Book Review | Great Big Beautiful Life #20booksofsummer2025

I love Emily Henry’s books and it wouldn’t be summer without one.

Great Big Beautiful Life
Emily Henry

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.

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I know I can always pick up a book by this author and enjoy it, and this one was no exception. I loved it, and even though I feel like I say it every time, I feel like this is my favourite book yet. It was a little different to what I was expecting, but that made it even more entertaining because I couldn’t imagine the outcome in the same way.

I think where this book differs from the usual Emily Henry story is that I was more intrigued about the enigmatic Margaret, an heiress turned recluse, than the relationship between Hayden and Alice, the two writers battling it out to write her story. And I loved watching them get to know each other and seeing their connection bloom as the story progressed, but I just felt Margaret’s story pull me in more.

The setting was fantastic, it was on a small, remote island with a tight-knit community, and meant that Alice and Hayden had plenty of opportunity to keep running into each other. I loved that Alice kept on being bright and friendly even when Hayden was sceptical of her intentions.

I won’t say too much about the story, but it had a lot of layers and I loved seeing how all the puzzle pieces fit together. The author manages to find the perfect balance between the budding romance and Margaret’s story.

The characters made this book, and I loved that we got to see them help each other be the better versions of themselves. Considering how much this book covers, I feel like we still got a very well-rounded picture of each of them, and for a change, I loved them all equally.

This book felt like a lovely warm hug, full of emotion and with characters that were easy to invest in. I am very much looking forward to next summer to see what comes next for Emily Henry, because I’m sure I’m going to love it.