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Malibu Rising

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Start date: July 1, 2022

Finish date: July 31, 2022

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What Members Thought

Jul 26, 2021 Haizle The Princess rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, book-club, i-own-this

TJR is an amazing author. The way she tells her stories sucks you in. I did feel like there was a lot of build up, but the ending was anticlimactic for me. If not for that, I would have given this book 5 stars.

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Aug 31, 2022 Andreea rated it it was ok

Nothing happens. And it's not the interesting kind of nothing happens book I like to read, it's the kind of... what was the point of this?

Sure, family things blah blah, but throught this novel there was no stake, no nothing! Just meh! Sure I liked the siblings and their interactions but... Again, everything felt flat and pointless and meh.

Boy, am I making sense in this review?

Yes, I am disappointed because I really liked Evelyn Hugo so I had high expectations - I mean everyone's reviews are ama ...more

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Jul 28, 2021 Chris rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, california

3.5 stars rounded up

I have loved everything I've read so far from Taylor Jenkins Reid, and this was no exception -- until I got to the ending. We know from the start of the book that two things are going to happen in this story - there's going to be a big party at Nina Riva's Malibu mansion on the night of August 27, 1983, and all Malibu will be in flames the following morning. The rest of the book is how we got there. In her usually brilliant story-telling style, Reid jumps back and forth from 3.5 stars rounded up

I have loved everything I've read so far from Taylor Jenkins Reid, and this was no exception -- until I got to the ending. We know from the start of the book that two things are going to happen in this story - there's going to be a big party at Nina Riva's Malibu mansion on the night of August 27, 1983, and all Malibu will be in flames the following morning. The rest of the book is how we got there. In her usually brilliant story-telling style, Reid jumps back and forth from the beginning of the marriage between Mick and June Riva (Mick is also the briefest of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo) and the lives of their four children on the day of the party. Mick loves June but can't stay away from the women who constantly throw themselves at him. June reaches a point where she just won't take it anymore. A lot of the responsibility for caring for the family falls on oldest daughter Nina. Just when it seems the family's luck can't get any worse, someone sees the gorgeous Nina on a surfboard and offers her a magazine spread. Soon she's a supermodel (think Farrah Fawcett poster), her brother is an international surfing champion, the next brother has made a name for himself photographing surf competitions, and the youngest, Kit, knows she's got a lot of talent if she could just get someone to notice it - and she'd also like to figure out why she's 20 years old and has never kissed a guy, something she vows to remedy at the party. That sets the whole stage - and it is fascinating. Julia Whelan is a fabulous narrator for a book like this, and I couldn't wait to get back to it every day. It's a brilliant set up as the hours to the party tick by and the reader is led carefully into knowing where each of the main characters are in the house. The more the party gets out of control, the more you're waiting for a spark or a flame. And I have to hand it to Reid, I did not see that denouement coming - but everything else about the ending just left me cold. After all of that, there should have been something else. It was too pat. A little too ridiculously easy. And just not realistic. Still, 90% of the book was great. ...more

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