Great Big Beautiful Life is the 2025 novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry, published by Berkley Books (Penguin Random House) on April 22, 2025. Selected as a Reese's Book Club pick, it debuted at number one on the New York Times fiction bestseller list and became the top national fiction bookseller upon release.

The story follows Alice Scott, an eternal optimist chasing her big writing break, and Hayden Anderson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who are both summoned to the balmy fictional island of Little Crescent in Georgia. Their shared mission: to interview the elusive octogenarian Margaret Ives — former heiress, tragic tabloid princess, and scion of one of the twentieth century's most storied and scandalous families — and compete for the right to tell her biography. Margaret will spend a month speaking to each of them separately, then choose who tells her story. Bound by ironclad NDAs that prevent them from sharing what they've learned, Alice and Hayden must each piece together Margaret's truth alone — even as an undeniable pull between them complicates everything.

Weaving a sweeping multigenerational saga through the Ives family dynasty with a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, the novel blends contemporary fiction with historical fiction elements. It spans multiple decades through the rise and fall of a media empire inspired by real-world dynasties like the Hearsts, and draws on the Taylor Swift song "The Last Great American Dynasty" as a creative touchstone. Kirkus Reviews describes the Alice-and-Hayden romance as a "delightful slow burn," and Publishers Weekly called the book a "stunner."

The hardcover edition is 432 pages. An audiobook edition read by Julia Whelan is also available, running approximately 12 hours and 3 minutes. Emily Henry is also the bestselling author of Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation, Book Lovers, Happy Place, and Funny Story.