The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

This is historical fiction set in the time of King Henry VIII.  I don’t know much about this time period so it was fun to read. 

There are 3 main characters in this story.  Each chapter is written in first person from one of the 3 characters. 

Jane Boleyn – Sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn the now dead queen.  She serves as a maid in waiting to the new queen of England.  She works for her uncle gathering information about the queen.  Her goal is to keep the Boleyn inheritance.

Katherine Howard – 14 years old at the beginning of the book is young, greedy and ditzy.  Her hope for her life is to gain money, men and an inheritance.  She also desires above all else to be loved and admired by all.  She is thrilled to be called to serve the new queen.

Anne of Cleaves – Abused by her brother, ignored by her family and on her way to be the new queen of England.  She wants only to be a good queen and serve the people of England.

These 3 characters get caught up in the madness of King Henry VIII.  Some days they wonder if they will make it out alive.

Book Pros:

1. The chapters are short.  Each chapter is written first person from one of the main characters.  No chapter is longer than 5 or 6 pages.  This makes it easy to pick it up when time is short.

2. This author also had a way of leaving you hanging sometimes at the end of a chapter.  It made me want to skip ahead to that characters next chapter to see what would happen.

3. The author does a great job of character development.  By the time the book was done I really had connected with each of the main characters.

4. There is a good amount of dialogue.  Sometimes historical fiction tends to go into too much detail for me.  This author had a good balance.

Book Cons:

1. It is a very long book, 558 pages.

2. Detail can get overwhelming in some chapters.  I know I said there was a good amount of dialogue but occasionally the details of the countryside, people’s clothes or how a person was feeling got a bit much for me.

3. The author does use some historical vocabulary that I was not familiar with.  This did make some parts hard to figures out.  Usually after a few paragraphs the meaning became clear.

Overall I really enjoyed this book.  I learned from the info at the end of the book that this author has other books about King Henry VII’s wives.