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!

4.5 ⭐️

I need to start by saying I really loved this book, but you can't go into this expecting a typical Emily Henry romance. The romance element definitely took a back seat here to the greater biography story. It felt like it took some cues from Patti Hearst's story & was a brilliant element to centre the book around. This felt like the easy to get lost in writing of Emily Henry meets a little bit of TJR.

I loved Margaret & would have liked more from some of the side characters (& less from others). Alice & Hayden were cute & this book did make me smile & there was an eye welling moment too. For me the ending was the weakest element & it felt a little rushed & left me with some questions which was a shame.

Definitely a good choice for a beach read this summer, but not if you want a romantic escape.

4.25 stars

I want to start by saying I love Emily’s writing. I will seriously read anything she writes. This book was no different, I really enjoyed it.

It definitely is on the line of romance though. Not completely a romance in my eyes, but the romance it did have I loved. Emily is just so good at building chemistry and tension! Hayden and Alice have it in spades! I absolutely adored them together, how their relationship develops and the bumps along the way! I could not get enough of them!

Then you have the other portion of the book when Alice is interviewing Margaret, in which you get her life tale. It’s very captivating! The way the two parts come together is so well done! And then there were some twists that had my jaw dropping! It was so good! And the way it ends is beautiful.

Where do I begin, this book was exactly what its title promised. And out of all the other "famous person biography" fictional stories, this one is my favourite. (I have read a few recently)
All the characters were likeable - for the most part, sometimes I didn't like her mother, for her lack of interest in her daughter, but she did improve and make effort.
I loved the small town vibe of Little Crescent Island in Georgia and I want to visit it, I don't even care that it's fictional. Hayden and Alice were the most imperfectly perfect couple and I adored their competitive, yet supportive dynamic.
Margaret Ives was a delightful, spicy character and her story of her life was fascinating and heartbreaking. The few twists thrown in were perfect and I did play "I bet it's this person" a few times. lol.
It was a mostly low spice book which I appreciated - just one or two not overly descriptive scenes.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it, it got me out of a reading slump so that's a great big win!

4.5 stars

“And they said,
There goes the last great American dynasty…”

Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily’s 5th adult book, is a tale unlike any of her previous novels. More litfic than her typical romance, it explores the life of a famous woman - Margaret Ives - who has gone into hiding years ago. Alice Scott, a journalist looking for a breakthrough in her career, and Hayden Anderson, an award winning writer, team up to write Margaret’s memoir. Neither of them know the full story, which is being given to them in half truths over several months. And neither of them could predict the ending.

Reading GBBL and being back in EmHen world felt so comforting, like putting on your favourite cardigan. Her style is so light, almost whimsical, yet explores every single story in enough depth to make you feel deeply for the characters.

This was the case with Margaret Ives’ story. The tale of, as the great poet Taylor Swift has said, “the last great American dynasty”. The “story”, as it’s called in the book, follows the Ives family through the decades, and these chapters felt like reading Evelyn Hugo. It’s historical fiction for half of the book, and contemporary for the remainder.

Now - Alice and Hayden are fantastic protagonists, though some may argue that Margaret leads the way in this book. I needed more from their relationship, I needed more of them in general. While I appreciate the format of this book and the way Emily chose to tell the story, I really just needed more Alice and Hayden. I would’ve read 50-100 more pages just to have more of their relationship. It got lost in between Margaret’s story, which emotional and heartbreaking as it was, overshadowed Alice and Hayden’s relationship. In the end, this is two stories in one book.

The ending has certainly wrapped things up nicely (and in a very emotional way) which has bumped up my rating for the book overall.

2.5stars , if this hadn't come with Henry's name on it I would have DNF at around 30%.

It was really long to get through for no reason, around 45% I was stuck I didn't want to pick it up at all, I just did not care about any of the characters.
The two love interests fell flat and were not explored at all like in other Henry's books- probably because the story of Margaret took way too much of the book up. The issue was that the book was trying to do too much of both things, but in my opinion failed in delivering either.

Alice was very annoying from the beginning she came off WAY too strong- she could not leave Hayden alone- the interactions were so forced. He made it abundantly clear that he did not want to be friends and yet she was always forcing her way in his life, putting herself in situations to make sure she was with him. You don't have to buy him a green tea (and this is a personal ick but she bought an iced tea THEN SAT AT THE CAFE WORKING AND THEN BROUGHT IT TO HIM. Girl that's water. He had every right to be ungrateful, you don't have to ALWAYS say 'hi' when you see him at any restaurants etc. Just nod and move along. But it became very clear in the beginning that these interactions were so forced because the romance only made up about 10% of the book and they had to fall in love quick without the usual Henry's romance, with depth with emotional exploration and slow burning.

The rest of the book was this dry listing of events that effected/happened to Margaret in her life and her family history, at the beginning I was intrigued but it really dragged itself after about 30% of the book- this is not what I wanted to read about.
The pacing was uneven and could not keep me going, I paused reading it for so long because I just could not go through another chapter of basically bullet points on Margaret's life.Again the romance felt forced and the falling in love was...not believable? When did it happen?? The fifth time their knees bumped under the table Alice realised this was the love of her life? (yes she mentions quite a few times how tall they are and how much their knees bump)

I am sorry to give it such a harsh review but truly this felt so flat for me- it gave me absolutely nothing. It was not women's fiction, it was not romance it was just an incomplete mixture of the two that lead nowhere, the climax was boring, the story was boring and I wished they had marketed this for what it was, took the romance out of it and made it into a literary fiction book. Emily Henry does not have to be stuck in the romance box. If she wants to write literary, let her. I would have enjoyed that much more but this felt like she was forcing herself to put something, anything romantic related in another book she had wanted to write because her name has to go with romance which is unfair to her too.

This is just the second book I have read from Emily Henry. Having absolutely loved her last book, Funny Story, I was interested to see how this one compared. Like the last book, this one certainly has an eye-catching cover that depicts the characters and setting of the story within.


The story involves rich heiress and artist Margaret Ives, now in her eighties, who mysteriously disappeared from public life twenty years ago. She has contacted journalist Alice Scott with a view to writing her memoirs. Alice, keen to prove to her family that she is a serious writer, turns up at Margaret’s house in Little Crescent Island in Georgia, only to find that she is to compete with another writer for the job. To her dismay, Alice finds that not only is Hayden Anderson a writer, he is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer. Margaret sets the pair the task of learning about her history during the course of a month of meetings with her and then presenting her with their plans for a book. She also makes each of them sign a non-disclosure agreement so they can’t even compare notes. While learning about Margaret’s family’s rise to fame and scandalous past, Alice and Hayden, at first unhappy about the situation, gradually become closer and aware of a growing romantic attraction. They can’t discuss what Margaret is telling each of them individually, but are unprepared for what is eventually unearthed.

I thought that this was a very different kind of story from the last book I read from this author and not quite what I was expecting. Again, it is a romance, but the interactions between Alice and Hayden are almost lost amongst the details of Margaret’s family history from the early 1800s onwards, which took up most of the pages. Interesting though Margaret’s story is, and it does fit the title of the book, I don’t think the book itself can be called a romance, especially given the nature of the Ives family’s past. However, the writing is top notch and the Ives family story is well told; shocking in all the right places with a good twist near the end. There are also details of Alice’s and Hayden’s backgrounds which emerge as they get to know each other. Alice also turned out to be quite a detective, cracking open a big secret being hidden by Margaret. I think a reader just looking for a romance might be disappointed in this book, although I can recommend the Ives family saga for those seeking a dramatic story.

Thank you so so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this arc, forever grateful.

Reading this during my final few months of uni and with deadlines looming was a bad idea because ALL I wanted to do was sit and read this beautiful book, but I have finished it and oh my goodness.
Emily Henry, you have done it once again. I was a MESS by the end of this book.

When two writers, Alice and Hayden, are pit against each other to compete to tell the story of the infamous Margaret Ives, they learn that there is a lot more to this woman, her family, and each other, than they ever could have known.

It is no surprise that I absolutely adored this book. Emily Henry has such a talent for writing such loveable characters and worlds that you cannot help delving into. This was slightly different to what I was used to when it comes to Emily Henry’s books, with her going back and forth between telling the story of Alice and Hayden, to telling the story of the House of Ives. Each part is told with such care and intricacy that it is so easy to fall in love with both; I was rooting for Alice and Hayden and desperate to see more of them, whilst also itching to know who Margaret Ives was and why she suddenly wanted to tell her story.

Alice and Hayden were perfect. I loved their tentative start. The way Alice was persistent in trying to be his friend, despite Hayden’s gruff exterior. Alice’s optimism and hopefulness was endearing and made her such a loveable character. I loved learning that, while Hayden appears arrogant and curt, he is actually shy and gentle and caring. The two together made my heart soar. The way they cared for one another and were there for each other throughout the book, knowing they were going for the same job, was so special. I need a love like theirs.

What made me love this book even more was the essence of mystery. I had so many questions about Margaret Ives and her life and family and the way Emily Henry drip fed the details to us was so intriguing. The twists and turns paired with the romance made for such a unique and beautiful story.

This is a book about love in every sense of the word. Not just the romance, but Alice’s relationship with her mother and how they were relearning each other, Margaret’s turbulent relationship with her sister and how she would do anything to protect her, Alice’s group of friends from home and their endless support.

Alice says towards the end of this book that she wants to write about love, and this shines through Emily Henry’s writing. This really is a great, big, beautiful book and I am so grateful to have received this arc and cannot wait for everyone to read it too.

Emily Henry, you never disappoint.

Emily Henry will never write a book I don't love.

Emily Henry will always deliver with a swoon worthy romance, full of hilarity but with a grounding in real-life emotion. This book does step away from Henry's usual formula, but the essence of the romance and emotion of the characters and story remains!

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.
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- Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

Parts of the novel feel similar to TJR's writing, particularly Seven Husband's, but I loved this book, so I have no issues with that. Henry also puts enough of her fabulous romantic tension and emotional character backstory to make this distinctly her own.

Alice and Hayden are the perfect grumpy/sunshine dynamic! I loved their almost hate to love, rivals relationship, and especially connected with Alice's emotional backstory, having lost her Dad and still trying to make sense of herself and her life in the aftermath.

I definitely laughed, I absolutely cried, and I still can't find words to express how much I loved this book. It's not my favourite Emily Henry, but it's up there!

Emily Henry has done it again! I really appreciated how different this was to her others book, but how it still holds elements of all the things that make her books hers. I loved the interwoven stories and how everything connected at the end. The dynamic between Alice and Hayden was top tier and I found myself willing them to get together the whole book. I appreciate how family trauma was handled in this book and it was something I was able to connect to a lot.

Can not wait to see what Emily does next.

Another stunningly good read by Emily Henry, I loved the way the secrets gradually emerged and the way the different ‘truths’ are told. The love story is also beautifully told.

This is a stunning, life affirming book that made me laugh and cry, and I’m certain that when I reread it I’ll take something else from it.
While romance is a central part of this story, this felt to me like more of a literary fiction / women’s fiction book than previous Emily Henry books, and includes an element of mystery.
Similarly to previous Emily Henry books, her ability to craft and layer stories within a story is so impressive, and I thoroughly enjoyed not being able to fully predict how the story was going to pan out. As we’ve come to expect from Emily Henry, some of the prose is breathtakingly beautiful, and I always feel like she writes with so much tenderness and emotion, and captures the little details of so many things, particularly grief, so well. It’s so exciting to see an author try something new, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we get next!