Emily Henry

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.

Great Big Beautiful Life

“even if I didn't get mine as long as I wish I could have, I still feel lucky." "You're not obligated to," he says quietly. "You can feel cheated, Alice." 

He tried so many points in his life, he tried to codify what it was that made his father detest him. Or what exactly about Gigi and his mother drew out that small, soft smile on his father's lips.

He ran one hand over her mousy blond hair, and he looked at her closely for the first time and saw that she could be beautiful. That all it took was looking long enough, close enough, and he was ashamed that he hadn't. 

“If either of us doesn't give this our all, we'll regret it. And then we'll resent each other for it. And I don't know if I can handle being the one person on the planet Alice Scott doesn't like."

It's not dissimilar to why I started writing, or why I still do it. Not just the pursuit of some clinical truth, but the need to understanda person, make sense of what's at their very core, closest to their heart. To present that, clearly, truthfully, and to preserve it.

Love isn't something you can cup in your hands, and I have to believe that means it's something that can't ever be lost.

Under his breath, nearly a whisper, he says, "I think if I get this job, you're going to break my fucking heart."

The truth was, Margaret wasn't sure she knew precisely what love was. Sometimes she lay awake late at night, thinking about the word until it came apart like little bits of alphabet soup, the letters drifting off in opposite directions and the meaning lost somewhere in the gaps.

“Tell me something no one knows about you” 

“I’d marry you, Peggy lves, if all you had to your name was a gunnysack and a can of corn."

Great Big Beautiful Life quotes

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