The Other Boleyn Girl By Phillipa Gregory is the story of Henry Tudor and his wives from Catherine of Aragon through to the beginnings of Jane Seymour. The novel is told through Mary Boleyn's eyes, the infamous Anne's sister and one time mistress of the king.
The book gets off to a slightly slow start, the language is hard to get used to first of all and not a lot happens. However, the further into the book you get, the better it gets, until you read the end with slight caught breath, waiting for the famous ending we know.
Gregory really makes us care about the characters, and even though we know Anne's ending, she still makes us hope for the forgiveness Anne is expecting. Mary starts off young and silly but soon grows into a loving caring woman, who cares formost about her family, when family meant very little in the Tudor times.
There are some points that you feel could have been cut, Anne's several miscarriages (although factually correct, it drags on a bit) And the endless court scenes gyrate a little after a while. However, this is a book that will move you to tears and make you wish you were born five hundred years ago.
An intellectual book, with enough romance for teenagers, enough history for Professors and enough imagination to light up every page, The Other Boleyn Girl is definately placed in my top five favourite books of all time.