I'm Still In Love With You

I am genuinely ashamed of myself because I didn't have the time to read as much as I wanted. When I was packing to come over to Italy I packed a lot of books thinking I would have spent HUGE chunks of my day reading, but life got in the way and even reading in the evening while in bed is difficult because here, up in the mountains, you get tired easily!

I'm glad I'm spending quality time with family and friends and driving around by Vespa taking it all in! But I wish I gave more time to my books! I'll try to be better from now on... I really want to get back on tracks!

	The Book of Speculation Originally published: Jan 1, 2015 Author: Erika Swyler Genre: Fiction / Magical Realism (reading time: Jun 26 - Jul 14) ★★★

I hate it took me so long to finish this book because it was very good!

Very well written and real to a fault characters and intriguing story. The story is narrated both in the past and in the present by two different characters and it moves in a way that just flows perfectly, I really don't know how else to put it!

The whole concept of a curse running through a family was already appealing to me, but I found also very cleaver that the curse was somehow casted unintentionally. There aren't elements of fantasy in the book, so it feels like it could be a real story and the people in it act like real people would do in such a situation, with the right amount of skepticism. The characters know they need to find a way to salve themselves and there's no need of someone acting as the hero, the chosen one. The entanglement of the families involved in the story is again surprisingly accurate and real.

Some of the passages of the book are wonderfully written. I highly recommend this book to anyone!

	Aftermath Book 2 Life Debt Originally published: July 12, 2016 Author: Chuck Wendig Genre: Science Fiction (reading time: Jul 14 - Aug 3) ★★★

I didn't know how many stars to give to this book because, maybe, if I didn't expect a book about Han and Chewie I would have read it and rate it under a different light.

It's not a bad book, but to me it doesn't deliver what it promised. The book back cover basically mentions just Han and Chewie on a mission to liberate Kashyyyk (Chewie's home planet) from slavery, but, after the first chapter, it takes more than 200 pages to the reader to be reunited with their favorite smuggler... The first half of the book is very slow and I had to use the audiobook file in order to get through it... Usually it takes me a week max to read a book... It took me almost 3 to finish it. Luckily the second half it's better, but maybe because Han, Leia and Chewie are in it.

I don't think I'm going to read the third one... I will probably read only the parts that interest me: the Han and Leia parts, I would expect them to make an apparition since Leia is about to give birth to Ben... And I'd read about Wedge... I really hope he'll end up with Norra, but a part of me doubt it... :(

The parts I've appreciate are of course the ones about my heroes. Leia was AWESOME as usual and I loved the bits about Han and Chewie too (the reunion and the goodbye above all) but I needed more...

Luke is again MIA as in Claudia Grey's Bloodline... That males me thing in Episode VIII we might get some interesting flashbacks about what went on with him right after Endor.

I miss the old canon and I'm scared we're going to have less and less books about the original trio and that's a pity. :(

I'm giving the book 3 stars because it didn't suck and the parts I was interested in were very good. Norra's crew is also very likable so it wasn't that bad reading about them!

Last night I finished Bloodline by Claudia Gray... Maybe I should say I finished it early this morning, because it was 2 am when I finally put the book down... The last few chapters were so good I just couldn't bring myself to stop... and now it's over and I have a more clearer vision of what happened in The Force Awakens, and it hurts even more now...

This book is great! I absolutely loved it and if I could give it more than 5 stars I would.

The author is indeed a huge Han/Leia Fan because in Bloodline Leia is just spot on... I could see Carrie Fisher's face and hear her voice while I was reading!

	Bloodline Originally published: 2016 Author: Claudia Gray Genres: Sci/Fi / Star Wars Novel (reading time: May 6 - May 12) ★★★★★

The book is full of politics but - since basically all of it is from Leia's point of view - it's not heavy as you might think. She constantly talks and thinks about Han and how much she misses him/wants to be with him/loves him.

Han is away working for the whole book, and it makes sense for the story itself, but also it's something that feels right for them. They live on the planet where the Senate is, and I can't imagine Han being able to be Han there, where all that matters is image and protocol, mining Leia's career and be bored as hell.

I can see them being private about their relationship and I love the fact people is still puzzled about how two people so different ended up together... For our joy, even if they're not physically together, they talk constantly via holo. You can feel they love each other very deeply, and that makes the events of TFA even more intense...

I remember reading online that the book portraits Han as a bad/absent father (and that explains why Ben turned to the dark side)... It's not true! Han is away for work often but he stays in contact with his family all the time, and he's there for them when they need him, even when they don't ask (He drops everything after Leia sends him a message just to say what happened when her secret got exposed, because he knows she needs him to be there to comfort her, even if she doesn't ask and pretends to be okay). In the book it's made also clear that Han acted like a big brother for Luke and a father for a lot of the pilots he trained, because he has it in him and he always regretted not being able to do the same for Ben - probably because he had to start training as a Jedi pretty soon, or he didn't want him to follow his footsteps...he wanted more for him that he could offer... Oh Han!!!

Han had taken countless young pilots under his wing during the past several years, many of whom remained close to them both even now.
His willingness to take on the role of mentor was one of the first things she’d noticed about Han Solo, years ago—well, one of the first things she’d liked about him. For all his griping about “farmboys,” Han had dedicated himself to Luke in the days after the first Death Star’s destruction. Leia had watched as Luke slowly overcame his grief for Obi-Wan Kenobi and his aunt and uncle, while learning about gunnery, ship repair, and countless other things from Han. The sarcasm and wit Han used disguised his concern from Luke, and even Leia took a while to realize that Han was looking “out for her, too.
Han was just as committed to his current crop of young pilots. Leia wished she could believe he mentored them out of the same impulse that had led him to befriend Luke; probably, on some level, he did. But Han was also teaching these kids the same lessons he’d wanted to teach their son.

Ben is away with Luke, and they're unreachable throughout the whole book, so we don't know what's going on with them, and Ben doesn't know Darth Vader is his grandfather, Leia leaves him a message but the story is all over the news so we don't know how he finds out in the end... We'll probably have an answer in episode VIII, I hope.

As I was saying, I think that the whole family situation is very real. It looks like a real family (one from our galaxy) where the dad has to spend time in another city for work and the kid is in college... I don't understand why people go crazy about the fact Han is not with Leia the whole time... I can't stress this enough, but can you honestly imagine Han sitting around the house doing nothing or joining the political scene? No... I think the picture Claudia Grey portraits works extremely fine. I'm totally on board with that...

I also understand even better why Han and Leia took some time apart after what happened to Ben... Han says - in The Force Awakens - that he knows that seeing him reminded Leia of Ben and that hurt... This makes one thing pretty clear to me: The reason why he left was selfless... He left because he couldn't stand being the one who caused Leia to suffer and he's the kind of guy who wants to fix things... Not make them worse... I can imagine them fighting because they weren't able to express their feelings about what happened to them, and taking all the blame upon themselves... Leia thinking that she was wrong sending Ben away, and Han thinking he could have done more for him... Blaming themselves, believing that the other person was probably thinking the same thing.

The reaction of the Senate when they discover Leia is Darth Vader's daughter is intense and they fear she (and Luke) could be like him... So, can you imagine when Ben turns to the dark side? After he has been training with Luke God knows where?... I can see the people turning their back on the Skywalkers and point their fingers... That's maybe the reason Han goes back to be a smuggler... Maybe his business goes south because of all the gossip... Maybe he goes back home to be with Leia and it's just too painful not to be able to find a way to solve the situation so - after a fight - he leaves... But the love is true... That's pretty clear to me! They separate for a while just because they weren't able to express their feelings in a totally Han/Leia fashion...

So THANK YOU CLAUDIA GRAY for giving me this book that puts my heart at ease about Han and Leia's love... I've never had any doubt but sometimes the internet goes crazy, and I start to wonder if I just live on my own planet where I just see what I want to see...

Here some of my favorite Han/Leia Moments in the book:
( SO MUCH CUTENESS I CAN'T EVEN )

I couldn't resist.

I kind of wanted to avoid to make an Han/Leia Picspam about this episode because I'm still recovering but I feel like I needed to do it in order to go through my 5 stages of grief (I'm so dramatic sometimes). Here's the conclusion of one of my favorite love stories of all times and all galaxies.



( STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS - HAN LEIA PICSPAM )

Done! Well that was painful... I mean the last scene is still too much for me to handle. Thank God there is The Empire Strikes Back and I can always go back to it ans watch all my favorite Han and Leia Moments. If you need to get your smile back on your face here you can find the previous Han and Leia picspams:

Enjoy!

Here we go with the second part of the Han and Leia Picspam: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back it's my favorite of the saga because it has everything I want in a movie and even more.



I added some deleted/cut scenes to the picspam and also some passages form the book. But enough with all the talking. Enjoy the picspam!

( Star wars the empire strikes back - han and leia picspam )

The third part will be ready soon :)

I'm going through a Star Wars fase at the moment. To be precise I'm going through an Han and Leia fase, and I'm way too deep into it. I just want more so, even if I know the old books are not canon anymore, I decided to go there anyway to feed the fangirl inside of me. I started with the Courtship of Princess Leia and I enjoyed it more than I imagined, I mean I wasn't completely thrilled about the whole kidnap thing but it seems in character enough to make me accept it. I liked it even if there were way too many kisses between Leia and Isolder and I still think she fell in love way too quickly with him, but the explanation was reasonable enough for me to forget about it.

Last night I started reading Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning and I was surprised when I found this short story between the first pages of the book, so I decided to share it here so that I can come back to it when I need it.

If the short story is a reflection of how the book is going to be I am already very pleased.

( "Corphelion Interlude - A Short Story" by Troy Denning )