Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Malibu Rising

men are terrible lol.
i most enjoyed the plots concerning the core four siblings and, later, their plus-one. you'd think they be the majority of the plot, but there are a lot of subplots that have little-to-no bearing on the main storyline, and i understand wanting to make this gigantic party with all these interesting people feel more alive, but after a while i stopped caring and just wanted to skip to the Rivas. it was overall pretty good though
book cover discussion: the British one is so much better than that of the United States, like the pretty sunset/fire (👀) colors, the serif font. unfortunately it doesn't carry over perfectly to the square aspect ratio for the audiobook.

Content Warnings

lilifane's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Do I care about surfing? Nope (although I wouldn't have minded a few more surfing scenes tbh). Do I care about rich and famous people throwing wild parties full of sex, drugs and alcohol? Nooooo. Am I interested in reading about cheating husbands and struggles of being a parent/ raising children? Hell no!!!!
But when Taylor Jenkins Reid writes it, I will apparently still enjoy it. A lot. Her characters are some of the best fleshed out characters I've ever read. Her writing is super immersive. I swear, for 2 days I was part of this family. I was happy with them, sad with them. I laughed and cried with them. All of her characters just feel like real people and once the book is over, it's hard to comprehend that you just left a fictional group of people and need to return to the real world.
Warning, though, the subtitle of this book should be: The AUDACITY of shitty men!
I have never rolled my eyes SO much in my life. The things these men did and the way they reacted to those things and what they expected afterwords. I'm speechless. I get this is intentionally over the top... but truly, it reads pretty accurate.
The women, though: Take my heart, I adore you. Nina is an angel and she deserves the world. Nina's best friend? Marry me, please? Kit is amazing! Can we get a sequel focusing on her? That tennis player? SLAY GIRL!
Although I think the small party episodes were entertaining and great for the atmosphere, there were just too many side characters and names being thrown around. By the end of the party, I was super confused. But then again... that's probably how you feel after these kinds of parties.
And I'm a little confused about the role of the fire in the story. The marketing and how people talked about it made me believe it would play a bigger part in the plot. So my expectations were off, and I think this also contributed to me missing something in the end.

Content Warnings

embxr's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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atalea's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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m4rtt4's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Great, fun, sad and extremely emotional. Not as flawless a book as daisy jones or evelyn hugo were, but a very enjoyable bumpy ride nonetheless. Taylor Jenkins Reid sure can make words seem alive.

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aklovekorn's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

laurendenton's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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