Great Big Beautiful Life in ࿔*:･lit happens✧˚

Apr 26, 2025 Heidi Ashton rated it liked it

Shelves: physical-bookshelf, summer-reads

3.75⭐️

Whether you have read it or not, I'd say most Emily Henry fans are aware that she is broadening her genre reach with GBBL, and for her first attempt at making a book more than just romance, I felt like she did pretty dang well! It wasn't perfect, and I'd say it was still 75% romance forward, with 10% mystery and 15% literary fiction sprinkled in. It's quite possible she wanted to decrease the romance more than she did, but was ultimately overruled by her team because they didn't want to di 3.75⭐️

Whether you have read it or not, I'd say most Emily Henry fans are aware that she is broadening her genre reach with GBBL, and for her first attempt at making a book more than just romance, I felt like she did pretty dang well! It wasn't perfect, and I'd say it was still 75% romance forward, with 10% mystery and 15% literary fiction sprinkled in. It's quite possible she wanted to decrease the romance more than she did, but was ultimately overruled by her team because they didn't want to disappoint her fanbase - which is, after all, largely comprised of romance readers. We'll never know. But regardless of her strategy, I didn't find myself enjoying GBBL more OR less because of the additional genres. It just felt like an Emily Henry book (which for me, is a genre of its own).

Compliments:
I swear Emily's writing only gets better and better with each new release. Despite being nervous going into GBBL based on some negative ARC reviews, I ended up being overwhelmed by how much joy the writing in this particular book brought me. It might be the most "Emily Henry" writing of all her books. The optimistic banter from the sunshine FMC followed by the dry responses from the black cat MMC had me in a constant state of giggles.

Critique:
If you've read ANY Taylor Jenkins Reid books, then you can probably guess what I'm about to say... When it came to plot, I was disappointed to feel like I was reading a VERY underwhelming retelling of "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo". To be honest, Evelyn Hugo was already a meh 4 star read for me (it was still good, I just think TJR has better books!). So for GBBL to follow a nearly identical plot - up-and-coming journalist gets the opportunity of a lifetime to interview a fictional Marilyn-Monroe-esque woman from Hollywood's golden age - only to have an ending that felt lackluster, I couldn't help but ask myself on the last page: "So... what was the point?"

I don't want to say that GBBL is the plot of "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" thrown into Chat GPT and rearranged with some Emily Henry poetic flare... But I'm also not NOT saying that? And this is not a criticism of Emily at all - there have been several books I felt were direct copies of HER plots (the amount of "Happy Place" wannabes out there is laughable).

One of my favorite parts of Emily Henry's plots has a lot to do with the FMC's relationship with her family, and I felt like GBBL only halfheartedly attempted to uphold this theme from previous books. While there was tension outlined between Alice and her mother, their relationship and the reason for tension felt extremely underdeveloped. This, alongside the flashback chapters the story Alice was writing, all felt a bit... clunky. I wanted them to belong, but it felt like 3 separate plots that honestly would have worked really well together - except the plots almost seemed like they weren't aware they were all part of the same book!

In the end, do I think Emily Henry did something revolutionary with "Great Big Beautiful Life"? Not at all. But I absolutely think it is some of her best writing, both in dialogue and setting, that she's done yet. It had the banter of PWMOV and the atmospheric setting of "Funny Story", which is, for me, a perfect middle ground of my favorite books by her☺️ ...more

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May 01, 2025 debs ༉‧₊˚. rated it really liked it

Shelves: ꕤ-books-about-books

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ 4.5/5 stars!
⤿ “love isn’t something you can cup in your hands, and i have to believe that means it’s something that can’t ever be lost.”

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Mar 05, 2025 daphne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦," 𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐚𝐫, "𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 - 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝. 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞."

•dutch•

Als grote Emily Henry fan was en is het een enorme eer om de arc te mogen ontvangen van Great Big Beautiful Life. Na alle boeken super goed te vinden - allemaal 5 sterren - was ik enorm hyped en heb ik direct heel mijn tbr aan de kant geschoven voor deze. Alice & Hayden hebben mij niet teleurgesteld; ik vertrouw Emily Henry voor de volle 100% om mij mee "𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦," 𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐚𝐫, "𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 - 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝. 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞."

•dutch•

Als grote Emily Henry fan was en is het een enorme eer om de arc te mogen ontvangen van Great Big Beautiful Life. Na alle boeken super goed te vinden - allemaal 5 sterren - was ik enorm hyped en heb ik direct heel mijn tbr aan de kant geschoven voor deze. Alice & Hayden hebben mij niet teleurgesteld; ik vertrouw Emily Henry voor de volle 100% om mij mee te nemen op een emotionele rollercoaster. De main plot was ook zo intrigerend en meeslepend. Ik heb gelachen, ik ben boos geworden (violently aggressive), ik heb snottebellen lang gehuild en ik voelde mij gezien. Kortom: alles wat je verwacht van een Emily Henry boek (ik kan natuurlijk niet te veel van het plot prijsgeven, maar consider me shocked @ the plot twists).

"𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬", 𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐈 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡. "𝐎𝐡? 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝?"
"𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐞", 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬, "𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐡. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞."

•english•

Emily Henry is one of my comfort authors. I’ve read and loved all her books. It still seems so unreal that I was lucky enough to receive an arc, I’m so very grateful. When I received it in the mail, I shoved all my current reads and tbr aside, I had to read Great Big Beautiful Life - I’m just a girl. Alice & Hayden honestly were everything to me. The vibes and setting were what you’d expect from an Emily Henry book and it all felt like coming home to me. The main plot (without spoiling anything) was so good and nerve wrecking at the same time (I couldn’t stop reading - it was like watching a car crash). I was so emotionally invested, I cried, I got angry, I laughed and most of all, I felt seen (as I often do by Emily’s main characters). Like always, I’ll be thinking about this book forever. ...more

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May 10, 2025 itsybitsybookhoarder rated it it was amazing

Rival writers with a chance of a lifetime to ghostwrite the memoir of Margaret Ives, an elusive hermit that disappeared from the public eye. This was a beautifully written and moving novel that kept me captivated from the first chapter! Alice and Hayden with their slow burning and passionate relationship that had so many layers had me invested as it developed so perfectly with each word. The truths revealed, epic story telling, and perfect conclusion… and let’s definitely not forget the epic art ...more

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Sep 12, 2025 Swatz rated it liked it

I think this book is my least favourite from the author. The story , the characters were not bad but not great either. The first half of the book I was trying to connect with it so bad but couldn’t. When I almost gave up if not for the second half, finally things got interesting. TBH I didn’t really understand the chemistry between the two MC. Overall it was okay.

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Apr 25, 2025 Lexi Bailey rated it really liked it

the last 100 pages is the most I’ve been captivated by a book in a LONG time. Was kind of slow at times ngl, but a really beautiful (and great and big get it) story. To anyone also in the dead dad club this’ll hit very close to home but in the best way 🥹 xoxo give it a read fr!

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Mar 12, 2025 ria ☆ rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary-romance, enemies-to-lovers, 3-stars, 2025-tbr

Once again, I ate up this book cause Emily Henry really is that girl when it comes to writing an easy flowing good book.

If you’re looking for a cute romance book with fluff. This ain’t it girlies. It’s 80% storyline, and 20% romance. BUT, I promise it’s still worth reading!

While reading, I kept getting “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and “the last great American dynasty” vibes.

The romance between Alice and Hayden was sweet, and fell into the forced proximity trope. We have the grump/sunshi ...more

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Apr 23, 2025 Chrystina Grace rated it it was amazing

Wow.
This was incredible. It’s very different than Emily Henry’s other books. This story had me hooked, it’s really two stories in one and done so flawlessly. It kept me captivated the whole time. But the end, I didn’t expect to get so emotional but this pulled a lot of tears out of me. What an extraordinary, beautiful, moving book.

Absolutely adored this.

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