I would suggest having some sort of pre-knowledge of the period in order to keep track of the characters in this fictional account of Cristina de Brus at the time of the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 13th century.

The book, for me, was a quick read. Whilst attracted to the premise of focusing on a rarely explored period in Scottish history and bringing to the fore one of the less-known Bruce women, I really felt no connection with the character of Cristina.

I could also not decide if this is a single story or part of something more.

Two stars is being quite generous.

As a fan of historical fiction, I was pleased to read this excellent book by Raedene Jeannette Melin. As the sister of Robert Bruce, Christina Bruce was an important player in the history of Scottish independence from Britain. Although finding herself in opposition to her father and brother, she maintained her ideals and fundamental belief to protect her family. Recommended reading.

To Crown A King is a story of Christina Bruce. Sister to Robert the Bruce she gets caught up in the struggles between Bruce & Comyns.

Her father's allegiance is to England - this causes issues in the family & when she gets involved with William Wallace -this complicates things further.

Torn between her family loyalties & her belief in Wallace's stance.

Quite a good read - characters were well rounded - but strayed a bit at times - especially when Christina rode off on her own

But overall - worth a read.

The setting is Scotland in 1295 and The Kingdom is on the verge of rebellion. Christina Bruce, an influential person during the Scottish Wars.
Her father pledges allegiance to King Edward of England and she is left to make tough decisions for her family and herself.
Will Christina and her siblings follow their father's orders as War descends?
The author did a wonderful job and I very much would like to know and read more about Christina Bruce, sister to Robert the Bruce, crowned the King of Scotland. Fast paced and I had to read to the very end.

Thank you to Publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

A fast paced book about Christina Bruce, sister of Robert Bruce of Scotland. This is an enjoyable book. It will have many mixed reviews because of the way it's written. Not for everyone.
Thank you,Netgalley for my review ARC!

I love historical fiction and although I know that this is fiction I still expect the historical parts to be believable. This one however just didn't follow along with that aspect of historical at least not with what I have devoured in the past. This book as very VERY fast paced. Within 3% of the title the MC was sent to collect the rents and killed someone that attacked her and then that person ended up being a spy. It was just way way over the top within the first few pages. I wished that the story would have taken the time for me to get to know the characters and then the story itself.

Other then what I learned while watching Braveheart, I know very little about the history of Scotland. This novel intrigued me as it focuses on a young woman from an influential noble family in 1295 Scotland. Christina Bruce, a descendant of Celtic & Norman kings, was an influential person during the Scottish Wars of Independence, however, very little is truly known about her. While her father pledges loyalty to England, she is left to make tough decisions for herself & her family.

What I loved: Christina 's character. She is brave, fierce & loyal to a fault sometimes. The author takes great detail in fleshing out Christina's life & her role in the Scottish War. And there is a lot of history & historical events that I really enjoyed reading about. And Christina's relationships with her family & the heads of the other noble families is full of drama. I also loved the special relationship Christina develops with William Wallace.

What I didn't: There are a lot of characters to keep track of. Some that disappear for a bit & then show up just when you've forgotten about them. The story struggles with pacing & can be a bit slow in parts (lots of riding back & forth.) It is also very heavy on the history which I actually enjoyed. However, there were parts where the events felt rushed through that should have been elaborated on more fully & character's motives detailed a bit more.

To Crown A King is rich on history and drama. What it lacks in pacing, it makes up for with a strong female character, an interesting family dynamic & leaves you wanting more.

I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

To Crown A King is a story of Christina Bruce. Sister to Robert the Bruce she is noble born in Scotland and finds herself embroiled in the rivalry between the Comyns and Bruce families. Her father has sworn allegiance to King Edward of England placing her and her siblings in a very difficult position.

On a chance meeting she meets William Wallace, a man who seeks the same thing as her, freedom!

As war descends, Christina finds she cannot follow her father's orders but will her siblings?

I quite enjoyed this but it did get a bit tiresome reading about Christina going off on her horse alone to all these different places.

I liked some of the characters like Cailean and Wallace ( I may be biased as I adore Braveheart) but I found myself wanting more from Christina and Seton. I wanted to know more of her thoughts and his. I think those two could have been developed a lot better.

That being said it was an enjoyable read and I would like to read more so I hope there's a sequel.

I am big fan of historical fiction but this one did not hit the mark for me. There were brief moments of intrigue, but overall I was mostly left wanting more. I believe more character and plot development was needed to prevent the story line from remaining stagnant.

Recipe of this novel: Christina rides somewhere, discussions are had, she rides somewhere else... throw in some expressions of tiredness and repeat.

Historically based on Christina Bruce, Sister of the Scottish Robert Bruce. Although based on historical facts I felt the character development had not been researched or written about well. Am sure a woman of such high standing would not have been without waiting women or at least a maid in constant attendance. She does a lot of jumping onto her horse and riding away with no thought to any of this. The book is a useful tool to investigate Scottish history - a period often selected, however I would have really liked to have gotten more into Christina's 'head'. There is little description of her everyday dress, feelings or female companions. It was a good read, could have been improved greatly had it really looked Christina's whole life, not just her actions going from one place to another.

To Crown a King by Raedene Jeanette Melin is the fictionalized story of Christina Bruce, the sister of Robert the Bruce, and the struggle of William Wallace to win Scotland's independence. Little is documented of Christina but Melin has taken what there is and made in into a wonderful story, reminiscent of many of the Wallace and Robert Bruce stories already written, but from a new perspective. Christina is unique among women of the time, and yet extremely traditional. She outlived many of her contemporary rebels, living to marry twice and support the cause courageously.

To Crown a King is an extremely readable book and Christina a very sympathetic character. The plot was what it was and Melin managed to uncomplicate it and make it accessible to a lover of history but not a non-fiction reader. The struggle is real and has been going on for a thousand years...still is today although not nearly as violently as in the past. I recommend this book highly for any lover of history or of Scotland.

I received a free ARC of To Crown a King from Netgalley. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #tocrownaking

This story focuses on the character of Christina Bruce, based on the real life sister of King Robert the Bruce.

This felt more like a middle grade or a very young teen novel rather than a full on historical fiction book. The writing was very basic and I felt that a lot of it would have been a little bit of a stretch for the times - I doubt Christina would have been left on her own for her to keep bumping into strange men left, right, and centre.

BUT! I would take this review with a grain of salt as I have been in a terrible slump for a little while and nothing has made me happy reading wise. By all means, if this summary catches your eye, please give it a go!

I thought this book was sort of sloppily written. I really liked the description of the book, but actually reading it was less than enjoyable. The characters were extremely stereotypical of this kind of historical fiction, which was probably my biggest problem with this book. I think that I would have enjoyed the plot a lot more if I had been able to make any kind of connections with any of the characters.

I have read my fair share of historical fiction, but this is the first book I’ve read set during the Scottish War for independence. I quite enjoyed the (canceled too soon) show Reign and I have always been intrigued by Scottish history so when I saw this was available, I thought I would put in a request. The story follows Christina Bruce and the events leading up to her brother, Robert the Bruce being crowned King of Scotland.

Ultimately this book was just meh for me. I liked the premise and Christina was a well written character, but it just felt like most of the book was facts of families that ruled and lands they owned. Up until the last couple of chapters it felt like I was reading a textbook. I would have much preferred the focus had been on Christina the person and less on the war going on around her. Even though this book was too heavy on the historical and too light on the fiction for my tastes I’m still giving it 3 stars because writing any type of historical fiction can’t be easy and I have much respect for any author that takes a shot at it.

I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting viewpoint of Scottish history and broadly the author built that mediaeval world very well. I liked the main character and her family and cared what happened to them, although I did at point find the large number of subsidiary characters a bit confusing. The one minor thing that grated was the repeated use of smirk, smirked etc, sometimes when the author actually meant smiled and there was no reason to use it,

This is about some of the beginning of Scottish history which not much is written about not like English history!You will enjoy where this story takes you and helps you understand why and when history is in the making happened! It moves to me a little slow,a little boring at times but then all of a sudden it gets better! Didn't get confused on the change of events as they happen so if I didn't you wont! Enjoy!! Thank you Met Galley for this go to read first!

This mercifully short novel tells the story of the early part of the life of Christina Bruce, sister of Robert. She's feisty, independent and given to breathing deeply, taking long walks and galloping off when upset. And perhaps noblewomen in late 13th-century Scotland could get away with being feisty, independent etc; it's not my period, so I can't tell whether this behaviour is anachronistic or not.

But there are several anachronisms which do stand, screaming, on a heathery Scottish hillside. Mary gets 'antsy' (p35). Christina 'snuck' out of the castle (p36) and can 'figure this out' (p37) - just three examples in three pages. Worse is 'crosshairs' (p66). Cross hairs were first called this is 1755, to describe a view-finding aid developed in the later 17th century. Mistakes like this drag a reader straight out of the story and make me doubt the author's research. And we need to be able to trust the author.

Maybe an editor could have tidied things up? An editor might have spotted that a scapular (p113) was never used to cover a nun's hair, not even a feisty nun's hair. It's like a tabard, it's worn on the body. Hint: look up 'wimple'.

An editor might have pointed out that Christina's widowed sister was not the 'queen mother' of Norway, because she had no heir to be a mother of. The same busy editor would have noticed that there is no such place as 'the Orkneys'. And what's a 'stennachie'? Is it like a seannachie?

But the editor was probably punch-drunk from being slapped around by dangling participles. Even the first sentence starts with one. 'Palm pressed against cold earth, winter's lingering cold numbed Christina's fingers.' I've heard of winter having you in its grasp, but I didn't think it actually had a palm.

But read on, let' see if it gets any better. 'Short in stature, his grey hair curled as it came to rest against his shoulders. In service to her father and her grandfather before him, his stooped frame was as familiar as the ground she crouched on.' Nope. It gets worse after all.

Here's a real cracker. ''Still on her horse, she dismounted.' Er... no. And I'm not sure what's going on here: 'Oblivious to her presence, her sisters stared back at her in surprise.'

The reason I noticed all these horrors was that none of the characters is particularly engaging and, frankly, I didn't care what happened to them. Maybe that wasn't helped by the fact that the characters spend a lot of time smirking. Not just when they are being sarky or threatening. But again and again, even during a tender moment with a lover.

OK, that's enough. You'll get the point. TL:DR? It's just not very well written. The bits and bobs of history are interesting enough, but I'd rather read plain old history than this sadly wasted opportunity to bring Catriona Bruce to life.

So all in all, I can't recommend it. But if you do read this book, I hope you get more out of it than I did.

Set during Scotland's war for independence, we follow Christina Bruce. She fights to find her own place in the world and tries to help her country be the country she thinks it can be.

This biographic piece had a lot of history in it that often at times felt clunky and thick. My knowledge of the Scottish war for independence doesn't exist, but even with the history laid on throughout the novel, I don't feel like it's any better. It slowed down the pace and didn't make it an easy read for me.

It wasn't only the thick history that slowed the novel down for me, but the writing in general. It was all clunky and didn't flow well. At times, the writing felt like it was aimed for younger readers. The blend between fiction and non-fiction didn't feel cohesive. There was a divide there which left me feeling like I was reading a non-fiction story more than a fiction story based on history.

Due to the writing, I had a hard time getting to know Christina. The story spanned for around ten years, so I should have gotten to know her and see how much she changed over the years, but I didn't get any of that. She came across as rather plain to me when I'm sure she was anything but.

I was eager to dive into this novel, but due to the writing and the ending, this book really missed the mark for me.

I have to start out by writing that my "go to" genre is historical fiction though mostly in the 20th century. I know nothing about Scottish history nor of the heroes/heroines of those times. No, I did not see Mel Gibson's movie. I enjoy books with strong women and Christina lives up to this attribute. Maybe because of my lack of knowledge, I found there were too many characters to keep track of especially with the swapping the use of first and/or last names. Maybe a character diagram would have been helpful. For the most part, I found the pace consistent throughout the book. My rating is 3.5 but rounded up to 4. I am sure a reader with interest in this part of history would enjoy To Crown a King.

I missed it when selecting Raedene Jeannette Melin’s To Crown a King so I’m gonna start by noting the book is a biographic piece based on the life of Christina Bruce, sister of that other Bruce, the one carefully omitted from the jacket description in favor of a Mel Gibson reference.

All joking aside, I admit I liked this piece. Melin’s To Crown a King is smaller in scope than J.M. Harvey’s Sisters of the Bruce 1292-1314, but I think the modest frame of this narrative allowed a nice degree of thematic depth. Melin doesn’t forget the history, I felt it layered a bit thick in places if I’m completely honest, but there is enough of a character arc to balance the fact.

My only quib with this piece is the pacing. I was slow on the uptake, but once I got my head on straight, I remembered enough to recognize where this story was going and consequently found it hard to rouse my enthusiasm for the twists and challenges the rebellion was meant to create for Christina.