A Great Big Beautiful Book
Ranking Emily Henry’s romance novels
I love Emily Henry’s work, and her new novels are always on my must-read list. But her books can be tinged with deep sadness, and I’m not always up for that. Happily, her latest is a funny slow burn with lots of sizzle and a supremely sunny narrator. It’s my favorite of hers so far, and that got me thinking about how I’d rank her books.
New favorite: Great Big Beautiful Life
The truest proof of Emily Henry’s writing talent is that she can take a trope or story structure I don’t like and make me love it. Her latest book, Great Big Beautiful Life, cuts between the love story of two writers vying for the same gig writing the biography of a reclusive heiress and the story of that heiress’s life, as told to the narrator, Alice Scott. Normally, I’d be annoyed to be taken out of the love story—that’s what I’m here for, duh—and, at first, I was.
But I soon got caught up in Margaret’s story, in the tragedies of being rich and dysfunctional, which Henry manages to humanize. And, while the settings are rich in all of her books, the small island off the Georgia coast was its own character, lending heat and humidity to the budding relationship between Alice and Hayden.
The truth is, this book sat in my TBR pile for quite a while as I both dreaded and looked forward to it. I knew I’d be drawn in once I started because Henry is that good a writer, but I wasn’t sure if I’d like the ride or be annoyed at my inability to get off. I really, really liked this ride. It’s a beautiful book.
- Humor level: mildly amusing
- Spice level: open door, 3 out of 5
- Tropes: enemies to lovers, deception, slow burn, sunshine grumpy
Second place: Book Lovers
The thing that got me about Book Lovers was the banter between the main characters, publishing professionals, and former rivals working together to help an author get a new book out. This one was so funny I laughed out loud, and if the narrator starts out a bit stiff, it’s a delight to watch her learn to love herself just as she is.
Third place tie: Funny Story and Beach Read
Funny Story has a great setup: woman gets dumped by her fiancée shortly before their wedding so he can reunite with his high school sweetheart and ends up living with the man dumped by said high school sweetheart. Very funny, lovely arc as two brokenhearted people find something better and truer together.
Beach Read is an enemies-to-lovers story (my favorite) that has the narrator rethinking assumptions, both about her past and about the boy she thought hated her in college. It’s sweet, funny, and, of course, very bookish. As a writer, I loved the parts describing the narrator’s writing process.
I think both of these books hold a special place in my heart because they’re set near the shores of Lake Michigan. It’s a part of the country I have a fond attachment to, so there’s a personal pull for me here.
Fourth place: People We Meet on Vacation
People We Meet on Vacation was the first Emily Henry book I read, and I loved it at the time. It has moved down my list behind some of her more recent books, largely because of the story structure. While arranging the chapters of the main characters’ past in nonchronological order is a tour de force, it’s also something that’s worn thin for me. I’m not fond of the sense of doom hanging over the book as it works toward the big split between the long-time friends.
Still, it’s a great book, you should read it, and I can’t wait to see the movie.
Last place: Happy Place
Happy Place has all the hallmarks of an Emily Henry book: vibrant and funny supporting characters, meticulously drawn setting. But the narrator in this second-chance romance is so unhappy for so much of the book that it really brought me down. Give me a relentlessly optimistic character like Alice Scott in Great Big Beautiful Life over a pessimist any day.
What’s your favorite Emily Henry book?
Or your least favorite. Let me know in the comments.
