The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)

Author
Philippa Gregory was born in Kenya. She is a former student of Sussex University and receive a PhD and Alumna of the Year 2009 of Edinburgh University, her love for history and her commitment to historical accuracy are the hallmarks of her writing.
Her other great interest is the charity she founded nearly twenty years ago; Gardens for The Gambia. Gregory lives with her family on a small farm in Yorkshire, where she keeps horses, hens and ducks.

Review
The Other Boleyn Girl is one of the most popular historical fiction books about the Boleyn ladies out there I guess. It was a book I have heard about for years already but never picked up. This time I decided I would give it a go as it fits in both my Bingo reading challenge and my big books reading challenge. After finishing The Constant Princess two months ago I was pretty sure I was going to like this book due to the writing style. Philippa Gregory is a master in setting atmosphere. I really got the feeling I was sitting in a window in the castle seeing all those people pass me. Like a little spy. With the characters I had more problems. Though getting angry and upset with characters does mean I am involved it often makes me dislike a book a bit more. First thing that disturbed me is the way Mary was set up to become lovers with the king. Second .. that uncle.. I could have killed him, would have killed him and after the way Anne took over everything and how history repeats. Though I do know this is fiction it is based on partly true stories I had a hard time to convince myself that this behavior was probably normal or accepted up to a certain level in that period. Due to that annoyance the book took me a bit longer to read than I had expected. ( )

I don't know why I had it in my head this was going to be dense; it was a light, quick and entertaining read.

One of my favorites of Philippa Gregory (The Queen's Fool is my absolute favorite), this book hooked me and created my never-satisfied addiction about the Tudors. Plenty of romance and finally Mary Boleyn gets a voice! Fabulous! I loved it!

I know nothing of the Tudors except for what I read in this book and the author claims that she was accurate. Of course, there's no way to be certain. History is told by the winners, so if Anne Boleyn was a saint there's no way of knowing. Apparently, historians want us to believe that she was an ambitious witch-bitch of a woman that enchanted the king and gave him only one heir (and not a bad one).

Despite all of that, the book is wonderfully written. If it's historically accurate, then those Tudors were a trashy group of people and a lot of fun to read about! ( )

This is what i wrote on bookcrossing about this book:

Hi I have read about half of the book and now I really enjoy it. It took me a little while to get used to it, cause as I said it has been ages since i read historical fiction but now i am really enjoying it and even trying to get more books about this area.

and 1 day later:

Wow I wish i could read more. I've finished the book last night and really loved it.sunny You are great for sending this to me. You did so well. I really really enjoyed it immensly and because of this book i want to read more about this time ( )