I'm Still In Love With You

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 )

Hello there!
Guess what? I'm writing this post from an hotel room in Orlando. Eric and I just got back, we had a pretty late dinner and I'm slowly entering a food coma so I'll try to be quick. I will explain why I'm in Orlando in another post in the next days, promise, but now it's book time.

It took me so long to finish this book I feel quite ashamed, but I want to say this in my defense: I'm reading these books for the Han and Leia factor, and this one was mostly about Luke. They got me with Han in the center there looking at me...

I started this book with very high expectations because I knew it was set right after Return of the Jedi and it was suppose to address some things left unsolved as Luke's feelings for Leia and the beginning of his path as a Jedi, Leia's feelings toward Daddy Vader, the beginning of Han and Leia relationship, ... A lot of good stuff but unfortunately the author didn't go too deep into any of these things. I was also disappointed Lando was't there.

	The Truce at Bakura Originally published: 1993 Author: Kathy Tyers Genres: Science Fiction (reading time: Mar 29 - April 20) ★★★

The book is set right after the party on Endor. Luke is not in a great shape because of his electrifying encounter with the Emperor and Han and Leia are helping out the Ewoks cleaning up after the party... potatoes chips bag... plastic cups... burring their deads while Leia is recovering from her blaster wound. Bakura, a planet situated in the outer rim, is under attack from an alien specie and it sends a message to the Emperor asking for his help. The Rebels intercept the message and - since there's no Emperor and no Death Star - they decide to go and help, thinking that that would be also a good excuse to bring another planet under the Alliance. Since it's a diplomatic mission Leia has to go, and since Leia is going Han has to go too. Good Old Ben (do you remember when the name Ben meant Obi Wan and we were thinking about Ewan Mc Gregor hair style instead of a certain scene? Good old times) appears to Luke and he tells him he has to go too, because the destiny of the whole galaxy is in his hands. So they all leave Endor full of positive vibes and great expectations but of course nothing is ever easy for our heroes. They have to deal with the aliens and their evil plan, a brainwashed Force Sensitive guy, the Imperials, kidnappings, parasites, bad service at the local cantina... name something bad and probably they have dealt with it over there. Not a very welcoming planet. But in the end they save the day. A good read and a good story but - as I said - I was expecting more.

• I wanted to hear Luke's thoughts about his sister and his best friend being in a relationship. I wanted to know how he felt about the whole sister thing and I wanted him to get some sort of closure. I just needed something to justify the whole thing... Which - if you read between the lines - you can actually get... Luke falls in love with the first girl he sees and he has this fantasy of him saving her... So basically I decieded to read this into it: Luke has never been in Love with Leia... He was in Love with the idea... Like a little girl who fantasize about being a Disney Princess and be saved by a handsome Prince.


• For the first half of the book Han and Leia believe they are still in the middle of the Empire Strikes Back and they fight and call each other names. Then they have a moment together with no interruptions and after that they are back in sync. Everyone seems to think they finally had sex and that helped... I like the idea... I don't like the fact there's nothing on paper. I don't want the details I just want to know for sure they're going in that direction.


• There's a wonderful moment though, when Anakin appears to Leia to ask for forgiveness and she's like "Are you going to ask for forgiveness to Han as well?" and he's like "Ahem... I don't have his Force Number, can you pass him the message?" and she's like "Nope!" It actually goes like this:
  

  
  “I can almost forgive you torturing me. And the evils you did to other people – because those drove so many worlds into the Alliance. But cruelty to Han…no. If you want to go through me, you won’t get his forgiveness. Never.”

  
  Go Leia! But the Han shows up and she gets mad at him in 3 seconds. But then this happens:
  

  
  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, straightening her neck. She held her lips near his chin.
  Accepting the invitation, he bent and kissed her. She felt her life energy draw up into the kiss until nothing existed but barely perceptible movements of Han’s mouth. She flattened her hands on his shoulders. His legs shifted toward her. All perception vanished but the taste of his breath. Her pulse quickened in her ears.
  The comm center blatted behind him.

  
  Guess who's that... Luke of course!


• Not enough Han, not enough Chewie, not enough R2D2...


• The characters are well written and their one liners are quite clever but when they talk to eachother -especially Han and Leia - sometimes they don't sound right.

But again the story is good, I'm giving it 3 stars just because of my ridiculous expectations.

Time for the third and last part!!!



I might eventually do one for Episode VII The Force Awakend but I have to wait for my DVD to arrive... :)
Time for the Oscars... I can't believe Harrison Ford never won one... Anyway... Enjoy :D
( Star wars Return of the Jedi - Han Leia Picspam )

And Here we go... Pic Spam Time!
Somebody stop me please!





( Star Wars a New Hope - Han and Leia Picspam )

See you soon with the second part... my favourite... The Empire Strikes Back!!!

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 )