The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

The Other Boleyn Girl
Philippa Gregory

Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family’s ambitious plots as the kings interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands.

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed reading The Other Boleyn Girl. It swept me up from the very beginning and didn’t let go until the last page had been turned. I found myself very emotionally invested in the main character, Mary, and I was rooting for her the entire novel. That’s one of the wonderful things about this book, I think: I really, truly cared about the characters, or at least the likable ones, and part of the reason I kept reading was to see if those characters made it through to the happy ending I wanted for them.

Something else I really enjoyed about the book was the plot. It moved quickly enough that I was never bored, but not so quickly I couldn’t keep up. The writing was simple and enjoyable, so I wasn’t slogging through pages and pages of introduction or description.

One complaint I had was that some of the characters seemed a little one-sided, Anne Boleyn in particular. It’s impossible to have no redeeming qualities, but Anne had very few if any. She was mostly set up as the plotting snake who would do anything, including exploiting her own family, for power. That seems a bit unrealistic to me.

I’m a huge historical fiction fan, so I loved reading about real people following a real series of events. That said, I know next to nothing about Tudor England, so I can’t say for sure whether or not the facts in the book are accurate or not. I’ve heard several people say that for those knowledgeable about this time period, you have to be prepared to let all of that go and just enjoy the writing.

Overall, The Other Boleyn Girl is an enjoyable read that will leave you hanging on for more. I’d recommend it to anyone interested on learning a little more about the history during the Tudor period of England, but who wants to enjoy themselves while doing so.

Overall Grade: B