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Great Big Beautiful Life

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Great Big Beautiful Life

Written by: Emily Henry
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
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About this listen

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 TimesRolling StonePeople ∙ Good Morning America ∙ NPR ∙ Vogue ∙ The Cut ∙ USA TodayCosmopolitanHarper's BazaarMarie 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.

©2025 Emily Henry (P)2025 Penguin Audio
Editors Select Women's Fiction

What the critics say

"Her best-selling romances have made her a new standard-bearer of the genre."—The New York Times


“Readers can count on Em-Hen to transport them to a kinder, sunnier, and funnier galaxy where happy endings can be counted on . . . Henry’s magic elixir, it seems, is to return again and again to a simple boy-meets-girl formula while writing textured novels populated with vivid characters that never feel formulaic: she takes us back to a time when we believed, with all our being, that love conquers all.”—The Boston Globe

“A sweeping love story about the choices we make and the threads that knit us together. Thoughtful, moving, and deliciously tender. Emily Henry is as captivating as ever. I love everything she does.”—B.K. Borison, New York Times bestselling author of First Time Caller

What listeners say about Great Big Beautiful Life

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

Love story was questionable and undeveloped - why did these two even like each other?
Normally don’t mind Julia Whalen but at the climactic moments she was talking so fast and nearly screaming - talk about unpleasant.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

amazing narration and story

So so so beautiful. Emily Henry writes magic and I’ll read anything she writes. She creates characters that feel like friends.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Another great EH novel, but not a romance.

Okay this is so different to the usual EH romance, and is more fiction than romance, but still so incredible.

This is giving the quintessential great EH characters, a spot of tension, high stakes job opportunity, and a lot of great prose.

Adore reading this, especially with how different it is than her usual romance. I’m not sure everyone will love this if they’re expecting the usual EH romance, but if you look at it objectively as fiction, I think you’ll really enjoy this.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!!!

Loved the story , loved the performance of the reading , I was engrossed in the story from beginning to end.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

another emhen banger

I have flip flopped back and forth between rating this 5 or 4 stars so (for now) I'm settling on a solid 4.5 stars.

Hayden & Alice.

I'm convinced that EmHen can't write a bad book. I favour some more than others, but she literally can't write a bad book. Her writing is incredible and so easy to get lost in. Add in the magic that is Julia Whelan's narration and I'm a goner. I think the reason I wanted to rate this book 5 stars was because of Julia Whelan's narration. But when I thought about the story more that's when I started considering more of a 4 star.

The story kept me captivated and interested. I went into this with the mindset that I might not like it as much as some of EmHen's other books because I knew she was taking a different approach. While it felt quite similar to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (which I didn't love) but with a side sub plot of romance, EmHen's writing and narration by Julia Whelan, I was blown away by how much I enjoyed it.

I know that this book focused less on the actual romance than her previous books, but I still loved Hayden and Alice enough for it to feed my desire for the romance plot. Would I have loved to dive deeper into their connection and story? Of course - I'm a romance lover forever and always, but I enjoyed the storytelling plot too.

I can imaging telling a story within a story is not exactly easy to execute and I think Emily did a fantastic job of navigating the different layers of this story. In true Emily Henry fashion, we didn't just navigate complex romantic relationships, but we also tackled difficult familial relationships as well.

The end of this book, when Alice reconnect with her mom had me sobbing. Nine times out of ten if I'm crying in a book it's NOT because of the romance plot and entirely because of some familial issue getting resolved. idk why but that's usually the case and this was no exception.

As is to be expected by an EmHen book, the title is misleading. The story within this story is about a Great Big Tragic Life more than anything. So take that as you will.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story and Emily taking a stab at something a little different, I LOVED the narration, and I might end up changing this rating back to a 5 star lol.

Julia Whelan is truly a god in the audiobook world. I will continue to opt to listen to emily henry's books over eyeball reading them just to listen to Julia.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it

1. Julia Whelan is an amazing narrator and her man-voice is one of my favourites.
2. This was like a mix between seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo & beach read and I was here for it!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Emily Henry and Julia Whelan are formidable

I adored this book. It was so beautifully written and narrated. A heartfelt gem

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

the narrator is A+

It's like an Emily Henry version of Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo...
I liked it, but honestly, the real MVP here was the narrator. the ending of this story is sad, and it's not exactly a miscommunication trope, but it's the same vibe to me.
Alice is out Sunshine, and Hayden is our Grumpy and they are the main story. Them competing to writing Margaret's life story is the subplot. How does one write a story when the subject is purposely leaving holes and telling half truths? Alice uncovers secrets and is forced into silence because of an NDA causing issues for her own love story.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Instantly hooked.

I got completely engulfed in the story. Loved everything about it. The performance was perfect. You can feel the emotion in the words.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

... meh

wasn't my fav of her stories, was too similar to Seven husbands.... right down to the obvious twist.

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