Book Review: Great Big Beautiful Life

Great Big Beautiful Life is Emily Henry’s latest book and I absolutely loved it. I was a little worried, because I have loved all of Emily Henry’s books (obviously some more than others) and I heard mixed reviews for this one, but I’m so happy I loved it.

The novel follows Alice Scott, Hayden Anderson, and Margaret Ives. Alice is a celebrity journalist who after some research has been invited to meet with the infamous Margaret Ives to possibly write her authorized biography and write about her life, her media empire family, and late husband – the extremely popular singer, Cosmo Sinclair. This is a huge deal because Margaret has been reclusive for decades now, to the point where no one really knows where she lives or whether she’s still alive. But when Alice arrives to meet with Margaret, she’s not alone. Hayden Anderson, a Pulitzer Prize biographer is also there and in the running for Margaret’s book. Margaret is going to run a trial where Alice and Hayden will take turns meeting with her for 1 month and then at the end both pitch their book ideas to her and she will choose who will write her book.

The book goes back and forth in time with Alice meeting with Margaret and learning about her life and then also Alice dealing with her own family hardships and loss as well as her getting to know Hayden as they’re both staying on the same small Georgia island for a month. Before long the two develop feelings for one another, but can they be together when they’re both in the running for the job of a lifetime?

I loved this book from start to finish. Alice and Hayden’s relationship development was so good and I loved them both so much. Margaret’s story was so interesting and heartbreaking in so many parts. I was engaged and captivated by her story and by the fact that both Alice and Hayden felt like she was lying to them about things or keeping parts of her story from them on purpose and trying to figure out what was going on. The book had so many bittersweet moments, but also really beautiful moments, which makes the title of the book so poignant to me. The ups and downs of life all come together to make this “great big beautiful life”.

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