3.5.

The first half is pretty dire, even if does serve as evidence that with the ever-expanding Star Wars universe, there's room for other types of stories. And it's telling that one of the stronger new canon Star Wars novels was never intended to be a novel- this is an adaptation of episodes that were written but never filmed for the mostly excellent Clone Wars series. The first half of this novel is all set-up and poorly written character development, taking two fierce and disciplined warriors and turning them into star-crossed, high school lovers, which is a disservice to both the book, the universe, and the characters.

But once the novel gets past that hump, and into the second half, it shines. The subterfuge and political action is fantastic, and it's really a shame that this part of Ventress's story never made it to TV, since her arc is left unfinished in the series. I'm not thrilled about her ending here, as it plays right into the fridging females aspect of Star Wars, but at least we get closure.