A Kingdom's Cost: J.R. Tomlin

Good Reads Summary: Eighteen-year-old James Douglas can only watch, helpless, as the Scottish freedom fighter, William Wallace, is hanged, drawn, and quartered. Even under the heel of a brutal English conqueror, James's blood-drenched homeland may still have one hope for freedom, the rightful king of the Scots, Robert the Bruce. James swears fealty to the man he believes can lead the fight against English tyranny.

The Bruce is soon a fugitive, king in name and nothing more. Scotland is occupied, the Scottish resistance crushed. Only James believes their cause is not lost. With driving determination, he blazes a path in blood and violence, in cunning and ruthlessness as he wages a guerrilla war to restore Scotland's freedom. James knows he risks sharing Wallace's fate, but what he truly fears is that he has become as merciless as the conqueror he fights.

This book was very enjoyable, though at times it felt a bit too much like a history lesson one would hear in school.  The characters were well-developed from appearance to way of thinking; however, the reader may have a hard time getting into the characters at the beginning of the book.  The history behind the book was clearly researched extensively and successfully.  The Bruce, one of the main characters, felt very alive and almost as if he could jump off the page and except the reader to bow low.   The plot was terrific, one not many people right about, perhaps because there is so much to attend to.  This book is great for those who like historical fiction and action, probably more for adults.