This really wasn’t for me! Had to DNF unfortunately. I love Emily Henry but this book felt more like women’s fiction than romance which wasn’t what I expected.

I love Emily Henry, specifically Beach Read, Book Lovers and Happy Place. I feel that the spark wasn’t there on this one as much as those. I enjoyed this book but I felt like it wasn’t written as a book, but instead a plot for a movie. I would still recommend this novel as Emily Henry couldn’t write a bad book in my mind. I enjoyed the characters and the overall story but they were a little more fleshed out.

I didn't really enjoy this one as much. Emily has been a real hit or miss for me and unfortunately this was a mis. Alice just really wasn't that interesting for me. Hayden intriguied me in the beginning but he dissapointed me. I liked the setting of the book but for some reason the story didn't get to me.

Emily Henry just gets better and better with every new release. Great Big Beautiful Life is an epic family saga filled with intrigue and passion.

Writers Alice and Hayden are both pitching to write the story of Margaret Ives life. Alice and Hayden have signed NDAs so they can't discuss their individual experiences of interviewing the elusive subject. They must both spend time with her and then she will select one of them to pen her biography.

Being thrown together they do spend time getting to know one another and despite being very different in their approach, they find themselves irrestibly drawn to one another.

When Alice pieces the clues together and realises she is in an impossible situation, she has no choice but to leave the potential job behind, and to break her own heart by leaving Hayden.

But that is not the end of their story, in fact, it is just the beginning.

Beautifully crafted with intricate detail, this feels like Emily Henry's most ambitious book to date. It has a more serious feeling that I loved and I was completely absorbed in the story.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

I loved Funny Story and Book Lovers, so I was highly anticipating Great Big Beautiful Life. The synopsis sounded fascinating, and reminiscent of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. However, while I did enjoy the story, it fell a little flat for me. The premise was very ambitious, and I think this maybe took away somewhat from the character development which is what I had enjoyed so much in the previous books I’d read. I didn’t really feel any chemistry between Alice and Hayden, so their romance didn’t feel very believable. Although the big reveal at the end of the book was interesting, it felt very contrived to me. I think on balance, I prefer Emily Henry’s smaller scale stories, where there is time and space for the little details that really immerse you in the book.

Emily Henry has a knack for writing stories that feel like conversations with an old friend—honest, funny, and quietly profound—and Great Big Beautiful Life is no exception. This book gently nudges you to laugh & reflect.

Henry’s writing is warm and witty, balancing emotional depth with just the right amount of levity. One moment you’re smiling at a clever line, and the next you’re pausing to sit with a truth that quietly hits home. It’s not flashy, but it’s deeply felt.

If you’re looking for a story that feels like sunlight through leaves—bright, comforting, and a little bit bittersweet—this book is worth the read.

I’m yet to read an EmHen book that I don’t looove 🫶🏻 Great Big Beautiful Life is definitely a different vibe than her other novels - a little less romance, a little more intricate plot - but I still devoured it!

I was a big fan of the premise before picking this book up: two journalists, Alice and Hayden, both offered a month to spend with the legendary Margaret Ives with the hope that one of them will secure a book deal with her to tell her much anticipated story. The story goes so much deeper beyond that initial glimpse of the plot, there is an abundance of surprises and secrets which fused together to make this a read that I couldn’t put down.

Oh how I love a slow burn romance and we all know Emily is the queen of penning a love story that begins with the thickest of tension. Alice and Hayden were excellent characters in their own right, but together 😮‍💨🔥 I was a big fan.

This wasn’t my favourite of Emily’s books (mainly because it is very hard to beat my unending adoration for both Book Lovers & Happy Place) but it is obviously still a wonderfully written book with the familiar engaging style and perfect blend of emotional depth, beautiful descriptions and sprinkles of humour that I have come to know and love.

I absolutely loved this book🥺 you have done it again! Every book from Emily Henry I have adored and this was no different!

The perfect holiday read! I absolutely adored - from the plot to the characters to the spice level, total perfection from Em Hen!

How does EmHen do it?? Every time I read one of her books I'm sure there's no way she could top her previous one, and then I'm blown away yet again. I loved the romance, humour and storytelling of Great Big Beautiful Life, and I really liked the structure of the two stories from past and present unfolding simultaneously. A good amount of spice too, but it didn't take away at all from the more serious/emotional elements of the book. A swoon-worthy, stunning story from a writer at the height of her powers.

As a longtime Emily Henry fan, I found her latest release to be a familiar and comforting read, with her trademark wit and relatable characters. However, GBBL may be her weakest adult romance to date.

The pacing felt sluggish, the romance lacked depth, and the plot struggled to hold my interest. While I respect Henry’s attempt to step outside her usual formula, I’m not convinced it paid off. If you’ve read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, GBBL treads such similar ground that it may feel redundant.

I remain excited for whatever Henry writes next, but this one just didn’t land for me.

3.75/5 stars

updated emhen ranking:
- happy place
- beach read
- book lovers
- great big beautiful life
- people we meet on vacation

not read yet:
- funny story

thoughts on the book:
i felt like i was reading two books in one but both books were fighting for space. if we had gotten alice & hayden's love story juxtaposed with alice's family complexities & a sort of writing competition as the backdrop, i would have felt more connected with the main couple since we would have gotten more time to spend with them. if we had gotten margaret ives's story as a stanalone historical fiction novel, i would have felt the impact of her story a lot more, especially towards the end. the book did however hit emotional beats that made me cry & i don't think that this is emily henry's worst book by any means. i hope she gets the opportunity to explore more literary writing without the confines of the romance genre (and i say this as a romance book lover). all in all, i think this book will find its readership, i was just let down a little. the last line of the epilogue does make up for things a little.

As a huge fan of Emily Henry's previous work, I was surprised by this one - I thought her writing was absolutely gorgeous, as always, but the tone was softer and more reflective than her previous publications. It is a book I still find myself thinking about often.

I finished reading this just ahead of my birthday and what an absolute gift of a story. Emily Henry deviates from her traditional women’s fiction / romance arc to give us something akin to a Taylor Jenkins Reid famous person style tale. I was drawn in completely and charmed.

Like most books from this author this one was an absolute pleasure to read.
It's a well crafted story with great characters.

Emily Henry delivers another ultimately heartwarming story. Bit diffrent from her other books but for me still a enjoyable read!

Not my favourite Emily Henry, but a fun summery read nevertheless. The love story took a bit of backseat, but oddly enough I was still conveinced by it. Interesting, mileage may vary on this one.

Another classic Emily Henry! I found it a little slow to get into, but once I did I was hooked on the story and loved the twists as we learned more about the characters past.

I absolutely LOVED GBBL. This is truly Emily Henry at her best, her characters are beautifully in depth and have an incredible dynamic that just makes me want to kick my feet and smile while they banter.

I’m a sucker for a dual timeline/historical backstory, and I just had a feeling EmHen was going to do it so well, and of course she did! I loved every aspect of the book and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

I’ve read a couple of Emily Henry books, with Book Lovers and Happy Place as some of my favourite rom-coms. Great Big Beautiful Life immediately intrigued me with its comparisons to one of my favourite literary romcoms, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (which I just realised now, that I never wrote a review for on this blog!).

So what is Great Big Beautiful Life about?
Two writers arrive at the elusive and famous Margaret Ives job, to find that they are pitted against each other to write her biography. One being male, and the other female, of course they both form a budding competition and romance. As they interview Margaret separately however, they find out that the job isn’t as it seems, and she’s not telling them the whole truth. While in direct competition with each other, they need to find out what the job is about and who will win it, without breaching their NDA.

How did I find it?
I liked the premise well enough, but very soon, I found that the mystery was flimsy at best. While touted to be extremely successful and then shunned from the world, I found a lot of Margaret’s persona was more telling rather than showing. I didn’t find her story particularly interesting, and soon lost interest through the retelling of her family history. Much of the novel focuses on Margaret’s biography and the gaps in her story, and whether you’ll enjoy this novel will depend on how you find her retelling of her life.

What about the romance?
With Hayden and Alice being pitted against each other with their writerly ambitions, there was a rivals to lovers flavour to their romance. However, I found it to be slightly predictable. Of course they were going to have tension, and then fall in love. Unfortunately, I found that Margaret’s story dominated this book with the romance being secondary to its focus.

I did like Alice’s struggle with connecting with her mother, due to her mother’s disdain over her career. This offered a bit of depth to Alice’s character, other than her ambition to get her big break.

Great Big Beautiful Life is part mystery, romance, and about the secrets behind the family of a rich socialite. While there were some beautiful moments in Margaret’s story, I unfortunately found it rather dull and uninteresting, especially compared to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I definitely preferred other Emily Henry novels.

Thanks to the Penguin Australia and Netgalley for the electronic review copy.