21 Star Wars Books You Should Read

Cover of The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton. Image via original publisher Bantam Spectra

6. The Courtship of Princess Leia

Sometimes what you need is some Han/Leia in your life. For a certain subset of fans, this may in fact be a central tenet of reading Star Wars books. If this describes you, Dave Wolverton’s The Courtship of Princess Leia should make its way to the top of your list.

It takes place after Return of the Jedi. However, the Empire lives on, and Leia and the Alliance need some help if they want to finish off the remaining remnants. The high-tech Hapes consortium may very well have what the Alliance needs, but in return, its leader asks for Leia’s hand in marriage to her son, Prince Isolder.

Naturally, Han does not take very kindly to this. He absconds with Her Worshipfulness.

Luke also shows up to team up with Isolder on a mission to find the couple, and they end up discovering plenty more than they signed up for.

Goodreads praises it for being an actually decent romance novel about an iconic couple.

Pair it with The Truce at Bakura, since it builds up the Han and Leia relationship in between the Alliance politicking as well. You can also read it after finishing Aaron Allston’s first three X-Wing books.

Courtship also introduces some new Force users outside of the Jedi/Sith dichotomy: the Nightsisters.