Great Big Beautiful Life

I appreciate it when authors veer out of their literary comfort zones and try something new. Emily Henry is known for making wonderful contemporary fiction/romance books, but with Great Big Beautiful Life she takes a stab at romance with a strong historical fiction focus. And it worked ... kind of.

Alice Scott (sunshine) and Hayden Anderson (grumpy) are two writers who are competing in a month-long challenge to see who Margaret Ives will choose to write her memoir. Octogenarian Margaret has lived quite the life. She is an heiress, socialite and former tabloid fodder who disappeared from the public eye for decades. She has a story to tell and will choose which writer will pen her life story.

I loved the small-town setting and Alice and Hayden's touch of enemies to lovers. They were a likeable couple but neither of them had enough oomph to stand out from the many other literary couples who inhabit my bookish memory. I wanted more time for the romance to grow and more tension to build.

I also wanted to get to know Margaret better. We're told she's a kickass woman who has lived a fascinating life, but we don't get time to see it. Instead, we must wade through her parents' and grandparents' stories and a whole slew of characters which got confusing. 

The story has a bit of mystery as Margaret takes the writers (and the reader) back in time, but this is where things got dicey for me. It gives off very strong The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibe ... a little too on the nose for me (and not as good, to be honest). Evelyn Hugo is one of my all-time favourite books, so I don't take the comparison lightly. Don't get me wrong, GBBL was a good read ... it just didn't capture my heart like Evelyn Hugo.

One thing that surprised me (and other readers) is that the romance takes a backseat to the historical fiction aspect. There are some good reveals, but readers will have to keep track of how characters are related and be patient because it's a long wait to find out the truth.

My Rating: 3.75 stars

Author: Emily Henry

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Type and Source: Hardcover, personal copy

Publisher: Berkley

First Published: April 22, 2025

Read: Aug 3-7, 2025

Book Description from GoodReads: Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

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 20th 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.