Title: Great Big Beautiful Life

Author: Emily Henry

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: 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. –Goodreads <-omg you don’t even have to read the book if you read this massive overview.

The Review:

This was an ambitious Emily Henry novel that hit different notes than her previous books. Overall, I found it a wild success, even though it didn’t quite give me that same “fix.“

I can see why this book was chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s book club because it was written more like a literary fiction with the romance as a supporting plot driver. It contained a story with a story that was woven throughout the chapters giving the book multigenerational vibes and a lot of additional points of interest. I usually struggle with stories within a story, often caring less about what’s going on in the secondary storyline and feel impatient to get back to the main point of the book. I felt that on occasion here, but ultimately Henry is such a brilliant writer that she managed to make me care about everything (eventually).

The real test was whether or not that story with a story ultimately worked to support the main plot between the love interests. I had doubts even though I shouldn’t have – Henry has more than earned my trust by this point and yes, it delivered in an incredibly satisfying way.

So because the book was written well, I thought it ended amazing, and it kept me hooked the entire way through, I’m rating it highly. But there’s just a piece of me no matter how obstinate that wishes even more time had been spent with the main characters. Because everything was so well woven together and dependent for that payoff, I thought the craft elements were brilliant. But if my main draw to the story was the relationship dynamic between the two main characters, I felt the story within a story a major buzz-kill when things mattered most. It broke up their relationship momentum and made me feel much more disconnected during “important“ moments than I have with previous books.

And one more thing that didn’t quite land was the whole “we can’t be together because of some stupid arbitrary reason“ component to the book. I don’t have a lot of patience for stuff like that. Emily Henry handles tropes like that better than any other author I’ve read, and I realize that the tension of the book was completely reliant on it, but I tend to prefer different relationship-dynamic structures. That one is more a personal gripe than any knock on the quality of the story, but it was just enough to make me feel like this particular contention point was my least favorite of Henry’s that I’ve read.

Conversely, I think Alice and Hayden were among my favorite characters that I’ve read so far from the author. I didn’t find either of them relatable in the slightest, but I did find them equally charming, realistic, and just downright fun to root for. It might be recency bias, but I think of all the couples that I’ve read about, this is the one I’d be interested in spending more books with. I really liked them.

Overall, if you’re not super into contemporary romance yet, but like your literary fiction, this is an excellent crossover and I think a good introduction into Emily Henry’s works. If you don’t give one wit about literary fiction, but want to try a fun, contemporary romance, pick a different Henry. All of us Henry fans will tell you we liked different books the most. My personal favorites were Beach Read and Book Lovers (…and People We Meet on Vacation, lol). She’s my favorite author in the genre, her books are absorbing and totally addicting, and I can’t wait to read what she comes out with next.

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Tracey, Dagmara, Poochtee, Kinsey! <3

by Niki Hawkes