The novelization for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of the Clones actually starts several weeks before the events of the movie, just days before the start of The Approaching Storm. We see Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker dispatched to Ansion to help settle the border dispute there, Padmé Amidala enjoys some downtime with her family, and we learn the full story of how Shmi Skywalker came to be a prisoner of the Tusken Raiders.
I felt that the story progressed very nicely in this novel. I saw a lot of the inner workings of the characters minds revealed through their actions, and like any book/movie combination, the book gives a much more detailed description of the events. It allows the characters behaviours to be much more understandable at the times when you can't understand why someone would do what they're doing.
Like Terry Brooks, who wrote the novelization for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, R. A. Salvatore has easily been one of my favorite authors ever since I read his Icewind Dale and Dark Elf books. He has a talent for developing a character in such a way that I feel invested in that character and the circumstances that surround him. I feel that once you are attached to a character, it is a lot easier to follow a story, which is definitely a bonus when reading a novel
