every page. there's tension that comes from the characters' relationships and the secrets they keep from each other, and there's tension that comes from the book's premise - the fact that the riva estate will be set on fire by the end of the night. i thought the payoff was a little weak on that front, but it worked.

this is a perfect summer book. the writing is easy to read, the summery, malibu/beachy vibes are strong, drama abounds. oh my god the amount of drama in this book and the random-ass unnecessary romance subplots - it's like a fucking soap opera (affectionate).

but let me get back to those summer vibes. this was such a beachy book and i loved it. as an extremely amateur surfer who's spent most of my summers in the ocean, i loved the descriptions of the ocean and surfing.

tl;dr i really, really enjoyed this book, but i don't think it held up as well as tjr's other books. still, it was a great light summery dramatic read :) ...more

2 likes · Like · see review