Great Big Beautiful Life: Is Emily Henry Abandoning Romance?
I just finished Great Big Beautiful Life and understand all the confusing comments on social media. It’s different from Emily Henry’s other books. Is Emily Henry Abandoning Romance? Should She? Why Would She? Let’s discuss! ALSO I will be explaining why (sorry Reese) Great Big Beautiful Life is NOT a thriller!
This discussion does include Great Big Beautiful Life spoilers but they are PROTECTED so you can dive in whether you’ve finished the book or not!
Jen’s Quick Take on Great Big Beautiful Life
- FIRST OFF: Yes, Great Big Beautiful Life feels a little (lot?) different from Henry’s prior books.
- Back in the mid 2010s, Henry started out writing YA (including a time travel romance).
- Then in May 2020, Emily Henry’s adult romance Beach Read was THE summer 2020 pandemic read. It was practically a cultural moment.
- Henry was one of the earlier YA authors to branch away from YA and into the adult age range.
- Great Big Beautiful Life did not read to me like a Romance with a capital R, though some readers disagree.
- I’d say that GBBL leans more toward women’s fiction with romance elements.
- It is NOT A THRILLER OR MYSTERY. I CAN’T EMPHASIZE THAT ENOUGH. NO!!! I will discuss that more below.
- Great Big Beautiful Life contains a story within a story. It has a past-present narrative format which alternates between two Millennial writers vying for a job writing a biography, and the outlining of the family history and life of one character (the biography subject) at great length.
- In between that, YES, there is romance. But I’d argue not A Romance, with the structure you’re used to and most of the focus of the plot on the couple’s developing relationship
- If you’re a die-hard romance reader who love that slow build as people fall in love WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, you might feel like this other element interrupts the reading experience you were hoping for.
- Publication Date: April 22, 2025 by Berkley
- Thanks to Libro.fm for the audiobook of Great Big Beautiful Life, narrated by Julia Whelan
So, what genre IS Great Big Beautiful Life anyway?
I’ve read a LOT of books and I’d call Great Big Beautiful Life women’s fiction.
I’ve seen it compared to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books, and I agree 100%. I’m going to do a WHOLE post on that and I’ll link it.
I’d say GBBL is more similar to Reid’s earlier books, like Daisy Jones and the Six or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, both of which have a historical element, a semi-epistolary element, and some romance.
To me, Reid’s more recent books, like Carrie Soto is Back and her new title Atmosphere, have moved into feminist historical fiction targeted more toward book clubs.
Is Great Big Beautiful Life a Thriller?
I’m sorry that we even have to discuss this because WHAT? Maybe Reese thought April 22 was April Fool’s Day?
No NO NO NO a thousand times no. (Sorry, Reese. I’ve liked many of your picks but just …. no.)
Great Big Beautiful Life is NOT even close to a thriller. It’s not even thriller-adjacent.
It’s VERY slow paced and I’m sorry but the one twist is OBVIOUS. (And still, I am hiding the spoilers just in case.)
Romance Novels are not supposed to have twists. It’s genre fiction. We like knowing the ending: a happy couple.
Yes, one character has a secret but that’s not how thrillers and mysteries work! They are also genre fiction with RULES and you have to follow at least some of them.
Does this new format work?
I struggled a little with it, to be completely honest. But I have struggled with other of her books.
GBBL does include a slow burn, grumpy sunshine relationship between Alice and Hayden, two rival writers competing to write the biography of Margaret Ives, a socialite famous in the 1950s. (Think Gloria Vanderbilt, if you’ve heard of her.)
I have always found Henry’s romances a little light in the plot department. (Another reason this is NOT a thriller.
The competing writer premise did set up a conflict, but not really a plot. And the historical elements did have a trajectory, but I also wouldn’t call it a major plot.
So for me, the book was a little slow. Plus, the romance was slow burn.
BUT I was also listening, and I struggle with audiobooks. All the elaborate family history was confusing to listen to at times, and I wished I had a family tree!
What are early readers saying about Great Big Beautiful Life?
I did some screen grabs from social media. Some people love the book, but others clearly were disappointed.
That has made everyone NERVOUS.
What Did I Like About Great Big Beautiful Life?
I thought the world building for the historical narrative was really well done. Margaret Ives seemed to be a Gloria Vanderbilt-type character from a family that seemed inspired by the Pulitzers or the Hearst.
I’m not surprised by the excellent world building in that part of the book. I think that speculative fiction, which was what Henry started writing, relies heavily on that skill. I hope she does more of that! Yes, romance has world building but this felt different.
In her newsletter, EmHen congratulates those of us who caught the Taylor Swift sone reference right away. That included me as I’ve been here:
This is Taylor Swift’s house, High Watch, in Westerly RI. It was originally owned by Rebekah Harkness, who was the subject of Taylor’s song, The Last Great American Dynasty.
Margaret Ives gave me ALL the Rebekah Harkness vibes. (Harkness was born in 1915 and Ives was born over twenty years later, so they are not direct historical contemporaries.)
But Taylor apparently identifies with Harkness, who was also the subject of a lot of gossip.
Interesting.
Does romance + a Taylor Swift song make a book?
What Did I Like Less?
I also feel like Henry’s weakness as a writer (and every writer has one) is character motivation. The characters in Happy Place drove me to the edge of my sanity with their odd choices and failure to communicate. I feel like many of Henry’s characters do things that I don’t understand and she refuses explain to me. Yes, I get that people are complicated but that is the author’s job!
Again, in Great Big Beautiful Life, one main character does something so strange and completely inexplicable that I’m still shocked. Plus another one does something that kind of ruined the romance for me. I’ll explain under spoiler protection.
Is Emily Henry Abandoning Romance? And if so, why?
It’s possible. If so … why?
Maybe she wanted to branch out and try something new? She has written (counts on fingers) five contemporary romances in five years. That’s a lot. I didn’t ever guess she’d want to write a thriller???? I don’t know if that was her intent, but as discussed, she did not write one.
Maybe she wants to be taken more seriously as a writer? I think romance is a legitimate and necessary genre, but women’s fiction authors like Jennifer Weiner have complained that romance always gets shaded and undervalued. BUT Great Big Beautiful Life is not really as serious as a typical book club book. I can see the shift in Taylor Jenkins Reid from romance to women’s fiction to book club fiction (like her latest, about female astronauts.)
EDITED TO SAY: the fact that the book was announced as a Reese’s Book Club Pick the day after I published this post suggests to me that Henry was experimenting with breaking out of her “romance novelist” identity.
I’ve done a deep Reese pick dive (more on that soon). Yes, Reese has picked a few romances for her club, but none as traditional as Henry’s books. And Reese LOVES historical fiction picks.
Maybe Emily Henry is trying to make her books more high-concept? Romances CAN be high concept (think To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before) even though most Henry’s books are not. And again, being high concept usually means changes to that classic romance plot: couple meets, fights attraction to each other, gives in, third act breakup, joyful reunion.
IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ THE SPOILERS, GIVE ME YOUR YOUR FEARS, THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS IN COMMENTS!
I Don’t Want to Read the Book. What’s the Big Spoiler?
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Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson are summoned to small town Georgia by former socialite it-girl Margaret Ives, who is now in her eighties and says she wants someone to write her story.
Margaret puts Alice and Hayden in competition with each other. (Only one of them will get the job.) She has them sign NDAs and tells them they can’t discuss what she tells them with anyone (or each other). Sure, Jan, that’s totally normal behavior.
Then there’s a LOT of Ives family history, going three or four generations back. As I was listening on audio, I got super confused about a lot of it. Family tree, please!
Here’s what I do know:
- Margaret had a sister, Laura.
- She (Margaret) fell in love with a popular musician, Cosmo Sinclair (I can’t take that name seriously!)
- After Cosmo’s tragic death in a car accident, Margaret disappears (not literally, but she hides out.)
- Then, decades later, she decides to write a book.
Warning: if you say that this book is similar to Evelyn Hugo, you get accused of spoiling the book. What? Both books are about famous women who hire someone to write their autobiography. They are very different by the end.
but yes, having read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, my suspicions were quite HIGH that Alice was related to Margaret. and if not alice, then hayden.
When Hayden his mom was adopted… bingo.
But before anyone goes accusing anyone else of plot stealing, this is a common plot.
The Evelyn Hugo plot is VERY similar to a 1991 Nora Roberts book called Genuine Lies. Check the synopsis out: it’s about a movie star named Eve Benedict who hires a woman named Julia Summers to write her biography and tells her stories about her glamorous past. And guess who’s related? Sorry for the spoiler but the book has been out for over thirty years.
But I digress.
The crazy thing in Great Big Beautiful Life is that Margaret, one of the richest, most privileged woman around, a woman who loved her late husband deeply and was shattered by his tragic death, decides to give her baby up for adoption.
Why? So that the baby can experience a normal life.
WHAT?
I do believe there are reasons a mother might feel she needs to put a baby up for adoption, but Margaret:
- lord her husband deeply
- was not young and alone
- had all the financial resources in the world
- did not have mental health or substance abuse issues
- didn’t ANY issues in her life that would make raising a baby impossible
- could have even let her sister Laura, a recluse, raise her baby
- could have had privacy if she wanted. Look at Gigi Hadid! She’s pretty famous, had a baby with a guy from one of the most famous 2010s bands of all time, and is giving her daughter a quiet life in Pennsylvania. In privacy!
Make it make sense to me, because it didn’t.
Then it got worse…
As we all did, Alice figures out that Hayden is Margaret’s grandson.
When Alice realizes she can’t tell give the man she loves the answers he deserves she proceeds to say “f*ck the NDA.” She tells Margaret, “either you tell Hayden or I will.” And if Alice won’t, she does. Because Alice knows that a woman so publicity phobic that she GAVE HER OWN BABY AWAY is not going to sue her.
NOPE. I’m kidding. none of that HAPPENed!
No there is ANOTHER character who makes a decision I don’t understand.
Alice just … falls apart. That’s it.
First, she cries hysterically. Then she breaks up with Hayden with no explanation (poor Hayden). Then she falls on the floor crying. (Wow Alice way to make it all about you.) After that, she cries some more.
Me: what even?!?!?!?
Back to more Emily Henry characters who do things I do not understand. WHY DOES ALICE NOT SEE THAT THIS BOOK CLEARLY NEEDS HER TO MAKE THE CORRECT CHOICE HERE. Has this girl not hear of the GRAND GESTURE?
For me, this choice made the book fizzle into a pile of soggy kleenex and bad decisions.
Hayden does eventually find out and then they all seem to live happily ever after and Alice and Hayden have a baby together, whom they do NOT give up for adoption.
I think this epilogue may have annoyed some readers.
That wasn’t why the ending annoyed me. The book just “whatever-ed” Margaret giving her baby up AND showed Alice not standing up for Hayden. I do not accept this!
this is my other issue with the book
I think Hayden should be the main character. He’s Julia in the Nora Roberts book, he’s Monique in The Seven Husbands. He’s the one who felt out of place in his family. He’s the one who FINALLY got answers and met his grandmother, unbeknownst to him.
But we don’t see any of that. He doesn’t even get a POV.
The “all is lost moment” is Alice having Main Character Syndrome, making it all about her.
To me, this made the book feel lacking in emotional resonance. We need a moment to cheer for Alice. We need to empathize more with Hayden, who is a bit of a robotic character due to some nonsense about him feeling like an outcast in his family.
But you don’t have to agree with me. Maybe you loved Great Big Beautiful Life, and that’s great! If you did, tell me why I’m wrong in comments. (I didn’t hate it. But it felt OFF to me.)
