I liked this book, but I do feel like it was copying a lot of tropes from THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I've read Henry's previous books and I just thought this could have landed a lot better. I also think the ending wrapped up a little too quickly, especially since the big reveal is life changing for everyone involved. Overall, an enjoyable read, but I felt it wasn't super impressive or original. I also think my thoughts will be unpopular, so I am curious to hear how other people will react to the book.

Thank you to Penguin for providing me with an ARC of the eBook.

This was definitely a bit different for Emily Henry but I still adored it. I just love that we jump straight into the story and fully invested in the characters from the start. Alice and Hayden were no different, I was obsessed with Alice from page one.

As Alice and Hayden are competing for the job to write the autobiography of Margaret Ives, we hit the jackpot and had two stories in one book. This was done really well, my only complaint was that I wish we’d had more time on Alice and Hayden but I wouldn’t want to lose any of Maragret’s story so, I guess I just wish the book was never ending.

I love Emily’s writing and as usual, I already can’t wait for the next one!

Great Big Beautiful Life
Emily Henry

‘Keep working, keep moving, keep hoping.’

Yours, mine, and the truth… I LOVE this book. I yearned for it when I had to put it down. I will always plead allegiance to Team EmHen.

“Unicursal. One beginning, one end. Or, depending how you look at it, no beginning and no end - just a journey.”

This was a masterpiece. I devoured the chapters with him in it and was always chasing his next entrance. All the while knowing the other chapters narrating the history had invaluable context but I was simply chasing that short term high. Boy oh boy, when the story cracks right open! You just know how masterful it was. A story in a story with undeniable depth and heart.

“Neither of us can afford to be pulling punches here. If either of us doesn’t give this our all, we’ll regret it. And then we’ll resent each other for it. And I don’t know if I can handle being the one person on the planet Alice Scott doesn’t like.”

This was a magisterial story that will stay with me forever. The value in knowing someone and seeing them, even if you don’t understand them. The unmaking of our world and heart for love. ❤️ honestly I bow down to Emily Henry.

“For the one you love? Anything. You unmake the world and build a new one. You do anything to give them what they need.”

“She lies to me too,” he says. “For whatever it’s worth, Margaret Ives isn’t telling me the truth.”

(Posted 17th April 2025).

Oh, I just love it!

I love Alice’s dedication and how much she cares about her family, even though they’re not perfect. And it’s impossible not to fall in love with Hayden, especially when he shares his passion for his writing and his commitment to being part of something bigger, regardless of how it may be perceived by others. At first, I wasn't so sure if I would enjoy this book, but that conversation was a turning point for me. It made me realise that it was indeed a very special story.

The ending was surprising to me, I really love how everything turned out. I believe Emily Henry's fans won't be disappointed. She’s done it again, keeping me awake all night, lost in thoughts about these wonderful characters.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Emily Henry did it again, this was so lovely.
The plot was interesting, it obviously worked towards a twist, but I couldn't guess what it was, despite the red herrings. The characters were lovely and well fleshed out. Henry is so good at writing relatable characters that you don't normally see in other books. She knows how to describe the ordinary, which is a rare talent. The romance was nice and warm and I like the TJR vibes.

Thank you for the e-arc, all opinions are my own.

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of an heiress with more than a few plot twists. When Margaret Ives invites Alice Scott to Little Crescent Island she sees it as her big chance to impress her family with her writing. But there is a spanner in the works as she is competing to write Margaret's book with Hayden Anderson and he is a Pulitzer Prize winner. What ensues is a fun read as Alice delves further into Margaret's story and discovers that even though she is leading her astray with some things about her past Alice works things out.

This was another Emily henry win, who but she could write about falling in love with your ex-fiancée's new fiancée's ex and make it actually something you could not put down and LOL with.

This is THE book of the summer (and we aren't even in summer yet)

📚Book Review 📚

#adprproduct

A massive thank you to NetGalley for approving me for an ARC of this book. I am a huge Emily Henry fan and did a happy dance when this approval came in.

This story was a romance with an added air of mystery. Whilst Alice and Hayden are competing for a job you get the feeling that everything is not quite what it seems. Margaret's inclusion in the story gave me Evelyn Hugo vibes from the start and I loved getting to know her. Her family history was very complicated and I thought it unravelled really well.

Don't worry though, Emily Henry doesn't completely detour from her usual style. Alice and Hayden do not disappoint and certainly deliver on the slow burn, sexual tension and romance.

Another beautiful book written by Emily Henry! I loved the way the book was set out and how each character's story unraveled. I understand the ending and enjoyed the cyclical nature but it wasn't my favourite Henry book. The setting was stunning and I loved the detail put into building the world around the three main characters and especially, the side characters who played their part in expanding and developing the protagonists' stories!

'Yours, mine, and the truth.'

I loved this! It was like a story in a story and I couldn't put it down!

I must admit, I did look at some reviews (on GR) before I started and I didn't know if I'd like this from what I saw.....couldn't have been further from the truth!! I devoured this book in a day because I just couldn't stop reading!

Alice and Hayden are competing to write a, now reclusive, old money socialites biography. And this is where the story in a story comes to pass.

I LOVED hearing about Margaret's family, how they came into their money, the familial relationships, the scandal, the drama, Margaret's love....all of it!

And then there was Alice and Hayden, a bit like a side story, a grumpy/sunshine match....and it was glorious!!!

My jaw. How it dropped. Dropped right down to my chest. I'll leave it here all cryptic like! Read this!

REVIEW
cw: mentions of childhood illness, dementia, death, grief, bereavement, anxiety, depression, mention of overdose, coercive and psychological control

Eternal optimist, Alice Scott is still dreaming of her big writing break. Meanwhile, Hayden Anderson is already a Pulitzer-prize winner. Both are desperate to write the biography of octogenarian Margaret Ives, the tragic heiress and former tabloid princess. Margaret offers them each a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story. But 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.

This, for me, was the hardest Emily Henry book to categorise, but I still really enjoyed it. The romance felt secondary for much of the story, so I'd categorise this more as fiction with romantic elements.
I loved Alice. She was fallible but immediately likeable. I was surprised though, when she said she was in her thirties. She came across as younger to me. But her height observations made me cackle (even as a 5ft woman), and I loved her tenacity. Though I was initially frustrated with her mum, I really, REALLY loved the development of their relationship, and I was sobbing near the end.
Hayden was quite an enigma early on, mainly because every time we were about to learn about him, it would flick back to Margaret's story. But I grew to love him, especially how much he buoyed Alice and genuinely wanted the best for her career. I also appreciated that he was able to open up to her about his family life, especially his mother's health. I didn't get much of a grumpy vibe from him at all though, rather he was just a little serious at the beginning.
As I mentioned at the start, the story of Margaret's infamous family was at the heart of the entire book, and the scene was lovingly set for Alice and Hayden to meet Margaret properly, and slowly unravel her story. That won't be to everyone's taste, but I enjoyed learning about the Ives dynasty. Margaret was such a hoot, but I also felt her pain. The stories of her and her family’s lives were well-written. I found Lawrence and Gerald's dynamic fascinating to read and even felt for Gerald at times. I loved the story of how Margaret’s parents met, but I really loved Cosmo and Margaret’s love story. They were adorable together. However, the constant throughout the story about how the tabloid press manipulates and builds people up, only to knock them down again, was as relevant today as it was throughout the Ives family’s lives, and the one particular situation that mirrored an unforgettable RL event was sadly just as inevitable. I guessed part of the twist, but the full reveal was well-written.
While Alice and Hayden's attraction was magnetic, especially after the first tease of how palpable their chemistry could be, I would say this felt less developed early on than some of the author's other stories, but it still had a satisfying enough tease to keep me wanting more. And in the final act, it really came into its own. I loved how besotted they were with each other, and there were lots of cute little moments. Though there was a little bit of conflict, it genuinely made sense, and I LOVED the resolution. As for the ending? It tied all of the multiple threads together in a perfect bow.
An enjoyable story of love, both past and present.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥

*Thanks to the publisher for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. Great Big Beautiful Life is published on 22nd April in the UK*

Favourite Quotes:

“Whatever you’re thinking,” she says, “you don’t have to worry about breaking me, Alice. I’m hard to shake.”
My chest pinches. Of course she is. No one person survives everything she did plus years’ worth of public rehashing of those sad and bizarre events without getting some grit, I’m sure.

It bothers me to think of people out there meeting Hayden Anderson and coming away with this partial view of him.
He can be unpleasant. He can also be kind, and even funny.

“You never wear pants,” he murmurs, his thumb tracing down me. “It makes it hard to think."
“You always wear pants,” I manage to breathe out. “I’m worried you’ll have heatstroke.”

"...I don’t know if I can handle being the one person on the planet Alice Scott doesn’t like.”

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to do another book,” he says finally, his voice a rattle. “It’s hard, spending years with a person. Especially someone at the tail end of life. The same thing I love about this job is what I hate about it.”
“What’s that?”
“It feels like you’ve lived their whole life with them,” he says. “And I just can’t help but think, we’re not supposed to know how it all ends, this early. It’s too much of a burden.”

Nothing happened, I’ll remind myself later while I’m lying awake, eyes turned up to the stucco ceiling. It was just a hug.
My body will tell a very different story. Yours, mine, and the truth.

“We were just supposed to touch,” he murmurs.
“Then touch me, Hayden,” I say.

What do you do when you live in a world that was built around you, and so you find yourself trapped, like one sentence in a myth, one brick in a wall, when you’re built into the fabric of a place and that place was built to keep everyone out? What’s it like to feel yourself alone in the world?

"I’ve written stuff I’m really proud of that hardly anyone read. I’ve written stuff I’m proud of that no one liked. That doesn’t mean it didn’t deserve to be written.”

"How many of your favorite shows got canceled? How many of the best albums barely sold when they came out? I mean, It’s a Wonderful Life was a box office flop in its time. If everyone who worked on that movie had known, could see how things were going to pan out in the short term, would they have even bothered to make it? And then the world would’ve lost out on something beautiful. Just because something doesn’t make money or win awards doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. Or doesn’t deserve to exist."

“I think she loves me because I’m her daughter. But I’ve never felt sure she loves me because I’m me. Does that make sense?”

“Don’t think of it as your punishment,” I say. “Think of it as my reward.”

"Pretending everything’s fine only works for so long. And I don’t know. It freaks me out a little, that I could . . . that I could feel like this, about someone who’s good at pretending to be fine. That I could miss it, if you’re actually not."

“What do you think is going to happen?” I ask.
Under his breath, nearly a whisper, he says, “I think if I get this job, you’re going to break my f**king heart.”

“Tell me something no one knows about you,” and he’s quiet and still for so long I start to wonder if I’ve crossed a line.
Then he tips his chin down to his clavicle to meet my eyes and says simply, “I’m in love with you.”

He kneels in front of me, work forgotten, everything forgotten except that thing that we’re not saying. That we love each other. That when he looks right at me, the world stops turning.

The love of strangers was mercurial. You did nothing to earn it and so could do nothing to prevent it from vanishing, or souring into hatred.

“It’s just a story,” she says bluntly, lowering herself into one of the chairs. “That’s what I used to tell Cosmo. And I believed it. But after I lost him, and Laura . . . When you don’t have the people who love you around, reminding you who you are, that story feels bigger and realer than anything else. You lose yourself inside the character with your name and face.”

"I gave up an entire lifetime with her, and it wasn’t enough to keep her safe.”

“I should have asked him more. I should have written it all down. I should’ve recorded every stupid joke and every piece of advice. I should have taken videos of him singing in the kitchen while you cooked. I should have tried to know all of him while I had the time. Before it was too late.”

"I loved you almost instantly, before I really even knew you. Before I understood it. I trusted you, and I loved you, and I still do.”

“When I let myself dream,” he murmurs against my ear, “or it all comes crashing down—it’s Alice, Alice on my mind. Alice all the time.”

I find myself thinking that maybe every bit of heartbreak in life can be rearranged and used for something beautiful. That it doesn’t really matter whether I chose this path or I was born onto it, so long as I stop and appreciate the path itself.

Emily Henry is taking a few risks with this novel, nothing major but the introduction of what is essentially a work of historical fiction into the main narrative is well executed and very readable. Ironically I actually found that story a little more interesting than the main romance, as there was very little 'won't' in the usual 'will they won't they' and the hero a touch too sullen for my taste. Overall however a smart and appealing romance

I was so delighted and grateful to be approved for Emily Henry's new book, as she's one of my favourite authors and one who I'll read everything she writes, no matter what. I loved the premise here. I totally get why other readers are comparing this to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo!

The Margaret Ives thread in particular feels really fleshed out, almost as if this was the main story Emily Henry wanted to tell, and the Alice and Hayden thread was added to make sure the author could stick in her usual genre. As a consequence, the contemporary thread felt a little under-developed to me, particularly the character of Hayden, although the novel as a whole was very enjoyable.

Oh. Dear.

Once again, as usual, I need to start by saying: Emily Henry continues to outdo herself. Each book is more gripping, more heart wrenching, more beautiful.

“Great Big Beautiful Life” sent me through every possible range of emotions. I went from laughing, to feeling a deep ache of melancholia, to my jaw unhinging, to sobbing. Even with Alice as the narrator, you still feel so present in Margaret’s story, in the way Hayden’s personality unfurls, and how the island of Little Crescent starts to feel like a character within itself.

Without spoiling too much, the structure and the storyline feel so fresh in the way they’re executed yet still so nostalgic because of how we learn about and understand every character. When I mention “a deep ache of melancholia”, I genuinely mean a physical gut punch. The way Emily Henry simultaneously walks us through Margaret Ives’ life, Alice’s personal development, and the budding relationship between the two journalists, makes every roadblock and every sudden discovery hit so much harder.

I LOVED the fact that I never knew what was coming next, which certainly made the book extremely difficult to put down. Learning everything at the same pace as Alice - about Margaret, about Hayden, about herself! - made those jaw-dropping moments even more thrilling to finally discover.

I have so many annotations and so many highlights, but I will wrap this up with my favourite quote from the book;

“I find myself thinking that maybe every bit of heartbreak in life can be rearranged and used for something beautiful. That it doesn't really matter whether I chose this path or I was born onto it, so long as I stop and appreciate the path itself.”

I am so, so, so excited for this to be released in ten days and can’t wait for everyone to meet all the characters and experience Little Crescent.

P.S. The songs that were stuck in my head as I went through the book <3
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/23sWU6cFms415lvuiUBold?si=GyALreTGTvGznlw0qxcvhA

*Thank you to Penguin Random House and Viking Books for the early access!*

I was so happy to be approved for this arc as Emily Henry is an auto buy author for me, her stories are always so engaging with characters you really root for and settings you just want to be in. I am happy to report that this book continues that trend.

We follow Alice and Hayden, two writers who are competing for the chance to tell the life story of reclusive heiress Margaret Ives. I loved the mix of romance between the main characters and mystery as Margaret’s story begins to unfold throughout this novel.

I would highly recommend.

I feel really conflicted about this one. I am such a sucker for Em Hen and genuinely squealed when I got accepted for an ARC.

Sadly the story fell slightly flat for me. It’s reminiscent in parts of Seven Husbands and while I was excited to read something a bit different from Em Hen, it felt like the romance took a backseat and I found myself itching to move through Margaret’s story to get back to it.

That being said, when the romance is on the page, it is glorious. There’s no-one who does tension quite like it and watching Hayden and Alice’s relationship unfold was delightful. I just wish we’d had more of it!

3.75 rounded to 4 stars. Thank you again to Penguin for an ARC!

Emily Henry's writing and story always hit the spot and this one was no exception. Great Big Beautiful Life was a little different than what we are used to with Henry's stories but I was so emotionally invested in it all, the past and present settings and the way the story was told was so intriguing and slightly unpredictable. I throughouly enjoy this book as it was the perfect mix of sweet, funny and heartfelt moments. This one will stick with me for a while, and I only hope one day it becomes a movie or TV series as I feel it would be perfect in that medium.

This is a very interesting one. It doesn’t feel like an Emily Henry book, more like Emily Henry does TJR and while I’m all for authors trying new things I don’t think this hit the mark. There are elements I adored but overall it wasn’t for me!

*4.5*


I entered into this book with excitement, because Emily Henry is my favourite romance author of all times, and I was so lucky to have gotten an E-Arc of this book, but then I started reading mixed reviews about this one, and I got so scared. Is this my favourite EmHen book? No, it's not. Is this also my least favourite? It's very much not. I will be controversial and say my least favourite is still Book Lovers. And I have to say this one, in my opinion, is really good.

It has all of the classical Henry tropes, such as characters that love books, or the literary world, a summer setting, a small town, but it's also new, because it's also a fictional memoir in the style of Taylor Jenkins Reid. Your mind goes there if you've read anything about these two authors, and it is a good mix. I think Henry balanced very well the two aspects of romance and general fiction, and I was hooked to the story. I think the ending could be a little bit better, hence why I gave it a 4.5, and not a 5-star rating, I really didn't like the fact that the two main characters have a semi-argument at the 95% mark that's resolved at the 97%, I found it quite unnecessary to be honest, and also the memoir-aspect was a little bit anti-climatic, but other than that, I loved it.

Henry has the magic touch, in my opinion, when it comes to banter and chemistry. Alice and Hayden, the two main character made me swoon and giggle, and also the vulnerability in their relationship was something so dear to me, I think that's the part in which Henry excels.

I would for sure read EmHen's shopping list, and I of course recommend you to grab this soon as soon as it comes out.

this unfortunately didn’t hit the same for me as her other books have, I didn’t connect to margaret until much further on in the book, which I feel like is the most vital part of this book, and I wish we got slightly more of the romance as some of the declarations felt rushed considering they had only had about 3 interactions with each other. HOWEVER, as always emily henry’s dialogue gets me!