Great Big Beautiful Life: Reese's Book Club - Emily Henry

Great Big Beautiful Life: Reese's Book Club

By Emily Henry

  • Release Date: 2025-04-22
  • Genre: Romantic Comedies
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 700 Ratings

Description

A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK ∙ AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ∙ 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 novel from Emily Henry.

As featured in The New York TimesRolling StonePeople ∙ Good Morning America ∙ NPR ∙ Vogue ∙ The Cut ∙ USA TodayCosmopolitanHarper's BazaarMarie Claire Glamour ELLE ∙ E! Online ∙ The New York Post ∙ Bustle ∙ Reader's Digest ∙ BBC ∙ PopSugar ∙ SheReads ∙ Paste ∙ and more!


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 twentieth 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.

Reviews

  • Great big beautiful life

    5
    By yviybyiu
    Lovely multi layered story across the generations very good book
  • Wow.

    5
    By Sisi-Cray
    The words flow so effortlessly and the full meaning behind the book was breathtaking.
  • Love!!! Love!!! Love!!!

    5
    By Rakland
    This book grabbed me, sucked me in and let me live in its world until the very last page. Bravo!!
  • Beauty

    5
    By allison nolagirl
    Beautiful making me smile! Love way Henry can make it spin!
  • Different from her usual

    4
    By talesbytess
    EH departs from her usual rom-com style in this more novelistic, women’s-fic love story. I commend her for pushing the boundary of her typical genre but it just fell short. I found myself more interested in the story within the story than in the main characters themselves. Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid may enjoy more than fans of Abby Jiminez, Ali hazelwood, and Christina Lauren.
  • Great Big Beautiful Life

    5
    By Tizzy elvish
    I laughed and cried through this book. Emily is a master storyteller. I felt like I shared all the hopes, dreams and disappointments of all the people in this story. Fabulous book!
  • Such a departure from other Emily Henry books

    5
    By ktinlo
    This was a series of intertwined love stories, a mystery, a tell-all, and a beautiful, vivid multigenerational tale. I loved every bit of it, with one tiny exception: why oh why does Alice need to wear watermelon earrings? She’s not 14. As much I I liked Hayden I just can’t see him falling for a woman with watermelon earrings. Everything rang so true in this book but that one detail punctured my image of her.
  • Simply amazing

    5
    By Lildrumgrrl
    What an absolute treasure this book is. I adored every page.
  • I couldn’t put it down

    5
    By Dede Henley
    What a wonderful read! Such lovely character development - I came to love them all. I couldn’t wait to get to the end to see how Emily would knit it all together. Thanks to Reese Witherspoon for recommending this book. I’m an official Emily Henry fan.
  • Well written but…

    3
    By athenienne
    The prose is beautifully crafted, but there are two reasons I can’t fully love this book. The first is subjective: I don’t feel like there’s enough motivation for Alice & Hayden’s love story. The real heart of the book is Margaret’s tale and maybe Henry should have just told that. Alice & Hayden seem crammed in. I also wasn’t crazy about the idea that there’s some huge line between vaginal intercourse and everything else they did with each other up to that point - like THAT was the emotional point of no return for Hayden. The second is fully objective: I’m a Georgia native and there are some simple errors that pulled me out of the story each time they were made. There is nowhere on the Georgia coast that is UP from Atlanta, nor is there anywhere on the beach or sound that is only 3.5 hours from Atlanta. You also never have to search for an all night diner, because Waffle House exists and is everywhere. Fair enough if a character just has a thing for retro diners, but to make finding one your only option at 4am is wrong. These are easy things to get right with very little effort and I don’t know why that effort wasn’t made.