Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession by Alison Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Considering the lack of sources for writing a novel about Anne Boleyn, the author has filled in the historical gaps with an interesting and fully developed character to follow. The earlier part of the book, Anne's youth in France and the later part of the book, once she and Henry are married were the most interesting. The interminable seven or so years that it took for Henry and his advisors to get to the point where he put Katherine aside and married Anne were just as interminable to read. That portion of the book became terribly repetitious, though it did serve to develop the feelings of frustration, hope followed by despair, followed by more frustration in the reader as it must have in the two main characters.
The moral quandary of replacing Katherine, a queen of over 20 years, with a younger, hopefully more fertile queen must have been difficult for many of the people involved. The attempts by Henry to overthrow all of the Church's precepts in an effort to secure a wife who would presumably be able to give him sons are thoroughly explored. The political, social and religious ramifications of his actions were very serious and the manipulations and behind the scenes scheming to prevent war or worse were intense. The book brings all of these things to light.
The years after the marriage of Anne and Henry which should finally have been a fulfilled love match with many children were anything but happy. The further complications of this ill-fated are laid out in great detail. At times, one could almost feel sorry for them but at others the selfishness on both their parts made them anything but sympathetic. Still, the death of Anne and the men accused with her, as well as the death of those who'd been sacrificed for not supporting Henry's union with her was nothing short of tragedy. All of this certainly changed the course of history and the changes reverberated for many, many years throughout the Western world.
If there is one criticism of this advance uncorrected proof from GoodReads on which I've based this review, it is that it was much too long and moved too slowly in many parts.

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