What was that?
At its most basic level it's Queen Amidala's version of the Clone Wars, or at least some of her time between Episode I and II. But with politics. EK Johnston tries to keep the politics interesting but it’s not a fiercely engrossing book and pretty straight forward writing, which is kind of what you need to be a best seller but also kind of boring.
The characters also aren’t especially engaging. It took me over a week to read this book because I didn't have any reason to come back to it. Johnston borrows too heavily on affection for Amidala from the movies and doesn't earn that connection in this story. She does try hard to dive below surface of characters from the movies (particularly Episode I) but it’s still not overly interesting source material to work with. The characters just aren’t that dynamic and this story isn't enough to make them.
Then there's the story itself. Nothing happens. There's several threads that are started and exactly ZERO of them wrap up. Maybe in an effort to start a sub-series that is Amidala's version of the Clone Wars. But if you want to keep readers coming back you have to give this story some purpose. And it has none. If there was any sort of actual story it would be pretty predictable because any reader who has seen the movies will know several of the players and how all of this is going to play out. Yet, there was potential for this interlude to be interesting except there's no focus on what Amidala is trying to do. She accomplishes absolutely nothing. The connection and dynamic with her handmaidens seems like the common thread of what Johnston is working to delve into. In the beginning, all the similar names are confusing. But multiple povs in the first part helps the reader get to know the characters. And there's a reason they all have similar names. In the end they're only supporting players to Padme/Amidala and a whole lot of events that add up to nothing.
And then it jumps to her death after Episode III. What?!? There's so much between the last actual event of the novel and her death that the epilogue seems completely irrelevant to the rest of the novel. I suppose the intent was to set up the sub-series for Sabe to continue but it's choppy and the reader isn't invested in Sabe because she's barely a main character in this book and I certainly don't care about her enough to follow any author into another book that's going to go nowhere, resolve nothing and then end abruptly.
I bought the book because EK Johnston spoke about how she took these cliches of women, the way they dress and the way they act, and turned them into weapons and strategy and I thought that was interesting. To her credit, she definitely tried. There's a lot of talk of dresses and what everyone is wearing which would seem mundane but she delivers on working to make it relevant and an important part both of the characters and how they interact with the story. But… but it suffers from a serious lack of story so those things she's trying to do feel irrelevant.