The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

I did like it (besides the fact that I can never seem to spell “Boleyn” right). For those who have no idea what it’s about, it’s written from the perspective of Mary Boleyn, Ann Boleyn’s sister. It takes place during the reign of Henry VIII, so it’s based on truth but with a fictionalized story interwoven. It is a story of one family’s rise to power, and what they will do to get there.

There were times when I had to push myself to keep reading, so it wasn’t always engaging, but that is normal for any book that is over 600 pages. Most of it was very good, and if not good at least shocking.

I was completely aghast and some of the things the characters did to get ahead. I cannot imagine being so ambitious and so hungry for power that you would use your children or anyone else to get what you want. The fact that most of them seemed so detached from their children was hard for me to grasp.

So many of them just seemed crazed with power. Henry the VIII himself during the last half, but Ann Boleyn and most of her family wanted nothing more than to rise. I kept thinking to myself, ” For what, you are incapable of being happy.”

The life of courtier is something that always seems so glamorous in movies, but after reading this novel it make me very happy for my “simple” life. I couldn’t put up with all that pretense.

I also found out there is now a movie coming out based on the book with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. It looks good, but just from the trailer I can see they made a lot of changes from the book.

Final Verdict- 4 out of 5 stars