How Spicy Is Emily Henry’s New Romance Book, Great Big Beautiful Life?

Emily Henry’s latest romance book, Great Big Beautiful Life, is one of her best so far – and it does get spicy, but how high does the heat go, and how does it compare to her previous novels? Great Big Beautiful Life is a rivals-to-lovers romance, set on Little Crescent Island in Georgia, where two writers, Alice and Hayden, will have to compete with each other to win a contract to write the life story of Margaret Ives, a complicated and long-missing heiress and tragic celebrity figure. It’s an ideal set up for a slow burn, as the two keep bumping into each other in a small town, and sparks fly as mysteries are unraveled in everyone’s lives.

As a romance, there are some things that are a given for Great Big Beautiful Life: Alice and Hayden will get their HEA, they will have at least one major source of conflict on the way to it, and there will be, at minimum, some making out along the way. However, romance can run the gamut from chaste kisses to closed-door, all the way to fully explicit (and detailed) sex scenes. And while all styles of romance have their place in the genre, it’s always a good thing to know what a reader can expect from a new book (and how distracting it might be to read in public!).

Great Big Beautiful Life Has Some Heat – But It Doesn’t Get Too Detailed

Fade-To-Black Spice Mixes With Some More Explicit Moments

Because Great Big Beautiful Life is a slow burn, you would be forgiven for thinking that it may have less spice in it than some other romance – and you would be very wrong. Despite the fact that Alice and Hayden agree that they absolutely should not sleep together while they are in competition for a job, they struggle to keep their hands off each other. As the book goes on, they find themselves inching ever closer to spending the night together, and pushing the limits of their self-imposed rules… which leads to plenty of spicy scenes to enjoy, even before the dam finally bursts for the pair.

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Throughout these scenes, Henry does an excellent job of bringing the heat while keeping the focus on the physical and emotional feeling, rather than too many details about the acts themselves. The book wouldn’t count as closed-door (the door is most definitely open, or occasionally, entirely lacking, because they are having their moment on a beach!), and it’s not quite fade-to-black, but is definitely not at the intensely explicit level of description that some romance books attain.

Overall, the focus is on the relationship, the push-pull of desire, and the way they feel. It’s not euphemistic – correct and appropriate words are used, when necessary, but Henry does an excellent job of writing tense and sexy scenes without relying too heavily on the mechanics. Protection is mentioned and explicitly used, and the sex is comfortably vanilla (without ever being boring), which works perfectly for the characters and the style of the novel as a whole.

How Does Great Big Beautiful Life Compare To Emily Henry’s Other Books?

Fans Can Expect The Same Kind Of Spice

Great Big Beautiful Life is comparable to Emily Henry’s previous romance novels, and (unsurprisingly) uses the same kinds of language in sex scenes. While the structure of the book is something of a departure for her, the spice remains largely the same, so existing readers will know exactly what to expect with this new offering.

Like many of her previous books, the set up also means that the main couple take a while to really get things going, and as usual, tension and banter are the biggest element for most of the story. Rivals to lovers is not a new trope for Henry, as it was also the focus for Beach Read (2020) and Book Lovers (2022), and several of her other books use elements like fake dating to set up a couple who aren’t racing toward the bedroom from the start. If anything, the spice feels slightly dialed up in quantity, but almost imperceptibly, and as always, the delicious emotional journey is always the focus.