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catmar19 's review for:
The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory
I got this book because I was in the mood for something involving romance and a little trashiness.
This book is about as close as I am willing to come to a Harlequin novel. It wasn't a bodice ripper exactly, but it wasn't good historical fiction. Not at all. It's as if Gregory sniffed out a story but just dropped the ball. Her use of three narrators seems to have been chosen to give a more thorough understanding of the situation, but truly, it had the opposite effect. The reader ends up reading over the same ideas over and over. I think that Gregory was making a little extra for every instance where she called King Henry VIII fat and insane. Bonus cash for referencing his open wound. It's just tiring on the reader.
I will give Gregory credit for clearly giving each narrator her own complete personality, although Anne's changes so dramatically that she's somewhat unbelievable by the end of the novel. I thoroughly enjoyed Katherine Howard's stupidity, on the other hand.
I won't say that I won't read from this author again. If I get in the mood for another cruddy historical romance, I probably will read another of her novels. It will most likely be after I've forgotten my initial reaction to this one.
This book is about as close as I am willing to come to a Harlequin novel. It wasn't a bodice ripper exactly, but it wasn't good historical fiction. Not at all. It's as if Gregory sniffed out a story but just dropped the ball. Her use of three narrators seems to have been chosen to give a more thorough understanding of the situation, but truly, it had the opposite effect. The reader ends up reading over the same ideas over and over. I think that Gregory was making a little extra for every instance where she called King Henry VIII fat and insane. Bonus cash for referencing his open wound. It's just tiring on the reader.
I will give Gregory credit for clearly giving each narrator her own complete personality, although Anne's changes so dramatically that she's somewhat unbelievable by the end of the novel. I thoroughly enjoyed Katherine Howard's stupidity, on the other hand.
I won't say that I won't read from this author again. If I get in the mood for another cruddy historical romance, I probably will read another of her novels. It will most likely be after I've forgotten my initial reaction to this one.