One of the most wrenching stories I have read in a while. This book both compelled & disturbed, but all the while held my attention.

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both the golden prince and her growing role as an unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family’s ambitious plots when the king’s interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her powerfully ambitious sister, Anne Boleyn. As Mary watches Anne manipulate her rise to the throne, Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king and take her fate into her own hands.

A rich and compelling tale of love, ambition, lust, and intrigue, The Other Boleyn Girl introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the very center of the most exciting, hard, and glamorous court in Europe and survived by following her own heart.

I would recommend this book, but caution if you are not ready to explore the reality of beheading & cruelty during this period maybe this is not the book for you, as these points of the story stuck with me as much as the compelling history of this family.