Play 2026 Book Bingo
California Books: The Best Books Set in the Golden State
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge or simply found your way to our website researching books set in California, we’ve curated a diverse list of highly-rated titles about the Golden State! If you’re looking for another state, check our comprehensive list of books set in every state.
Literary Themes in California Books
The Golden State’s diversity, from Hollywood glamour to Silicon Valley innovation and from sun-soaked beaches to towering redwoods, makes it a versatile setting for every genre. California literature spans mysteries in Los Angeles, coming-of-age stories in San Francisco, immigrant narratives, tales of Hollywood glamour, and contemporary fiction exploring the American Dream in all its complexity.
Novels Set in California
Daughters of the Sun and Moon
Book Summary
In 1870, three young women arrived in post-Civil War Los Angeles, then a small, dusty, and violent pueblo of 6,000 people. Seventeen-year-old Dove was sent for her arranged marriage to a much older merchant. Her bound feet and father’s role as an imperial scholar have given her a higher position in life.
Petal is a big-footed daughter of peasants, who was sent to Gold Mountain (America) when her father sold her to buy rice seed. On the ship, she is sold again.
Moon is the most educated of the group and is already married to a doctor of Chinese medicine. She speaks English and has a beautiful face, but her failed footbinding caused a limp that diminishes her value in the eyes of others.
While all three have come with desires such as love, freedom, and justice, they arrive in a town rife with anti-Chinese sentiment. During the Night of Horrors, in which rioters attacked the Chinese population of LA, they face the unthinkable and must use bravery, endurance, and friendship to survive.
About the Author
Lisa See’s novels, including Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, and The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, are always rated very highly by our readers. We can’t wait to pick up this 2026 release because we know it will be both a page-turning read and an educational one, as we were previously not aware of the Night of Horrors Chinese Massacre of 1871.
Lady Sunshine
Book Summary
In 1979, Jackie spent three months at her bohemian uncle’s sprawling estate, The Sandcastle. This peek into his life filled with musicians, artists, and other free spirits changed the course of her life as she tested new limits with her cousin, Willa. But then, the summer ended in tragedy.
Twenty years later, Jackie has now inherited The Sandcastle and plans to prepare it for sale. However, she learns that before it can be sold, she needs to fulfill the promise made to a producer that he could record a tribute album in the property’s studio. As musicians bring the estate back to life, new questions are sparked about the summer of 1979.
Lucky Boy
Book Summary
When Solimar made the perilous journey from Mexico to the US, she had no idea what her future held as she made her way to her cousin’s apartment in Berkeley. It definitely wasn’t her plan to fall in love and become pregnant. She soon adds the complications of motherhood to her uncertainty of life in a new country.
Kavya is the chef for a sorority house at Berkeley. She’s in her mid-30s and married, but her unexpected extreme desire to have a child is testing her marriage and sanity. When Soli is detained, her infant son comes under Kavya’s care. As Kavya becomes the mother she has dreamt of being, her love is wrapped around someone else’s child.
About the Setting
This book is an emotional journey that will transport you to Berkeley, Silicon Valley, and rural Oaxaca, Mexico.
The Great Mann
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Set in the real-life neighborhood of Sugar Hill in Los Angeles during the 1940s, this modern retelling of The Great Gatsby follows the mysterious and glamorous James Mann, whose parties illuminate the night, but whose past is shrouded in secrets.
Charlie, a young veteran, comes to town at the invitation of his cousin, Marguerite, and is shocked to discover the world of L.A.’s Black elite. Marguerite’s husband helps him land a promising career as an insurance agent.
Soon, Charlie is drawn into Mann’s glittering orbit. He discovers that behind the glamor, Mann is haunted by love and ambition, and is determined to reclaim something, or someone, that he lost.
Real historical events and figures are woven throughout the novel, including a court battle over racial covenants and real stars like Hattie McDaniel and Lena Horne.
More About This Book
The Great Gatsby is one of Angela’s favorite classics (in fact, her dog is named Gatsby), so she was immediately intrigued when she learned of this new retelling. The foreword by the author explains that The Great Gatsby is also one of her favorite classics, despite the inclusion of racist elements. She notes that there were only a few African Americans in The Great Gatsby, and that their role was only addressed in a dismissive way. With that in mind, Kyra Davis Lurie wanted to retell the story with Black characters in the central roles.
What really sets this novel apart from other retellings is its grounding in real history. Sugar Hill is a real neighborhood in Los Angeles that, in the 1940s, was the center of a legal battle about racial covenants. Angela first learned about this neighborhood and the legal challenge in the 2024 historical fiction novel The Queen of Sugar Hill, which tells the life story of actress Hattie McDaniel. Having enjoyed that book, this new novel, which sets The Great Gatsby in Hattie’s neighborhood, felt like the perfect companion read.
Allie and Bea
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Ever since her husband died, Bea has been barely making ends meet. When she falls victim to a phone scam, she loses everything. She heads for the Pacific Ocean with nothing but her cat, her old van, and ⅔ of a tank of gas.
Fifteen-year-old Allie is sent to live in a group home after her parents are sent to jail on tax fraud charges. Allie doesn’t feel safe in the home and escapes, but she has nowhere to go.
When Bea and Allie’s paths cross, they are reluctant to trust one another. As they warily make their way up the Pacific Coast together, they form a friendship that becomes more like the family they both desperately need.
About the Author & Characters
Catherine Ryan Hyde is also the author of Have You Seen Luis Velez?, which was very popular with our readers!
Reviewers say Allie and Bea are both very well-drawn and realistically flawed characters. Through their unexpected friendship, both are forced to see shades of gray in their formerly black-and-white worlds. This is an excellent option if you’re looking for a heartwarming read!
Properties of Thirst
Book Summary
Rockwell “Rocky” Rhodes and his wife, Lou, raised their twins on their California ranch. Rocky and the kids have remained on the ranch even after Lou’s death. Throughout those years, Rocky has been fiercely protecting his property from the LA Water Corporation.
When the US enters WWII, Rocky’s son Stryker joins the fight and deploys to Pearl Harbor, not long before it is attacked. Then, the government decides to build a Japanese American internment camp next to the Rhodes ranch. Rocky realizes that his land now faces a much bigger threat than the watermen.
The idealistic Department of the Interior employee assigned to build the camp only begins to understand the horror of his task after it may be too late. The employee also spends enough time in the area to become infatuated with Rocky’s daughter, Sunny.
About the Author
In 2016, when author Marianne Wiggins was just chapters away from finishing this novel, she suffered a massive stroke that affected both her memory and her ability to think creatively. Not wanting to see her mother’s work go unfinished, her daughter, Lara Porzak, began sifting through her mother’s notebooks. Along with the written notes, Porzak also spoke to the handful of friends with whom her mother had discussed the book’s ending.
Together, the mother-daughter duo set about to piece together the final chapters of the book. The result is a beautiful novel that was named a New Yorker Best Book of 2022.
The Guncle
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
When family tragedy strikes, Uncle Patrick needs to take custody of his niece and nephew for the summer. Forty-three-year-old GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick) loves the kids, but he’s used to them going home after a weekend.
Once a famous sitcom star, Patrick’s career is stalled. His Palm Springs lifestyle of cocktails at brunch isn’t exactly ideal for a 6 and 9-year-old. He quickly realizes that having the kids longer than a few days means he needs to be more of a parent figure. But in order to help the kids, Patrick will also have to figure out how to help himself. This means facing some difficult memories from his past and deciding what he wants for his future.
Our Thoughts on This Book
This book has much more depth than the cover might imply. We both rated The Guncle 5 stars because it made us laugh, cry, and feel everything in between!
Even though the family is recovering from grief and in the midst of another complicated situation, The Guncle is full of heartwarming moments and laugh-out-loud humor. Patrick is the embodiment of what you hope for in a family member or friend. He steps way outside of his comfort zone, leads with open-hearted love, and does his best when in an unexpected, difficult situation. The kids are equally fantastic characters!
Scent of a Garden
Book Summary
Poppy’s parents are Napa Valley hoteliers, but she left home to become a perfumer in Paris. However, when her heightened sense of smell disappears, her career is in jeopardy, and she retreats to her home in California. She hopes that tending to her grandmother’s aromatic garden will restore her gift.
However, when she arrives, the garden has been uprooted and destroyed. This is a visceral reminder of how her ties to home have been weakened while she was away. Now, to heal, she must juggle family drama, old friendships, and a former love.
The Four Winds
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
As the Dust Bowl drought gripped the Great Plains, millions were out of work, crops failed, water dried up, and farmers fought to keep their land. This is the story of Elsa Martinelli, who is forced to make an agonizing choice: fight for her land in Texas or move west to California in search of a better life.
Like so many of her neighbors, Elsa courageously faced the hardships and sacrifices that came to define an entire generation during the Great Depression as they fought for the American Dream.
Our Thoughts on This Book
We love books that truly transport you to another time and place, and few books do that quite as well as The Four Winds. You feel the dirt and the direness that so many experienced.
We knew people from Oklahoma and Texas fled looking for a better life in California during the Dust Bowl years, but this novel opened our eyes to how poorly they were treated and how much they were discriminated against when they arrived, no matter how hard they were willing to work.
Additional Books To Consider
The novel vividly portrays the devastating environmental impact of over-farming, soil erosion, and prolonged drought. You’ll find additional books about this ecological disaster, including the classic California tale, The Grapes of Wrath, on our list of Books about the Dust Bowl.
Damnation Spring
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Rich Gunderson comes from a long line of loggers. For generations, his family has made their living from the Redwood trees, but now their way of life is threatened as the National Park Service expands to protect tens of thousands of acres of trees. Additionally, environmentalists are protesting the logging operations on the remaining private lands, raising concerns about water contamination. In an effort to secure his family’s future, Rich secretly spends their savings on a grove of ancient Redwoods that he hopes to harvest.
Rich’s wife, Colleen, is an amateur midwife who hopes for a second child of her own. She has suffered a long string of miscarriages and has begun to see a disturbing number of birth defects and fetal deaths throughout her small community. She begins to suspect that the herbicides used by the logging company that employs her husband might be to blame.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Angela picked this book up immediately after returning from a family vacation to the Redwoods, so she was instantly drawn to the story about the towns she had just visited. But it was the dual perspectives of this story that kept her hooked. We see the story unfold from the point of view of both Rich and Colleen, as well as a few chapters from their eight-year-old son.
In a world where people often seem increasingly unwilling to listen to opposing viewpoints, the storytelling format of this environmental novel compassionately shines a light on all the shades of gray that exist for the families and communities caught in the middle.
The Seat Filler
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Juliet is working hard to grow her dog grooming business when her best friend needs a big favor. Her future mother-in-law runs a company that provides seat fillers to Hollywood award shows. It’s an easy gig. She just has to move around to sit in any temporarily empty seats so the audience looks full the whole time. And she must do that without speaking to any the celebrities in the audience.
Except she’s forced to speak to heartthrob Noah, whose poster she had on her wall as a teenager. Her night and life take an unexpected turn as their relationship builds, but it’s all based on one lie that can cause everything to fall apart.
Our Thoughts on This Book
We know that the secret-keeping trope is a red flag for some. On the other hand, it’s a clean, super swoon-worthy romance.
Only in California could someone have a “seat-filling” business! If you’re looking for a little dose of Hollywood in the form of a cute rom-com, this is perfect!
Nightcrawling
Book Summary
In East Oakland, Kiara and her brother, Marcus, have both dropped out of high school as their family has been fractured by both prison and death. Their rent has doubled, and Kiara is struggling to find work that will not only support herself and aspiring rapper Marcus, but also the 9-year-old next door who seems to have been abandoned.
Kiara’s income solution comes after a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger. She begins sex work, aka “nightcrawling”. It’s not wanted, but it’s desperately needed to survive. When she’s named as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department, everything shifts in her life.
What to Expect in This Read
Author Leila Mottley wrote this award-winning book when she was only 17, the same age as the protagonist. She was inspired by the real-life Oakland PD scandal of 2015. While many parts of California feel idyllic, this novel transports you into a realistic, gritty view of some East Oakland neighborhoods.
Hello, Juliet
Book Summary
Ivy once considered her Hello, Juliet castmates as her family. Ten years later, she’s still not sure who turned them all against her and ruined her career.
A new celebrity exposé has resurrected all her past hurts and scandals, but there may be a way to benefit from the drama. Hoping to make a fresh start and add financial stability, Ivy agrees to a secret reunion episode.
Things don’t go smoothly when the cast reunites – Ivy and the man who once broke her heart find their costar dead. She could be next if she can’t uncover the chilling secrets that have plagued the Hollywood set from day one.
About the Format
This story is told in dual timelines of 2014, when Ivy was a teenager on Hello, Juliet, and in 2024 during the investigation into the death of one of her castmates. Readers really enjoy the subtle clues and twists dropped throughout the chapters that keep you guessing.
The Nature of Fragile Things
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In the early 1900s, Irish immigrant Sophie was desperate to get out of a New York tenement. She answered a mail-order bride ad and agreed to marry a man named Martin Hocking in San Francisco. Martin is an aloof but handsome widower with a silent five-year-old daughter.
One evening, a young pregnant woman arrives at their doorstep. Sophie also learns of another woman, hundreds of miles away in Arizona, grieving the loss of everything she once loved. The fates of these three women become intertwined on the eve of the devastating San Francisco earthquake.
Dante and Jazz Mystery Series
Book Summary
Dante O’Donnell wasted his younger years dreaming of stardom and picking the wrong men. Now in his 50s, he’s working as a concierge for a vacation rental company in Palm Springs.
When he discovers a dead body floating in the pool at one of the rentals, he knows he’s in trouble. Not because he did it, but because he was previously suspected of murdering his husband, making him an obvious suspect.
In order to clear his name, he’ll have to team up with the cop turned PI who nearly arrested him the last time around. Jazz had her career derailed by racism, her PI business is struggling, and she’s fighting for custody of her kid. She needs Dante just as much as he needs her. If they can solve the murder, they will both be able to save themselves from personal and professional disaster.
The Queen of Sugar Hill
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
For many actors and actresses, winning an Oscar is the pinnacle of success that sets them up for an even better future. But for Hattie McDaniel, her best supporting actress win after playing the role of Mammy in the controversial movie Gone With the Wind was life-changing in a different way.
After winning, Hattie was trapped between two worlds, neither of which appreciated her. White Hollywood saw her only as her character, Mammy. The Black community, led by the NAACP, detested the demeaning portrayal of their community and waged war against her.
Through it all, Hattie struggled but also continued her fight to pave a path for other Negro actors, focused on war efforts, fought housing discrimination, and navigated four failed marriages. Along the way, she was supported by a core group of friends, including Clark Gable, Louise Beavers, Ruby Berkley Goodwin, and Dorothy Dandridge.
Inspiration for this Book
Hattie McDaniel was the first Black person to win an Oscar, yet her name is underrecognized today. We’re excited to learn more about her life and resilience through this historical fiction novel.
Expiration Dates
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Ever since her teen years, Daphne Bell has known the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a man she’s interested in (and sometimes even before she has any interest in him) she receives a piece of paper that tells her the exact number of days their relationship will last.
She knew from the outset that she’d only spend three days with Martin in Paris, that her relationship with Noah in San Francisco wouldn’t last past the five-week mark, and that she and Hugo would only spend three months as a couple (though he’d remain her best friend).
For years, Daphne has been waiting for the day she might meet a man with no expiration date – one with whom she could build a life. Finally, on the night of a blind date at her favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, she receives a paper with only a name, but no number: Jake.
At first, the lack of an expiration date with Jake seems to be everything Daphne has been hoping for. But as their relationship progresses, Daphne is forced to face her biggest secret. It could change everything and break both their hearts.
Our Thoughts on This Book
This novel is a mix of romance and magical realism, but it also deals with a lot of grief and trauma. The result is a book that is both humorous and heartbreaking.
Angela liked this novel more than the average Goodreads rating, and believes lower ratings are largely because people expect a standard rom-com, and this book is so much deeper.
She also says the book is extremely descriptive of Los Angeles, and that reading it made her want to take notes and visit LA again to check out the unique, cool spots mentioned.
The Black Kids
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Ashley Bennett grew up in LA in a wealthy and prominent family. She’s leading a charmed life, with her senior year split between the classroom and the beach.
Everything changes on an April afternoon when four LAPD officers are acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. As LA erupts in violent riots around her, Ashley tries to continue with her normal life, but she’s no longer just a teenager – now she’s a “black kid.”
Our Thoughts on This Book
When we think about historic events from California that happened in our lifetime, unfortunately, the tragedy of Rodney King always comes to mind. This book is a great insight into the ripple effects beyond what we saw play out on our TVs.
Lessons in Chemistry
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Elizabeth Zott is a quirky, brilliant female chemist working on an all-male team at the Hastings Research Institute. But her scientific qualifications don’t stop the “good old boys” from being frustrated that she won’t get coffee or make copies for them. When Elizabeth meets Calvin Evans, another scientist at the Institute, another type of chemistry results.
Fast forward a few years. It’s 1961, and Elizabeth is a 30-year-old single mother, and her career has been detoured. Instead of working for Hastings, she’s now (somewhat reluctantly) the star of a much-loved cooking show called Supper at Six. Her cooking methods are unusual (“combine one tablespoon of acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”). As her popularity grows, it turns out she’s not just teaching women to cook, she’s also daring them to change the status quo.
What to Expect in This Novel
This novel is funny, but not in a laugh-out-loud sort of way – more in a way where you sometimes have to laugh so you don’t cry. The descriptions of the misogyny that Elizabeth faces (and specifically some of the language that is directed at her) offend some readers, but it’s an accurate representation of what she and so many women faced in the 1950s and 1960s.
By no means is our struggle for equality over, but this book gave us so much respect for the women who paved the way.
Book Club Resources for Lessons in Chemistry
We have a printable Lessons in Chemistry book club guide available on Etsy, including discussion questions, themed games, a printable bookmark, and more!
You can also find free resources for your Lessons in Chemistry Book Club Discussion on our website.
The Beautiful Strangers
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Kate feels stuck in her family’s failing restaurant in San Francisco. She jumps at the chance to escape when her grandfather makes a cryptic plea for her to “find a beautiful stranger.” This search takes her to the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, where the movie Some Like it Hot is being filmed.
When she’s offered a position at the glamorous hotel, it feels like a dream come true. And her life continues to get better as a new romance blossoms. However, the hotel has ghosts from the past, just like Kate. Sixty years earlier, a guest died at the hotel and still haunts the halls. The life of that turn-of-the-century guest and Kate’s present intertwine in surprising ways.
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Fans of Finlay Donovan and Dial A for Aunties will love 60-year-old Vera Wong. She’s a self-proclaimed tea expert and a meddling matchmaker for her son.
When she wakes up one morning to find a dead man in her tea shop in Chinatown, she decides to add detective to her resume. She’s convinced she’ll do a better job than the police, anyway, so she might as well catch the killer herself.
Typewriter Beach
Book Summary
In 1957, McCarthyism and the Red Scare ruled Hollywood. Isabella is a young starlet with promise to become the next Grace Kelly. Just after an audition with Hitchcock, she is sequestered by the studio’s “fixer” in a tiny Carmel cottage to ride out this dark period of American history.
Her new neighbor, Léon Chazan, was a successful screenwriter until he was blacklisted. He’s continued writing despite knowing he won’t be able to sell his next script and is annoyed when Iz interrupts his work. But he can’t stay mad at her long, and soon they are exploring the coast in his roadster despite the studio’s insistence that Iz not leave her cottage.
Sixty years later, twenty-six-year-old screenwriter Gemma Chazan is in Carmel to sell her grandfather’s cottage. She finds a safe of secrets, raising questions about her grandfather and whether she can live up to his name. Can his old friend Iz, who still lives next door, help her?
Our Thoughts on This Book
Melissa & her husband visited Carmel-by-the-Sea in 2018, the same year as the later timeline of this book. They absolutely fell in love with the charming seaside town, so she can’t wait to be transported there in this dual-timeline novel.
Book Summary
While Phoebe has given up on love for herself after leaving an abusive relationship behind in England, she hasn’t given up on it for others. After she arrives at her sister’s home in the Hollywood Hills, she begins playing matchmaker between Bel, her sister’s trainer, and Ren, the carpenter next door.
Since Phoebe writes greeting cards for a living, she begins writing love letters on Bel’s behalf. But as she falls in love with LA, she realizes she’s also falling for the man she’s been writing to on behalf of someone else. Along the way, she also forms a great friendship with an 82-year-old reclusive film star.
What to Expect in This Book
If you’re looking for a feel-good, very summery romance with all the California vibes, this is a great pick! It’s also a bit of a love letter to Los Angeles, including mentions of many hidden gems throughout the city.
Book Summary
This 600-page generational epic is a retelling of Cain and Abel. The book is set amid California’s rich farmland as it follows the intertwined destinies of the Trask and Hamilton families.
Adam Trask has come to California from the East in hopes of a better life with his wife. But when they have twins, Cal and Aaron, the birth of the boys brings his wife to the brink of madness. He must raise them as a single father, and despite being twins, they have very different experiences.
Reader Thoughts on This Book
Our readers selected East of Eden as one of their favorite classics. John Steinbeck does an excellent job capturing life from the Civil War through WWI. Of Mice & Men and The Grapes of Wrath would also be great Steinbeck reads for this prompt.
Family Family
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
India Allwood always wanted to be an actress, and her dreams came true with success on Broadway and on TV. Now she’s making a movie about adoption, but she’s disheartened that the storyline doesn’t sit right with her.
India is an adoptive mom herself to twin 10-year-olds, and she’s tired of only seeing adoption stories in movies that are filled with pain and regret. So when she’s asked by a journalist, she tells the truth – she thinks the movie she’s making is a bad one. Soon, she’s caught in the middle of a media storm.
When her twins turn to family for help, things just get messier. One thing is for certain – no matter how families are formed, they are always complicated.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Author Laurie Frankel writes this book from experience as an adoptive parent herself. She is a master at compassionate family storytelling (we also loved This is How It Always Is), and this book is sure to spark excellent conversation.
This is one of Angela’s top reads of the year, and she especially loved the narration by Patti Murin. Be sure to listen to the fascinating interview after the book in which Laurie Frankel and Patti Murin discuss the process of audiobook narration.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
It’s 1954, and the Red Scare has infiltrated the US, including the life of seventeen-year-old Lily, who lives in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Deportation looms over her father, even though he has his hard-earned citizenship.
However, teenage problems don’t stop just because larger issues loom. Lily falls in love for the first time but is shocked to be attracted to Kathleen. It’s hard enough to be Chinese-American in 1954; to be in love with another girl is unheard of.
Thoughts on This Book
This is a YA novel, but adult readers will enjoy it just as much. Reviews say you may need some tissues along the way, especially toward the end.
Malibu Rising
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
The successful Riva siblings are always the envy of those around them in Malibu. Their father is legendary 70s singer Mick Riva, but each of the four siblings found success of their own in pursuits like professional surfing and photography.
The book is set in 1983 at sister Nina’s famous end-of-summer beach house party in Malibu. By midnight, the party is out of control. Before dawn, Nina’s mansion was burned to the ground.
During this unforgettable night, each sibling has secrets revealed.
Reader Thoughts on This Book
This novel made our 2021 Readers’ Favorites list! In the words of our readers, Malibu Rising is “descriptive and engaging with a strong storyline, great characters, and a lot of emotion.” Another reader explained, “I love when you know how a book ends, but you have no idea how you’ll get there. Great story of family. All of the 1980s references were wonderful!”
Both Book Girls also enjoyed this novel, though not quite as much as some of TJR’s other books. The audio version of the book is read by one of our favorite narrators, Julia Whelan.
Non-Fiction Books About California
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This memoir is a follow-up to The Distance Between Us, which covers Reyna’s childhood as her family immigrated to the United States. In A Dream Called Home, she covers the next chapter in her life as she experiences college as a first-generation Latina student.
Her parents aren’t helpful, and she has few resources, but her love of reading and writing provided the knowledge and skills she needed to attend UC Santa Cruz. However, she quickly learned that being accepted was only the first barrier. Often her progress was driven by the pure determination to become a writer.
Read along as she defies the odds by transitioning from undocumented immigrant to college graduate and bestselling author.
Read Around the USA – Books Set in Other States
We hope you enjoyed this list of books about California and found some great titles to add to your TBR. If you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge, be sure to check out our alphabetical index of books set in each state.
Sign Up for the Read Around the USA Challenge
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Printable Version of This Book List
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists.
As we create stand-alone book lists for the Read Around the USA Challenge throughout the year, each individual state book list will be available in a single-page printable format for both our Inner Circle and our BFF Level BMAC members.
Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
