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Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands.

A rich and compelling tale of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue, The Other Boleyn Girl introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe and survived by following her own heart

Just finished this book over the weekend. I thought it was quite good and much better than the movie (although that was good in its own right). Some interesting observations I made while reading the book.

First of all, Gregory spends a great deal of the book showing how difficult it was to be a woman in the 16th century. They were very much treated as property to be given to others for their father's/brother's/husband's advantage. However, there were love matches in the book as well as matches for political reasons. Mary had her marriage to William Stafford, Anne had an ill-fated union with Henry Percy, even Mary Tudor (sister of Henry VIII) had her love match with Charles Brandon. Even in love matches the women were not on an equal footing with their husbands. I think the book did a very good job or portraying these inequalities.

I noticed a very many people on goodreads were unhappy with the historical inaccuracies in the book (and there were quite a few). Do you think that historical inaccuracies are ok in books, when the feelings and spirit of the story are preserved or do you believe that all historical fiction should be as accurate as possible with no fact changing? For me it depends on the book and the time period. At least in this book all the names were correct (I read a book once where they had the wrong president reported as being president at the time) and the chronology of events was pretty accurate (I have read books where they try to condense the time line too much or get events out of order). I see historical fiction as more of a creative interpretation of history and less of a completely factual recounting of events. The truth is that a lot of history is guesswork, especially in the eras when record-keeping wasn't nearly as extensive as it is today. I don't mind authors playing with history a bit, as long as they don't go too crazy with it. I thought this was one of the better royalty fiction books I have read.

I read this book a few years ago and really enjoyed. The Boleyn Inheritance also by Phillipa Gregory witch continues the story with the rest of Henry VIII's wives is also good.

I own The Boleyn Inheritance as well and am looking forward to reading it soon. I just finished a nonfiction book about the 6 wives and it was quite interesting.

Christie wrote: "I own The Boleyn Inheritance as well and am looking forward to reading it soon. I just finished a nonfiction book about the 6 wives and it was quite interesting."

What is the name of the non fiction book? I saw the information the group in the library new letter again, I hope we get more member who will post comments!

April wrote: "Christie wrote: "I own The Boleyn Inheritance as well and am looking forward to reading it soon. I just finished a nonfiction book about the 6 wives and it was quite interesting."

What is the name..."

The nonfiction book I read was
The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser. It was quite good. I do hope we get more members as well.