My awe is now over.  I was impressed with “The Other Boleyn Girl”, I was semi-impressed (mostly I guess) with “The Constant Princess” and I was less than thrilled with “The Boleyn Inheritance”.  Now I’m really glad that I never bought it at the bookstore and instead borrowed it from the library.  Now, just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a quick read.

I was really interested by the premise.  Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Jane Rochford (Boleyn by marriage); their untold stories about the last decade of King Henry VIII.  I felt terrible for Anne of Cleves.  Her (alleged) crappy family and the feeling of wanting to get away from it all at any cost.  I admire her iron will against Henry’s bouts of rage, her stubborness to see Princess Mary & Elizabeth and her determination to not be remarried to the king after he has Katherine executed.  After all of Henry’s other wives, Katherine appeared to be exactly what he needed.  A pretty filly to prance around and be numb to the events happening around her.  Unfortunately, she was too vain to ever succeed in keeping his love.  Then there’s good ol’ Jane.  Jane the evil and horrid woman who put her SIL and husband to death by claiming to witness their misdeeds.  Sick.

What I hated most about this book and pretty much the one thing that kept me from enjoying the stories was the fact that each woman’s story lasted 4 pages max and during those 4 pages repeated everything from the previous chapter based on their point of view.  I felt like the story only progressed every 50 pages after these women retold the same facts and stories over and over and over again.

This book did not live up to the expectations the other two books had set up.  I admire her storytelling because she can carve out a beautiful story out of bare facts.  But the structure of this story was not good for me.  I had a terrible time staying interested.