A review by abookishaffair
The Forest Laird: A Tale of William Wallace by Jack Whyte

4.0

I knew about William Wallace and his fight for Scottish freedom before I read this book but I didn't know a whole lot of the detail of his life and how he fought for freedom. And oh, okay, I am probably one of the only people left that have not seen Braveheart, which seemed to be so many people's first taste of William Wallace. So I was very interested in reading this book since it was a new story to me!

This book is told from the perspective of Jamie, who is William Wallace's cousin and a priest in the church. Jamie and William are incredibly close so I thought that it was a really cool perspective to see William through the eyes of someone who knew him very well and had known him since childhood. Being a part of the clergy, Jamie also has a really interesting perspective on what's going on in the war between England and Scotland.

This book is perfect for historical fiction lovers who like a healthy dose of action with the human stories so often found in historical fiction books. That being said, even though there is some fighting in the book, the book really focuses more on what the motivation is and not a whole bunch of battle scenes (which I was very glad for because I'm not so much into that).

The book leaves you with a cliffhanger (this book is the first book in a planned trilogy, the Braveheart chronicles). After reading this book, I know that I definitely need to see where this one goes.

Bottom line: This is the beginning to what I'm sure is going to be a most beloved series.