Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Lynnie   

Amy      

  

women's fiction, contemporary fiction 

Alice and Hayden are writers who are competing to write the biography of the heiress, Margaret Ives, who disappeared from public view decades ago. They both show up on Margaret’s remote Georgia island in order to impress her but their competition becomes mutual attraction.

Lynnie’s Review

I generally enjoy Emily Henry's books - some of them, quite a lot. But Great Big Beautiful Life is another book about book people and, while I enjoyed the story, this may be my least favorite. 

Finding themselves in a cute, remote beach town with a month to win her over, Alice spreads her sunshiny outlook everywhere she goes. Of course, that means Hayden has to be a stereotypical, overly-serious grump so that Alice can break through his hard shell to find love. LOVE, I tell you. 

Sadly, the love story was one of the least interesting parts of this book; I just never really believed in their instalove. It's also trying to be a mystery, and to sell us on the idea that Margaret Ives and her very rich family are fascinating and broken. I felt like Henry was going for a Seven-Husbands-of-Evelyn-Hugo vibe with Margaret but never quite made her interesting enough. 

Was Margaret's backstory interesting? Sometimes, very. Other times it was predictable and kind of dull. Did I care if Alice and Hayden ever got to embrace true love? Not really. Did I see the big mystery reveal coming a mile away? Yes. Yes I did. 

Still, it was a cute book and would be an excellent vacation read, as most of Henry's books are. I have noticed that I'm generally more entranced by her books when I read them on vacation, so... there's that.  

I also listened to part of the audiobook and Julia Whelan was, as always, wonderful.

Amy’s Review

Alice and Hayden were adorable. It did take me a while to tolerate the effervescent personality of Alice. She’s one of those practically intolerable optimists. But it took her relentless positivity to be able to puncture Hayden’s tough outer shell. They made a good yin-yang couple. Their romance was of the variety where they had to fight off their attraction through most of the novel for the sake of protecting themselves. Their futures were uncertain—Margaret’s choice about which of the two authors she’d select to write her memoir could alter their feelings for each other. 

Margaret’s quirky home island was a fun setting for Great Big Beautiful Life with all the characters who lived in her corner of the world. Her history was a storyline separate from Alice and Hayden’s love story. I was interested in both stories, especially in the second half when Margaret’s story became more personal and juicy than the previous ancestral stories. 

This was a fun summer read. It was the sixth novel I’ve read by Emily Henry so it’s no surprise that I liked it. But I agree with Lynnie…a good vacation read or palate cleanser (as was the case for me and was just what I needed) and, yes, Henry writes a lot of books about book people.