I LOVED this book! Order on Bookshop.‘Malibu Rising’ is the new book by American author Taylor Jenkins Reid, her seventh novel and the third in what is a loose “Cinematic Universe” of a part-fictionalised timeline of American fame … her first foray into alternate-Hollywood was 2017’s ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ which is where readers first fleetingly met Dean Martin-style crooner, Mick Riva – whose four abandoned children are the protagonists of ‘Malibu Rising’. As with all of TJR’s books it is gritty and glamorous with complex relationships and characters you really love and relate to. The book goes back and forth between present day and the past, uncovering layers of family trauma… ending in 1983 a the Riva’s famous summer party (and the start of the 1983 Malibu fires). This ends up as a means to an end, but she’s not truly happy (and ends up married to an awful guy). Throughout this traumatic period though, the kids all love to surf, which winds up leading the siblings Nina ends up getting discovered while she is out surfing and becomes a famous model / surfer. It was the oldest sister, Nina, who ultimately held the family (and their family restaurant) together, dropping out of school to raise her three siblings and hold the business together. Their father Mick (a huge star) abandoned them as kids and their mother was an alcoholic who wound up dying young. And when I found out that she had a new book out, set in Malibu in the eighties, I knew it was going to be good. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was one of the best books I have ever read – or at least, one of my favorite books ever. I mean you know how much I love Taylor Jenkins Reid. This was my favorite book from the month, I think. OK I had been saving my ARC of this forever and then I forgot about it during the move.
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