Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Hello everyone.  Hope you're day is going well.

When I was six, my parents decided to put in a pool.  A real, in ground, heated, diving board type pool.  One of our neighbors also had a pool.  So the Moms decided we all needed to learn to swim and hired a private teacher to come turn about six of us into mermaids at the neighbor's pool, which thankfully had been done first.  The teacher, we all thought, was the devil incarnate.  She would teach us to dog paddle, hold a long bamboo pole out and then entice us into the deep end, assuring us we could grab the pole should we not feel secure.  Of course, like the charming, angelic, innocent, young kindergarten age children we were, we trusted the "teacher" who, oh yes you know what she did,  she pulled the pole away.  Once in the deep end we were left to sink or swim, literally.  Our mothers sitting by the shallow end, with pretty furniture, drinking iced tea and talking about recipes or some hunky road crew member spotted on the way home from the grocery store.  All the while, we were being tortured by our devil spawn of a swimming instructor.  The joke was on them, Jennie swallowed so much water, after going under for the zillionth time, she promptly barfed all over the place.  Needless to say, lessons were cancelled for several days while the pool was cleaned. I'm certain my parents were very glad that our pool wasn't the one finished first.  Now, despite living near the ocean, I'm not crazy about the water, not even a sparkling blue pool.

I recently read Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  This is the author of the popular Daisy Jones & the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. In this story we follow the Riva family. They all live in Malibu, California and much of their lives has had to do with the water.  The past and present lives of the four siblings are explored, Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit.  As well as their parents and grandparents.  Their father is a famous singer and his fame affects the family in the past and present.  Every year Nina, the oldest sibling, holds a party in her house.  This year the party gets out of hand and before the next morning, people will be arrested, secrets revealed and the house will be burned to the ground.  

This book is one giant case study for character development.  I felt like I knew each of the kids and wanted them all to succeed.  This book will have to laughing and will tug at your heart.  I found myself in tears in several places.  Despite this book not being a thriller, I still could not stop reading. If you want big action, blood and gore, this isn't for you. However, if you want a great story with wonderful characters, then you'll find this book everything a book should be....memorable.  Loved every second.