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valandthegianttbr 's review for:

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
4.0
emotional lighthearted fast-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

devoured this as i do all emhen books!!

but i fear with a body of work as large as hers, things are starting to feel a weeeeee bit too familiar?

i LOVED the non-romance part of this story. the small-town setting (our girl loves a small coastal town lol) was delightful & the unraveling of margaret’s life through stories tracing back centuries was just so interesting. i was really interested in the life in the public eye aspect & the familial/maternal/sisterly love elements were really resonating. it was very evelyn hugo but even more compelling imo!!

however the romance plot did fall a little flat for me :/ that was probably partially bc grumpy/sunshine isn’t my fav tripe but also bc it just felt wayyyy too similar to january x gus from beach read. i will not deny that emhen is a phenomenal romance writer (esp with her tastefully spicy scenes) but i think i’m ready to see her write something different than a mistrustful cynic of a mmc lol

overall a fab light read that still made me cry but middle of the pack in my ranking of emhen’s works!!