Kenobi

The next book I've read is Kenobi, by John Jackson Miller. It takes place right after Revenge of the Sith and, as the title suggests, it follows Obi-Wan.

This book is really, really good. You have Obi-Wan, who is messed up from fighting the clone wars and having just about killed Anakin, who was like a brother to him, who's fall he blames on himself. At one point he expresses guilt because he believes he's responsible for the Empire's very existence! He is all alone on a barren world shunned by the people he's given Anakin's son to. Owen tells him to get lost and quit hanging around. Obi-Wan wants to be left alone, to live the hermit life to protect Luke. But that's just not who he is and he keeps letting the Jedi within shine through. Some chapters end in "Meditation" where he tries to communicate with Qui-Gon, and at one point he starts talking out loud to Qui-Gon (who never responds in the book, btw). It almost feels like poor Obi-Wan's starting to go crazy. Who wouldn't having lost everything, and everyone, and believing yourself to be the cause of everything bad that's happened.

As the back cover says, there's trouble brewing between the Tusken Raiders and the "settlers". And, well, Obi-Wan wasn't "The Negotiator" during the Clone Wars for nothing. Obi-Wan brings peace to the land, but I'm trying not to give away spoilers so that's about all I can say about it. It's a little bit western, it's a little bit Batman. One of my favorite parts was when someone went into a building and people were concerned so Obi-Wan told them to go find the others and he'd see what was up. A "mysterious shadow" takes out all the thugs and rescues this character, who escapes and meets up with the group. Obi-Wan rejoins and is all "Nah, I never got inside the building at all, I was distracted by a rather eager vendor, has something exciting happened?" haha, oh, Obi-Wan... The book writes it better than I did but you get the point.

I would like to thank Miller for referencing the Jedi Apprentice books. At the mention of Satine or whatever her name is from The Clone Wars I rolled my eyes and groaned. But a later mention of Siri Tachi made me so delighted I completely brushed that aside. Not like he's responsible for The Clone War's atrocities.

I would have finished this book a lot sooner but I've been busy with a secret crochet project.

MoonSpell

Yes, I have finished another book already. Moonspell, by Linda Ladd. Despite there being 360 pages there's not a lot to this book. I'm also not sure why it's called moonspell. The moon has nothing to do with it.

Basically, an Irish woman named Jillian has fallen on hard times. Her father died fighting the king, one of her brothers is exiled and the other presumed dead. Her lands have been given to an Englishman whom she has decided to hate because he is English. Forced to marry him, she rubs clay on her face to keep him away from her because I guess dried clay looks like pox scars and she assumes all men want out of a woman is beauty. He sees her maskless one day, and does not know it's her. He is overwhelmed by her beauty and almost rapes her. After that she's scared he'll find out her deception and scared of him because of what he did to her (at the same time she's turned on by the idea), he sees she's scared and thinks it's because she's a pox-ridden maiden. Besides, he'd rather think about the other woman because in arranged marriages you get a free pass for cheating on your spouse.

After a time she sees he's actually sort of kind, and besides, she's fallen in lust with him, though she hates every bit of attraction she feels for him. She keeps up the disguise because men are pigs, right? I felt the depth of her deception was unfair to him. Despite being unable to control himself around her (though he does learn how later) he felt like the victim for a lot of the book.

Meanwhile a feud with a neighbor is getting rough, and she gets sick (not due to the feud) and gets sent to England to stay with his brothers and sister. She likes them, tells them of her disguise (being sick she had no choice). He comes to meet with her in England and is mad at her for fooling him. Now, being that the mask of ugliness was the whole point of the book, as it says on the back of the book, I was surprised it only lasted about 150 pages. The rest of the book has to do with Jillian and Justin and their circle of
"I hate you"
"Well I hate you too but I can't resist how pretty you are"
"Well when you pull me kicking and fighting against you and force me to kiss you I can't help but like it"
"Well then how about if I just shove you onto the bed and watch you cower in a corner while I creep towards you?"
"Sounds great, and I'll be like I'm about to scream for help when my body will feel fire for you and I'll shut up and love you"
Yeah, that about sums up their relationship. For several months they act like normal married people but we don't see that, we get a time-sweep where it says they lived happily.

As you can imagine, everything resolves. Her brothers, the feud. Oh, there's also a withcraft subplot where she carelessly tells people about magic and herbs and demonstrates her "powers" and pretends to shapeshift into her cat. Because you know, even though the book says witch burnings had basically stopped she wouldn't have any residual fears taught by her parents and grandparents.

It reads like a movie, like the camera follows one person, then the camera focuses on someone else who's in the room and catches their expression at what's going on. The book feels like it is a cheaply made romance movie starring newbie actors. It's still enjoyable, just don't expect much. I know it sounds like I complained a lot but I actually did enjoy it. If I hadn't read it I wouldn't have missed anything, though.