Malibu Rising
1988 • 369 pages

Ratings339

Average rating4.1

15

4:

Am I giving this book 4 stars solely on the fact that it made me cry, even when there were a whole bunch of things I disliked about it? Yeah, pretty much so. It's hard to get my feelings straight about it.

I was 20% into the story and three sex scenes with six different people had already taken place. Why? I mean, I think TJR was trying to draw a parallel and so it made sense, and that might be okay for some readers, but to me it was too much. Then there were also too many side characters that I did not care about, and wish weren't included. Like the threesome lady, and the chandelier drunk, and Vaughn that got about three whole pages. What was that for? At the party ending scene I didn't feel a thing when we learned what came of them, it was annoying.

And of course, the men, who all sucked here. Not sure if BranRan was just too cartoonish, or if men are in fact just that ridiculous. My favorite quote in the book was “Kit regretted every single choice she'd made that had brought her to this moment.This is what she had always wanted to avoid: being forced to pretend men were interesting.”

Having said that, as always, TJR just has a knack for punching through a rib cage and squeezing hearts tight. The first time I lost it was when June decided to love Hud. I loved June so much. And her children. I basically spent all of part two crying. I cried when Nina had to take over, and her growth was wonderful. I cried through Kit's self-acceptance journey, cried when Hud did after Jay told him what he needed. I cried when they took Casey in and cried at the climax of the story and I cried at the resolution. Basically I am dehydrated now.

The most beautiful thing in the story was the deep love and loyalty the Riva kids felt for each other, how they respected each other. I adored how they always were looking out for one another, even though it may hurt them. They were all my favorites, although I do have a soft spot for Kit.

Yeah. I wasn't in love with the whole thing, but it's like the family dynamics story was tailor-made for me.

(It feels so right to be wrong and Carrie Soto I loved you from the moment you rolled over in bed at Brandon's whining. She sucked so bad, I'm so excited to start her story)

December 24, 2022Report this review