Alice Scott is invited to write the biography of Margaret Ives, a recluse who happens to be the heiress of one of the most talked-about families of the 20th century. But when Alice arrives to start her interview, she discovers that Margaret has also invited Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hayden Anderson to also pen her biography. She informs the two that they will be competing against each other, and they will have one month to meet and talk with Margaret, after which Margaret will decide which of them will tell her story.
The last couple of books I’ve read by Emily Henry have not been my favorites, so I was a little hesitant going into this book. I ended up liking this story and the characters, and I thought the two stories in one was done very well.
This book reminded me a lot of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, only it was better. The way that Alice interviewed Margaret and interspersed her story into the book was a lot like the format of the Evelyn Hugo book. I was not a huge fan of Evelyn Hugo, so it was nice to see this story be told in an interview format and have it be something I enjoyed reading. I liked both Margaret’s story as well as Alice and Hayden’s.
This is definitely a grumpy/sunshine book. At times, I felt like Alice was a little too cheerful and Hayden was a little too grumpy. I kept wondering what would happen to bring these two together. If I had to nitpick something about this book, it would be that their romance almost came out of nowhere. We only get Alice’s point of view, so it does seem like Hayden goes from hating Alice to loving her super quick. I would have liked more character development on his side.
As usual, the writing was amazing. Emily Henry has such a way with words, and if I ever found someone who talked to me the way that Hayden talks to Alice, I might swoon.
My other nitpick – I have to wonder how tall Emily Henry is because Alice is 5’9 and is constantly talking about her and Hayden bumping knees when they sit across from each other. As someone who is taller than Alice, I have never had trouble sitting across from anyone, so I’m just curious where this little plot point came from.
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i enjoyed this one as well. Nice review!
Thanks! It was a good book!