Alison Weir has done a good job cobbling together the little evidence there is of Mary Boleyn's life. I enjoyed her thorough investigation and the opportunities she gives the reader to formulate your own opinion of the subject. Having read the disastrous The Other Boleyn Girl, which I found to be a romance retelling the scandalous gossip told by detractors of Anne Boleyn, I much appreciate Weir's clean telling of the facts as they are and the conjectures suggested by contemporary sources. This is not a rollicking romantic summer read, but a serious study of a woman who had far more impact than most realize. ( )

To her credit, Alison Weir is a thorough researcher, but there was just too little to go on factually. (Not her fault) Mary's story could have easily (and more succinctly) been paired with research on Henry VIII's other paramours like Bessie Blount and still been a good read. Still it was nice to hear about this all-too-often overlooked (and luckier) sister of Anne Boleyn. ( )

An ok read about the lesser known Boleyn sister. ( )

I think Alison Weir is a good writer, and I did enjoy the book. However, they know so little about her life. There was a lot of "we think" and "she may have" and "she probably". There was also a lot of time spent on Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. It didn't really feel like a biography. I understand that there may not be a lot of documentation about Mary Boleyn, but maybe the author would have been better off writing a book about the Boleyn family instead of presenting it as a biography of Mary. ( )

Anyone with a passing knowledge of British history knows about Anne Boleyn, her marriage to Henry VIII and subsequent execution (not to mention her brilliant daughter Elizabeth I), but fewer have heard of her elder sister Mary. And no wonder: Mary Boleyn was less colourful than Anne, but managed to get into a lot of trouble by first, having a brief affair with Francois I of France when she was probably a teenager and then having a longer affair with Henry VIII himself, during his first marriage (to Katherine of Aragon) and before he began courting Anne. These affairs were very discreet and were also covered up, particularly the latter one, especially because Henry’s argument for divorcing Katherine was that she had previously been the wife of his older brother, which in those times meant his marriage to her was incestuous. Well, clearly if that was true, then Henry’s affair with Mary rendered his later marriage to Anne equally incestuous, and that was something he definitely didn’t want to be known publicly. Alison Weir is a first-rate historian, and she uses extensive primary sources to document exactly what happened to Mary, in addition to debunking various incorrect assertions about her (for example, that Mary was the younger daughter rather than the elder). The time of Henry’s reign was a tumultuous and fascinating one, but Weir manages to keep everything lucid and clear. It’s been a while since I’ve read any history, but this book makes me want to return to that subject again and again; recommended. ( )