Great Big Beautiful Life

Alice Scott travels to a small island in Georgia ready for the job of a lifetime: to interview and ghost write the biography of one Margaret Ives, a reclusive woman who's early life was documented by tabloids and whose love story was the stuff of legends. The only catch? Hayden Anderson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, is also in the running for the job. And Margaret agrees to give them each a month to make the case for who should write the book.

The story is told in Alice's first-person narration and goes back and forth between her and Hayden's budding romance and Margaret's interviews, revealing and concealing parts of her past as Alice attempts to gain her trust and get the job. We not only see Alice get to know Margaret and show more Hayden, but also glimpse Alice's own family dynamics and why this job is so important to her. I was fully invested in both stories, and enjoyed the revelations - some surprising, some inevitable, but all clicking into place to make a satisfying whole. show less

Alice has travelled to an island off the coast of Georgia to meet an elderly woman about whom Alice wants to write a biography – Margaret Ives, the last member of a prominent media family. But Margaret is also considering working with another journalist and wants to give both of them a month-long trial.

I really enjoyed the present-day story about Alice, her conversations with Margaret and her interactions with Hayden:

”Then where’d you grow up?” I ask
“Indiana,” he says.
“Did you like it?” I ask.
His brow sinks into a scowl, his wide mouth still keeping an utterly straight line. “Why?”
I laugh. “What do you mean why?”
“Why would you want to know if I liked growing up in Indiana?” he says, face and voice perfectly

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matched in surliness.
I fight a smile. “Because I'm considering buying it.”
His eyes narrow, irises seeming to darken. “Buying what?”
“Indiana,” I say.
He stares.
I can't fight it anymore. The amusement wins out, and a laugh escapes me. “I'm just trying to get to know you,” I explain.

But every so often there is a chapter of “The Story”, a third person account of the history of Ives family, and there’s something quite bleak about that. I got about two-thirds through and began feeling increasingly unenthusiastic about reading further.

I don’t read biographies very often and “The Story” in Great Big Beautiful Life got me thinking about why that is. I often feel sad seeing this zoomed-out view of life, in which aspects of one’s life can be perceived as a loss, or as failure, because in the summary the actual experience becomes overshadowed by the way that experience ends – either because those endings are where the drama are, or else because the story is told with foreknowledge of said ending. But that’s not the way life is lived! Life is lived in the moment.

I’m not arguing that the zoomed-out view of life is inherently, objectively, sad – maybe it is all just to do with my mindset.

Anyway, I took a break from Great Big Beautiful Life (and then my library loan expired) and when I returned to the story nearly a month later, I was honestly motivated far more by wanting to “tidy up” the loose thread of an unfinished book than curiosity about what happened next!

But I’m really glad I persevered, because it was worth it! The story of the Ives family was still not particularly happy, but as it went on, as I developed a better understanding of the purpose of telling this not-particularly-happy story, I found myself appreciating it more.

There was satisfaction in uncovering a mystery, but also in seeing what Alice has gained from this experience of diving into another family’s history. I loved how Alice’s own experience of family becomes more of a focus.

The ending was unexpectedly moving.

I’m not sure if I’d say go as far as to say I liked this book more than Henry’s others – in some ways I liked it more and in other ways I liked it less – but I think it might be her best? show less

Alice Scott is an optimistic, relentlessly warm journalist who has tracked down a tip that Margaret Ives — the "Tabloid Princess," tragic heiress to one of the most scandalous media dynasties of the 20th century, who vanished from public life decades ago — is living quietly under a false name on Little Crescent Island, a sleepy Georgia coastal town. Alice calls her. Margaret invites her down. Alice arrives ready to pitch the biography of her dreams, only to discover that Margaret has also invited Hayden Anderson — a gruff, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and certified human thundercloud — for the same opportunity. Margaret will spend a month speaking with both of them separately, then choose who gets to tell her story.
Alice is show more sunny and people-smart and genuinely likes Margaret immediately. Hayden is closed off, reserved, a grumpy counterweight to Alice's warmth, and they clash professionally from the start while very slowly, inevitably, falling into each other's orbit. But Margaret's story is the real engine of the novel — as she unspools her past across their interview sessions, the full sweep of the Ives family emerges: a media patriarch who built an empire from nothing, generations of scandal and secrecy, deaths blamed on the relentless paparazzi, illegitimate children hidden and renamed. Henry cites the Kennedy family, the Hearsts, the Murdochs, and Taylor Swift's song "The Last Great American Dynasty" as inspirations. The romance is a grumpy-sunshine slow burn, but Margaret's saga is the heart.

[May contain spoilers]
The twist that lands hardest: Hayden is Margaret's grandson. His mother was the daughter Margaret had with her great love Cosmo — a baby she gave up for adoption after Cosmo was killed in a paparazzi-caused crash, not wanting her child to live under the same surveillance that had destroyed her own life and taken the person she loved most. Hayden grew up not knowing his family medical history or where he came from, which has been a source of ongoing anxiety. The entire competition setup — Alice and Hayden competing for the biography — turns out to be a deliberate arrangement by Margaret, who knew who Hayden was and engineered their arrival together. Margaret's housekeeper Jodi is revealed to be her niece. The ending is hopeful, with Alice and Hayden together and the family secrets finally aired.
What I think: This is Emily Henry being more ambitious than usual — it's less straight rom-com and more family saga with romance woven through, closer in spirit to the kind of sweeping heiress-with-secrets story that The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo popularized. Margaret is genuinely compelling; the romance is slower to ignite than Henry's usual work and Hayden is more reserved than her typical male leads. The twist is genuinely good. Whether Margaret's story or Alice and Hayden's chemistry lands depends entirely on your mood going in. Probably a 3.5 to 4 from you — the concept is strong but the execution is slightly uneven. show less

Alice Scott is on the verge of her big break as a journalist and writer. After months of digging, she's tracked down Margaret Ives, the former media darling and only living member of the influential American family who had influence in both newspapers and Hollywood for much of the last century. Alice arrives on small, tourist-focused Crescent Island in Georgia anticipating making a pitch on being the author to help Margaret craft her memoir. However, to Alice's surprise, she's not the only writer Margaret is speaking to and that Hayden Anderson, who just won a Pulitzer for his last book, is also in the running to help Margaret write her book. Margaret makes a deal with Alice and Hayden: meet with her separately for the next month and at show more the end of that time, Margaret will choose the writer she wants to help her. As Alice begins talking with Margaret, it's clear that there are things the woman is holding back, even as Alice learns more about what it was like for Margaret growing up as an Ives. At the same time, being in the same small community means that Alice and Hayden keep bumping into each other and despite her initial impression of Hayden as one of the grumpiest men she's ever met, the more time they spend together, the faster she finds herself falling for him.

Emily Henry stretches the boundaries of romance with her latest novel. While there is still a charming as all get out grumpy and sunshine, rivals to lovers plotline happening between Alice and Hayden, that's filled with lots of excellent banter, there is also a family saga plot as well in the chapters when Alice interviews Margaret. Both plots are equally compelling as we dive in to the history that made Margaret's family famous and then eventually pushed her to become a recluse. At the same time, Alice's character is also explored and it is thoroughly rewarding as a reader to watch her confront her life experiences and grow as a human being. Another excellent read from Emily Henry that I highly recommend. show less

Journalist Alice Scott has tracked down Margaret Ives, whose wealthy and scandal-ridden family made headlines for decades. Ives, who is living under an assumed named on an island off the coast of Georgia, has decided to hire someone to write her biography. First, however, she is auditioning two people—Alice and the Pulitzer-Prize winning author Hayden Anderson—over a period of one month. Each candidate will take turns interviewing Margaret and will then prepare a proposal for her consideration. Alice is disconcerted that she is vying against someone with such stellar credentials. Making matters worse, Hayden is an unfriendly fellow with an obvious chip on his shoulder.

Emily Henry, in "Great Big Beautiful Life," rehashes a formula we show more have seen countless times before. A woman without a steady boyfriend meets a single man and their personalities clash. He is surly, while she is perky and optimistic. The two get to know one another, and she gradually wins him over with her sunny smile and warm heart. Yet Alice and Hayden's relationship is not the most compelling aspect of this novel. Margaret and her ancestors are intriguing, larger-than-life characters with quite a few skeletons in their closets.

In her sessions with Alice, Margaret reveals what made the Ives clan fodder for the tabloids. Margaret's forebears made their fortune in mining (not always honestly). In addition, they bought newspapers, married, cheated on their spouses, and spent their money on lavish possessions. Margaret married a rock star, whom she adored, but in later life, she dropped out of the public eye. At eighty-seven, she looks back with wistfulness at the good times and regret for what went wrong. "Great Big Beautiful Life" is about the ways in which we are shaped by our parents; the drawbacks of wealth and notoriety; and the importance of coming to terms with one's past. The love story is formulaic, but it is Margaret's colorful history that keeps us engrossed. show less

I hadn’t planned to read the new Emily Henry novel so quickly on release, but a line on social media caught my eye. The person mentioned that the romance was in the background and this sounded quite intriguing to me, given that Henry’s books have been primarily romance based to date. While I don’t think that the romance is completely in the background, it’s complemented by a historical mystery which I really enjoyed. Think a splash of a Taylor Jenkins Reid novel with the complexity of fame and family, but with Henry’s own twists.

The story is told in the first person perspective by Alice, a journalist. She’s received a tipoff that the reclusive heiress Margaret Ives is living under an assumed name in Georgia. To interview show more her would be the scoop of her life, so she tracks Margaret down, and eventually Margaret agrees to meet Alice. But there’s a catch – yes, Margaret is willing to tell her story for a biography, but there’s another writer involved. Enter Hayden, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. They have a month to interview Margaret and come up with a plan for the biography, then she will choose one of them to write the rest. At first, Alice is not a fan of Hayden. He’s quiet, reserved and very focused. But they become friends, discussing every topic but Margaret, before falling for each other. It’s difficult given each of their personal baggage, and the NDAs they have signed but it could be something big. Interspersed with their story is Margaret’s story – what the tabloids said happened versus what Margaret says. But is Margaret telling the whole truth about the money, the fame, the cult, the trial and the accident?

I enjoyed Alice and Hayden’s story – it’s sweet, realistic with more than a few bumps and grows as Alice goes through her own hurts. But I was completely invested in Margaret’s story as it was wild. So much went on with her family in the quest for money and love with multiple tragic events. I would have happily read just Margaret’s story. I felt it fitted in well with Alice’s story, as it’s told while Alice interviews her. The story is also set on an island in summer, so it has those vacation vibes too as well as a modern day mystery for Hayden and Alice to solve. (The sweet thing being that they couldn’t solve it alone – they had to work together).

The story has the trademark Emily Henry sparkle – the summer vibes of You and Me on Vacation, the bookish parts of Book Lovers and the early competition of Beach Read – and none of the character traits I found boring in Funny Story. The pacing is good and the story is balanced between history, romance, family drama and summer fun. Yes, it’s a different direction for Henry and it’s not a straight romance but it works perfectly well to create a captivating story.

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3.5 moreso. Happy book birthday to this novel and thanks to Libro for the ALC. Each new Emily Henry book has a lot to live up to because I have some definite favorites among all her two-word titles. Maybe doubling that is the throw-off? I didn't love this as much as her past books, but I will say the end was worth waiting for. I found the middle a little tedious - the premise is Alice Scott has tracked down reclusive Margaret Ives - heiress to a huge family fortune acquired in the gold/mineral rush of the late 1900s and then diversified through newspapers (loosely following the Hearst family) and other business ventures. Margaret is the last of the line and grew up a media darling, but also hounded by the press, especially after she show more married Cosmo Sinclair - the next Elvis. After he died, she left the public eye and has been incognito on a small Georgia island. Alice, whose deceased Dad loved Cosmo's music, has ferreted her out for a journalism piece - Margaret's turn to tell her own story. But she has competition: Hayden Anderson, a Pulitzer-prize-winning biographer. Margaret is giving each of them a shot at the job - meeting alternately with each of them over the span of a month - with a decision at the end who 'wins.' But of course things are complicated by Alice and Hayden's attraction to each other - and then NDAs they each signed, meaning they can't talk even to each other about the info they are getting. But they can tell each other that they feel like Margaret is lying - or withholding something. All the life-story stuff felt a little like Taylor Reid Jenkins - it was a hard sell because I didn't care that much about Margaret's life and wanted to follow Alice and Hayden's story more. The steam level seemed dialed up too, but lacked the tension of the other books. But overall, EmHen gets another win from me! And great narration by Julia Whelan. Winning combo! show less