Alright Tokybook fam, grab your sun hat, your notebook, and maybe a glass of iced tea (or wine, no judgment) because Emily Henry is BACK with a story that’s as charming as it is emotionally layered. Here’s your full-feels, typo-laced, swoon-and-sass-filled audiobook review of Great Big Beautiful Life – a romantic literary mystery wrapped in gossip, legacy, and slow-burn tension so thick you could spread it on toast. 
Great Big Beautiful Life – Where Mystery Meets Memoir, and Enemies-to-Lovers Gets a Plot Twist of Its Own 
OKAY LISTEN—
Emily Henry has always known how to write messy, real people in love. But this book?? This one?
It’s Henry meets Gatsby meets Only Murders in the Building and I ate it UP. 
Two authors.
One legendary recluse with a story to tell.
And a very inconvenient attraction simmering beneath all the secrets.
Yes please.
Alice Scott: The Sunniest Girl in the Room
Alice is the kind of character you want to hug and follow into a bar fight.
She’s:
– Warm
– Hopeful
– Desperately trying to prove herself in a family of Type-A overachievers
– And just earnest enough to not be annoying
She walks into Little Crescent Island with open arms and a wide-eyed ambition—and immediately meets a storm cloud with a publishing deal. 
But don’t let the optimism fool you. Alice wants this story. And when Margaret starts dropping little emotional bombs disguised as anecdotes? Alice digs.
Hayden Anderson: Pulitzer-Winning Glare Machine
Hayden is:
– Grumpy
– Brilliant
– Probably in emotional witness protection
– And clearly not okay about Alice being here
But the more he glowers, the more he lingers.
And the more he lingers, the more you realize: he’s not immune to the sunshine.
And reader?? Neither are we.
He’s that classic “I hate you because I might actually like you” energy.
He’s editorial tension with a heartbeat.
And every scene between him and Alice??
Sharp.
Snappy.
AND SECRETLY LONGING.
Margaret Ives: The Mystery Herself
She’s the ghost of old Hollywood scandals.
The heiress turned tabloid headline turned vanishing act.
And now? She’s eighty-something and making two writers fight for the chance to tell her story—while telling them nothing.
She’s glamour and control.
And the way she doles out secrets??
Straight-up masterclass in manipulation. 
But beneath the theatrics? There’s grief. Shame. Truth. And a lifetime of regret wrapped in diamonds.
Her story is the mystery.
But so is why she’s finally telling it.
And to whom.
Audiobook Vibes – Julia Whelan Delivers, Again. Period.
Julia Whelan is a national treasure and she proves it again here.
She captures:
– Alice’s warmth
– Hayden’s brooding snark
– Margaret’s command and fragility
– And the layers in every conversation that sound harmless until you realize someone’s lying
This isn’t just a narration.
It’s performance with nuance.
And it brings the shifting tones of this book—comedy, heartbreak, romance, mystery—to life like only Whelan can.
Final Verdict – Who Tells the Story? And Who Gets Written In?
Great Big Beautiful Life is:
– A love story (maybe)
– A mystery (definitely)
– A coming-of-career-age novel for grown-ups
– And a layered look at how we choose the stories we tell—and the ones we hide
If you:
– Love enemies-to-lovers with real stakes
– Swoon for writers writing about writing
– Eat up complicated women, old secrets, and legacy drama
– Want Emily Henry at her most emotionally ambitious
Then baby, press play.
Sorry for the all caps, I was having feelings. Tokybook fam, Great Big Beautiful Life reminds us that the most beautiful lives are the messy, unedited ones—and sometimes the story you’re chasing is your own. 
#GreatBigBeautifulLife #EmilyHenryOwnsMe #WriterEnemiesToWriterLovers #TokybookGaspingAndBlushing #JuliaWhelanForever
