Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by 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.

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.

• Title: Great Big Beautiful Life
• Author:  Emily Henry
• Publisher: Viking
• Publication Date: April 22, 2025
• Genre: contemporary, romance 
• Targeted Age Range: Adult
• Content Warnings: sexual content, death of a parent, death, grief, pregnancy, car accident, kidnapping, extortion
• Rating: ★★★★.5

Emily Henry my queen you can do no wrong and I’m so sorry that people reacted to this book like you personally assassinated their entire family. I’m actually pretty mad that I waited as long as I did to read this and let other people’s opinions get in my head and discourage me from picking this up right when my copy arrived not too shortly after its release. Personally, I absolutely loved Great Big Beautiful Life.

I loved that this was a bit different than what we usually get from EmHen and that it wasn’t solely focused on romance. I was completely fascinated by Margaret and her story and her family; I thought the dual narration of the past and present was so well done. I loved how the chapters in the past had “their story” with the quick little snappy headline and then “her story” and the full details. Honestly, that family was absolutely fascinating and I could’ve read an entire story about them, but I was just as invested in the present storyline. The added little mystery element really worked for me and kept me turning the page, I needed to know what happened!

I’m always invested in EmHen’s books, but I was truly shocked at how emotionally invested I became in this story. As someone who typically has a pretty positive outlook on life but has been feeling really discouraged lately, I needed Alice’s optimism. I needed to read through her positive lens — could she sometimes lean into a bit of toxic positivity? Probably yeah, but I do think that’s pretty typical when you’re using a positive attitude to replace the support that you feel you’re not getting from your family. It honestly didn’t annoy me, really, it felt pretty realistic, which is what I want in characters.

While our situations were different, I really related to Alice always keeping things positive, especially as a kid, so that she was the “easy” child because of her sister’s medical needs. She didn’t want to cause more problems for her parents, she wanted to be the one that they didn’t have to worry about, and I felt that a lot growing up. It makes it hard for you sometimes to ask for help, and it does cause you to automatically find the positives so that there’s not a problem to solve. I really connected with that, and Alice’s journey in realizing that it’s not a bad thing to not always be the “easy” one and that you don’t always have to look on the bright side of every situation was something that really resonated with me.

I was also really moved by Margaret’s story. I’m not sure if it’s because my grandmother’s name is Margaret and her nickname is also Peggy, but I found myself feeling really attached to Margaret, and everything she went through throughout her life and the choices she was forced to make. I don’t want to give it away, but a lot of her story just really broke my heart and made me really emotional. Also, the song? And how the lyrics were a constant throughout Margaret and Alice’s lives? That one really got me. 

My emotional investment really snuck up on me. Of course, I wanted to keep reading and find out the truth and see how everything came together, but I was really surprised at just how emotionally invested in these characters and their stories I became. I’m pretty sure I was bawling for the last 50 pages or so; all of my emotions and feelings towards the characters just hit me like a tidal wave and I couldn’t hold it in. I love books that can sneak up on me in this way, and I know that because of those feelings and this experience, Great Big Beautiful Life is going to stick with me for a long time. 

Do I understand why some people don’t like this book? Yeah, I do. Do I think that some people’s reaction to this book were really blown out of proportion? Yeah, absofuckinglutely. I don’t think that there was a dip in the quality of Emily Henry’s writing, characterization, or storytelling, it just didn’t work for some people and I think that’s so fair. One of my friends said that they felt that people got so focused on what they thought the story was supposed to be, that they just didn’t look at it for what it actually was and I would agree with that. I personally really loved this one, and while it’s not replacing Funny Story as my favorite EmHen, I think it’s another incredibly solid addition to her wonderful body of work and I can’t wait for her next book.

Links for Great Big Beautiful Life: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop