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[koala1966]

This is the 3rd book I've read from Phillippa Gregory - the other two are The Queen's Fool (story of both Queen Mary & Queen Elizabeth's rise to power, and their constant struggle with each other) and The Constant Princess (story of Queen Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife).  Somehow, I didn't realize in the beginning that there was a logical order that could have been followed, and I still don't know if I have it right.  The Other Boleyn Girl definitely comes after The Constant Princess, since it's about Anne Boleyn basically stealing King Henry VIII from Queen Catherine, and the rise and fall of the Boleyn family.  It's historical fiction, so I realize it's probably not a wholly accurate picture of the times, but Gregory sure gives a good read.There are no sympathetic characters in The Other Boleyn's aside from Queen Catherine, and because she's on her way out, she's not in the story often enough to allow much thought to her, other than pity.  There are some quite shocking scenes, and cruder language than I expected to find, particularly in bedroom scenes.  So many times I wanted to reach into the pages of the book and slap Mary Boleyn in the head, for as stupid and gullible as she was depicted here.  The story was told from her point of view, she was the younger sister to Anne Boleyn and the King's lover before Anne became Queen.  Afterwards, she was willing participant to the plotting and planning her family did to attempt ultimate power over the king.  An extremely harsh story is told in the pages of this book, which spans over 15 years of the reign of King Henry VIII.I'd say of the three books I've read by Phillippa Gregory so far, The Queen's Fool is still my favorite.  It was the smoothest in terms of language and story telling, in the other two books there were some discrepancies that distracted me from the story and sometimes a shock in the language used (in The Constant Princess, there were a few references that felt too modern, in The Other Boleyn Girl there were lines lifted straight from a trashy romance novel).  I'm reading the Boleyn Inheritance now, though, and I would put it up on top with The Queen's Fool, a great work of story telling.  When I'm done with Gregory's historical fiction of the Tudor reign, I'm going to get some nonfiction books on the "real story", I don't want to do it before so that it doesn't mess up the fictional story because of the differences I'll surely find.

[Queen Mum]

I really enjoyed this book.    I know two young women who can quote whole passages because tehy fell in love withthe book.