The Big Books of Summer 2025

Kristen's Reviews > The Boleyn Inheritance

The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
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The story of Henry the VIII’s less well known wives, Katherine Howard and Anne of Cleves, as told by themselves and Jane Boleyn, sister in law of the doomed Queen Anne. What Gregory does well is utilize the known history to augment her fiction. Her characters might well share the motives of the Tudors & Co, and if they don’t, well, they’re still highly plausible and enjoyably readable. Not a subtle book by any means-the phrase “the Boleyn Inheritance” is used no less than 2 million times-but totally immersive and admirably detailed.

Recommended for: fans of female centered historical fiction, those wishing wish ‘Game of Thrones’ was more gossip/court intrigue and less high stakes violence/despondency.
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Reading Progress

Started Reading
August 1, 2007 – Finished Reading
August 30, 2007 – Shelved

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Comments Showing 1-6 of 6 (6 new)

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message 1: by Casey (new) - rated it 4 stars
Apr 22, 2010 07:12PM

Casey To be fair, the phrase, "just the other Boleyn girl" was used just as much in...The Other Boleyn Girl.


message 2: by Marian (new) - rated it 5 stars
May 01, 2010 03:09PM

Marian I'm still wondering which is "classier" between Chili's and The Outback. LOL


message 3: by Donna (new) - rated it 3 stars
Feb 21, 2011 02:28AM

Donna YES! I couldn't help but be insulted by how often Gregory repeated herself in this book. How often do we need to be told that Catherine Carey has been taken away from court? Do we really need to hear it from every single one of the narrators?


message 4: by Karen (new) - rated it 5 stars
Dec 08, 2012 02:39PM

Karen Flesher It probably didn't help that you read them out of order...just sayin'.


message 5: by Sue (new) - rated it 4 stars
Aug 11, 2017 02:31PM

Sue Degoey It was a good read. I really need to be more vigilant in discerning free-standing books from those in a series, and then forcing myself to read them in order, but that is the plight of a reader that reads many of these authors. It was a good read, effective, with believable characters, but especially at the start, her effort to keep the people that read the previous book entertained while bringing new readers up to speed affected the flow of the book. Kind of repetitive, but then again how many wives were offed?


message 6: by zcb257 (new) - rated it 3 stars
Sep 19, 2023 05:15PM

zcb257 It’s one of her very bad habits. It’s in almost every single one of her books. Not trusting that the reader is intelligent enough to see and understand the theme themselves without it being hammered over their heads.


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