February '26 Book Pick: Great Big Beautiful Life
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February is the perfect time for a story that explores connection alongside ambition, and love alongside competition. Great Big Beautiful Life captures that tension beautifully, asking what happens when desire, timing, and storytelling begin to overlap—making it a fitting February Book Pick.
A Story Told in Fragments, Across Time
On Little Crescent Island, Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson arrive with the same goal: to write the biography of the elusive Margaret Ives. Alice is earnest, hopeful, and still reaching for the professional moment that might finally quiet her self-doubt. Hayden is accomplished, guarded, and carries the weight of his reputation. Both are invited into Margaret’s world for a one-month trial, at the end of which she’ll choose whose version of her life will be told.
What gives this story its shape—and its quiet tension—is the way Margaret controls the narrative. She offers Alice and Hayden different fragments of her life, pieces drawn from different moments in time and protected by an NDA that keeps those stories from ever being compared. As the novel moves between past and present, it becomes clear that no life unfolds in a straight line; it shifts depending on perspective, timing, and who is listening closely enough to hear what’s left unsaid.
As Alice and Hayden circle one another through competition, proximity, and an undeniable emotional pull, the story becomes less about uncovering a single truth and more about authorship itself. Who gets to tell a story? Who gets believed? And what do we reveal—or protect—when we’re asked to tell someone else’s life while still trying to understand our own?
Why Great Big Beautiful Life Is Worth the Read
What I love most about Great Big Beautiful Life is how thoughtfully it engages with storytelling. This isn’t just a romance or a professional rivalry—it’s a novel about interpretation, legacy, and the quiet power of withholding. Margaret Ives sits at the center of the story like a prism, her life refracted differently depending on which version we’re allowed to see.
There’s also a warmth here that feels distinctly Emily Henry. Her signature wit softens heavier moments without undercutting them, and the dialogue carries both emotional precision and self-awareness. The tension doesn’t rely on spectacle; it builds through conversation, silence, and the slow accumulation of meaning.
The dual timelines add depth rather than distraction. Watching Margaret’s past unfold alongside Alice and Hayden’s present-day negotiations creates an emotional resonance that deepens the story’s central questions about ambition, love, and timing. Everyone here wants to be understood—and everyone is, in some way, afraid of being seen too clearly.
This is a book that’s easy to read but quietly demanding in the best way. It invites reflection long after the final page, asking us to consider how stories are shaped, who shapes them, and what remains unsaid even in the most carefully told lives.
About the author
Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Funny Story, Happy Place, Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation, and Beach Read. She studied creative writing at Hope College, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.
Find more about Emily ON HER WEBSITE
Book Club Discussion Questions
- When you first stepped onto Little Crescent Island, what mood wrapped around you—sun-drenched hope, quiet rivalry, something bittersweet? And did that atmosphere shift as secrets began to surface?
- As the story unfolded, where did your attention naturally settle: the simmering romance, the sharp-edged competition, Margaret’s mysterious past—or the subtle longing threaded through it all?
- The novel moves between past and present like overlapping tides. How did that structure deepen (or complicate) your emotional connection to the characters?
- At the start, whose side were you instinctively on—Alice’s or Hayden’s? And did the story ever make you question that loyalty?
- Where did you feel the strongest emotional friction: love vs. ambition, truth vs. performance, vulnerability vs. pride—or somewhere more unexpected?
- Margaret tells her story in fragments, withholding as much as she reveals. Did those gaps make you lean in closer—or did they make you question everything?
- Emily Henry blends wit with emotional ache. Which scene felt the most alive to you—where the humor sparkled, and the heart quietly cracked open?
- Who truly holds the power in this story—Margaret, Alice, or Hayden? And do you think they use that power fairly?
- Seeing Margaret’s past unfold alongside Alice and Hayden’s present creates a mirror effect. What parallels struck you the most?
- Was the pursuit of love worth the professional risk in this story? Would you have made the same choice?
- Were there moments when you wished a character would say or do something differently?
- This novel wrestles with authorship and perspective. Did it change how you think about who gets to tell a story—and whose version becomes the “official” one?
- At different points, did this feel more like a romance, a character study, or a meditation on storytelling? Did it resist being just one thing?
- When you reached the final pages, what emotion stayed with ou the most: hope, tenderness, ache, possibility?
- If this book leaves you holding one quiet question about love, ambition, or timing… what is it?
Find More Details about Great Big Beautiful Life on the Book Page
Reading Great Big Beautiful Life feels like hearing voices echo across time—each one partial, each one true in its own way. It’s a thoughtful novel about love, ambition, and memory, reminding us that timing shapes everything and that no single story ever tells the whole truth.
