Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I enjoyed the Tudor series. However, it did seem that each book following "The Other Boleyn Girl" was progressively worse, ending with the travesty that was "The Other Queen." I so wanted to like this book. First off - it is very confusing. I know a lot of English history, but was constantly confused. If you knew nothing about English history, I think you'd be totally flummoxed. The map and family tree at the front of the book were not helpful at all. Second, the writing was AWFUL. I've read some of the stories my 13 year old writes and she is a Pulitzer Prize winning author compared to most of the conversations between the characters in this book. The dialog is repetitious to the point of beyond nauseating. It goes a little something like this, and I am NOT exagerrating: "Darling, is your meat exceptionaly chewy?" I paused and chewed my meat for a moment. "Yes, dear," I replied, "the meat is very chewy. Very chewy indeed. In fact, I agree that it is exceptionally chewy." Edward looked at me for a moment while chewing and chewing his meat. "Darling, I think that I have never encountered anything like the chewiness of this chewy meat since that particularly chewy rack of lamb I had back in 1465." I returned Edward's amourous look while I continued to chew and chew and chew my particularly and extraordinarily chewy meat. "Yes, dear, that chewy rack of lamb back in 1465 was exceptionally chewy. In fact, that was a very strong year for exceptionally chewy meat. But this is nowhere near as chewy as the chewiful chewiness of the particularly chewy brisket we had a Blackfriars in 1469." "Really?" Edward paused while working and chewing a particularly chewy piece of meat in his mouth. "Well, you may have a point, but the chewiness of this chewy meat is so chewy that I don't think I can chew it any more." If they really talked like that back in the 1400s, no wonder that they all wanted to kill each other. Remove all of the repetitive words and sentences from this book and it would be 60-70 pages shorter. Who do you blame - the writer that writes something like this or the editor who fails to fix it? Do yourself a favor. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. I wouldn't even recommend that you check it out of the library.