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The Other Boleyn Girl was my last read of 2017 and also the biggest surprise. This book has been sitting on my shelf for years; so long that the spine is actually completely faded from sun damage. For whatever reason I just assumed this would be a three star read, which is something I like to avoid at all costs. I watched the movie on a plane ten years ago and even though I liked it I thought, well, there's no way the book is actually any good. Obviously I'm an idiot because it turned out to be one of four (out of fifty - count 'em, four) of my 5 star reads this year.

I loved this from beginning to end. This baby is 661 pages, okay, and I actually read the majority of it in one day. My reading progress will tell you differently but that's only because I abandoned it after the first few chapters to read A Court of Mist and Fury. I didn't really return to it until after Christmas, and then I read about 450 pages in one sitting (while ingesting copious amount of alcohol and chocolate). It's so bloody entertaining! There is never a moment of tedium despite its length, and I constantly wanted to know what would happen next.

A lot of people appear to be unhappy with Anne being portrayed as the villain, but I wholeheartedly disagree with that. I saw her as a protagonist of sorts; a feminist gone mad. She wanted so badly to be treated like a man, respected by men, and then eventually served by men. She knew her sister Mary didn't have the guts, and she knew her father and uncle intended to use her for the rest of her life. She nearly killed herself trying to obtain the crown, and within moments it was all ripped away from her, purely because she couldn't produce a male heir for the king and therefore, as a woman, she was useless. I loved her character despite how brutal she could be. She was selfish, certainly, but honestly so was everyone else. I didn't think she was any more ruthless than her uncle, her parents, or the King. She was certainly more clever though, and I found her fascinating. After everything that's happened this year I found her refreshingly relatable; there are a lot of people I'd like to poison right about now.

On the other hand I thought it was brilliant to have the story narrated by Mary. I preferred seeing Anne from Mary's eyes. If anything it made me sympathetic towards Anne, the way Mary was, regardless of all that Anne put her through. If you don't have a sister you'll probably never understand what it's like to love someone unconditionally even while you hate them passionately.

I would recommend this to all historical fiction lovers/people who have had this on their TBR shelf for a long time. It's guuuuud.

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I technically finished this on January 1st but I had SO LITTLE LEFT it wouldn't make sense for me to include it in my 2018 reads. Also my original 2017 reading goal was about 20 and I kept bumping it up so I really have completed it at least twice over now.

RTC.