Time for another round of Yvo’s Shorties! This time a 2021 most anticipated release that I ended up loving and a very popular new release that sadly didn’t work for me.

Title: Malibu Rising
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
First published: May 27th 2021
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Finished reading: September 30th 2021
Pages: 365

“That’s the thing about the water, it is not yours to control. You are at the mercy of nature.”


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Malibu Rising was one of my most anticipated releases this year as I’ve loved every single Taylor Jenkins Reid book I’ve tried so far. There has been so much hype around her newest book that I’ve honestly been a bit worried about my own reaction to it… Especially considering the mixed reviews and my less than positive relationship with hyped books. Thankfully, Malibu Rising turned out to be an exception to the rule and I enjoyed every single minute of my time with this story. I do understand why some people feel a bit disappointed by this one, as the pace is considerably slow and there is a lot of character hopping going on along the way. Still, this book has that je ne sais quoi that made me stay invested and interested the whole time despite the less than likeable characters and the many cliches relating to famous people and their behavior. Don’t ask me why, but I simply couldn’t stop reading! I wasn’t even all that bothered by the very present cheating and love triangle elements, which is a major surprise as those elements are normally a huge turn off for me. Instead, I was simply too curious to see how the Riva kids would grow up and what would happen at the party. Malibu Rising might not be my absolute favorite of the bunch (that honor is split between Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones), but it’s definitely right up there in the top three.

Title: One Last Stop
Author: Casey McQuiston
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: June 1st 2021
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Finished reading: October 8th 2021
Pages: 426

“Truth is, when you spend your whole life alone, it’s incredibly appealing to move somewhere big enough to get lost in, where being alone looks like a choice.”


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WARNING: unpopular opinion ahead!!!

Right… I should have known to stay away from hyped books. The thing is: I enjoyed her other title Red, White And Royal Blue, and I also really liked the sound of the blurb of her newest title One Last Stop, so in the end I couldn’t resist. Sadly, while I do think the premise of this story has a lot of potential and I still love the idea behind this story, the execution fell rather flat for me. I’ll try to explain shortly why this story didn’t work all that well for me. One of the main issues I had with this story is a combination of extremely long chapters and a plot that felt both overlong and dragged considerably in parts. I took me ages to actually finish this story, and the slow pace and way too long chapters only slowed me down more. There were a lot of different characters in play, and some lacked fleshing out and felt a bit too much like a cliche. I also didn’t think the way August behaved in general was all too credible… And the ending was a bit lackluster for me. There were fun moments and things I liked including the timeslip element and diversity, but as a whole One Last Stop unfortunately didn’t live up to expectations for me.

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