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readerturnedwriter 's review for:
Leia: Princess of Alderaan
by Claudia Gray
I am not a huge star wars person. I have seen all the movies multiple times, but I've never read any of the books. This was a big disappointment as my first.
There were some engaging scenes and times I did care. I enjoyed it the most at the beginning and the further I read, the less I liked it.
My first problem was that it didn't really feel like a Star Wars book. You could change the names and it could literally be any generic ya scifi. I guess I was wanting more of a Star Wars feel, especially from Leia. She felt totally different to me in this, very immature, assuming things about people (like her parents) that made me scratch my head, and very focused on friends and boys.
The focus of the book--friendships and romance--was, I felt, a detraction. I personally would much rather have read about the rebellion and politics more than I did, and could have done without the romance all together. That scene with the braids annoyed me too; it felt like it had no place in this book.
The plot felt wandering. Leia was jumping between her family and her mountain climbing class (??) and the senate apprenticeship and her charity trips. A lot of the plot felt like it held very little purpose and I felt my attention wandering a lot.
The motivations of the character's felt very contrived and flip flopping. This was especially true for Leia's motivations and her parents. It wasn't believable to me.
And that ending. I honestly hated the ending if the romance. Not that I wanted it to end well, but it felt very pointless and kind of in-between (if you are going to have something like this, it would be better for the person to betray totally or not at all, imo). The end also felt very anticlimactic to me, maybe because it's a sequel.
Overall, even without the Star Wars aspect, I don't think this was very well done. It also didn't fit with what I know of the Star Wars movies, either. I wouldn't recommend this.
There were some engaging scenes and times I did care. I enjoyed it the most at the beginning and the further I read, the less I liked it.
My first problem was that it didn't really feel like a Star Wars book. You could change the names and it could literally be any generic ya scifi. I guess I was wanting more of a Star Wars feel, especially from Leia. She felt totally different to me in this, very immature, assuming things about people (like her parents) that made me scratch my head, and very focused on friends and boys.
The focus of the book--friendships and romance--was, I felt, a detraction. I personally would much rather have read about the rebellion and politics more than I did, and could have done without the romance all together. That scene with the braids annoyed me too; it felt like it had no place in this book.
The plot felt wandering. Leia was jumping between her family and her mountain climbing class (??) and the senate apprenticeship and her charity trips. A lot of the plot felt like it held very little purpose and I felt my attention wandering a lot.
The motivations of the character's felt very contrived and flip flopping. This was especially true for Leia's motivations and her parents. It wasn't believable to me.
And that ending. I honestly hated the ending if the romance. Not that I wanted it to end well, but it felt very pointless and kind of in-between (if you are going to have something like this, it would be better for the person to betray totally or not at all, imo). The end also felt very anticlimactic to me, maybe because it's a sequel.
Overall, even without the Star Wars aspect, I don't think this was very well done. It also didn't fit with what I know of the Star Wars movies, either. I wouldn't recommend this.