After Book Lovers wrecked me last fall, I opened Great Big Beautiful Life the second it dropped to my Kindle, fully ready to be destroyed all over again.
If you’re looking for a breakdown of the story and a full family tree you can check out my full synopsis of Great Big Beautiful Life. This post will only focus on my book review!
Book Lovers made me feel like a giddy teenager, constantly giggling and squealing at the chemistry between Nora and Charlie, trying to figure out what was going on with the side characters, and completely enamored by the sharp banter and swoony, grounded romance that felt like it came from somewhere inside my life. The characters were so well-developed I couldn’t stop thinking about them long after I finished.
I knew Great Big Beautiful Life had big shoes to fill, and maybe it was how I approached it, or maybe it’s just that this book felt like two stories woven together that both felt underdeveloped, unfinished, and overall in competition with one another.
This review might contain spoilers.
Great Big Beautiful Life
Description
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.
Review
Overall Impressions😊
I am not understating when I tell you how much I loved Book Lovers. It somehow altered my brain chemistry. You might be wondering why I would bring up Book Lovers a second time in the first two paragraphs of my GBBL review, but it’s to show you that I do not want to speak ill of a book by an author I adore and support so very much.
I… did not know how to feel about Great Big Beautiful Life. I applaud the fact that it tries something different. In case you didn’t read it yet (although this review will contain spoilers), Book Lovers has two stories: Hayden and Alice falling in love while they are uncovering the second story — the secretive past of former tabloid heiress Margaret Ives.
Well, first of all, I was there for Hayden and Alice’s romance. But unfortunately, their beats are off the entire time. They kinda “insta love” one another, put some distance between them for work, and then just end up together. And that’s all fine, even if insta love is not my favorite trope. But so much of the story is eaten up by the Ives saga that the tension from the “resisted distance” doesn’t get a chance to build. Honestly, the main couple feels like an accessory to the Ives story. I think I see what Emily Henry tried to do with layering how love can take different shapes and forms but still drives life all the same. But the main romance gets suffocated by the tabloid story the entire time.
I would’ve been fine if this was branded as a historical romance. I love plot-driven books. However, the chapters about Margaret we receive are all told. The majority is written like a textbook article rather than letting us discover the mystery ourselves. I found myself only being invested in the bits of Margaret’s story when it came out in dialogue between Alice and Margaret, not in the literal chapters titled Margaret’s Story. It was an odd choice.
And then my lukewarm feelings post-book… while 75% of the book felt like a drag full of factual autobiography and two very underdeveloped leads, the last 100 pages suddenly took off and left me absolutely overstimulated. There are cults! There are secret babies! There’s also the dreaded third-act breakup.
So that left me feeling… I don’t know. Romance-starved, a little emotionally confused, but briefly exhilarated. The first two arcs of the book had nothing really happening, and then suddenly everything unraveled all at once. And for a moment, I did feel satisfied — the ending gave me that rush of chaos and closure. But I moved on from it faster than I expected. It gave me a lot, but not enough to really linger.
Characters👥
Alice was just not very exciting for me. I relate to the burnt-out eldest daughter who fakes being perfect and happy all the time to not cause trouble — that feeling is more relatable than you can imagine — but the way she had rose-colored glasses on just did not work for me. I liked her arc of having this distance with her family and then reconnecting with them. It’s something I went through as well, but I just feel like her constant optimism, even when it’s a forced mask, was relatively unimpressive.
Hayden was a big letdown for me. His entire personality was enjoying running, being grumpy, and drinking iced tea. He’s the most accessory-like man I’ve read in a while, and it was so sad for me — probably why this book didn’t land. My other Emily Henry read (Book Lovers) did such a good job with faceted leads, and that was missing here.
And then there was Margaret and her family… To me, this book was Margaret’s book just as much as the other leads’, and for the life of me I could not connect with her. I wanted to feel compassion for someone who took the brunt of media attention for so long, but because the two stories suffocated each other, none of the characters had the space to grow for me.
That can be said for most of the side characters — even the ones in Margaret’s story. There are also characters who just don’t add much to the narrative. You could throw out Theo, Alice’s friends with benefits, and the book wouldn’t change. You could throw out Alice’s friends and we wouldn’t miss anything from the story.
Strong characters are what made me fall in love with Book Lovers — but here, they never had enough room to breathe.
Plot 📈
Well… as discussed, there are two stories here. And I have different feelings about both.
Strip Margaret’s story from Hayden and Alice’s, and it felt like they had nothing. They went from insta love ➝ distance ➝ love anyways ➝ third-act breakup ➝ grand gesture ➝ together — just as you’d expect. However, since their time on page was so short, there were no real plot points for those wonderful tension moments you get between romantic leads in a forced-distance trope book.
I liked Alice’s story with her family, and it was nice to see her work through her mask of optimism, especially in reflection of what she learns from Margaret’s story. However, Hayden doesn’t grow or change one bit during the entire book — his arc is one-dimensional from start to finish.
I was pretty excited about the double-story approach from Margaret’s POV at first, but there’s just… so much telling. The early history of the Ives family is so textbook that I skimmed it multiple times — only to go back and read it again when I was putting together the family tree and story breakdown. I so wish it had been written as Alice uncovering the story through evidence, interviews, or something else that gave us her perspective. It would’ve made those moments way more emotional — and way more readable.
I only started caring once the cult and secret baby plotlines started sprouting, and even those were kind of soured by the end.
Honestly, the whole structure felt like it was screaming to be two novels — or better yet, just Margaret’s story. Alice and Hayden felt like background noise the entire time.
I’m easy to please though, so the ending worked for me. It’s a romcom, so everybody gets to live happily ever after, as a big happy family.
Writing Style ✍️
I loved Emily Henry because of the banter that made me audibly giggle. This book didn’t have that. 🙁 There were sweet, romantic moments and some really profound dialogue — I think I highlighted Hayden’s section on his thoughts about the world just because it felt like such a real stream of thought. It sounded like something I could’ve heard from anyone in real life.
I hated all the Her Story chapters. I understand they were meant to contrast what the tabloids had written vs. what the real story was. But I so wish they had been more integrated with the characters, rather than feeling like a book report written about a family history or something. It didn’t immerse me — it felt like reading Wikipedia about some mildly famous celebrities.
And to prove to you that it wasn’t the Ives story I had a problem with — I ate up every chapter where Alice and Margaret discussed her past. When it was a conversation, I was in. When it was just lore dumped onto the page? Not so much.
The writing wasn’t bad — I don’t think Emily Henry can write bad. But the delivery method, while new and interesting, just didn’t land. It dragged this book down by at least a full star for me.
Closing Thoughts 🧃
So… the age-old question: Should you read Great Big Beautiful Life? And the answer really isn’t that complicated now that I’ve worked out my thoughts. I think you should read it if you like historical fiction being told to you like a newspaper article, and if you’re a die-hard Emily Henry fan.
While it didn’t really work for me, I do love Emily Henry’s work and will continue reading anything she publishes. If it were me reading this again for the first time, I’d probably wait for it to become available at the library.
This one wasn’t my favorite, but maybe it’ll be just the kind of story you’re craving.
Who doesn’t want to read about some pretty good rich people tea?
Thanks for reading my full review of Great Big Beautiful Life! Whether you’re a die-hard Emily Henry fan or just here for the family drama and rich people tea (same), I’d love to hear what you thought of this book.
Did it work for you? Were you more into Margaret’s story or there for Alice and Hayden? Tell me what you thought of this book in the comments and let me know which Emily Henry book I should read next if I loved Book Lovers but was mid on this one!
Leave a Comment