– Spoiler-Free Review –
Han and Leia tie the knot! But can they really look forward to a new life when their previous life continues to call to them? Read my review of The Princess and the Scoundrel!
Let me just start off this review with the most important part I think most of us were waiting to find out, but we’ll revisit it a bit more in-depth shortly: this book is not a commercial for Disney’s new hotel experience, the Galactic Starcruiser.
A few months ago on social media, Del Rey announced this novel with an invitation to the wedding of Leia Organa and Han Solo. I am not really a fan of romance books – in that I don’t go out of my way to read them, not that I don’t like them. In this case, I almost checked out. But then I saw the author: Beth Revis. I am a pretty big fan of her young adult novel Rebel Rising, so I was checked back in. But then the press release noted that a lot of the novel would take place onboard the Halcyon, the in-universe ship that Disney made into a real life experience. As you can tell, my expectation for this novel was really mixed, and I wasn’t sure if it was going to end up being a commercial, an all-out romance, or just not-for-Chris. I’m happy to report that I mostly liked it!
But yeah, to go back and address maybe the biggest concern, both of my own and maybe the wider internet’s: this did not feel like a commercial for the hotel. Books set on Batuu, clearly gaming for the Galaxy’s Edge market, like Black Spire and A Crash of Fate, both read as commercials with a narrative, in my opinion. It didn’t help both novels spent time detailing every menu item at Oga’s Cantina or every ride that you could take at the park! Thankfully, The Princess and the Scoundrel ends up bypassing almost all of that, using the ship as a setting but not as the selling point. You probably will read about some things you can do at the hotel, but I don’t follow the news, so I’m not sure what all that may be. But even if I did, I feel like this would have bypassed the problem by not walking Han and Leia through each event like a checklist. The ship does play an integral part in the story, but thankfully as something that could exist without a hotel.
In general, one thing that I appreciated a lot about the novel was its sense of setting. One of my biggest critiques of the Disney Plus TV shows, and a lot of the franchise in general lately, is that the stories lack a sense of place. There’s no real reason certain stories take place on certain places, and the context that the stories play out on don’t contribute much to the story. That didn’t feel like the case here. All three major locations felt like they contributed to the story, with Endor and the ship being the first two major ones. The final planet, where Leia and Han do end up coming into conflict with the Empire, feels fairly fleshed out and the stakes of the novel are driven up by the setting of the novel. I was fairly impressed with this, and I think more novels could really learn to lean into their settings like this.
The major draw of the novel, for me, is the character work. Han and Leia are really well-written in what I consider to be two major parts of the book: the wedding and the honeymoon. The wedding portion of the book is really well done, showing Han and Leia interacting with one another with their guards down and their walls removed. Some of the dialogue took some getting used to, but I think that’s more because we don’t see these two in this exact context much. They’re comfortable with one another, they’re in love, and both learning how to interact with one another in this setting and new context. It’s as weird to them, I imagine, as it is for us! In the second half of the novel, the honeymoon portion, I felt like they retreated a bit more into the Han and Leia that we know more, and that also works in the story, as they roll back into their more comfortable ways of functioning. The interactions between these two were consistent throughout the novel, and I thought that the character work kept the book feeling fresh and engaging.
I will say, without giving into much spoilers since the book’s release is still a little bit out, it deals with Leia’s history and future with a lot of weight. Fresh from learning that her father is Darth Vader, and learning that she has access to the same Force as Luke does, brings up a lot in Leia. All of this, and a wedding, no less! I shouldn’t have been surprised to see this in the novel, but I am very happy it was included and written well.
The plotting, I think, is maybe the part of the book that resonated with me the least. My extremely scientific and precise review tactic is: does it feel long? The previous Del Rey novel, Shadow of the Sith, is a fairly long book. Very few times, though, when reading it, did I feel like I needed to see how much was left in the novel. I was thankfully fairly engaged. The Princess and the Scoundrel is not as long – it definitely didn’t need to be – but it felt a bit longer to me at times. The first half, during the wedding on Endor, I was extremely engaged and loved reading the book. When the novel switched gears and moved into the honeymoon, I felt a bit of my interest dip as it became a bit more conventional Star Wars. I wouldn’t say I completely checked out, but I wasn’t as engaged. I think part of it was, like I said, a bit more conventional, so I felt more familiar with it with a sense of “yeah, I’ve seen this before”. I think I also enjoyed just spending time with the characters and didn’t need such a big shift in the story. By the time the villain showed up, one I was pleasantly surprised to see, I was feeling a bit closer to “yeah, but Han and Leia….”
Without giving away much more, there’s one more comment I’d like to make: we give a lot of credit to books like Brotherhood and Shadow of the Sith for being workhorses in bringing a lot of canon material together. Revis does the same work here, but on a bit more of a lowkey scale, but deserves a lot of the same credit. A few surprising references made it in, a lot that may not be as well known due to the characters’ original appearances in magazine short stories. It also works really well with Shattered Empire, a series I like a lot simply due to the release of the book corresponding with the hype of The Force Awakens.
All in all, I liked this novel far more than I thought I would. The parts that didn’t land with me as much, like the plotting and the pacing, were still fine, and thankfully not a huge detriment. But the material between Han and Leia elevates this book to a really high pedestal, one I hope it enjoys for a while.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor!
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book, through NetGalley, from the publisher at no charge in order to provide an early review. However, this did not affect the overall review content. All opinions are my own.
ALSO BY BETH REVIS:
“For the Last Time” – From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back (novel) | Ahsoka and Padme in Star Wars Adventures – Forces of Destiny (comic) | “Fully Operational” – From a Certain Point of View (novel) | Rebel Rising (novel)