Ranking Emily Henry
From Great Big Beautiful Life to Beach Read
Have you felt that inexplicable joy in the air lately? That faint hum of collective serotonin? Wondered what it was? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Emily Henry has blessed us with Great Big Beautiful Life and honestly, the literary gods are smiling.
In honour of this sacred event, I’ve taken it upon myself to do what any sane, emotionally invested reader would do: rank every Emily Henry book I’ve read, because obviously, the world has been waiting with bated breath for my opinion.
But before I dive in, a quick disclaimer: I am terrible at ranking. These are all somewhere between 3.5 and 4.75 stars (except one... we’ll get to her). I love Emily Henry. I would read her shopping list. I would annotate her receipts. So, take any light criticism as gentle teasing from a devoted fan.
For context, here’s the order I read them in:
Book Lovers
You and Me on Vacation
Beach Read
Happy Place
Funny Story
Great Big Beautiful Life
Alright. Deep breath. Let the completely subjective chaos commence
Happy Place
Imagine a sun-drenched cottage in Maine, where everything smells faintly of salt and old secrets. Now add two exes pretending to still be wildly in love because they can’t bear to ruin their annual friendship getaway. Happy Place is about the people you’ve outgrown, the versions of yourself you’ve buried, and the one person you can’t stop orbiting. It's romantic chaos, laced with pain, prosecco, and impossible longing like trying to fix your life with a really good playlist and a shared bottle of wine.
I usually don’t love a dual timeline, it often feels like literary whiplash, but Emily Henry completely nailed it in Happy Place. Maybe it’s because I’m a total sucker for a well-drawn ensemble, and here, every friend felt like someone you’ve actually been on a group holiday with: the inside jokes, the unspoken tensions, the shared history that binds you tighter than you’d like to admit. I read this at a time when I was quietly realising I might be outgrowing my own friendship group, still saying yes to plans I didn’t enjoy because the idea of drifting apart felt far scarier than a weekend I didn’t want to be on. I truly related to Harriet, the people-pleasing, the internal chaos masked by keeping everyone else happy, and I think the added extra of the friends, the richness of their connections, made this my top Emily Henry book. What stuck with me most was the idea that change is both inevitable and essential. We all have our own “happy place” a person, a memory, a house by the sea but at some point, we have to let go of the past to make space for the person we’re becoming. It’s terrifying, of course it is. But also? It’s kind of thrilling.
Oddly enough, this ended up being my second-lowest ranked Emily Henry book and honestly, I have no idea what was going through my head. I gave it three stars?! THREE? This is the one I think about constantly. It lives rent free in the back of my mind like an ex I never quite got closure from. Maybe this is solid proof that I need to stop opening Goodreads the second I finish the last sentence and instead take a moment breathe, feel, reflect... maybe have a snack. Immediate post-book ratings are clearly just unhinged emotional knee-jerks.
Funny Story
When your fiancé leaves you for his childhood best friend, you don’t expect to move in with his new lovers ex but life’s weird like that. Funny Story is a heartache soaked, wine fuelled roommate comedy that turns into the kind of love story that sneaks up on you. It’s about finding new dreams when the old ones fall apart, and how sometimes the right person is the one who helps you laugh again over takeout and terrible TV.
I’ll be honest, the second I started picturing Miles as Dylan O’Brien, it was game over. Instant book boyfriend status. But it wasn’t just the smouldering vibes and emotionally repressed charm, Emily Henry built Miles and Daphne with such care and precision, layering their histories in a way that made them feel lived in and real. Their pasts weren’t just backstory; they were the scaffolding holding up who they’d become. And for once, I didn’t just fall for one main character, I adored both of them, which almost never happens in a romance novel. I also loved the notes from TJR of bringing back some side characters. Yes, it’s a love story, all fizzy tension and stolen glances, but it’s also a quiet, powerful tale of self-discovery about peeling back the layers, figuring out who you are when the dust settles, and learning how to want again.
Great Big Beautiful Life
When a famously secretive heiress invites you to her private island to compete for the rights to her scandalous life story, you don’t expect to end up in a slow-burn standoff with a brooding Pulitzer winner; but life is strange like that. Great Big Beautiful Life is a sun-soaked, secret-laced rivalry turned reluctant partnership that simmers with tension and longing. It’s about chasing big dreams, uncovering buried truths, and how sometimes the story you’re meant to tell isn’t the one you set out to write especially when there’s chemistry you can’t fact-check and a deadline that might just break your heart.
I finished this book last night and immediately felt that familiar, mournful ache, the kind that hits when you’ve fallen a bit in love with fictional people and now have to go back to your regular, non-novel life where no one speaks in perfect dialogue or kisses you mid-argument in the rain. It had echoes of Evelyn Hugo, the glamour, the mystery, the whisper of old Hollywood tragedy, which makes sense because that’s the book that lured me back into reading like a bad ex you can’t quit.
I didn’t connect to Alice the way I did with Nora or Harriet, but I wanted to sit next to her at dinner and say “I get it” when she talked about wanting your work to matter to people who simply... don’t get it. That longing for recognition from someone who can’t give it? That's a heartbreak of its own. And Hayden yes, he’s another one of those too-clever, too-brooding men who absolutely only exist in the heads of clever, brilliant women like Emily Henry. But I didn’t care. Their story made me believe in longing, in serendipity, in love that feels inevitable even when it makes no logical sense. The Margaret plot was slow at first (I did clock the twist by chapter twelve), but I’ll never not be a sucker for fictional starlets with tragic pasts and unreliable memories. This book felt like a departure a little mystery, a little melancholy, a little magic and I adored it. I already miss Alice and Hayden. I already want to read it again.
Beach Read
She writes happily-ever-afters. He writes literary misery. They’re both stuck in writer’s block purgatory and end up in neighbouring lake houses with too much backstory and just enough chemistry. Beach Read is the kind of romance that pulls you under like a rip current all unresolved tension, snarky debates, and late-night revelations. It’s about grief and cynicism and cracking open the hardest bits of yourself for someone who might just understand.
If I’m honest, Beach Read and Funny Story and now GBBL swap places in my rankings so often they may as well hold hands and share second place. Don’t be fooled by the title; Beach Read might be set in summer, but it gives big autumn energy. It’s cosy, a bit melancholic, and full of that back-to-school feeling where everything smells like possibility and emotional upheaval. It’s been nearly three years since I first met January and Gus, and I still blush like a teenager remembering their dates; the tension, the banter, the kind of chemistry that makes you want to throw your phone across the room in joy. As someone who dreams of going on a million first dates just for the stories, this one hit hard. Also, polar opposites falling in love? Inject it directly into my veins.
Book Lovers
Set in a town that feels like it was designed by Pinterest, Book Lovers flips the classic rom-com tropes and asks: what if the icy career woman doesn’t soften but finds someone who loves her because of her sharp edges? Nora and Charlie are all banter and big feelings and bookshop sexual tension. It’s a love story for anyone who’s ever been told they’re too much, too ambitious, too guarded, too in control and dares to ask: what if that’s exactly what makes you loveable?
Book Lovers was my gateway drug to Emily Henry the moment I realised she wasn’t just writing romance novels, she was writing me in paperback. I’d just bought a Kindle, drunk on the idea that the entire literary world now lived in my handbag, and then along came Nora. Sharp, driven, emotionally constipated the eldest sister who holds everything together until she quietly falls apart. I wanted to shake her, mostly because I saw every infuriating bit of myself in her. And don’t even get me started on Charlie. I swear to God, Logan Lerman cancel your plans and clear your schedule, because you are him.
You and Me on Vacation
Two best friends. Ten summers. One big, unspoken thing between them. This is the one that will hit you like a nostalgic sunbeam golden and a little sad. You and Me on Vacation is about the trip that changes everything, and all the ones that almost did. It’s warm and wistful, like finding an old holiday photo with someone you once adored. It’s also about timing and how it’s never, ever perfect, until suddenly, maybe, it is.
I definitely need to give this one a re-read, because right now? I just don’t get the hype. I checked my old rating and sorry Emily … I very harshly gave it 2.5 stars. It’s light, it’s quick, it’s got that easy rom-com rhythm... but it also felt a bit too predictable for me. I never fully brought into the idea that Poppy and Alex had been harbouring this deep, unwavering love for each other for years; it just didn’t quite land. SPOILER: You know that thing when two of your friends finally get together, but you sort of wish they hadn’t? Poppy’s antics went from endearing to exhausting. Instead of just saying how she felt, she spiralled into these big, chaotic gestures, and it started to feel like poor Alex was getting dragged through emotional whiplash in silence. Maybe I was just in the wrong mood (classic mood reader behaviour), so I’m giving it another shot soon. Watch this space, future me might be here grovelling in an update.
What is your favourite Em Hen Book?
About Twenty Five Reset
Hi, I’m Niamh, and everyone was right 25 really is a turning point. I finally know who I am, what I want, and my purpose… but it’s nothing like I expected.
I work in TV, but it doesn’t define me. This space is my reset embracing the mess, reflecting, and creating again. You can expect:
Pop Culture and a lot of chats about 2000 - 2020 TV Shows
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