Boleyn Traitor: A Thrilling Story of Ambition, Power and the Dark Side of the Tudor Court
4.4 | 3,739 ratings
Price: 14.99
Last update: 03-29-2026
Product details
- ASIN : B0DJPYCZ6K
- Publisher : William Morrow
- Accessibility :
- Publication date : October 14, 2025
- Language : English
- File size : 5.7 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 496 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-0063439665
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank:#42 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Historical Literary Fiction
- Renaissance Historical Fiction (Kindle Store)
- Biographical & Autofiction Fiction eBooks
- Customer Reviews:4.44.4 out of 5 stars(3,739)
Top reviews from the United States
- Bree BealA Delicious StoryBoleyn Traitor is a delicious story of Tudor history, scandal and palace intrigue. Prior to reading this book, I wasn't familiar with the story of Lady Jane Roschford but Philippa Gregory does an outstanding job of bringing Jane Roschford alive on the written page. I really enjoyed how well Jane's voice is front and center in the story and as I read, I felt like I was walking right next to her through Tudor palaces, wearing beautiful Tudor gowns and dancing medieval circle dances. Boleyn Traitor is a book filled with passion, excitement and palace drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Because of this book, I plan to read the entire Plantagenet and Tudor series written by Philippa Gregory. And I want to say how much I love the cover of the book too. I highly recommend this wonderful story for anyone that enjoys Tudor history!
- cataholicAnother take on the events in her other books The Other Boleyn Girl and the Boleyn InheritanceAnother book on the same events covered in The Other Boleyn Girl and the Boleyn Inheritance. Jane Boleyn is the narrator again, but this is a different Jane. The author finally read the Julia Fox biography, and this Jane is more likeable, not a pervert and perjurer like in the other 2 novels. If you read and liked the other 2 books, then this will be a fast, entertaining read for you.
I was a little confused that the same events happen differently in this book. Events described by Mary Boleyn in the Other Boleyn Girl happen differently in Jane's telling, and Mary is not even there in the same scenes she described when she was the narrator. So either the author didn't re-read her own novel, or you have to chalk it up to different characters remembering the same events differently. If Jane is a reliable narrator, then Mary lied her head off in the Other Boleyn Girl. I decided to go with that interpretation, that each narrator is a little self centered and making herself the star of her story. Given the antagonism between Mary and Jane in the first novel, it seems more likely both are painting the other in a bad light deliberately.
I dive into these novels knowing there is a lot of bias and historical inaccuracy and just try to enjoy the story. This was enjoyable, although the large section of the book devoted to Katherine Howard was a little tedious, just because she is still shown as vain and rather stupid, without adding much further depth of character. I still pitied her for being married to Henry. She was a little more likeable in the Boleyn Inheritance (where she was a narrator), although not much. I enjoyed this take on Jane, however. She is very well educated for a woman of her time, but her upbringing seems to be a little lonely. She is genuinely devoted to Anne and George Boleyn in the beginning of the book, seeing herself as part of a team. It finally dawns on her that they are offering scraps of love and fellowship to get her to do what they want. She doesn't seem to realize her husband is gay (again, if we are to believe Mary Boleyn in the first novel), but she finally realizes that Anne will always come before her with George. So she focuses on her own ambitions. Thomas Cromwell plays her a little the same way, offering her respect for her talents and scholarship, but again probably just to get better intel from her as his spy. As in all the author's novels, ever courtier is out for themselves and playing the game of power.
It is refreshing to see a "trashy Tudor" novel finally do justice to Jane's character. She is almost always portrayed as a nasty person, even in the more highbrow novels like the Hillary Mantel series on Cromwell (that author just doesn't seem to like woman at all). It is refreshing to see the author correct her past choices. I wish she would do so with Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth Tudor - maybe sometime in the future. For those wondering, Anne Boleyn is pretty much the same in this novel as in The Other Boleyn Girl, but without Mary's constant character assassinations. So are George and the always loathsome Uncle Howard. Luckily the parents don't appear too often in this book. Henry is portrayed as gross on almost every page, which was frankly a little tedious. Yes, we know he was gross and fat and had a stinking wound. It got very repetitive. I enjoyed getting to know some of the minor characters better, the ones that had a part to play in Anne's downfall.
I also like the choice the author made to explain why Jane helped Kathryn Howard and Thomas Culpepper. That is frankly one of the big mysteries about Jane (i.e. why did she put herself at risk to help a queen commit adultery when she knew what Henry was capable of). No one knows what her thinking was in real life, but it was a good literary option.
It all ends with a commentary about saying no to tyrants. Anyone familiar with current events will get the reference. If you look at all 3 novels together as a trilogy, then you will find this new novel a satisfying conclusion I think - assuming that you liked the other 2 novels. - Wendy A. MarcecExcellent Read!As with all her novels, this was an excellent read! The descriptions are vivid and the dialogue is real! I definitely recommend this book if you love historical fiction.
- LaunaShipped fast, this is a good series to read, the shows are excellantI have the whole series of these books, at the time I had all of them this one came out much later so had to order it to go with the others.
- Ga303A redundant and at times, tedious and contradictory slog through a book we've already readFor me, three stars means I found it readable and finished it, yet was unwilling to demote to two stars nor willing to promote to four.
I respect Philippa Gregory as a talented historical fiction writer and respect her body of work (not all of which I have found, in my opinion, very good, so she is not an author I follow religiously and is not an author I jump to read the moment she has a new work out). I first discovered her with "The Other Boleyn Girl" -- which I loved, and which for me led to a years-long interest in Tudor history. I also liked its sequel, "The Boleyn Inheritance," but those who have read that book will especially find in this newest one not only redundancies but also contradictions, as other readers have also noted.
"The Boleyn Inheritance" basically covers the Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard marriages, with Jane Boleyn being one of the viewpoints. So I personally was confounded as to why Ms. Gregory even chose to produce "The Boleyn Traitor," which is basically the exact same thing with the exception of the fact that it begins a bit earlier, in the weeks/months leading up to Anne Boleyn's demise, and then continues through the Cleves and Howard marriages -- this time with the viewpoint being exclusively Jane's.
In my opinion, when Ms. Gregory wrote "The Other Boleyn Girl," she essentially should have been creating her own "Henry VIII Tudor universe," if you will -- and "Traitor" contradicts other items in her universe. As other readers have noted, there are viewpoints in "Traitor" which actively contradict those in "The Other Boleyn Girl." In "The Other Boleyn Girl," Anne and brother George (husband of Jane) actively scorned Jane and wanted little to do with her, and this exclusion led to bitterness on Jane's part which prompted her being a snitch who participated in their demise. In "Traitor," however, they are the Three Musketeers, BFFs all three -- a very, very different depiction than that which existed in "The Other Boleyn Girl." I found this off-putting in that it seemed the author had forgotten her own characters and how she'd previously had them think or behave. (Also, unlike "Boleyn Girl," where she's described as a mousy nobody, Jane is very attractive in "Traitor" -- a trait she tells us several times on her own, which I also happen to consider a cardinal sin in a first-person narrator.) Those of us who have read the other books may very well go, "What???!?" Yes, this is historical fiction, not historical record, but I found the inconsistencies jarring.
... As was the writing, which was tedious and long-winded at times, causing the reader to want to skim. I also found it unnecessary to, whenever a certain character entered the scene, repeat who that character was ad nauseum even if they had been in copious earlier scenes -- for heaven's sake, give an attentive reader credit for knowing who someone is (example: Duke of Norfolk).
I also couldn't buy into Jane Boleyn as a main character. Did she betray Anne and George? Did she betray others? Who knows and who will ever know? Realizing that there are Tudor historians devoting their entire careers to this, and not knocking that at all, barring some really groundbreaking historical discovery the likes of which I doubt at this point will occur at this point in history, these questions will never be answered -- rendering her for all time a "Tudor lost woman," as the author calls her in the Afterword. And no offense to scores or hundreds or even thousands of "Tudor lost women" -- but just because information is scant about Jane does not make her an interesting character who can anchor an entire novel. Sorry, Tudor gals, but just because you're "lost" to modern history doesn't make you any more interesting than anyone else, and certainly doesn't make you an appealing protagonist for a very long novel.
In this humble reader's opinion, "The Boleyn Traitor" felt like a grab on the author's part, especially for those of us readers who read "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Boleyn Inheritance." We know the story, we know the players, and we know how it ends. - Kindle CustomerMore history than novelSo realistic feeling, it felt more historical than novel. This book kept me turning pages and wondering if it was more actual than other books and accounts.