Breakaway Books

Authored by Emily Henry; Published April 2025; Romance

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️

When a romance makes me feel something besides a swoon and the love depicted is bigger than just the couple, I can’t help but adore it. For me, that was Great Big Beautiful Life.

In Great Big Beautiful Life, Alice is a pop culture journalist who has never forgotten how much of a disappointment she is to her mother, a “serious” woman set on saving the environment. When the chance arises for her to write about Margaret Ives, a celebrity who disappeared nearly two decades ago, Alice jumps at it, hoping to be able to prove to her mother just how serious she can be. But when Alice arrives at Margaret’s house, she discovers that she hasn’t gotten the job quite yet: Pulitzer prize-winning biographer Hayden is also in the running, and the two of them will have to audition with Margaret for a month before she decides who will tell her story. Of course, sparks fly between the two, but will it be enough to overcome their competitive spirit?

From the very beginning, I loved Alice. Confronted by the serious, even grumpy, Hayden, she is not cowed. She seems to take it as a challenge to break through his rock-hard facade, and it reminded me of how I felt when I started dating my husband. I’ve read so many romances featuring women who feel intimidated by this type of man, and Alice is refreshingly… not. Yes, Alice certainly has problems to work through, but her persistent brightness struck me a little bit like strength. Her relationship with her mom reminded me of the bond featured in Bluebird Day (review just posted!) particularly insofar as Alice’s mother seems to lack an understanding of Alice rather than have any genuine negativity toward her. To Alice, though, it feels just as awful, and it is cathartically wonderful when Alice finally, finally tells her mother how her mother makes her feel. I love books in which women confront the source of the lies they’ve been telling themselves their whole lives. 

I have read a lot of Emily Henry’s novels, and this is not her usual fare. It reads much more like the historical fiction I have read in the past year, with a narrative frame taking place in the present accompanied by another story from decades or even centuries before. I enjoyed this novel so much partially because it felt like the balance was right: I cared about the Ives family story about as much as I cared about Alice’s story. Margaret manages to narrate several generations of her family’s history without getting bogged down in the details but with all of the emotional weight intact, imparting all of the pain passed down from father to son, mother to daughter—all while stuck in the burning glare of the public eye. I cared deeply about how Margaret ended up in the life she was living, hiding from the world and somewhat cynical. I wanted to know about her love story and her beloved sister. And somehow, I was equally excited to return to Alice and Hayden’s love story.

Great Big Beautiful Life is sweeping but intimate, with the charm of a romance novel and the curiosities of historical fiction. I’m sure you’ll love it.