Wow! This was the MOST fantastic lie I've ever read! And it only took six or so months for me to stop hating Gregory. 
 I mean... I was pissed when I realized it was all a lie. I'm not going to pretend here; I'm no European History buff. Not by a long shot. I didn't know anything about the author, and I had seen the movie a long time ago, and I remembered the movie making me angry. I saw the book at the thrift store (my favorite book store) and got it for a buck. So I was angry when I realized it was all a big fat lie. 
 The best way I can describe the plot of this book is this way: Henry Tudor is a trying man who desires to sire a male heir. And because of his wife's failure to do so, they have grown apart, and he decides to "seek comfort elsewhere." (translation: he's a demanding jerkass and also a bigger slut than Don Draper; he also treats women like crap because that's what it was like and he was king. Any old ninny can have his babies so long as she belongs to the court and the babe is a male.) 
 Mary Boleyn and her sister enter this dangerous game of allure and heir-making when Henry desires them. First Mary is taken as his and made to think she is a favorite of his. Not to be outdone, Anne, with the help of her supremely greedy and horrible selfish family, forces her way into the picture only to find that the game is a constant struggle, like dancing upon the edge of a sword. One wrong turn and it's over. 
 What follows for Anne amounts to 20% of her getting her comeuppance for being so presumptuous and greedy; and the remaining 80% is her becoming something far worse than a tyrant. Her soul becomes so tarnished and evil that it's difficult to feel sorry for her. She never ever stops moving and moving and spinning out of control and trying to play this game of royals. And it corrupts her fully and completely until... well. >.> 
 Now it's months since I finished, and I can reflect with a clearer head. And what a wonderful dollar I spent. I've never actively hated and spat and cursed at a character in any book like I cursed at Anne Boleyn. What an absolute b/witch. I loathed her for the majority of the book. I all but hoped for someone to just punch her in the damn face, but then sometimes I, oddly, pitied her. And thanks to her and all the other equally horrible people in this lengthy novel, I was glued to the book for days. I could hardly do anything else but read it. It was engrossing and infuriating. 
 If you want intrigue, deceit, lies, manipulation, evil court business, evil women, evil men, madness, darkness ... then this is the book for you. 
 If you are a history buff, just go into it seeing it as fiction. If you just want the straight version, though, avoid this like the plague.