Star Wars: ‘The Princess and the Scoundrel’ Excerpt & Cover Revealed
We have the official cover of The Princess and the Scoundrel as well as an excerpt. And we’re looking forward to seeing our favorite couple in happier days.
The upcoming Star Wars book, The Princess and the Scoundrel hits shelves next month. This novel will follow Han and Leia in the aftermath of the Endor celebration and through their wedding and honeymoon. But you may also recall that it will also officially introduce an infamously expensive new addition to the Disney parks to Star Wars canon when Han and Leia take a ride on the Halcyon Starcruiser.
Yesterday StarWars.com released the book’s official cover as well as an excerpt. And we’re looking forward to seeing our favorite space couple in happier days once more.
“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.”
Want to read more? The rest of the excerpt can be found here.
The Princess and the Scoundrel will be available on August 16th, 2022, and is available for preorder now in hardcover, audiobook, and e-reader formats.
Will you be picking up a copy of The Princess and the Scoundrel? Which Star Wars love story- canon or legends- is your favorite? Would you take a ride on the Halcyon Starcruiser? Let us know in the comments!
May The Force Be With You, Adventurers!
