Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
on May 28, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Fiction / Women
Pages: 636
Format: Hardcover
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Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years, or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century. When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.
One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.
Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.
Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.
But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story, just like the tale Margaret’s spinning, could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.
Tt wasn’t a perfect book. It’s VERY grumpy/sunshine, to the point that sometimes our two love interests feel like emojis in their depth. I didn’t love the romance, maybe because while I loved the cheery protagonist, I got irritated on occasion by her grimacing hero. But I loved the way the non-romance story went, and I thought the ending was unbearably sweet. This was a beautiful mix of a sweeping, unexpected romance and a tale of generational trauma; how we rely too much on time to do the hard work for us.
This was a hard book to rate for me. For a good 2/3rds I would have said this book was three stars and the last portion I would have rated it five stars. That said, I am meeting in the middle with four stars. Bottom line: this book was worth the always-interminable-feeling wait. I can see why some readers might not connect with it. EH took a risk here by stepping away from the themes she’s usually known for. While her previous books had more of a focus on romance, this one doesn’t follow that same formula. If you’re expecting a traditional romance, this might not be the book for you.
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