Great Big Beautiful Life
Emily Henry
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
4.04
· Steam/Spice level: 3 of 5
Open door [?]
· 218 ratings · 416 pages · Published: 22 Apr 2025
Named a Most Anticipated book by The New York Times ∙ Rolling Stone ∙ People ∙ USA Today ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ Marie Claire ∙ 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.
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Tagged as:
- contemporary 28
- grumpy & sunshine 24
- m-f romance 24
- forced proximity 22
- mystery 17
- cheerful/happy heroine 17
- tall heroine 16
- small town 15
- funny 14
- competent heroine 11
- independent heroine 11
- shy hero 10
- sweet/gentle hero 9
- enemies to lovers 8
- angst 8
- sweet/gentle heroine 7
- take-charge heroine 6
- grumpy/cold hero 6
- pregnancy 3
- secret child 3
- nerdy hero 1
- Add topics
- content warnings
- death / grief 15
- miscarriage / infertility 1
- mental illness 1
- geography
- georgia 22
- usa 17
- north america 14
- Format
- Audiobook
- first person pov 16
romance tags
