This is one of those novels that I quite enjoyed but also didn’t really have anything to say about so I simply kept pushing the review off.
As far as Emily Henry novels go, this one falls into the top half of them for me, maybe even top 3. It has a slightly different approach than her previous novels since it also has quite a few flashbacks: our main character Alice is interviewing famous tragic heiress Margaret Ives, trying to get the opportunity to tell Margaret’s life story. There is one other writer up for the job, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, Hayden. As an unknown, this chance could make Alice but how can she compete with Hayden?
The novel is basically a mix of novels like The Seven Husband Evelyn Hugo and a normal Emily Henry novel. Since I enjoy historical fiction and Emily Henry, the combination worked for me though I could see why others might not enjoy it as much (I could see why someone might view this as a lesser version of each of those two components and would prefer one or the other). With the split focus, it’s not quite as strong as a novel like Evelyn Hugo on the historical fiction side of things. I think the Alice-Hayden story works well, setting them up as two rivals/peers who keep bumping into each other and become friendly though I could also see why someone might want more focus there. That’s why it hasn’t knocked out my previous favorite from its slot though.
Still, I quite enjoyed the novel, the dive into Margaret’s history, and the fact that we still had time to get more into some of Alice’s issues, with Hayden being able to see her family dynamics and help her force a much needed conversation to create a better situation.
(Can I just say, if I were Emily Henry I would have been so irritated that right around the time this novel came out, the administration introduced the Big, Beautiful Bill – I am sure she didn’t appreciate that similar phrasing.)
