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emilydobson 's review for:
Leia: Princess of Alderaan
by Claudia Gray
This book was a mixed bag for me. I'm not entirely sure I liked it being a Young Adult novel. [b:Leia, Princess of Alderaan|34860402|Leia, Princess of Alderaan (Star Wars)|Claudia Gray|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509816682s/34860402.jpg|56102984] settles into a typical YA format which is then essentially just coated with the Star Wars setting and characters. (Due to this, I would even say that if you have no/little prior knowledge of Star Wars, but like YA, this would be a fairly solid book to read.) Not that this was a bad thing altogether - I thought Leia's personality was very suitable for a YA protagonist.
Claudia Gray's writing did irritate me at times. There were many occasions where I felt like I was being told something that could have been shown. There were potential subtleties in character speech that were completely ruined for me, especially when the narration proceeded to tell me what I had already worked out. I also really did not care for the romance in this book. Leia would have been a much stronger character without it, and the romance was entirely unnecessary to the overall plot. Plus because it's set before the Original Trilogy when Leia is sixteen the love interest isn't Han. :(
I really enjoyed getting to know a bit more about Holdo from The Last Jedi which is one of the reasons I picked up this book. In the film she kind of felt like a random addition and so I really needed a bit more back story, which is what this book gives. I also loved the appearances from different Star Wars characters - Tarkin and Mon Mothma are quite heavily present in this novel, and there are small cameos from a whole host of characters, including C-3PO! Claudia Gray definitely came across as confident in her Star Wars knowledge and this really helped with me being able to visualise this book as part of the SW canon. I enjoyed this book enough to want to read Bloodline, Gray's other Star Wars novel about Leia.
Claudia Gray's writing did irritate me at times. There were many occasions where I felt like I was being told something that could have been shown. There were potential subtleties in character speech that were completely ruined for me, especially when the narration proceeded to tell me what I had already worked out. I also really did not care for the romance in this book. Leia would have been a much stronger character without it, and the romance was entirely unnecessary to the overall plot. Plus because it's set before the Original Trilogy when Leia is sixteen the love interest isn't Han. :(
I really enjoyed getting to know a bit more about Holdo from The Last Jedi which is one of the reasons I picked up this book. In the film she kind of felt like a random addition and so I really needed a bit more back story, which is what this book gives. I also loved the appearances from different Star Wars characters - Tarkin and Mon Mothma are quite heavily present in this novel, and there are small cameos from a whole host of characters, including C-3PO! Claudia Gray definitely came across as confident in her Star Wars knowledge and this really helped with me being able to visualise this book as part of the SW canon. I enjoyed this book enough to want to read Bloodline, Gray's other Star Wars novel about Leia.