What made this book three stars for me rather than the two stars it probably deserves, was that it wasn't just about the 'usual Tudor suspects' but mentioned other lesser known but still interesting inhabitants of Tudor society. I really enjoyed reading a Tudor biography that wasn't the same old, same old and that included people I wasn't necessarily familiar with. However, whether or not these people ever had relations with or were related to Henry as the author claims is an entirely different matter.
This is not a scholarly work by any means, but I didn't expect it would be going in so I wasn't disappointed. It had a friendly gossipy tone which suited the subject matter and also the level of the information being passed on. There were several errors in the basic facts about Henry's childhood/life and I also spotted some errors amoung the chapters on people and events that were reasonably well known to me, so it would be naive to assume that the author managed to get everything right with the people who I wasn't familiar with. That said, I still enjoyed reading about them. The author also did that annoying 'might have''could have' stuff that is so rife in current popular historical biography and her suppositions showed how little understanding of Henry's court and it's politics or the religious and social mores of the time she had.
Despite its faults, I did ultimately enjoy this gossipy little book, but would advise anyone reading to take all facts with a grain of salt. It definitely had the feel of something that was thrown together in a hurry to cash in on current Tudor popularity.