I never read a romance novel in my life, and I never thought I missed out... and to be honest I still do not feel that way. Don't get me wrong, the book is quite alright, but it is going through the motions, there is not much new here, not much surprise either.
The overall story is very simple: We follow a young couple from their first childhood meeting 8 years after the Clone Wars all the way to the aftermath of the battle of Jakku.
The romance part, as well as the Star Wars part are both treated very suave, rarely going outside the established mold for both and not offering any new things (besides some interesting insights into the already established canon).
The romance part is constructed like any other Romeo and Juliet clone (pun intended). On their home planet both belong to opposing people and after a short time in the service in the Imperial Navy both end up on opposing sides of the conflict. Both strongly convicted, loyal and true to their oaths. What follows is the well-known game of cat and mouse and will they or won't they.
The Star Wars part is also nothing too exciting, as we basically do not get any new stuff here . Both characters are special in their units, but they are still for the most part just regular soldiers, so we get to see the OT through their eyes (without them knowing why Vader wants the Millennium Falcon, or who the hell this Solo guy is). It is refreshing to see those events through the eyes of the everymen, but besides that it boils down to a lot of rehashes. The best part of the book is the impact of the first Death Star on our characters, as well as the informational chaos regarding its first victim and its own destruction. This was hands down one of the best retellings of the events surrounding the Death Star. What lacks here nevertheless is adding something to what we know in a way that Battlefront: Twilight Company did in a grandiose way for the battle of Hoth.
After the battle of Yavin I got the feeling the book just wanted to check all boxes needed to check, it shoehorned our characters into movie scenes, it retold whole elements just with less detail and the further we got in the timeline, the less focused it all became.
In the end this is a cliché romance novel mixed with a mostly well written Star Wars book with an unexciting plot and a great retelling of the battles of the first Death Star. I might be in the minority but overall I liked the Aftermath trilogy much more.

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