Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

I’m not sure what inspired me to add Great Big Beautiful Life (Berkley Hardcover, April 2025, 432 pages) by Emily Henry to my holds shelf in Libby, but I did, and after waiting quite some time, I was finally able to download a copy to read on my Kindle, my now preferred format for reading—even though I used to be a devout paper-only type of reader.

Perhaps I put it on my TBR list because it is about two writers, and I am finally comfortable with calling myself a writer, after successfully being paid to write for several well-known outlets like HuffPost, AARP The Girlfriend, Business Insider, and more. Perhaps it was the southern setting, a charming coastal town, lots of talk of coffee and pastries, or the bright and colorful cartoonish cover. Perhaps it was because it kept popping up in social media on the bookish accounts I follow.

There were things I liked about this book. I liked Alice, the female main character. I loved her positive attitude (even if there was something a bit dark behind it). I liked Hayden, the male main character, although his transformation was to me a bit out of character. I liked Margaret – a little bit less – who sets the whole plot into motion. I liked the fact that Alice had a great support group of friends and co-workers whose group chats kept reminding Alice of the right and wrong things in her life. I’d also like to rent out Margaret’s Georgia home (and backyard pool and pool house) for my next family vacation! I can handle the mosquitos, heat, and humidity. I am from Louisiana after all.

But, there were also things I didn’t enjoy about this book. I love generational sagas, but I’m not sure I like them thrown into a romance novel. In fact, I am pretty sure I just don’t like romance as a genre. And, this book is definitely a romance. More on this later.

Like many reviewers on Goodreads, I thought this book tried to do too much and got muddled along the way. It could have been a serious take on Old Hollywood, the pitfalls of fame and fortune, and how money can’t buy you love. It could have been a novel that focused on the sacrifices sometimes required to achieve personal or professional goals, about lost opportunities. It could have been a book about the difficult relationships adults sometimes have with their parents, and how those relationships may affect other relationships along the way. But it shouldn’t have been a book about all of those. Seriously, it could have been just a love story, just a romance, just a enemies to lovers story, without the weight of everything else thrown in on top of it.

I liked the beginning and I loved the ending, but the middle kept making me avoid picking up the book to read more. Several things were telegraphed clearly but the twist at the end really threw me. As they say, I did not see that coming. Even with the strong ending, I still felt my *** was a fair rating—for me.

As for the romance part, I think 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ is also fair—for me. Too spicy for me, and I should have known this had I taken a look at my Goodreads list of books for 2023 when I read another book by Emily Henry, Happy Place (Berkley First Edition, April, 2023, 400 pages) and I noted the spiciness (to me) of that book as well.

I know there are lots of people who enjoy that level of spice in a romance, but I guess I am just not one of them.

The internet tells me that Emily Henry is the GOAT of romance writers, and that she has written FIVE best sellers in FOUR years. Each and every one of her books has been or is being adapted for either the big screen or a streaming platform. She obviously is a good writer who knows her primary audience and delivers to them exactly what they want. That’s the beauty of the book world, not every book is for everyone, but one thing is for sure, there is a book for everyone! Happy reading, everyone!