Book Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Published: April 24th 2025 by Viking Books UK
Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Genres: Adult // Romance, Contemporary
Quick Thoughts: Profoundly soul-stirring, Emily’s most romantic story to date. I am in constant awe at the talent and lilts of surely magic that only burns brighter with every new book from her. This is not just a story of romance, but of many different types of love, the kinds we’re born with, the type to find us and the ones that make us who we are.

This book was gifted/giveaway

I won an ARC of this book via the Publisher. There was no obligation to post/give this book a certain rating. All views are my own. I remain entirely impartial.

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Reader Information: View Content Warnings.

TW: this book contains mentions of family deaths, car accidents, cults, family trauma, harassment, and frequent sexual content that might be unsuitable for younger readers.

Literary Trope Guide

Old Hollywood Starlet

Competing Journalists

Unexpected Connection

Complex Family Tree

About This Book:

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.

First Thoughts

Along with (probably) the entire Romance-loving book community, I’ve been counting down the days until Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life was in my hands. I’ve loved her books since day one (my favourite is People We Meet On Vacation) and her stories mean the absolute world to me. She is, and always will be, my favourite author. When I entered a contest on Instagram to win a physical ARC, I never thought in a million years I’d win. After many happy tears (and happy dancing) I dove into the book as soon as it arrived, ready to be devastated/won over/all of the above.

My Review

Alice can’t believe her luck when she discovers the location of the once-famed starlet and heiress to the Ives family: Margaret. No one has seen or heard from her in years, and yet when Alice finds herself on Little Crescent Island vying for the chance to tell her story, she’s not expecting to have competition or that the story will be anything but straight-forward. Hayden, a Pulitzer-prize wining journalist, is also in the running to tell Margaret’s story. Meeting him is a head-butting situation that causes some self-doubt in Alice’s feelings toward her own talent. How can she compare to someone who does this—with a history of telling iconic stories—and win? But Margaret is up for idea to give them both a chance for a month. They can then make a pitch and she’ll choose a writer.

Alice and Hayden, under strict NDA’s from Margaret, are thrown into her world of stories—but because of their agreements, they can’t swap content. That’s okay for Alice, she’s happy to pursue her narrative and be herself, and through it, possibly prove to her mother (who is notoriously uninterested by her job) that she can be a serious writer. But Hayden is everywhere, and because Little Crescent Island is so tiny, they just can’t keep crossing paths. Their stilted conversations turn into tea and coffee, dinners in crammed diner booths and too-close moments that catch them both off-guard. Alice didn’t anticipate how difficult this month would be. Not only is she struggling to grasp Margaret’s story, given segments and slivers that are growing harder to connect, but she’s developing very much reciprocated feelings for Hayden. But how can they be close when one of them will soon lose out on a dream opportunity to the other? And why does it feel like they might both be being led astray by the one woman who is growing more enigmatic by the day?

Overall, Great Big Beautiful Life was profoundly soul-stirring, Emily’s most romantic story to date. I found myself utterly fascinated by Margaret’s life and the entire Ives dynasty. Alice might just be my favourite character that Emily has written. She was this bundle of complete sunshine to Hayden’s stormy clouds. Alice felt relatably resilient, and at times I just wanted to give her a hug. Hayden is the new EmHen love interest King. The connection between them was electric and magnetic, bounding off the page with the kind of ferocity that is romance at it’s peak. Little Crescent Island was this perfectly idyllic place that felt cosy and quaint, somewhere I’d feel at home. At the core of this story is family, the heart revolving around broken connections, estrangement and loss, and how generational fears and regrets bleeds into present day. I am in constant awe at the talent and lilts of surely magic that only burns brighter with every new book from Emily. I find it breathtakingly astounding how much she can convey such love, such passion, between characters in mundane ways—I am convinced she is in another league entirely. Great Big Beautiful Life is not just a story of romance, but of many different types of love, the kinds we’re born with, the type to find us and the ones that make us who we are. Five stars doesn’t feel like enough praise. My favourite book of the year so far.

W H Smith Amazon Viking