Great Big Beautiful Life: Reese's Book Club
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 Times ∙ Rolling Stone ∙ People ∙ Good Morning America ∙ NPR ∙ Vogue ∙ The Los Angeles Times ∙ The Cut ∙ USA Today ∙ Cosmopolitan ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ Marie 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.
As featured in The New York Times ∙ Rolling Stone ∙ People ∙ Good Morning America ∙ NPR ∙ Vogue ∙ The Los Angeles Times ∙ The Cut ∙ USA Today ∙ Cosmopolitan ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ Marie 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.
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Community Reviews
What Bookclubbers are saying about this book
✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Great Big Beautiful Life* by Emily Henry is a heartfelt exploration of heartbreak, identity, womanhood, and love, praised for its emotion...
8.5⭐️ - rounded down for Bookclubs
First of all, Emily Henry is one of my “will always read” authors. I have officially read all of her books now and I will 100% pick up anything else she ever releases. I simply love the way she writes and the characters she creates. They always feel so real and relatable in a way that her stories suck you in. That being said, this was different than her other pieces of work. I saw the criticisms and frustrations of this but I absolutely needed to read it for myself and frankly I don’t fully agree. There are a lot of different elements to this plot and it isn’t a traditional “romance” so I understand why that could annoy fans but the writing is still classically Emily Henry. I enjoyed the characters and was interested in what was happening, so much so that I didn’t pick up on what was going to happen because I was so immersed into the stories. I understand and agree that because of the cross-storylines it’s tough to feel like we got all of everyone’s story but I think that was sort of on purpose and in the end I wasn’t upset by it. I also very much enjoyed the non-romantic pieces. It gave a more realistic view on life and relationships and transparently, I bawled my eyes out towards the end. I wouldn’t say this is my favorite from EmHen but I still adored it and thought it well worth the read.
This will 100% be something you could watch on Hallmark. If that is your thing, then it is a great book for you! If it’s not, then give it a pass. I fall somewhere in the middle, hence the 3 stat review.
I am a huge Emily Henry fan and unfortunately this was not my favorite! I totally get why she might want to get away from her “formula” and try something new, but this felt like half measures of both - a cute romance that we didn’t get enough time with (I honestly could not tell you what attracted these two characters to each other), and a generational saga/family mystery that felt cliched and surface level.
I liked it overall. I wasn’t thrilled with the story within a story. It’s hard for me to have a ton of empathy for the very rich. But as always, Emily Henry moved me to tears.
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