Princess Leia returns for an all-new adventure in this thrilling upper middle grade novel. Set between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back andStar Wars: The Return of the Jedi, the story follows the warrior princess as she leads a ragtag group of rebels on a dangerous mission against the evil Galactic Empire.
Hidden in the story are also hints and clues about the upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, making this a must-read for fans old and new!
Genre:
Middle Grade, Science Fiction
Pages:
240 pages
Part of a Series?:
Part of the Star Wars Universe; Takes place between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi
Release Date:
September 4th, 2015
You Can Find the Book At:
Cecil’s Website / Jason’s Website
GoodReads Summary:
Princess Leia returns for an all-new adventure in this thrilling upper middle grade novel. Set between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi, the story follows the warrior princess as she leads a ragtag group of rebels on a dangerous mission against the evil Galactic Empire.
Hidden in the story are also hints and clues about the upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, making this a must-read for fans old and new!
My Review:
When I heard there were going to be a bunch of new books this year for the Star Wars universe, leading up to the release of The Force Awakens, you know I got excited. Then when I heard there was going to be a Princess Leia story, written by Cecil Castellucci, I got even more excited. I ADORE Cecil and I know she’s a big fan so my favorite fictional character ever was going to be quite safe in her hands.
And I was quite right.
It was SO awesome to get a Princess Leia story like this. It was a quick read, and even though its written as an upper middle grade, sort of the 12-14ish age group, I think anyone can enjoy it. I really forgot it was meant for kids much younger than me because it was such a fun and compelling story and it was written so well and its Princess freakin’ Leia.
The story takes place in between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, where Leia goes on a secret mission to distract the Galactic Empire from what the Rebel Alliance are planning. I love the connections to the movies I know and love, and how we see characters like C3PO and R2D2 and Luke Skywalker, but I also love all the new characters we are introduced to as well. I like that it felt so much like that Star Wars world.
But I love that it had a new feeling to it as well. I obviously have always loved Princess Leia so much, but we don’t get to see much of her and her own character development, especially those internal thoughts, as much as I would love to and so reading this book and being in her head was awesome. She’s still kickass and strong and clever and constantly wanting more to do. But there’s also more depth there, a lot of emotion and uncertainty and fear and all of that. She became even more of a person to me, and she become even more of a favorite character to me.
I also super loved the artwork in this book. There’s not a ton of it, but each bit is just done so well, and I love it. Sometimes I would forget to turn the page and continue the book because I would get so captivated by the chapter artwork. SO good.
I was really impressed with this story and I loved learning more about Princess Leia and seeing her get her own adventure and put in her work and passion into the rebellion. I’m actually hoping to read the other books as well, because now I’m curious to get all the clues I can for The Force Awakens!
Rating:
5 out of 5 Stars
Hahaha, this is groovy. The Star Wars books always seemed so remote from me and my interests, even though I loved the movies. They were hard-core space-opera stuff that was too intricate and masculine a universe to be relatable. I probably won’t pick this one up, but I’m glad to know that Leia is out there kicking as much butt in a book as she does on screen, for once.