BOOK # 5 THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE By: Phillipa Gregory

I held off on seeing The Other Boleyn Girl solely because I wanted to read the book first. I almost felt silly reading it because I was under the impression it was a borderline "romance novel", but that wasn't the case. Having studied Tudors history a little in college, for fun on my own (and when I had Showtime I watched the sexed up show as well), I knew enough about the history to know that the majority of The Other Boleyn Girl was historically inaccurate.  That being said, I had a ton of fun reading it.  As soon as I accepted it for what it was (fiction) I loved it.  

The Boleyn Inheritance picks up not quite where The Other Boleyn Girl left off, but a couple years after, following the death of Jane Seymour (King Henry VIII's third wife).  The story is told from three points of view:  Jane Boleyn- George Boleyn's widow, who's evidence sent her husband and her sister in law, Queen Anne, to the scaffold. Anne of Cleves- Henry's fourth wife who escapes an abusive family to come to England and marry Henry.  Katherine Howard- Anne's maid in waiting who eventually becomes Henry's fifth wife.  

While I always love stories with multiple points of view, I believe there is always the danger of having one point of view be so interesting, that while reading it feels like you have to "get through" the other points of view to get to "the good part" again.  I'd say for about 90% of this book, all three points of view were equally fascinating.  There was a very small stretch of the book where Anne of Cleves was a little less interesting, only because she wasn't at court and what was going on at court was pretty electric.

One thing I really loved about this book is that Queen Anne (of Cleves- not to be confused with Boleyn) and Queen Katherine are the two Queens that history seems to know the least about- Yet at the same time are the two Queens who have the most cut and dry stereotypes.  Anne of Cleves was said to be very unattractive while Katherine was said to be gorgeous, but incredibly stupid.  I loved that this book didn't play into those stereotypes and gave these women real identities.  

Sometimes I feel that the first person point of view, while it brings you as close to the narrator as possible, can read a bit like a diary from time to time.  But in the case of this book, I feel that the three points of view, all in first person, was a perfect choice.  

And actually, this book is WAY more historically accurate than it's successor, which for no other reason than that I'm a history buff, I love.  Phillipa Gregory has written books on Queen Katherine of Aragon, Elizabeth I, and Mary Queen of Scotts, all of which I'm looking forward to after reading The Boleyn Inheritance.

Grade: B+