Michelle's Reviews > The Boleyn Inheritance

Hmm...do I recommend The Boleyn Inheritance?

NO.

Here's why:

1. It makes me acutely aware that if I enjoyed this series of Phillipa Gregory books in my youth, that when I get crumbly (read: old), I'll probably end up enjoying Harlequin Romance novels.

2. In The Boleyn Inheritance, as with The Other Boleyn Girl, Ms. Gregory writes with such myopic vision that I wanted to scream from the claustrophobic feeling. She writes around in circles, covering the same topic repeatedly with only slight variation. Granted, that is perhaps the entire feel of living at court in King Henry VIII's time, and so she's reconstructing the aura through her writing style. The only redemption for it, though, was her use of three perspectives. In TOBG, we only got to see Mary's view with editorializing, so this new usage of three narrators was the only fresh air readers get.

3. If you are my mother-in-law or my grandmother, stop reading here.

Okay, now that it's just us frivolous girls, this novel is full of intrigue, backstabbing, political gaming, greed, beheading. All of which make the perfect plot. And then there's the s-e-x. Lots of s-e-x. Ugh. It churns my stomach, quite honestly, how incredibly detailed they get, how up close and personal they get with a topic that should, imo, be only personal/private. I'm not a prude...obviously, since I finished reading it when I should have set it aside. I know, I know, it's historical fiction, and King Henry VIII was really flatulent, had a huge, open, stinking, puss-oozing wound and was impotent to boot. I get it. Really, I get it. Ms. Gregory kept hitting me in the face with it all, though, and eventually I got fed up.

So, three reasons I won't recommend this to anyone. And yet, I can't help imagining that if a friend told me she read it, I'd probably grin and say, "Is it good for you?"

It did wrap up nicely the loose ends she left in TOBG, like Jane's (George's wife) betrayal being totally bogus. I enjoyed seeing her get her just desserts.

Now, on the other hand, if Ms. Gregory chooses to novelize Princess/Queen Mary's and Queen Elizabeth's reign, I might run headlong into those. If I remember correctly, there was NO sex there.