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Taylor Swift Announces 256-Page Eras Tour Book: All the Details
Warning: Spoilers for the novel Great Big Beautiful Life ahead.
All along there were some invisible strings tying Taylor Swift to Emily Henry’s latest novel.
And not just because she’s a massive Swiftie. Like its predecessors, Great Big Beautiful Life (out now) is a captivating rom-com, following Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson as they compete to become the official biographer of now-reclusive media heiress Margaret Ives. But this time, Henry adds a third central figure in the form of the beguiling 20th century tabloid queen, who holds not only the young duo’s professional fates but also their chance at a future together in her hands.
Crafting Margaret and more than a century of her storied family’s history—dating back to the Gilded Age—was no simple task for Henry, who sought inspiration in several real-life figures. Among them, socialite Rebekah Harkness, whose life and controversies Swift details in “Last Great American Dynasty.”
“I love that song, and love the story behind it,” Henry told E! News in an exclusive interview. “Every once in a while I find myself back on the Wikipedia page, just reading through. I just find those kinds of larger-than-life families really, really intriguing.”
But Harkness, through Swift’s eyes, was just one small part of unlocking Margaret. After all, she’s a character shaped by experiencing love and loss in the public eye—and soldiering on amid tragedy.
Pedro Gomes/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
“British Royals is a huge one for most modern people,” Henry noted. “I feel like especially Americans in the ‘90s were so enthralled to Princess Diana. Her story was so unnecessarily tragic and is something that I think still looms so large for all of us.”
Then, of course, there are the Kennedys. Specifically, the family’s tragic history with aviation accidents, as for Henry it emphasized the way families are shaped over the course of several generations through tragedy and resilience.
“What interests me about those families is this sense that this legacy gets passed down from generation to generation, and with that comes a ton of privilege and experiences that the average person doesn't have access to,” the Beach Read author explained. “But there also can be this sense of a family curse.”
Tyler Mallory/Liaison
Indeed, it’s a theme Henry explores throughout Great Big Beautiful Life, though the novelist doesn’t see this as a phenomenon unique to in the rich and the famous.
“I think the things that really fascinate us about these families in pop culture are usually just sort of larger-than-life reflections of our own personal histories,” she told E!. “In some sense, I think all of us have the feeling—or have had the feeling—that there is history that makes us and shapes us that we had nothing to do with. Things that started well before we were even a blip on the planet. Those can be good and those can be bad, and they can just shape a lot of your decision making. Knowing where you came from can really affect you for better and for worse.”
“That was the starting point for the character of Margaret,” Henry shared. “The idea of this woman who is part of this larger-than-life history that the average American would maybe be somewhat familiar with but they would have had this scandalous perception of it. They would have had this gossip rag-driven idea of who this person was.”
Berkley, Penguin Random House
And that’s why it’s important for Margaret that her story—as she insists to Alice in the novel—starts decades before her birth. As Henry put it, “I was really interested in tracing, starting back in the late 1800s, how does love get passed down, and in what ways does it not get passed down in ways that we can interpret and understand?”
But as Margaret is the scion of a prolific media family, to understand the weight that brings, Henry also turned her eye to the likes of the “hugely influential” Hearsts, plus the Pulitzers—both of whom are Ives Media competitors in the book—and modern families like the Murdochs.
“We don't get this direct view into their lives in the way that maybe we would have back in like the ‘20s—they have really managed to create privacy for themselves—but we're still fascinated,” she noted, pointing to HBO’s cultural and critical sensation Succession, largely considered to be inspired by the Murdochs. “We're still aware that there's someone out there like pulling the strings of our perception.”
“I really drew a lot from their history because I found it really interesting that you could be the person who created the machine that then has a lot to say about you,” she continued. “For Margaret, specifically, she's the heiress who's who they called the ‘tabloid princess.’ Because first, she's the heiress to this family that has created tabloid culture as we know it. And secondly, she eventually becomes someone who's frequently on the covers of those tabloids.”
There’s a reason, however, that glimmers of so many real-life figures shine through. That's because Henry isn’t trying to mimic Margaret or the Ives family off anyone one figure or family in particular.
“There were so many different families that I pulled from,” she explained, “but mostly it was just to give a sense of history. I wanted all these characters to not be exactly anyone from the world.”
Great Big Beautiful Life is out now. For more new spring book releases, keep reading…
Scholastic
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Release: March 18
At long last, Collins is revealing what really when down when Haymitch Abernathy entered the Hunger Games for the Second Quarter Quell—and she doesn’t disappoint. Harrowing and heartbreaking, Sunrise on the Reaping is possibly Collins’ most gruesome outing in Panem yet, though like its predecessors it offers glimmers of the hope to come. Plus, it is chock full of nods to both The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as well as the original trilogy—including familiar faces popping up.
Saga Press/ S&S
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Release: March 18
In 2012, the journal of a Lutheran pastor from 1912 is uncovered and, in it, he recounts his interactions with a Blackfeet man—and vampire—Good Stab. Moving between three time periods (2012, 1912, and the time of the 1870 Marias Massacre, in which around 200 Blackfeet people were slaughtered by the U.S. army) the story is a chilling tale of murder and revenge, with supernatural elements that only heighten the narrative.
Ballantine Books/Penguin Random House
Saltwater by Kate Hays
Release: March 25
Every year, the Lingates return to their luxurious villa in Capri, despite a 1992 tragedy that left family member Sarah dead at the bottom of a cliff. Though deemed a horrible accident, something isn’t quite right. And exactly 30 years later, the mystery intensifies as the necklace Sarah was wearing that fateful night turns up, setting off a deadly chain of events that uncovers the secrets from that night—including what actually happened to Sarah.
G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Random House
All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett
Release: April 1
American college graduate Anna arrives to start a new life in London, only for the reality of the city to dampen all she’d envisioned about her dream home. That is, until she gets caught up in the world of the elite when she’s hired as a tutor by a wealthy family and is soon befriended by her student’s older sister. But in keeping up with this life of luxury, may just come with a price.
Forever/Hachette Books
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Release: April 1
For Samatha and Xavier, a bad first impression soon gives way to a life-changing first date—which was not what Samantha had in mind for her final night in Minnesota before moving nearly 2,000 miles away. But as she navigates a devastating family crisis and Xavier tries to keep his head down and build his budding vet practice, they can’t seem to forget their magical night together. It’s heartfelt, funny and utterly unputdownable.
Simon & Schuster For Young Readers
Fearless by Lauren Roberts
Release: April 8
Lauren Roberts is back with the epic conclusion to the Powerless series, which sees Paedyn and Kai both back in Ilya. But while they are reunited at last, a decision might break them forever—and destroy Ilya in the process.
Blackstone Publishing
The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose
Release: April 15
Five years after The Perfect Divorce, Jeneva Rose is once more throwing Sarah Morgan for a loop, as she discovers her marriage to her second husband isn’t without its secrets, namely his infidelity. However, as she seeks a divorce, new evidence surrounding the murder case involving her first husband pops up. Plus, husband no. 2’s mistress soon goes missing. Suffice to say, Rose doles out an endless supply of juicy twists and turns in this exciting page-turner.
Berkley, Penguin Random House
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Release: April 22
Taking light inspiration from Taylor Swift’s “Last Great American Dynasty,” the latest from Henry follows writers Alice and Hayden who arrive on a small island off the coast of Georgia for the opportunity of a lifetime: The chance to write the definitive biography of the now-reclusive 20th century tabloid sensation Margaret Ives. But as they battle it out for the top prize—and try to piece together Margaret’s ever-elusive story—sparks can’t help but fly.
One World/Penguin Random House
Matriarch by Tina Knowles
Release: April 22
Knowles is laying her cards down down down down and telling her story—from the very beginning in Galveston, TX, as the youngest of seven to life to, as the title suggests, matriarch of one of the biggest families in pop culture. Prepare to get to know Ms. Tina Knowles like never before.
Knopf/Doubleday/
The Pretender by Jo Harkin
Release: April 22
Chances are you’ve never heard of Lambert Simnel but back in the late 15th century, he nearly brought the rising Tudor rule to its knees when he emerged out of nowhere as a long thought-to-be-dead Plantagenet duke, who may just have a claim to the throne of England. This gripping story follows a young man, a puppet for the Tudor detractors, who is thrust into the world of aristocracy—and all the dangers and deceit that come with it.
Berkley, Penguin Random House
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
Release: May 6
Fortune is back in Barry’s Bay, this time to see Charlie Florek meet his match in Alice Everly. Set a few years after Every Summer After, a heartbroken Alice winds up at the lake—where she spent the summer that changed everything for her as a teen—for some time with her recently-injured grandmother. She quickly befriends Charlie, their neighbor and cottage’s caretaker for the summer and, we’ll, we’ll let Fortune take it from here. After all, fans have been begging her to give Charlie his happily ever after for years—and she’s fully delivered with a sweet, summer love story.
Atria Books/Simon & Schuster
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Release: May 6
Backman is a can’t-miss author for a reason. Set in dual timelines, My Friends follows a pivotal summer for a group of teenagers and a budding artist who 25 years later is mesmerized by a painting depicting three of those friends—and she’s determine to learn more about the people, and the place, behind it. In true Backman fashion, it’s a beautiful, occasionally heartbreaking examination of life, loss, and the people who sustain us.
Ballantine Books/Penguin Random House
The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz
Release: May 20
Looking for closure after her fiancée’s death, Abby goes to the island where the tragedy took place. There, she meets a man who says he knows what happened before her fiancée’s sudden death—only he goes missing soon after. Now trapped on an island with her fiancée’s possible killer on the loose, and a close-knit group of ex-pats who are more suspicious than ever, Abby goes on a quest to get to the truth before it’s too late.
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