Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Stora vackra liv

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Stora vackra liv by Emily Henry

29 reviews

corriescorner's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

3.0

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

As a longtime Emily Henry fan, I was excited to pick up her latest novel.

“Great Big Beautiful Life” follows Alice Scott, a bright, young woman who is determined to put her name on the map by writing a biography for the elusive Margaret Ives, an heiress who has been in hiding for years. There is only one thing standing between Alice’s once-in-a-lifetime chance: Pulitzer Prize winning Hayden Anderson. Margaret has requested Alice and Hayden both compete to be the author of her biography by interviewing and getting to know her individually for a month. But Alice’s and Hayden’s attraction towards one another might be difficult for them to ignore, and a writing competition is not helping.

I picked this up not fully knowing the synopsis because it was Emily Henry, which is something I do like doing with authors I have historically enjoyed in the past. I do think the premise of this story would have intrigued me on its own if I just stumbled across this novel in the wild.

There was something incredibly off putting to me about Alice. I felt like her character was almost too resilient. Alice’s mother is not supportive of her career and is actually quite critical that Alice does not “do more”. This has lit a fire under Alice to write more and work harder. I think this is great, but I wish I saw more anger or grief from Alice that her family is so unsupportive of a really great life she is creating. Additionally, Alice is the type of character that can hear “no” a hundred times and she will still show up with a smile and a positive attitude thinking and believing today is the day you will finally say “yes”. I think resilience is important, and a really admirable quality, but there was something that felt too much to me.

Alice and Hayden definitely have some chemistry and a common interest, but I did not feel like their relationship was one hundred percent believable. Something about their situation felt too insta-lovey to me.

The story arch with Margaret went in a direction I was not expecting that I actually did enjoy. Margaret has a lifetime of secrets and I was on the edge of my seat learning them all. I feel like this story would have been better for me if it was a contemporary fiction that focused more on the Margaret plot line rather than a romance between Alice and Hayden.

I will still read Emily Henry in the future, and I would recommend this novel to someone with the right expectations.

Content Warnings

kshertz's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I love Emily Henry and this was no exception for me. I love the journalists falling in love and the old curmudgeon famous star that gets them to come to her so they can compete to write a book about her. It’s a sweet love story coupled with learning the older woman’s life story and it was delightful and kept me hooked. It’s not a 5 star because I didn’t like the ending but the rest was fantastic.

Content Warnings

kailiyahknight's review against another edition

3.0

emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

lilo000's review against another edition

3.75

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Enjoyable at the end. Got a little annoyed with who we were spending the most time with and who I found actually important. Odd to have 3 main characters written in this way. I did not appreciate the set up of "their version, her version." Still had some poignant moments and quality writing.

Content Warnings

amandacook417's review against another edition

5.0

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

merlesstorys's review against another edition

4.5

emotional inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I feel a lot of feelings about this book. For once, I read it in German but for most of the book, I listened to the audiobook and that one I really disliked. It felt really slow and dragged a lot without any markings when a new chapter or a history part began.

As soon as I started reading it with my eyes though, I really enjoyed the book again as I always (so far) did with Henry‘s books.

I really liked Margaret and the mystery surrounding Jodi, her mysterious housekeeper. Alice was a great narrator and main character, and her love story with Hayden was sweet and pretty convincing.

The history parts were partly my favorites, especially when I started reading the book and started to notice how the names were actually spelled after listening to them (I thought Gerald was spelled Darren ups) and all the plot twists wooing into them were just chefs kiss.

And just for fun, bc the public was comparing them: all in all I like Great Big Beautiful Life a lot more than The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, even though the plot twist in the end was pretty similar. Also The Last Great American Dynasty is my favorite Folklore song, so I was ecstatic when getting to know Henry wrote a book inspired by it and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

Content Warnings