Claudia Gray's BLOODLINE (A Star Wars Novel featuring Leia Organa)

Cover Photo by Scott Biel This novel is set six years before Star Wars: The Force Awakens and it's a canon novel by Claudia Gray, so far my favourite romantic multiverse author, and it's my first time to read something from Star Wars that's written by her.  
Was she able to live up to my expectations?  Yes.
The book is a page turner.  
When I was a little girl I asked my dad what "A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away..." meant.  "I don't want to pretend to know," he sighed. "I think it means that all these happened before all earthlings existed on earth and even then their technology was way more advance than ours." "How is that?  Didn't God created the earth?" Another sigh. "God created all universes and galaxies.  God is not bound by space and time.  Maybe they have a different understanding of time out there."  "Uni means one, like unicorn, says mom."  "Perhaps they are talking about a parallel universe, but maybe not.  It may still be in the same universe because it just says 'a galaxy far away'...Pay attention to the movie.  I don't know what else to tell you, baby."
Reading this book reminded me of those years growing up and how we girls looked up to Princess Leia.  A lot of my classmates and playmates imitated her hairstyle and all, but Leia is more than that.

"We will never betray the legacy of the Jedi. I will never surrender the Republic to the Sith."   ―Bail Organa

She is a leader who grew up with her adoptive father's ideology and became the princess of the Alderaans through adoption, but we have to remember that she is Darth Vader's daughter.   Thankfully, she was brought up with firm convictions so you might say that she was born to defeat the dark side even if it's in her blood.  The problem really arises when the Populists learn about Darth Vader being her biological father.
This is not a sappy novel, but the romantic in me noticed that Leia and Han have a long distance relationship while the latter continued to be a successful starship racer and she a politician.
Ben(born 5ABY)'s Solo's dark side is starting to evolve(Where are the twins, Jaina, Jacen(born 9ABY), and Anakin Solo(born 10.5 ABY)?  Some say that Rey is Jaina and Jacen is Ben or Kylo Ren or Darth Caedus).  Does his parents' amicable separation have anything to do with this? Or is it about finding about his grandfather the reason?
I won't tell you the whole story, but many things would be answered or found out here.  Still, many things would confuse you more if think about timelines and all, especially if you think about Rey and where she fits in the future.  Remember this is only six years before #SWTFA.  My suggestion is NOT to think so much about the exact timelines because time is relative.  It could be this, or it could be that.
All I can say is that you would have an extra admiration for Leia, but the book is more than her story alone.