Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily HenryMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Alice Scott is a journalist, aspiring to write memoirs. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist who has written one of the most inspiring and well-known memoirs in recent years. They are both on Little Crescent Island off Georgia in order to interview Margaret Grace Ives, the tabloid princess and media empire heiress who has at last decided to tell her story since she is in her 80s. They each get to spend a month interviewing her and at the end she will decide who will write the book.
In typical Emily Henry fashion, the work enemies/friends/lovers trope is the strong point of this book. She is known for her witty dialog and romance scenes, and she doesn't disappoint. Alice is the eternal optimist while Hayden is brooding and aloof. They keep running into each other on the small island, a friendship develops which soon turns to romance. Although I think that the pacing of their romance seemed rather rushed, probably because she focused so much on the memoir writing story line.
The larger part of the story revolves around Margaret's telling of her family story, starting in 1830, overshadowing the delightful Alice / Hayden story. Margaret's messy family drama was too far-reaching and had too many characters to keep track of. At some point, I just lost interest in this story line. A family tree at the beginning of the book would have been helpful.
Based on the overall book, I would have given it only 3 stars. However, because it's Emily Henry and the Alice / Hayden story is so wonderful and full of her incredibly witty dialog and romance, I'm elevating it to 4 stars. Don't call it a mystery, Emily. The only mystery is why you chose to take a left turn with this book when you should have stuck with what has worked for you in the past five books!
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