Brilliant story shame about the narration

Really enjoyed this story! The only downfall was the narration. Emilia Fox should not do voices! And found it cringe worthy at times to listen to her. But apart from that it was good!

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1 person found this helpful

I loved this but.....

Sadly I didn't realise it was Abridged when I bought it. I was looking forward to all the little details of the lovely book I had read some years ago. However, I do recommend it!

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Compelling but awkward

I thoroughly enjoyed Emilia Fox's narration. She has a lovely story-telling voice, but I can't decide whether I liked the novel or not. The plot is certainly compelling, but the quality of writing, when compared to other historical novels I have recently read (e.g. Imperial Woman, Alias Grace, Silence, The Last Empress, etc.) is mediocre.

The plot was good, the Three Boleyns intriguing. Ann was believable as an ambitious young woman reaching for the sun, but playing with fire. Mary, however, the main character, was somewhat irritating. The author didn't seem able to decide whether she was a pure-hearted victim of her ruthlessly ambitious family, which is how she sometimes came across, or as manipulative and cold as the rest of them. The line giving her reaction when she watched her sister killed, something along the lines of 'my rival was dead' was ice cold, yet the author seemed to also want to portray her as a simple, country-loving maiden who finally found true love and had been no more than her family's victim.

The overall story, however, is compelling, though the author missed the opportunity to address many serious questions, among the most obvious are:

Mary Boleyn was only 12 when she married, a fact that would be condemned as child abuse nowadays.
This was ignored. A modern audience will surely be questioning the impact this would have had on the young girl.

Ann Boleyn and others were beheaded for adultery, while Mary's husband had been forced to sacrifice his own marriage so that the king could bed his wife. This was ignored. Surely Mary would have had some reaction to this hypocrisy?

Henry VIII's illegitimate daughter, Catherine, was present in his court, but there is no indication as to his reaction to this, if any, and how the court politics would have worked in this instance. Was there any reaction from the king towards his daughter? If not, why not?

I may yet read the sequel, because the plot itself was extremely interesting.

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4 people found this helpful

Amazing!

I listened to this book and the whole story fascinates me!
After I purchased the bbc film and it was such a let down! The story was changed and it just wasn't the same!

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inspiring book

I was fascinated by this book. I couldn't put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would read other novels by this author .

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well read

really enjoyed this book. good story..well read. I look forward to hearing others like this

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Brilliant! shame about the narrator

A brilliant listen. Don't know where the time went - it certainly made pounding the treadmil a lot easier and couldn't believe I'd got to the end. My only gripe was the particularly uninspired choice of Emilia Fox as the narrator. I found her voice annoyingly irritating when she was trying to be anybody but Mary Boleyn. She should leave male voices well alone! That aside the story itself was wonderfully written by Phillipa Gregory thereby offering an easy transfer as an audio book. I can't wait to see Eric Bana as King Henry in the movie now and for once I will know the entire story before the movie credits roll!

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5 people found this helpful

Good story, narrator struggles with voices.

The narrator struggles with doing different characters voices. Anne is the worst she gets a really stuck up sounding fake mean girl voice that makes you want to hate her. The book is already very anti-Anne. We did not the narrator to put the boot in further.

If you can deal with the voices the book is very enjoyable . This is one of my favourite Phillipa Gregory books, very romantic and fast paced. She really creates a sense of what life was like and makes you want to be there.

I have heard that she is not very historically accurate, and that some characters are very unlike their real life selves, but I think it is find if you take it as a soapy romantic tale and not your first port of call for learning Tudor History.

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Simplistic

I finished it, but it certainly did not live up to the hype. Other reviewers have already commented on Mary's reaction to Anne's death; but if Mary had actually been at court, you might think she would have been worried when those close to Anne were being rounded up. I didn't find Gregory's version of events credible. Too much simpering. And the 'voices' grated.

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Enjoyable

An engaging tale of love, loss, lust and life in the court of Henry VIII with excellent narration from Emilia Fox.

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