A review by emjay24
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

3.0

This book was definitely readable, it just seemed too sensationalized/romanticized. This is the story of Henry VIII's wives Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard (there was only one more wife left after these ones before he finally died). The story is told by alternating the points of view of these two women and also the late Anne Boleyn's sister in law Jane, who had married Anne's brother George and gave evidence against them at their trial. I liked that it switched between the points of view. I also grew to like the characters of Anne and Kitty (no one liked Jane). I felt so badly for poor Kitty, she was only 14-16 in this book and, since it's history, and we all know what's happened, it's not a spoiler to say that she was put to death. By all accounts, she was a young fluff teenager, not grown up the way some teens were at that time. Just being alive in the time of Henry VIII was so scary... but something about the book.. the way it was written was that it was dumbed down, I didn't like that. I can't explain it, because it did have all the history in it, but it seemed too much of the time like it was a chick flick romance novel type thing instead of a historical fiction work. I dunno. Still read it, because it's probably not often that you'll see something from the point of view of Kitty and Jane, and maybe not even Anne of Cleves. England around this time was so interesting, but interesting in a i want to read about the past kind of way and not a i wish i lived then kind of way. it sounds horrific.