I give this book one (1) very emphatic hell yes.

This is EXACTLY the content I want in my Star Wars novels. All the information I need about Leia's teen years. Deets on the Organa family dynamic -- Bail as a dad, Breha as a mom. The nascent rebellion -- how it worked, how they schemed, how Leia got involved, how being royal secret insurgents affected the Organa family relationships. Contextualizing details about Alderaan, Leia's childhood and education, and how/where the Organas live. Royal traditions. Characterization of Leia as a person, in her natural habitat. All that jazz.

Hell yes.

I was somewhat worried heading into this book, because I loved Lost Stars but was NOT a fan of Bloodline. Now, with Leia as a decisive tiebreaker, I can conclude that Claudia Gray is, in fact, an author to be trusted. This book is vital content that you NEED to know if you care about Leia, and are at all in the habit of reading Star Wars books.

Highlights:

• Let's start off with a totally revolutionary new canon look at BREHA ORGANA.

First of all, she is apparently the hereditary ruler of Alderaan in her own right. In old canon, Bail was the hereditary ruler and Breha his queen by marriage. In new canon, Breha is the reigning queen and Bail is her consort and frankly UH. NICE.

Second of all, she apparently basically FOUNDED THE REBELLION. Bail tells Leia that the rebellion was originally Breha's idea. I'm assuming this means WAY BACK IN ROTS, SHE WAS IN ON THE DELETED SCENE SCHEMING, since that's when the "original" idea for the rebellion was germinated. She's also the one pushing to fully organize and straight up go to war with the Empire, while Bail is initially hesitant to move beyond lowkey scattered sabotage. She's ALSO clearly the guiding moral and emotional linchpin of their family, and a cyborg with some kind of machine lung implants.

As a dedicated and longtime Bail Organa stan, I'm not shading Bail (he is still one of my favorite shining stars in a mostly-dismal Star Wars universe) but also uh, why don't we have 10x more content about Breha? Was she friends with Padme? She had to be, right? I love this and would like a lot more. Please and thank you.

• When Leia Force-jumps across a ravine. THAT'S MY JEDI KID.

• THE QUEEN OF NABOO. Just the fact that she is mentioned when Naboo itself never comes up anymore much less the queen or any cool prequel details... makes me... ecstatic. When Leia shows up to visit Naboo and greets the trapped, figurehead queen like, "I'm on my way to raise hell, why don't you join me, Your Majesty?" and the teenage queen jumps off her throne like I THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER ASK and they stomp off to ruin some Imperial officers' day. My heart is warm with love. That's the way to uphold the honor of the throne of Naboo. 💪💪 Padme looks down and smiles.

• Literally every member of the core rebellion knows that Leia is Padme's kid, right? Mon Mothma certainly knows. Mon Mothma is always great, fighting tyranny while never :) letting :) anything but :) composure :) show :). When Leia's like "my parents don't have to know about this right?" and Mon Mothma smiles beatifically and places her hand gently on Leia's shoulder like... nice try.

• The last line of the book. Cruel and unusual.

• I love the Organa family. Reading this, I identified so much with Leia's relationship with her parents. I had to go hug my mom and tell her I loved her after I finished reading.

• I'm frankly aghast that, knowing what daughter they raised, Bail and Breha think it's safe to leave her almost entirely on her own, in charge of her own activities and schedule for weeks on end. She's keeping a trans-galactic schedule at sixteen. Of course she can handle it, but the book clearly demonstrates that giving Leia Organa the power to step on a ship and direct it anywhere she wishes at any time PLUS zero supervision... leads very quickly... to trouble.

Leia tracks a rebel cell to some middle of nowhere planet, lands, and plans to walk into their base like "hi, I'm Leia, how can I help." Of course, shock and surprise, Bail was there but oh my gosh. Can you imagine if he wasn't? What if Leia had ended up tracking Saw Gerrera, or Ghost Crew, or some other crazy barely-affiliated cell? She runs into like 3 more rebel operations "on accident." They apparently keep their rebel bookkeeping on the family computer server. Like JUST TELL YOUR DAUGHTER WHAT'S GOING ON BEFORE SOMEONE DIES. It is truly not safe for her to be ignorant.

• Kinda surprised that Bail is the "MY DAUGHTER WILL NEVER BE INVOLVED IN THIS" one and Breha is the "come on, be realistic" one. I guess it took him time to come around to his Rogue One attitude. Although this definitely lends credence to the theory that Leia was absolutely not supposed to be present at the Battle of Scarif.

• Obi-Wan Kenobi mention! That's always a good thing, especially when his name is preceded by "The Great."

• PANAKA. First of all... HE'S A MOFF? How did he make it as a moff when he's such a good guy?

Second of all... his reaction to seeing Leia. "Were you. .. . ? ?? By any chance ? ?? ? Adopted. . . . ??" Leia's getting major creeper vibes and meanwhile I'm losing my mind.

You can tell that he could easily be convinced to follow her into the mouth of hell. On the one hand, does she actually look that much like Padme? On the other hand, she comes marching into his office immediately demanding that justice be done for the oppressed. Of course she's Padme's daughter.

It's a twice-sad double-edged sword because he would have been such a powerful agent for the rebellion, but if he had actually mentioned Leia to Palpatine like he mentioned he was going to... Utter disaster. Leia had absolutely no idea how terrifyingly close she came to the end of all things.

Panaka: I recently met the Princess of Alderaan.

Palpatine, bored as heck: Oh?

Panaka: Yes. I'm gratified to see Senator Amidala's daughter is taking after her mother in all the best ways. I think she will do well by her adopted homeworld. :)

Palpatine: Are you indicating that you believe the Organas' adopted daughter is in fact the child of the late Senator Amidala?

Panaka: Yes, the resemblance is uncanny, Your Highness. If you remember, I served Senator Amidala for many years when she was Queen of Naboo. The princess herself is unaware of her birth parents' identity, but I was able to question her a little and what she does know confirmed my suspicions. I am quite sure she is Senator Amidala's daughter.

Palpatine: ...I see.

Vader, standing behind Palpatine: YEET

• ARTOO & 3PO CAMEO

• They continue to double down on saying Bail "fought in the Clone Wars." Like, I know he was the security committee guy, but was he actually in some combat role none of us know about? Or is he really just milking Wild Space waaaay more than actually necessary?

• Leia is oddly trusting. She brings her not-boyfriend in on the whole REBEL SECRET THING that she is not even supposed to know about. Of course, he has undisclosed doubts, and eventually would have ended up betraying them if he hadn't tragically died instead. She also brings her Luna Lovegood friend in on the secrets too? I guess this makes sense -- of course it would be hard to keep all the secrets under the given circumstances -- but I don't necessarily think of Leia as a trusting person just off the top of my head.

• PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ALLUSION. "And he's very handsome, which a young man should be if at all possible." This can't be an accident, right?

• Alderaan is a travesty among travesties. It paid the ultimate price for the galaxy's freedom. A whole planet, Leia's whole family, the views she'd grown up looking at, the mountain she climbed, the culture, the historical sites, the variety, a whole way of life. The more I learn about Alderaan, the sadder it is. Would Bail and Breha have founded the rebellion if they knew it would end that way for them and their whole planet?

• Bail, Breha, and Mon Mothma staging a fake drunken soap opera-style screaming fight at a dinner party just to get Tarkin to leave. Same.