Books Star Wars: The Princess and the Scoundrel by Beth Revis

I think the idea is just to establish that that's canonically where Han and Leia went for at least part of their honeymoon, in the cynical hope that it'll encourage some Star Wars fans to emulate them. The book itself probably won't spend too much time on it.

 

Do I want to spend 1,000+ for a cheap looking set to feel nostalgic about Star Wars? Nah. I'd rather my imagination and a lightsaber to pretend stab battle droids in the arena battle on Geonosis in the middle of my lounge room.

 

Sounds like a nice weekend

 

Considering I have so many OCs (the Sequels is fun cause I have to portray my OT character and his ST adopted son, sometimes in the same scene), I don't just watch Star Wars, I experience it through my mind. And it doesn't cost me 1,000+ bucks per day I don't have.

 

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-the-princess-and-the-scoundrel-cover

 

CAN I JUST! SQUEE?!

 

I hope we get a small, Luke cameo and hints of him starting training Leia as a Jedi.
See the resemblence!

 

I really like that cover

 

Yeah, I'm really getting old school EU vibes from that.

 

I'm delighted with the coverart - it's 100% original and just beautiful

Every wedding needs....stormtroopers. lol

 

I have the courtship of princess Leia and I am curious to read this book too

 

From the book's official description they'll be very different stories, which is a good thing. I recently re-read "Courtship....Leia" - it was OK but it was a really uneven book. I can't wait to read this one where hopefully the wedding itself won't be an afterthought.

 

Agreed. I mentioned the same thing in a PM earlier. I liked the Dathomirian culture but the whole Isolder thing was just WHAT?! I like the fact that the wedding seems to be central.

 

"Old-school" was also my first thought after seeing that cover. It's definitively one of my favorite covers of the new canon.

Spoiler: Synopsis

You are cordially invited to the wedding of Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo.

The Death Star is destroyed. Darth Vader is dead. The Empire is desolate. But on the forest moon of Endor, among the chaos of a changing galaxy, time stands still for a princess and her scoundrel.

After being frozen in carbonite, then risking everything for the Rebellion, Han is eager to stop living his life for other people. He and Leia have earned their future together, a thousand times over. And when he proposes to Leia, it’s the first time in a long time he’s had a good feeling about this. For Leia, a lifetime of fighting doesn’t seem truly over. There is work still to do, penance to pay for the dark secret that she now knows runs through her veins. Her brother, Luke, is offering her that chance—one that comes with family and the promise of the Force. But when Han asks her to marry him, Leia finds her answer immediately on her lips . . . Yes.

Yet happily ever after doesn’t come easily. As soon as Han and Leia depart their idyllic ceremony for their honeymoon, they find themselves on the grandest and most glamorous stage of all: the Halcyon, a luxury vessel on a very public journey to the most wondrous worlds in the galaxy. Their marriage, and the peace and prosperity it represents, are a lightning rod for all—including Imperial remnants still clinging to power.

Facing their most desperate hour, the soldiers of the Empire have dispersed across the galaxy, retrenching on isolated planets vulnerable to their influence. As the Halcyon travels from world to world, one thing becomes abundantly clear: The war is not over. But as danger draws closer, Han and Leia find that they fight their best battles not alone, but as husband and wife.

 

Barnes and Nobel have listed their exclusive version of the book for sale. Also anyone who preorders before August 15th is automatically entered into a drawing for a signed/personalized version of the book and other goodies. Click HERE for more info!

 

Attention UK posters.

SpeedyHen preorder now active.

 

This looks really cool. They have some pretty good stuff coming out if you don't like the High Republic.

 

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-the-princess-and-the-scoundrel-excerpt

Spoiler

The fires had all died down, smoke trailing in the night sky, dissipating long before it could reach any of the countless glittering stars twinkling through the tree canopy. Leia’s hand trailed over the white and black helmets of the stormtroopers and Imperial fighters that the Ewoks had turned into an impromptu drum set. She had laughed and danced along with everyone else when the fires were bright and the drinks had flowed freely.

But now her hand lingered over the scratches and dents on a previously gleaming-white helmet.

A person, a living being, had been under this helmet.

The enemy.

Someone who would have shot to kill—any rebel, of course, but Leia knew that her death would have been the highlight of a stormtrooper’s career. Someone shot this person before they could shoot her. And then the dead trooper’s helmet had been plucked from their head and banged on like a drum.

She wondered who the trooper had been. Someone indoctrinated as a child, perhaps? That happened often enough. Someone from an occupied world, pressed into service? Had this stormtrooper chosen the path that led to their death and derision on a forest moon, or had they simply been unlucky?

Her fingers slid over the scuffed surface of the helmet, but her hand froze before she touched the next one.

Black.

It wasn’t his helmet, she knew. The night made the gray-green of the AT-ST operator’s helmet appear darker than it was, and the shape was similar but still distinctly different.

A hand fell on Leia’s left shoulder, fingers firm, pulling her back. Leia sucked in a harsh breath—the touch was too familiar. The hand pulled her back with the same pressure as before, the same spacing of fingers, one painfully on her clavicle, and when she shuddered at the touch, the same soft, almost gentle rub of a thumb against her shoulder blade.

“It’s just me,” Luke’s voice said, concern etched on his face when she jerked away and turned toward him.

Just Luke. Her brother.

Darth Vader’s son.

“You smell like…”

“Smoke?” Luke guessed. “We all do.” He attempted a smile, but Leia didn’t return it. Because the scent that clung to Luke’s black tunic was not the same as the smoke that still lingered throughout the Ewok village of Bright Tree. The stench of it made her sick to her stomach — that, and the idea that while she’d danced, he had gone to give Darth Vader a funeral pyre.

Still, when she looked in his eyes, she saw only Luke. And he was sad.

“The whole galaxy celebrated while you mourned,” Leia said softly.

Luke shook his head. “I wasn’t the only one mourning.”

Leia glanced at the stormtrooper’s helmet. “No, I suppose not.”

“How are you?” Luke’s voice was sincere, but Leia wasn’t sure how to answer him. This was supposed to be a triumph, but all she really felt was confused. Not just about what Luke had told her about her lineage — their connection was something she’d felt for some time, and it had been easy to accept Luke as her brother. She would not think about what that meant of her biological father. No — it wasn’t just that.

“It’s the Force, isn’t it?” Luke asked.

Leia nodded. She had told Luke that she didn’t — couldn’t — understand the power he had, but he seemed eerily calm and confident that she could actually wield the Force as he did. Leia might not have any real experience with the Force, but there was no denying the power Luke had… the power she felt, too, like a fluttering of flitterfly wings just on the edge of her consciousness. Waiting for her to seize it.

“He told me to tell you –” Luke started, but Leia’s head whipped up, eyes fierce as she glared at him.

“Don’t,” she warned.

“They were his last words. He wanted me to tell you –”

“I don’t care.”

“He was good,” Luke insisted. “There was still good in him, after all…”

My father was good, Leia thought, but in her mind she pictured Bail Organa, not Darth Vader. Thinking of Bail made her think of Breha, her mother. Of her home. Of everything she had lost.

When she had spoken to Luke earlier this night, Leia had told him that she remembered the mother they shared, their birth mother. It had been vague images, feelings, really, nothing more. But she did have a memory — of love, of closeness, of things she could not describe. It was impossible to put her feelings into words, but there was no denying their truth. It felt like… a connection, a bond made of light.

Yet Luke, who was a Jedi Knight, strong in the Force, had no memory of the woman who had birthed them both.

Did he have memories of their father? Was that why he was so capable of forgiving the monster that was Darth Vader? They had been separated at birth, not just from each other but from their biological parents. Maybe Leia had a connection with their mother, and Luke had a connection with their father.

Leia bit back a bitter laugh. Perhaps it wasn’t as deep as that. Perhaps it was merely that Luke had never been tortured by their biological father the way she had.

“What happens next?” Luke asked.

Leia looked at him. Since becoming a Jedi Knight, he had always seemed so calm, so sure of his direction.

He wasn’t sure now. His eyes searched hers. He’s waiting for me to decide my fate before he chooses his own, she realized. Their blood connection may be new knowledge, but he was also her friend. The threads of fate that had pulled them in separate directions could be rewoven.

Beyond Luke, in the shadows, Leia saw the outline of someone else. Han was backlit by a lingering torch, but she recognized his shoulders, his stance. Cocky, even when no one was looking. When his eyes settled on her, he strode directly toward her, his feet loud on the rickety boards of the walkway between the treetop dwellings.

Leia had no idea what would happen tomorrow or the next day or the next. But as she left Luke in the shadows and met Han on the bridge, she knew exactly what would happen tonight.

 

I have been enjoying the High Republic, but it's nice that it hasn't stopped the books to explore other parts of the timeline.

 

I read the 1st book and have yet to read the 2nd but thought it was just okay. I am however glad to see books like Brotherhood, Queen's Hope, Shadow of the Sith, and this one come out.

 

And that is why I will not be buying this book in any form. I love Star Wars but even I have my limits when it comes to marketing schemes.

 

I was already pretty excited for this book, but this excerpt increased my excitement tremendously. I don’t know how much The Princess and the Scoundrel specifically will delve into it, but that excerpt does give me hope that they’ll explore Leia’s Jedi path more in-depth in future literature. To be honest, I’d absolutely love if they had Claudia Grey write a novel detailing the time period that Leia trains as a Jedi under Luke before realizing she’s pregnant with Ben. I might be in the minority here, but that’s a story I’ve been dying to see expanded on in some capacity ever since The Rise of Skywalker came out.

 

I guess I have a different take on this. When the marketing is for a hotel that costs thousands to stay at, on top of international travel to get there, I cease to care about it, as I'm never doing it.

I suppose the same is true for Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire which turned out to be a great unofficial Phasma sequel. Due to that I'm loathe to write this off due to an element that the author likely had to include.