Malibu Rising

What a beautiful read, perfect for summer days. All that talk about the ocean made me want to hop on a train and go to the beach, even though I'm not as brave as Nina and her siblings and I never adventure into deep water ‘cause I can't swim.

Malibu Rising follows the story of Nina Riva and her siblings: Jay, Hud and Kit. Nina is a famous surfer whose photo is on every boy's walls, she owns her family's restaurant Riva's Seafood on the Californian coast. She and her two brothers and sister come from a disfunctional family, and this books tells us the story of their lives growing up with a missing father and an alcoholic mother. I absolutely loved the format of this book: 24 hours of a day, the day of the famous Riva party, told in parallel with the story of June and Mick Riva, Nina's parents.

We can see the similarities between Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit and their parents and how hard they try not to be like them. But what I learned from this book is: we ARE NOT our parents.

This is a really heartwarming and beautiful story, Nina was definitely my favourite character and I loved seeing her grow, I cried and laughed with her. I felt like a part of the Riva family, like I was sitting right there on a Malibu beach, listening to their stories. This is the type of book that makes you feel so involved, that when you stop reading you're hit by the fact that you're sitting home in your bed, not on a beach or at a party with tons of stars.

OH OH AND if you've read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo THERE'S A REALLY NICE REFERENCE TO A CHARACTER FROM IT (Celia St. James). I almost cried when I saw that. Nice one, Taylor.