The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Going into this book, I totally thought I would be reading more Chick Lit. I was in for a pleasant surprise when, instead, I read a novel about a time in history that I have always been interested in, as well as a female political drama.
The Other Boleyn Girl is told from the perspective of Mary Boleyn, the not famous at all sister of the infamous Anne Boleyn. Mary is a happy girl who has recently gotten married. Her family is prominent in the court of Henry VIII. Mary is a maid-of-honour to Queen Catherine, who Mary respects and loves. However, being a woman during this time does not give her any power whatsoever and Mary serves at the whim of her power hungry uncle, Thomas Howard. Mary catches the always roaming eye of the King. This gives her uncle the idea to use Mary in order for the Boleyn/Howard family to gain standing in court. This move works and Mary becomes Henry's mistress. She even gives birth to the King's son and daughter. Having Henry's children causes Mary to lose his favor and Anne swoops in. We know the rest of the story, Paul Harvey.
It's funny, because even though I knew that the book would end with Anne's death, I always wanted to know what happened next. Gregory did an excellent job of keeping the inevitable ending out of the way of the actual story. There was so much I loved about this book--getting to know how a British court worked, getting to see how women could be political movers and shakers during a time that they had no rights, and I loved Anne. I know that Anne Boleyn has been both demonized and idolized during the 500 or so years since her beheading, but Gregory made her such an excellent character to follow. I kind of don't blame Henry for casting off the somewhat boring Mary for Anne. I even think Mary would agree with that. The only thing that I didn't like about the book was Mary. It got on my nerves how she continued, over and over again, to let people walk all over her. She had to though, because history would have been different if she had been as strong willed as Anne. Also, I had to keep reminding myself that Mary was only 13 at the time this whole thing started. To put things in perspective: when I was 13, I was mad at Rose for letting handsome Jack Dawson go into the icy cold ocean (even after she SAID she wasn't going to!!).
I highly recommend this book and plan on reading the two other books in Gregory's Tudor series (The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover)
--- (Editor's Note: The Tudor Series is actually up to six books now. In chronological order, they are: The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover and The Other Queen)
