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Looking for your next read? Welcome to Bazaar Book Chat, an inside look at our editors’ Slack channel, where we candidly review the latest literary releases.
Great Big Beautiful Life: Reese’s Book Club
$26.97 at amazon.com
Rosa Sanchez (senior news editor)
Hi @here, welcome to another Bazaar Book Chat. This April we read Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry, a story about the secrets we keep, the regrets we carry, and the things we do for love. First thoughts?
Sarah Olivieri (senior designer)
I have so much love for Emily Henry and her writing, but I can’t say this was a favorite of mine. A lot of characters and names to remember, not enough of the romance and a rushed “I love you” threw me off.
🫢2
Kristina Ang (social video coordinator)
This was my first Emily Henry novel, and I get it now. I get the hype now.
😂1
I feel the same about all of the character names @Sarah Olivieri.
Sarah Olivieri
I wanted a family tree, but obviously that would’ve given spoilers.
Kristina Ang
At one point, I wanted to take out my notebook and start writing down who was who.
😂2 ❗️1
Olivia Alchek (senior designer)
I would love to hear from first time Emily Henry readers, because I know Kristina said she was loving it and couldn’t wait to read more of her books, but this one felt VERY different from her past novels to me (which she even said when doing press for the book).
❗️1
OMG, a family tree would have been VERY helpful—it could have helped tie it back to the book within the book as well.
Joel Calfee (assistant editor)
This was also my first Emily Henry novel, and I didn’t TOTALLY love it, but I was having a good time.
💖1
Rosa Sanchez
This was my first one of hers too, and not to humble brag, but I read it in two sittings because I couldn’t stop once I opened it. That said, I did lose myself in some of the character story lines.
❤️4
Olivia Alchek
It was pretty wild reading this as a Hearst employee too, because it seems like Margaret’s family history was based on the Hearst family, no?
❗️1
Rosa Sanchez
The love story did feel rushed, and I needed more, BUT the steamy scenes took me back to high school.
❗️2 🔥1
Olivia Alchek
Like the mining, the publishing industry, etc.
Joel Calfee
It seemed SO related to Hearst.
Rosa Sanchez
OMG.
Sarah Olivieri
I did think it was interesting like all the real life references, the Kennedy plane crash, the Patti Hearst cult, the Diana car crash.
❗️3
Joel Calfee
The steamy scenes were good, and also did anyone get very strong Evelyn Hugo vibes from this book?
Olivia Alchek
I haven’t read that, but DEF need to because people love it!!!
Sarah Olivieri
OMG, yes! I said that to my sister too, Joel.
❗️1
Rosa Sanchez
Okay, so to quickly recap all this for the readers, our mains were Alice and Hayden, two writers who ended up in a Georgia island together thinking they were on a writing assignment about a rich and forgotten socialite (from a famous newspaper family), Margaret. Obviously (spoiler) the love story happens between Alice and Hayden, which I’m sure we all knew was coming, but the story is disguised as having Margaret as the protagonist.
What did you guys think about the development of Margaret’s story and everything we end up finding about her?
Olivia Alchek
As y’all know, I wrote a piece ranking all of Emily Henry’s novels, and I surprised even myself by ranking it second to last… I think I was expecting it to be more of an enemies-to-lovers arc between Alice and Hayden, but they seemed almost instantly attracted to each other, and the rivalry mostly went away, and became more of a will they/won’t they type arc.
❗️2
And I did root for them to be together, and I liked the characters individually, but their romance lacked the tension and passion that some of her other books tend to have, because the main focus was not just their relationship, but also Margaret.
I think I would find it hard to read in a longer period than like a month max, because all of the constant flipping between Margaret’s story (with her many family members) and Alice and Hayden’s—I would maybe lose track.
❗️1
Kristina Ang
That actually happened to me. I lost track a lot because I was opening and closing the book in between doing other things.
Rosa Sanchez
I do think Alice and Hayden’s love story, without the Margaret plot, would not have been enough.
👆3
Sarah Olivieri
I did like Margaret as a character, especially her love for her sister and her willingness to do anything for her.
💖2
Rosa Sanchez
At the end, I felt like she was kind of a red flag. Her constant lying kept things interesting, though. I was like will we EVER know her true story?
😂1
Sarah Olivieri
Fair.
Olivia Alchek
Totally!
Rosa Sanchez
We love a toxic storyline.
😂2
Joel Calfee
I think that’s what kind of made it fall a little flat for me. I’ve always heard such great things about Emily Henry romances, but I thought the romance aspect of this book was a little underwhelming. Meanwhile, I was gagged for Margaret the whole time and just wanted it to be focused on her.
😂3
Rosa Sanchez
HAHA
Joel Calfee
She was a capital D, DIVA! And we love to see it.
❤️2
Kristina Ang
I feel like you and Margaret would be great friends IRL @Joel Calfee
👆2 💖1
Rosa Sanchez
I was convinced Jody (the younger woman who lives with Margaret) was her lover until like the last 10 pages.
❗️3
Olivia Alchek
Okay, SAME.
Joel Calfee
ME TOO!
Sarah Olivieri
I always thought I wasn’t a second-chance romance person (maybe because I’m not in my own life, lol), but I like having context of why they just like each other so much already. Why is he yearning for her!!! Just because she’s attractive? No, I need levels of inside jokes and helping her when she’s hurt, lol.
💯2
Sarah Olivieri
I just was like oh you love her already???
Olivia Alchek
That’s a wild thing to say, Sarah, since Happy Place is your fave.
Sarah Olivieri
Do I need profession help?
👆1 😂2
Olivia Alchek
But agreed!
Sarah Olivieri
EXACTLY!! I know why they like each other in Happy Place. I see the yearn.
Olivia Alchek
We love yearning—intentional yearning.
Rosa Sanchez
I will say I bought into why Hayden was hot, but Alice’s constant grinning freaked me out. Like girl, chill, god.
😂2
Olivia Alchek
I pictured Alice like a young Lorelai Gilmore.
Joel Calfee
HAHA that description was so funny. He would be like, “You’re making that face again,” and I just couldn’t help but picture the actors from the Smile movies.
Kristina Ang
We need a movie adaptation ASAP.
Rosa Sanchez
In the end (spoiler!), we find out that Hayden is not just another writer competing for the role of writing Margaret’s book, but is actually much more intertwined with Margaret than anyone knew. Did you guys see the plot twist with Hayden coming?
Joel Calfee
I felt like I slightly saw the twist coming, but again, I think because of Evelyn Hugo.
Rosa Sanchez
I actually didn’t see any of the plot twists, like Hayden or Cecil, coming. I knew I was waiting for something, but the author really waited until the VERY end, which I think worked, because it kept me hooked.
💖2
Sarah Olivieri
I honestly didn’t see the plot twists coming either, but again, just because of the levels to this family tree. I was like, do the ages line up?
👆3
Olivia Alchek
Agreed! It made it more plausible that Hayden would be so worried by Alice’s reaction if she didn’t get the job.
Sarah Olivieri
I didn’t like Hayden just assuming he’d get it the whole time, though.
Olivia Alchek
I didn’t really take it as assuming, more like worrying… he didn’t feel cocky to me, and definitely respected Alice, which I love.
💯2
Olivia Alchek
I think though, Emily Henry shines in her writing. Even if this book didn’t grip me as much, she’s a beautiful writer and has a knack for a gorgeous metaphor and simile.
👆2
Kristina Ang
^^^
Sarah Olivieri
Agree 1000%
Rosa Sanchez
She’s very relatable, not to be confused for basic.
👆2
I know some people love like complicated writing, but sometimes you just want a good story.
💯2
Olivia Alchek
I think the author does a really good job at writing fast-paced books but without making it feel too wattpad or corny.
💯2
Rosa Sanchez
Did you have a fave storyline? I was obsessed with Margaret’s sister, Laura, and her cult.
Sarah Olivieri
I loved Margaret and Cosmo.
❤️3
THAT was the better love story to me. I would’ve read a whole book on them.
❗️2
Olivia Alchek
1000% cult. As soon as Alice introduced Margaret in the first chapter and briefly mentioned a cult, I was SAT.
Rosa Sanchez
Aww, Cosmo. But really why was his story so Princess Diana coded? No way that was unintentional.
❗️2
Olivia Alchek
Also, wearing your wedding dress to your husbands funeral is heart-wrenching.
💯3
Joel Calfee
The moment I was sold on Henry’s writing was in that early scene where Alice is describing the award-winning book Hayden wrote about the guy with Alzheimer’s. I had literally been spending the entire weekend with my grandma (who has dementia) and in that one page, as Alice is describing the format of the book… it was just so gorgeously written I started weeping, and I was like okay, Emily, POP OFF.
❤️3 🤍3
She has moments where her writing is just so real and relatable and it’s smart without seeming pretentious.
🤍4
Olivia Alchek
^YES exactly. I thought that was brilliant.
Rosa Sanchez
That was really heartbreaking
Kristina Ang
Awww, Joel.
Rosa Sanchez
We ❤️ you, JC!!
❤️4
Joel Calfee
Sorry to get emo, back to our regularly-scheduled programming!!!
💖4
Rosa Sanchez
Now that I’m thinking about the Princess Diana car crash situation and the Hearst family resemblance, I feel like Henry was trying to make us understand just how famous this family was and how hard they had it… through actual pop culture references we recognize.
❗️2
Olivia Alchek
Definitely, Rosa, I think it’s really hard to established fictional famous characters that feel believable or compelling, and she did a great job of that.
💖2
Olivia Alchek
I definitely encourage anyone who hasn’t read Henry’s other novels to continue reading more, because the rest of her books all have the tension, the can’t-put-it-down vibe, the kick-your-feet-and-giggle energy. Henry herself described this book as an outlier, and I get that she might want to try something different after churning out a book a year every year for five years.
❤️4
Kristina Ang
Will definitely be referencing your list, Olivia!
💖1
Joel Calfee
I’m definitely excited to read more of her novels!
Rosa Sanchez
Yeah, I’m gonna look into her now. I usually don’t like when writers write about being writers, but this was an exception, lol.
❤️2
Olivia Alchek
Pretty much every book she’s written has the characters in the literary world, except Happy Place. In Book Lovers they’re both rival editors, In Beach Read they’re both novelists, In People We Meet on Vacation Poppy is a Travel writer at a magazine and Alex is a teacher (i think English but i forget), In Funny Story, Daphne is a children’s librarian.
❗️2
Kristina Ang
I kind of love that.
Rosa Sanchez
Write about what you know, I guess.
❗️2
Sarah Olivieri
Please lmk if/when any of you finish the others, I can discuss her books all day.
Rosa Sanchez
Okay, for the longtime fans, what’s her best book?
❗️1
Sarah Olivieri
Happy place (personally). If I could only read one book for the rest of my life, it would be that. I couldn’t have loved it more.
👀2
Rosa Sanchez
High praise.
❗️1
Olivia Alchek
^that’s the lowest one on my list, which goes to show how different people’s opinions are!!!
Rosa Sanchez
Hahaha, dead.
Sarah Olivieri
It’s wild.
Joel Calfee
I’m screaming. I guess I’ll have to read them all!
Olivia Alchek
I only ranked it lower than Great Big Beautiful Life because i thought the love interest was annoying, lol.
I have Book Lovers at number one, but it’s honestly interchangeable with Beach Read. But I like going in order of pub date!
❗️1
Kristina Ang
Wow, so I guess we’ll just have to read all of them and make our own opinions.
Olivia Alchek
I own them all if anyone wants to borrow, lol.
Kristina Ang
Yes, please! Will be coming to you for some!
Rosa Sanchez
I’ve truly never seen people so excited about an author, it’s very interesting.
❤️3
Thanks so much guys, this was a fun one.
Olivia Alchek
Thank you!!!
Kristina Ang
Thank you!
Sarah Olivieri
🫶
Joel Calfee
This was so fun, everyone.
💖1
Our Bazaar Book Chat pick for May is Set Piece by Lana Schwartz. Pick up your copy of the book here, and read along with us.
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