Get ready to swoon for the cover of Emily Henry's new novel, Great Big Beautiful Life
If you were a fan of Taylor Swift's "the last great american dynasty," Emily Henry has a romance novel for you. On Wednesday, the author revealed the cover, synopsis, and Swiftie song equivalent of her upcoming novel Great Big Beautiful Life. Henry's sixth romance hits shelves on April 22, 2025, and promises to continue the author's hot streak of New York Times bestsellers.
Henry previously teased that the book "is different than anything I’ve written before," but don't worry, GBBL has some classic EmHen elements that are sure to delight fans. Much like her beloved book Beach Read, this novel follows two writers: Alice Scott, "an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break," and Hayden Anderson, "a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud." According to the synopsis (via People), "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." Ives, the "tragic heiress, former tabloid princess and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century," gives both writers a one-month trial period to compete for the opportunity to be the sole author of her story.
Emily Henry's Great Big Beautiful Life cover, courtesy Penguin Random House
Alice decides to stay in the competition because "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." And 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."
Are you sensing that delicious enemies-to-lovers magic, book lovers? But like all of Henry's novels, there's more to the story than the romance. In fact, it's about the story itself and the perspective from which it's told that becomes central to Alice and Hayden's experience: it becomes "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.”
Henry has become one of—if not the—biggest literary sensations of the 2020s. All five of her previous romances (Beach Read, People We Meet On Vacation, Book Lovers, Happy Place, and Funny Story) have topped the New York Times bestseller list and have all been optioned for film and television adaptations. People We Meet On Vacation, starring Tom Blyth and Emily Bader, is currently in production; Happy Place is being adapted as a series for Netflix by Jennifer Lopez's production company. Meanwhile, Henry herself is branching out beyond publishing to write the script for the adaptation of Funny Story.
"Like I’ve been telling you, this book is a little bit different, though still very much a love story (and a romance, to be clear), and I do know I say this every time, but I’ve genuinely never been more nervous to share something with you," Henry wrote in her newsletter (while also elaborating on the novel's "overlap" with Swift's folklore track). "Writing this book consumed me, tore me up, and challenged me like nothing has in years. It felt like the right book for me at the moment, and I hope that means that some of you reading this will feel the same way when the time comes."