Welcome back! I am still in a bit of a reading slump, so I’m only up to 35 books this year. But I’m hoping that the spooky season reads help me get out of it! And this month’s book of the month is a bit of a special one as it’s my third time reviewing this author. So, shout out to Taylor Jenkins Reid for being the most reviewed author on my blog! And with all that being said, this month I’m reviewing Malibu Rising by TJR and to accompany this review I made a Malibu Sunrise.
Malibu Sunrise Recipe
2oz Malibu
~4oz Orange Juice
0.25oz Grenadine
1 slice Orange
1 Maraschino Cherry
In a hurricane glass filled with ice, add Malibu and orange juice before adding grenadine. Then, garnish and enjoy!
This drink was really good! It’s just a tequila sunrise with Malibu instead of tequila, but it worked well. Malibu seemed like the obvious choice for a special ingredient this month given the title and setting of the novel, but also because the city of Malibu is kind of its own character in the story. And this addition made the cocktail a bit more fruity and tropical. It is definitely on the sweet side, so if you don’t like coconut or overly sweet drinks this one may not be for you. But I enjoyed the flavours a lot!
Malibu Rising Synopsis
(from book cover)
Malibu is buzzing with anticipation for Nina Riva’s annual party. Everyone wants to be in the company of the famous Rivas: Nina, the surfer and model; her brothers, Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other his renowned photographer; and Kit, the adored baby of the family. As if that picture-perfect family isn’t enough, their father is Mick Riva, the legendary singer.
By morning, the Riva mansion will have burned to the ground. And no one will know how the fire started. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play and the loves and secret yearnings that shaped this family across generations will all come bubbling to the surface to make for a night no one will ever forget.
This is a story about family: about what you choose to keep from the people who made you, and what you must leave behind.
Review
“Our family histories are simply stories. They are myths we create about the people who came before us, in order to make sense of ourselves.”
Malibu Rising was a classic Taylor Jenkins Reid historical fiction/present day character study. Similar to the other Reid novels I’ve read this one bounced between the past and present of one family. I really liked this novel! The setting and tone were right up my alley and I found the story pretty intriguing. I also loved the connections between this novel and Reid’s other works. However, there were some negatives with this one that lowered the rating.
The tone, setting, and general vibes of Malibu Rising were perfect. I love an 80s surfer party aesthetic, and this one was so fun! Reid always does a great job capturing the era she’s writing about, and she absolutely nailed it with this one. The old Hollywood/surfer themes were perfect for the setting of the novel and, as I mentioned above, added some interesting overlap with Reid’s other novels. Tone and vibes aside, the setting was described so perfectly that I could picture the whole thing like a movie. And I enjoyed that the setting was described in a traditional sense, but that she also used the character’s personalities and styles to showcase both Malibu and the 80s. Through this unique storytelling, Reid made Malibu its own character, which added a lot to the novel.
And while I obviously loved the 80s chapters, the 50s–70s chapters were just as strong. These chapters focused a bit less on the setting and history of these times and more on the character’s histories. And the alternating timeline added a lot to this novel, more than in other novels with this element for me. Specifically, getting to see how the parent’s love story unfolded gave a lot of insight into how the siblings feel about commitment, loyalty, and love, which were main themes of the novel. And this timeline shifting was a great way to show the dynamic of the siblings from a young age and what drives them to make their decisions.
The sibling dynamic is really at the heart of the story since it’s such a character driven novel. I also have a non-conventional sibling dynamic of four siblings who are all extremely close, so I related a lot to this aspect of the novel. And from my personal experience (albeit 4 sisters and not 2 sisters and 2 brothers), I thought this dynamic was portrayed really well. Especially with how easy I found it to connect each of my siblings and myself into which sibling we were.
Nina is definitely the more prominent character of the novel, and I did find her to be a stronger and more fleshed out character than the other siblings. She also had the most character development throughout Malibu Rising. The others felt like their development was just starting, which I wasn’t mad about. Because while it was a story about all of them, it was really Nina’s story. So, while Nina’s story ends her siblings’ stories are just getting started, and I think that’s really fitting and relatable for older sisters (I wouldn’t know I’m the baby/middle… it’s confusing if you don’t know my family).
While Nina was by far the most fleshed out character in the story, the siblings were also pretty solid, especially Kit. June was also thoroughly realized, which brought a lot to the past timeline chapters. But outside of the main cast, the other characters were a bit like caricatures and not overly developed. There were so many filler chapters of random celebrities and guests experiencing the party. And though it was interesting and fun reading about the shenanigans and chaos the party people were getting up to it just felt like filler. However, I will say that these chapters did make the party come to life and feel like its own character more than it made the side characters feel like characters.
But seeing as too many filler chapters is my biggest issue with this novel, that’s really not that bad. My only other negative is that it was pretty slow paced and I wasn’t always compelled to find out what happened next. But it also didn’t really drag since the short chapters made this one a quick and easy read. Overall, it was a pretty good novel but it wasn’t great. I liked the aesthetics and sibling dynamic, and I thought it touched on some interesting themes about families and siblings. But other than that I can’t think of anything else overly special about it. But Malibu Rising is still a close second to Daisy Jones in my ratings of TJR novels! So, give this novel a try if you think you’d like it. And definitely try out the drink for a taste of the summer as we move into fall!
My Rating:
Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo if you liked this one!
Teghann
If you enjoyed this review please like or comment. Also, if you’d like to be notified of new posts subscribe below. Or, to be a bigger part of the community head to @bartenderwithabook on Instagram!