The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
Book Title: The Boleyn Inheritance
Author: Philippa Gregory
Genre: Historical Fiction
My Grade: B
# of Pages: 516
Summary: ANNE OF CLEVES
She runs from her tiny country, her hateful mother, and her abusive brother to a throne whose last three occupants are dead. King Henry VIII, her new husband, instantly dislikes her. Without friends, family, or even an understanding of the language being spoken around her, she must literally save her neck in a court ruled by a deadly game of politics and the terror of an unpredictable and vengeful king. Her Boleyn Inheritance: accusations and false witnesses.
KATHERINE HOWARD
She catches the king's eye within moments of arriving at court, setting in motion the dreadful machine of politics, intrigue, and treason that she does not understand. She only knows that she is beautiful, that men desire her, that she is young and in love - but not with the diseased old man who made her queen, beds her night after night, and killed her cousin Anne. Her Boleyn Inheritance: the threat of the axe.
JANE ROCHFORD
She is the Boleyn girl whose testimony sent her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths. She is the trusted friend of two threatened queens, the perfectly loyal spy for her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, and a canny survivor in the murderous court of a most dangerous king. Throughout Europe, her name is a byword for malice, jealousy, and twisted lust. Her Boleyn Inheritance: a fortune and title, in exchange for her soul.
The Boleyn Inheritance is a novel drawn tight as a lute string about a court ruled by the gallows and three women whose positions brought them wealth, admiration, and power as well as deceit, betrayal, and terror. Once again, Philippa Gregory has brought a vanished world to life - the whisper of a silk skirt on a stone stair, the yellow glow of candlelight illuminating a hastily written note, the murmurs of the crowd gathering on Tower Green below the newly built scaffold. In The Boleyn Inheritance Gregory is at her intelligent and page-turning best.
My Thoughts: When I read that Philippa Gregory had a new book out I knew I just had to get it. Thankfully Christmas was just around the corner and there was still room under the tree for a book! I fell into reading it within days of unwrapping it and found myself in a completely different world in the first page.
Gregory has caught up, somewhat, to the successful story of The Other Boleyn Girl. She corrects the flaws from The Virgin's Lover with the way she presents the different perspectives. It still causes the story to jump around a little bit more and it takes a few chapters to fall into the vibe, but once you do it's well worth it.
As usual, Gregory's writing is beautiful in language and she presents this different world to the reader in such a way you understand every custom, dress and word. It's a little hard to keep track of all the different characters running in and around, but it's not to great a deal as you do remember the ones that matter.
Speaking of characters, there is only one that brings the book down. Katherine Howard. She's written as a two-demensional character, which wouldn't be a big deal if she wasn't one of our main protagonists. She comes across as a flitty, dumb little girl. She acknowledges this flaw in herself, and that's great, but it means nothing to the reader if there's nothing else to her. Sure, maybe she's written this way so we just see her as another one of Henry's wives, but she was a wife longer than Anne of Cleves, and Anne's character was written much better and you care for her a lot more.
Other than the nuisance that is Katherine, the book is fabulous. Gregory does not disappoint and definitely proves herself worthy of being the eyes and ears of this most unique court.
Next Book: Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell • review
Back to the Book List.
Author: Philippa Gregory
Genre: Historical Fiction
My Grade: B
# of Pages: 516
Summary: ANNE OF CLEVES
She runs from her tiny country, her hateful mother, and her abusive brother to a throne whose last three occupants are dead. King Henry VIII, her new husband, instantly dislikes her. Without friends, family, or even an understanding of the language being spoken around her, she must literally save her neck in a court ruled by a deadly game of politics and the terror of an unpredictable and vengeful king. Her Boleyn Inheritance: accusations and false witnesses.
KATHERINE HOWARD
She catches the king's eye within moments of arriving at court, setting in motion the dreadful machine of politics, intrigue, and treason that she does not understand. She only knows that she is beautiful, that men desire her, that she is young and in love - but not with the diseased old man who made her queen, beds her night after night, and killed her cousin Anne. Her Boleyn Inheritance: the threat of the axe.
JANE ROCHFORD
She is the Boleyn girl whose testimony sent her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths. She is the trusted friend of two threatened queens, the perfectly loyal spy for her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, and a canny survivor in the murderous court of a most dangerous king. Throughout Europe, her name is a byword for malice, jealousy, and twisted lust. Her Boleyn Inheritance: a fortune and title, in exchange for her soul.
The Boleyn Inheritance is a novel drawn tight as a lute string about a court ruled by the gallows and three women whose positions brought them wealth, admiration, and power as well as deceit, betrayal, and terror. Once again, Philippa Gregory has brought a vanished world to life - the whisper of a silk skirt on a stone stair, the yellow glow of candlelight illuminating a hastily written note, the murmurs of the crowd gathering on Tower Green below the newly built scaffold. In The Boleyn Inheritance Gregory is at her intelligent and page-turning best.
My Thoughts: When I read that Philippa Gregory had a new book out I knew I just had to get it. Thankfully Christmas was just around the corner and there was still room under the tree for a book! I fell into reading it within days of unwrapping it and found myself in a completely different world in the first page.
Gregory has caught up, somewhat, to the successful story of The Other Boleyn Girl. She corrects the flaws from The Virgin's Lover with the way she presents the different perspectives. It still causes the story to jump around a little bit more and it takes a few chapters to fall into the vibe, but once you do it's well worth it.
As usual, Gregory's writing is beautiful in language and she presents this different world to the reader in such a way you understand every custom, dress and word. It's a little hard to keep track of all the different characters running in and around, but it's not to great a deal as you do remember the ones that matter.
Speaking of characters, there is only one that brings the book down. Katherine Howard. She's written as a two-demensional character, which wouldn't be a big deal if she wasn't one of our main protagonists. She comes across as a flitty, dumb little girl. She acknowledges this flaw in herself, and that's great, but it means nothing to the reader if there's nothing else to her. Sure, maybe she's written this way so we just see her as another one of Henry's wives, but she was a wife longer than Anne of Cleves, and Anne's character was written much better and you care for her a lot more.
Other than the nuisance that is Katherine, the book is fabulous. Gregory does not disappoint and definitely proves herself worthy of being the eyes and ears of this most unique court.
Next Book: Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell • review
Back to the Book List.