Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Stora vackra liv

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Stora vackra liv by Emily Henry

29 reviews

fanboyriot's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Borrowed this from Libby twice before actually trying to finish it. I like most of Emily Henry’s books but I could not get into this one at all. The romance lacked and I don’t think the plot was interesting enough on its own. It really gave off similar vibes to “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and it was just disappointing.

Read For

✓ Slow Burn

✓ Summer Read

✓ Contemporary

✓ Rivals to Lovers

✓ Reporter Interview

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

Spice Level: 🌶️

Sad Level: 💧

Plot: 2/10

Pace: 2/10

Ending: 4/10

Characters: 3/10

Enjoyability: 2/10

Writing Style: 2/10

Would I Recommend? No

Favorite Character: n/a

Favorite Quote: ❝Just because something doesn’t make money or win awards doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value.❞

POV: Duel, First Person

Pages: 432

Format: Audiobook

Language: English

Release Date: 22, April 2025

Content Warnings

ravensis's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional 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: No

Content Warnings

angelfireeast24's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful 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: Yes

The books tranforms in the final quarter. I found the romance secondary in this book. Margaret's story was all I wanted to know. The

twist

at the end was wonderful and change the book up a star rating but

I wish we had gotten to know more about Margaret and Hayden's relationship. Did Nadine ever forgive her bio mother and let her in? The book build up Margaret's story and I wanted to know this key part.

Content Warnings

mgclayton's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective 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: Complicated

Slow first three chapters, but part of ending made me cry

Content Warnings

vic_and_twisted's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A sweeping Old Hollywood love story that would dazzle fans of Evelyn Hugo, nestled within a frame narrative about what it's like to fall in love and give only half of yourself, Great Big Beautiful Life is a sprawling look at all the types of family dysfunction you could possibly have, and all the different kinds of love that come out of it. You think you've guessed right and you haven't. GBBL is also a damning portrayal of celebrity culture and the way obsession can cost lives. But it's still a love story, I promise.

Content Warnings

shiradfrankel's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

mommapajama83's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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: Complicated

This is my second Emily Henry book and while I really did not enjoy Beach Read, I love this. It was sad and emotional. It was hard to follow the family tree at times, that was a bit difficult. I often tell my sister I wish books would all have the character explanations in the front of the book like the original American Girl books.

I enjoyed the main love interests and how they actively worked through problems and worked to understand and apologize with each other. Their issues seemed more grounded in logic versus narrative contrivances. They were not able to talk to each other about certain things due to

the NDA's they sign.

They penultimate issue

again being afraid of legal threat and also not telling a love one something like that would destroy the relationship slowly over years.

I was also quite moved by the parental relationship with the main female character and her mother. I loathed the mother. She made me so angry.

Then I actually forgave her. Her reasons were not great and she screwed up but they made sense in some way versus actually being apathetic to your child's passions and work.

Margaret and the story she told were so interesting and heartbreaking.

I genuinely convinced myself there would be a happy ending for her. I get upset thinking about how there really wasn't one.

You can have all the money in the world but be barred away from love and happiness by that same money.

And Julia Wheylan, when she read Margaret in a moment of seething anger, her voice gave me chills. She sounded genuinely scary. She did a great job on the audiobook.

Content Warnings

sangsmiles's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

As always with Emily Henry, I read this within a day. Best summer vibes, loved this tiny island and all its weird characters. I also think she should explore more genres in the future because the Margaret Ives story was brilliant! Overall, I really enjoyed reading this.

My only issue would probably be that the stories together felt too tight. I'd rather have had one or the other expanded on, but this way was a bit squashed together, especially the last third.

I liked Alice and Hayden (more Hayden) and loved some of the romantic moments, but the main connection felt underdeveloped, which is not what I'm used to with Emily Henry.

(Also, while I'm here, why did they wait so long to have sex? Especially after doing all the other stuff that was basically sex? I'm baffled.)

That said, falling in love within two weeks is very Ives of Hayden, I rate.

Content Warnings

sunflower_13's review against another edition

3.0

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

The concept was super intriguing but I felt I didn’t really like the characters as much as I wanted to. Felt too drawn out at parts but all in all not a bad book.

Content Warnings

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

3.25

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book felt like it was trying to be two books at once. It was trying to be a bit of both a literary mystery and a contemporary romance book. The two didn’t weave that well together, however.

I hated all the edging the author did with the MC’s sexual relationship. I think she was trying to keep it from being “too spicy” for her readers, but still spicy enough. However, it just got frustrating. I get the building anticipation of them having intercourse, but it just took too long!

I liked most of the characters, all the townspeople, Cecil and Margaret especially, though others not as much, looking at you, Alice, and especially her mom, and Theo.

Overall, it was a decent book. Mostly, the structure just didn’t work for me. As well as the drawn-out nature of the MCs’ relationship, and their admitting their feelings and desires.

Narrator Rating: 4.75 stars

I wish they’d gotten someone else to narrate the section of the book that was supposed to be part of the biography. Julia Whelan is wonderful and did an amazing job, however, I feel like having dual narration would have been better for the two intertwined sections of the book.

Elements

Heartfelt-💔💔💔

Horror- N/A

Love aka Romance- 💋 💋 💋 💋 & 1/2

Predictability-🔮 🔮 🔮

Spice- 🌶 🌶 🌶

Tear- 😭 & 1/2

Thrill- N/A

Humor- 😜 😜 & 1/2

Content Warnings

More...