By Megan Thomas
After reading and adoring Daisy Jones & The Six (no, I still haven’t seen the series and yes, I do plan to), Taylor Jenkins Reid was very much on my radar. Along came Malibu Rising and what do you know – I loved that too. Before you say it: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is next. I promise.
This gem follows the loves, lives and disappointments of the Riva family: the absent father but legendary singer, Mick Riva (who pops up at a party in Daisy Jones because Jenkins Reid is wonderful and likes to reward her readers), his oldest daughter Nina Riva, whose career as a surfing supermodel means that she hosts the party of the year in her seaside home in Malibu (and whose husband leaves her for Carrie Soto, the lead character in another of Jenkins Reid’s novels, see previous side note), championship surfer Jay Riva, renowned photographer Hud Riva, and their little sister Kit, who is still figuring out where she fits into the picture.
We skip through time, from mother June’s toxic relationship with Mick, with depression and with alcohol, which led to Nina raising her siblings instead of finishing school, to the present day at Nina’s party, which everyone who’s anyone is attending… and passed that, to the smouldering ashes of her home. This, I must emphasise, is an early discovery for the reader #NoSpoilers.
Jenkins Reid has a remarkable talent for characterisation and while the story itself is interesting and compelling, I was mostly reading just to learn more about her complex, three-dimensional characters. No detail is spared when it comes to who they are and why they do what they do.
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