Once again, Emily Henry’s new novel has hit the shelves and placed itself on every romance lover’s TBR. With her debut adult romance novel, Beach Read, being released in 2020 and gaining popularity across social media, her name has become one of the most renowned and well-loved in the romance genre. She has an impressive way of combining a simple romance story with dynamic characters, and her latest release Great Big Beautiful Life is no exception!
Great Big Beautiful Life, set in a small town in the US, follows the two writers Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson who compete to tell the story of mysterious heiress Margaret Ives. They are both given a one-month trial period for Margaret to decide who will write her biography, with the tension between them increasing day by day. The novel, reminiscent of Taylor-Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, combines romance with delving into the story of a woman who has been wrongfully presented by the media.
Henry’s novels have become an iconic staple among the romance genre, with Beach Read, Book Lovers, You and Me on Vacation, Funny Story and Happy Place all receiving praise for their compelling storytelling and realistic characters that the genre sometimes lacks. With fans of Henry all having their own contrasting rankings of her novels, it is evident that she provides something for every reader. Personally, I was introduced to Henry through her novel Beach Read and every novel I read of hers makes me fall in love with her characters and her refusal to shy away from realism more. Don’t let the talk of realism fool you though, her novels have their fair share of typical romance book tropes and endings that’ll leave you begging for another novel.
For those familiar with book tropes, the romance between Alice and Hayden contains grumpy/sunshine (think Luke and Lorelai from Gilmore Girls) as well as the popular rivals to lovers. Alice is, as stated by Hayden, “‘the least cynical person”’ he has ever met and is written to be extremely understanding and generally a people-pleaser. However, Hayden is introduced as the typical pessimistic male love interest. Although Henry loves to include elements of typical romance stereotypes through her novels, both main characters are shown to be more complex than they seem.
Whilst Henry is mostly known for her romance, she regularly explores themes of mental health and grief. Prior to the novel, it is expressed that Alice lost her father, with her constant state of grief being depicted throughout the novel. It has the perfect blend of a focus on Alice’s experience with her grief whilst trying to reevaluate and navigate her new life, showing the complexity of grief and its long-term effect.
Overall, if you’re looking for a romance novel that combines genuinely likeable but complex main characters with a cheesy romance plot – you’ve found it.
Words by Ella Clarke
Want more Books content from The Indiependent? Click here