book recs 🙏

i want to start reading star wars novels but there’s so many i don’t know where to get started. i’m not too picky about eras as long as they are the same timeline as any of the movies/ shows (no high republic type stuff), and i would like to start with books featuring characters from the movies/shows. what are, in your opinion, the best standalone’s or series’ (canon or legends)? i’m not worried as much about a certain order of reading, just need a really good book to pull me in to the universe.