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Fall of the Dragon #1
Of Jade and Dragons
Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father, but after his sudden murder, her life falls apart. Left with only a journal of her father’s engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, a heartbroken Ying follows the trail to the capital and the prestigious Engineers Guild—a place that harbors her father’s hidden past—determined to discover why anyone would threaten a man who ultimately chose a quiet life over fame and fortune.
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.
The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.
The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?
480 pages, Hardcover
First published June 18, 2024
About the author
Amber Chen
1 book260 followersAmber Chen is a Singaporean-Chinese author who writes in the genres of SFF and contemporary. Her debut YA novel OF JADE AND DRAGONS is forthcoming from Penguin Teen in Summer 2024.
She spends much of her free time living within Chinese fantasy novels and dramas, and also drinks one too many cups of bubble tea. One of her webnovels, The Cutting Edge, has been adapted for television.
She spends much of her free time living within Chinese fantasy novels and dramas, and also drinks one too many cups of bubble tea. One of her webnovels, The Cutting Edge, has been adapted for television.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 605 reviews
February 6, 2024
sorry this was so beautiful, and the ending? i am currently ruined, this was EVERYTHING <3 (also idk why i'm reading so much like it's very concerning procrastination)
rtc ☆
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the fact that this is kind of mulan-inspired makes me so so happy !!
thank you to the author and penguin publishing for the arc
rtc ☆
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the fact that this is kind of mulan-inspired makes me so so happy !!
thank you to the author and penguin publishing for the arc
Want to read
March 31, 2024I GOT THE ARC!! 💗✨ so ready for the mulan vibes
June 30, 2024
When I first laid eyes on the cover, I was immediately captivated by its stunning design! As soon as I read the synopsis, I was hooked. A girl disguising herself as a man to enter an engineer’s guild trial and solve her father’s murder? My mind screamed, "Mulan retelling with a twist!" Being a huge fan of Mulan retellings, I knew I had to dive into this book, and I absolutely LOVED IT!
This novel was a delightful and quick read. The protagonist, Ying, is an exceptional character. Intelligent, headstrong, and fiercely determined to uncover the mystery behind her father's death, she carries the story beautifully. Alongside her, the two male leads, Ye-Yang and Ye-Kan, were intriguing, even though they didn’t have as much focus in this book. Their dynamic as friendly academic rivals added a great layer to the story, and I hope to see more of them in book 2.
The Asian fantasy setting combined with a steampunk atmosphere was a perfect backdrop for the tale. It felt fresh and immersive, providing a unique twist to the familiar Mulan narrative.
While the title does mention dragons, it's worth noting that they are not the kind regular fantasy readers might expect. This didn't detract from my enjoyment, but it's good to keep in mind.
Overall, I loved the characters and the story, and I can't wait to read more of Ying’s journey. This book was a fantastic start to what I hope will be an incredible series!
Thank you, NetGalley and Viking Books for Young Readers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This novel was a delightful and quick read. The protagonist, Ying, is an exceptional character. Intelligent, headstrong, and fiercely determined to uncover the mystery behind her father's death, she carries the story beautifully. Alongside her, the two male leads, Ye-Yang and Ye-Kan, were intriguing, even though they didn’t have as much focus in this book. Their dynamic as friendly academic rivals added a great layer to the story, and I hope to see more of them in book 2.
The Asian fantasy setting combined with a steampunk atmosphere was a perfect backdrop for the tale. It felt fresh and immersive, providing a unique twist to the familiar Mulan narrative.
While the title does mention dragons, it's worth noting that they are not the kind regular fantasy readers might expect. This didn't detract from my enjoyment, but it's good to keep in mind.
Overall, I loved the characters and the story, and I can't wait to read more of Ying’s journey. This book was a fantastic start to what I hope will be an incredible series!
Thank you, NetGalley and Viking Books for Young Readers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
February 6, 2024
My first buddy read with Ren! 👯♀️
This fits The Diverse Baseline February Prompt C: A book by a BIPOC author with found family.
Since the age range for this arc is 12 and up, I'll review this as something my past child self would've loved and devoured in a few days.
Anyway, this was a pretty fun read! I came in with low expectations and walked away wanting more. I read the author's short story in Wilted Pages, a dark academia anthology, and I really liked it, which is why I requested this arc.
This was a fun coming-of-age story with Asian-inspired worldbuilding with a strong, intelligent, and relatable FMC, Ying. (Stubborn young woman who wants a career instead of following the prescribed woman's role of getting married? Big mood.) At times, the writing was witty (in a cute YA way) and made me chuckle. It was very easy to read and follow along.
I really liked the academic/trials plotline combined with the mini murder mystery (that turned into something much bigger, which was even better imo).
And as much as my current adult self wanted more details on worldbuilding and characterization, I ended up liking the arc for what it was. I actually appreciated how the writing style and story wasn't so heavy and depressing. It definitely could've been that way, tone-wise. It was a great palate cleanser between darker and more serious reads.
Which leads into my only criticism that this entire story felt very "lite" and the solutions to Ying's problems were way too convenient. Ying's father was murdered, but it didn't feel like she even mourned him? She's a village girl in a big city, but there was no culture shock?
There were dozens of trial candidates, but it only felt like a handful (Ying and her three friends) because none of them were actually mentioned. The scene at the brothel and the second trial mentioned that Ying and her friends were with other boys in their cohort, but those boys were just faceless entities that I forgot they even existed on page.
Idk, maybe that's just my grown-up self being nitpicky about details. As a child, I probably wouldn't have cared about any of that.
I think some reviewers didn't like the ending, but I liked it. Maybe if I was younger, I would've hated it. But as someone older than the suggested age range for this novel, I really liked that Ying stayed true to herself and stood firmly with her beliefs on war.
I hope the sequel dives a lot more into the worldbuilding. We only see two places in the Antaran Isles, Huarin and Fei, and I'd love to explore more islands, and possibly even the Great Jade Empire.
Oh, and I really want more actual airship flying action (and Ying piloting an airship or something cool) because we barely see any of that here and I know that some reviewers were disappointed by that.
Read this if you love Tamora Pierce's books, Squire by Nadia Shammas, or The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker.
Thank you to Viking Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for this arc.
This fits The Diverse Baseline February Prompt C: A book by a BIPOC author with found family.
Since the age range for this arc is 12 and up, I'll review this as something my past child self would've loved and devoured in a few days.
Anyway, this was a pretty fun read! I came in with low expectations and walked away wanting more. I read the author's short story in Wilted Pages, a dark academia anthology, and I really liked it, which is why I requested this arc.
This was a fun coming-of-age story with Asian-inspired worldbuilding with a strong, intelligent, and relatable FMC, Ying. (Stubborn young woman who wants a career instead of following the prescribed woman's role of getting married? Big mood.) At times, the writing was witty (in a cute YA way) and made me chuckle. It was very easy to read and follow along.
I really liked the academic/trials plotline combined with the mini murder mystery (that turned into something much bigger, which was even better imo).
And as much as my current adult self wanted more details on worldbuilding and characterization, I ended up liking the arc for what it was. I actually appreciated how the writing style and story wasn't so heavy and depressing. It definitely could've been that way, tone-wise. It was a great palate cleanser between darker and more serious reads.
Which leads into my only criticism that this entire story felt very "lite" and the solutions to Ying's problems were way too convenient. Ying's father was murdered, but it didn't feel like she even mourned him? She's a village girl in a big city, but there was no culture shock?
There were dozens of trial candidates, but it only felt like a handful (Ying and her three friends) because none of them were actually mentioned. The scene at the brothel and the second trial mentioned that Ying and her friends were with other boys in their cohort, but those boys were just faceless entities that I forgot they even existed on page.
Idk, maybe that's just my grown-up self being nitpicky about details. As a child, I probably wouldn't have cared about any of that.
I think some reviewers didn't like the ending, but I liked it. Maybe if I was younger, I would've hated it. But as someone older than the suggested age range for this novel, I really liked that Ying stayed true to herself and stood firmly with her beliefs on war.
I hope the sequel dives a lot more into the worldbuilding. We only see two places in the Antaran Isles, Huarin and Fei, and I'd love to explore more islands, and possibly even the Great Jade Empire.
Oh, and I really want more actual airship flying action (and Ying piloting an airship or something cool) because we barely see any of that here and I know that some reviewers were disappointed by that.
Read this if you love Tamora Pierce's books, Squire by Nadia Shammas, or The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker.
Thank you to Viking Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for this arc.
Want to read
January 6, 2024+ 2024 is indeed a good year bc i just received an arc for this 🙏😣
+ 2024 will be a good year!
+ 2024 will be a good year!
May 15, 2024
my arcs i need to finish for february just potentially got thrown out the window for the moment bc i got approved 😭
Want to read
July 3, 2024from the author:
🐉a feisty girl engineer
🐉 a mysterious prince
🐉a murder mystery
🐉 airships, pagodas and mechanical beasts
🐉MaYbE sOmE AnGsT aNd YeArNinG 😏
immediately had me at girl engineer !! BUT GIVE ME THAT MURDER MYSTERY AND ANGST AND YEARNING TOO
🐉a feisty girl engineer
🐉 a mysterious prince
🐉a murder mystery
🐉 airships, pagodas and mechanical beasts
🐉MaYbE sOmE AnGsT aNd YeArNinG 😏
immediately had me at girl engineer !! BUT GIVE ME THAT MURDER MYSTERY AND ANGST AND YEARNING TOO
Want to read
June 13, 2024
꒰🐉꒱ ➳ pre-read ✧ ˚.
i got the arc! the cover is gorgeous and this sounds super interesting so pls be good pls be good <3 soso excited to start this aa
i got the arc! the cover is gorgeous and this sounds super interesting so pls be good pls be good <3 soso excited to start this aa
April 9, 2024
「 ✦ 3.75 ✦ 」
⟡ arc review ⟡
⋆.˚“If he chooses you, he will lose everything.”
This is a silkpunk mystery where Ying disguises as her brother and allies with a prince to find out who’s behind her father’s murder, all while going through guild trials to become an engineer. While it’s classified as a fantasy there is close to no magical elements (aka no real dragons) and is more sci-fi in my opinion. However, the story and setting is still quite unique and fantastical. The murder mystery was interesting and I did have a little inkling about who was involved but it still came as a surprise and utter betrayal.
⋆.˚“It’s only a matter of time, Ying.” I’m still stuck here by the way.
The romance was the main thing keeping me interested. Like Yeyang the man that you are 😮💨. When he wasn’t there I was low key bored. He’s such a simp. But also men ☕️. While Ying didn’t always agree with his views, he is truly just “trapped as a victim of his circumstances.” If you love pretty princes that internally struggle with what they think is right vs what they need to do, you’ll love him. As much as I’m rooting for them to be endgame, I totally understand why Ying took a step back and was like that’s not really the life I want to live. I even did cry a bit during the “third act breakup” that happened, like sick to my stomach.
Love all the friendships Ying has, especially with Yekan who was an annoying little twerp in the beginning but became one of her closest friends. I really hope he’ll be able to become an engineer now that he doesn’t have anyone holding him back.
⋆.˚“I was your sword, but you were never mine.” Why must you leave me with this heartbreak Amber Chen
While I was a little disappointed with the ending that made my heart ache (because it didn’t really go how I expected), it’s clearly set up for the sequel. Which I’m not sure if I’ll be reading or not. I’ll probably forget about the entire plot by the time it comes out to be fair.
⋆.˚“If I want to conquer the world, will you stand by my side?” um immediately yes
For some reason I kept finding similarities with the hunger games??? Specifically the friendships in the guild reminded me of Snow and his peacekeeper friends in the book, actually the entire thing kind of gave the vibes of that whole section of TBOSAS. Another correlation I found was with the whole political and war aspect. The Capitol to the Districts is like how The Empire is to the Nine Isles. And Katniss to Coin is like Ying to the High Commander. The political issues weren’t the main concern of the book but I think the next book will expand on it more.
⋆.˚He was the one who opened this door for her— and then held her hand through it all.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this 🏯
⟡ arc review ⟡
⋆.˚“If he chooses you, he will lose everything.”
This is a silkpunk mystery where Ying disguises as her brother and allies with a prince to find out who’s behind her father’s murder, all while going through guild trials to become an engineer. While it’s classified as a fantasy there is close to no magical elements (aka no real dragons) and is more sci-fi in my opinion. However, the story and setting is still quite unique and fantastical. The murder mystery was interesting and I did have a little inkling about who was involved but it still came as a surprise and utter betrayal.
⋆.˚“It’s only a matter of time, Ying.” I’m still stuck here by the way.
The romance was the main thing keeping me interested. Like Yeyang the man that you are 😮💨. When he wasn’t there I was low key bored. He’s such a simp. But also men ☕️. While Ying didn’t always agree with his views, he is truly just “trapped as a victim of his circumstances.” If you love pretty princes that internally struggle with what they think is right vs what they need to do, you’ll love him. As much as I’m rooting for them to be endgame, I totally understand why Ying took a step back and was like that’s not really the life I want to live. I even did cry a bit during the “third act breakup” that happened, like sick to my stomach.
Love all the friendships Ying has, especially with Yekan who was an annoying little twerp in the beginning but became one of her closest friends. I really hope he’ll be able to become an engineer now that he doesn’t have anyone holding him back.
⋆.˚“I was your sword, but you were never mine.” Why must you leave me with this heartbreak Amber Chen
While I was a little disappointed with the ending that made my heart ache (because it didn’t really go how I expected), it’s clearly set up for the sequel. Which I’m not sure if I’ll be reading or not. I’ll probably forget about the entire plot by the time it comes out to be fair.
⋆.˚“If I want to conquer the world, will you stand by my side?” um immediately yes
For some reason I kept finding similarities with the hunger games??? Specifically the friendships in the guild reminded me of Snow and his peacekeeper friends in the book, actually the entire thing kind of gave the vibes of that whole section of TBOSAS. Another correlation I found was with the whole political and war aspect. The Capitol to the Districts is like how The Empire is to the Nine Isles. And Katniss to Coin is like Ying to the High Commander. The political issues weren’t the main concern of the book but I think the next book will expand on it more.
⋆.˚He was the one who opened this door for her— and then held her hand through it all.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this 🏯
June 19, 2024
1.5 stars
Let the record show that I was very excited about this book and it had all the ingredients to be something I'd love, but ultimately everything about this ended up feeling half-baked. Reading this was one of those experiences where I kept having to pause to take note of everything that frustrated me, and so now this review comes to you in 6 parts.
My full review ended up being ungodly long, so if you're not interested in coming to my TED Talk, here's the tl;dr version:
• This book was set up to have a major focus on engineering, but only had these moments shoe-horned in and never gracefully incorporated in any ways that would support the plot or character development.
• The "high stakes" trial element of this book also always felt like an afterthought and never managed to make the stakes feel as dire as they supposedly were.
• All the characters in this book were faceless cardboard cutouts of people whose actions and motivations would seemingly change on a whim for the sake of plot convenience.
• The world beyond the walls of the engineering guild was never meaningfully explained and left us with no concept of the larger consequences of everything the guild was working towards.
• The book as a whole felt painfully under-edited, immature, and like it desperately needed another round of revisions.
• Despite claiming to be a YA book, everything about the writing and the characters themselves made this feel more like it was intended for a middle-grade audience, but with some romance, violence, brothels, and an 18 year old protagonist forced in so it could pretend to fit into YA.
For those undaunted by what has become an entire essay of a review, read on!
———
An engineering book that has a severe lack of engineering
This book had two things that I always eat right up in fiction, and that is an academia setting and a trial/competition plotline. I've been known to forgive and enjoy even mediocre books when they manage to play into those elements well, but this book took the potential those aspects gave it but continually forgot to give them any meaningful development.
One of the first things we learn about our protagonist Ying is that she's spent most of her life shadowing her father's engineering work and nursing it into a love and skill for the trade herself. We're repeatedly told how much Ying has inherited her father's passion, and at the very least how confident she is in her own talent, and so I assumed this meant that seeing Ying showcase her engineering skill and using it to solve problems and move the plot forward would be a key element in the book. And yet, despite the fact that 80% of the book takes place at engineering college, there is so very little engineering to be found.
Throughout the entire run of the book, we get to see Ying use her supposed talents exactly four times:
1) To plug a leaking barrel
2) During the second and third trials
3) To create one (1) weapon of her own invention.
And despite the fact that this is supposedly her passion, we never see her using or thinking about her rumored abilities at all outside of these instances. The instigating premise of the plot is Ying wanting to infiltrate the guild so she can uncover who was behind her father's death, but not once does she attempt to incorporate her abilities into solving that problem. There were so many blatant opportunities this book could have used to apply her engineering skills in service to the plot, such as:
• Having her create some sort of recording or listening device so she could spy on the people she suspected of being involved in her father's death
• Creating an early warning notification system so she could snoop in areas she's not supposed to be in, or at least sneak her bath in peace
• Crafting some sort of disguise that would either enable her to go undetected during conversations, or help keep her identity a secret.
And those are just the things that occurred to me with 5 seconds of thought as incident after incident occurred where Ying's lack of planning and foresight got her into trouble.
I think this is one of the ways where the book really falls victim to telling rather than showing, and neglects an open opportunity to weave its themes together to make the character feel like she actually has well-rounded and applied traits. Instead, every time we got to see some engineering device come into play, it always felt incredibly shoe-horned in, and as though it was only included because the book suddenly remembered it was supposed to be about talented engineers.
"High stakes" trials that the book seemed to forget were high stakes
The competition for a place in the engineering guild was the one area where I thought this book would be able to pull me in, but this device as well always felt like it was only included as an after-thought. When I compare this book's competition element to that of books like Divergent or The Blood Trials or even Fourth Wing, I think the major difference is that in those, as a reader we were made to feel the looming pressure of the next trial even when we were not actively in that scene, which is something that this book never managed to do.
The trials in this book would appear almost without any notice or discussion, and even though it is theoretically the biggest stressor in Ying's life, we never get more than a few throw away sentences suggesting she's thinking about it. The only trial that felt like it got any build up whatsoever was the first one, with at least a couple paragraphs spent talking about how everyone was cramming to study before their written exam (except Ying of course because she's too Special and Different for that). There was never a good sense of how much time had passed since the last trial or until the next one, nor the kind of work and study that would go into the students preparing for the trials.
The stakes of these trials also felt random and inconsequential at best. We're told at the very beginning of the book that during the last year of competition, only one in a hundred hopefuls earned their place in the guild, and so you'd expect a commensurate amount of pressure and desperation from the applicants to fight for those limited spots. However, because every part of the trials were treated so haphazardly, I never once felt the degree of odds that needed to be overcome to stay in the game. Supposedly about half the class was cut after the first trial, and an unknown number more after the second, but because we never got to know any of the characters who were cut in any degree whatsoever (only a few of them were even so much as named), it went almost completely without mention just how much the original class had been culled down as the trials went on. While being the kind of book it was, you already knew Ying was going to have plot armor to make it through to the end, it still would have made me more invested if any energy had been spent making me feel there being stakes at play, and if we had gotten to know any of the characters who were cut to make the consequences of failure feel more tangible.
While this is more of a nitpick, one thing I couldn't get over was how stupid the first trial was. The entire first trial consists of a 10-hour written exam where the applicants are asked a single broad question about the history of airships that they're supposed to respond to with everything they know about the topic. Beyond the fact that this setup in and of itself is nonsensical (there's no way any essay written on a single topic, from memory, for 10 hours straight is going to provide useful insight into their knowledge), the question itself was also something completely unhelpful to gauging engineering aptitude. If this guild has any real interest in determining who is actually a good fit to help advance their engineering efforts, it would have made far more sense if the question was something that tested their ability to think critically about a problem and find creative solutions to something complex and open ended. Being asked to recite everything you know about the history of something is not at all indicative of the skills one would need to think outside the box and develop new technology, and is the kind of set up that is doomed to lose them bright applicants who simply don't have as good of a memory as others. On top of this, when Ying is apparently the only applicant with the bold idea to take the question and use it to make an actual engineering suggestion, the guild leadership is shocked and appalled at her gall, and would have chastised and failed her had the High Commander not seen and been impressed by her work. (Which, side note, but you're telling me that with 100 students providing 10 hours worth of writing, this extremely busy and important military leader decided to take time to read their essays thoroughly enough that he was able to pick out the potential in Ying's out of everyone's??? bsffr.)
Every single character was underdeveloped, inconsistent, or, if they're lucky, both!
Despite this book being over 400 pages long, there was not a single character who got any meaningful or interesting development.
• Ying: Despite being our main character and getting the most page time, there was never any point where I felt like I knew who she was, or that any of the things we were told about her made sense. According to the blurb of the book Ying is supposed to be 18 (which I say because I don't remember her age ever being explicitly mentioned in the book itself, though it's possible I could have missed it) and the eldest daughter with only one older brother and multiple younger siblings. However, this is very much the sort of thing we're only told and never shown, because maturity-wise, I would have assumed she was about 14 based on how she talked and acted. Along with this, there's no useful explanation of how Ying came to be the way that she is. How did Ying, who supposedly cares about her siblings, avoid the pressures that came with helping care for and guide them as they grew up — especially considering she lost her mother years earlier? How is it that Ying is seemingly completely unchanged by the loss of either of her parents, and is able to continue acting like a child even when her circumstances should have forced her to grow up? Even immediately after losing her father, there's no time spent showing us that Ying is grieving or mourning what is supposed to be her most meaningful familial relationship. While to some extent that could be explained away with everyone grieving differently, and maybe her even channeling her mourning into a desire for revenge, more than anything her desire to infiltrate the engineering guild felt motivated by her own ambitions, with the goal of using it as an opportunity to dig into her father's death feeling like more of a convenient secondary benefit.
Especially since this is a YA book, I think it's possible to start with a character who is young and naive and sheltered so that we can see how they change and grow as they undergo different trials in their life. I think that Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Six Crimson Cranes both did a good job with this, with both protagonists coming from similarly sheltered and naive upbringings, but being forced to grow up when they lose/are separated from their parents. While I think the opportunity was here for Ying to undergo a similar arc, she felt completely unchanged up until possibly the last 10 pages of the book, and even then, I wouldn't trust the changes to last meaningfully into the next book.
• Ye-yang: Despite being the love interest and arguably the next most important character, I know nothing about this man. His actions were inexplicable and inconsistent at best, and there was never a single moment where I could understand what he saw in Ying, or she in him.
• Ye-kan: Possibly the only character in this book who got any amount of development, but even his arc felt like it changed arbitrarily to suit the whims of the plot. We're introduced to him as being a selfish, bratty, and entitled kid, but there would randomly be moments where he'd show kindness and loyalty seemingly out of nowhere. Honestly I think his arc was the only one I was at all interested in, but I think his growth needed to be treated with more consideration rather than just making him act the way the story needed to either for tension or salvation.
• Chang-en: Supposedly Ying's best friend, and yet we know about as much as we do as the other nameless and faceless characters in their guild class. He just sort of shows up and decides he and Ying are friends, and is kind to her (sometimes to his own detriment) for no rhyme or reason. How old is he? What is his background? What are his dreams? Why doesn't he have any other friends? This man literally only exists so Ying can have someone other than Ye-kan on her side and is completely insignificant on his own.
Worldbuilding? What world-building?
Again, this is a 400+ page book, and yet I don't think I could tell you a single thing about the world outside of the engineering guild. Apparently there's a war going on? Against some other country? That's been going on for some amount of time? For some reason? It's possible this was info-dumped on us at some point early on and it just didn't make an impression. If it was, it was never explained in a way that made it feel like it was meaningful to the overall story— despite the fact that the instigating plot event has to do with the creation of weapons for this mystery war.
This book is crying out for another round of editing
Listen, you know it's bad when I actually go to the cover page to make sure there is an editor credited, because there were just so many things in this book that felt like no one had ever looked at them with a critical eye. For context: though I was gifted an early copy by the publisher, the copy I was sent was a finished, hardcover version, and thus these are things that I can't just put down to it being an ARC.
While a lot of these were little things in and of themselves, noticing choices and (possibly) mistakes multiple times throughout this book just contributed to the overall feeling I already had that this book read like a first draft. There were just so many things that felt like they would have been caught if this book had been looked at by a competent editor, but instead we're left with choices like:
• General scene inconsistencies/dropped threads, such as:
◦ Ying falls and apparently bloodies her hands early on in the book, but is described as climbing up a ladder later that night with no mention of pain or discomfort
◦ Similarly, Ying is supposedly beaten so badly that she claims she thought her legs would break, but is up and running around during the trial the next day with no mention of pain or difficulty
◦ Ying is caught unaware while leaving Ye-yang's bathing chamber, and while one moment it's said she can't go outside due to her "state of undress", a page later she's talking to Ye-yang without any mention of her either having dressed or being uncomfortable being in his presence in her undergarments.
• Redundant use of abnormal dialogue tags (e.g., describing Ying as having "squeaked" her response twice within the span of a page and a half)
• Dialogue tags that just do not make sense for the things being said (e.g., a character described as having "quipped" something when he was literally just stating general information)
• Words simply being used incorrectly (please explain to me what a "bemused glimmer" of someone's eyes is supposed to look like)
• General awkwardly worded sentences (e.g. "she had swallowed everything down her throat" [what, as opposed to down her nasal cavity?])
I'm not someone who is particularly inclined to pay attention to or nitpick specifics about writing style choices, but all the little things in this book were distracting enough to pull me out of the story, and all just felt like something that could have been fixed with better editing.
Frankly, this is a middle grade book in a YA trenchcoat
I'm someone who reads a lot of YA fiction, so while I recognize that there's an extent to which I am not within this book's target demographic, I think that over the years, I've come to recognize when a book is otherwise good, but is just too young for me. However, even if it's targetted at the younger half of the YA age range, I feel like this book reads too young to even feel like a good fit for those in their early teens. Everything about the way its written — with lots of telling and no showing, everything over-explained, and very short, choppy, stilted sentences — feels like it's meant for a middle grade reader and not like it has any faith in the intelligence of the teenage readers who are supposedly the target audience. The protagonist herself feels as though she's in her early teens at best, and certainly does not feel like the 18 year old eldest daughter that she's supposed to be. I assume this book wanted to be YA so that it could spend more time on a romance subplot than middle-grade books typically do, but even that element felt so underdeveloped that it wasn't worth trying to age this book up in other ways. Simply having a (technically) new-adult main character and throwing in some violence and mention of brothels does not a YA book make. I think that if this book had just let itself be middle-grade and leaned into marketing itself towards that audience, it would have more luck finding its readers and its shortcomings would have been more forgivable.
Ultimately, I think the main reason I have so many complaints about this book is because it had all the bones to be something I could have really enjoyed and loved, but never managed to be anything more than a skeleton. This book read like a (very long) outline for a book that I'd actually like to read, and I'm just incredibly disappointed that there was not a single thing in this book that managed to deliver. Quite honestly, the only reason I'm not giving this book 1 star is because I tend to reserve that rating for books that I think are actually harmful in some way, which I don't believe this book was. However, I think this book needed a lot more work and refinement to suit its intended audience before it was ready to be published, and I think it's a shame that it didn't get it.
Many thanks to Penguin Teen for the early copy of this book. I'm so sorry I don't have nicer things to say about it. 😭
Let the record show that I was very excited about this book and it had all the ingredients to be something I'd love, but ultimately everything about this ended up feeling half-baked. Reading this was one of those experiences where I kept having to pause to take note of everything that frustrated me, and so now this review comes to you in 6 parts.
My full review ended up being ungodly long, so if you're not interested in coming to my TED Talk, here's the tl;dr version:
• This book was set up to have a major focus on engineering, but only had these moments shoe-horned in and never gracefully incorporated in any ways that would support the plot or character development.
• The "high stakes" trial element of this book also always felt like an afterthought and never managed to make the stakes feel as dire as they supposedly were.
• All the characters in this book were faceless cardboard cutouts of people whose actions and motivations would seemingly change on a whim for the sake of plot convenience.
• The world beyond the walls of the engineering guild was never meaningfully explained and left us with no concept of the larger consequences of everything the guild was working towards.
• The book as a whole felt painfully under-edited, immature, and like it desperately needed another round of revisions.
• Despite claiming to be a YA book, everything about the writing and the characters themselves made this feel more like it was intended for a middle-grade audience, but with some romance, violence, brothels, and an 18 year old protagonist forced in so it could pretend to fit into YA.
For those undaunted by what has become an entire essay of a review, read on!
———
An engineering book that has a severe lack of engineering
This book had two things that I always eat right up in fiction, and that is an academia setting and a trial/competition plotline. I've been known to forgive and enjoy even mediocre books when they manage to play into those elements well, but this book took the potential those aspects gave it but continually forgot to give them any meaningful development.
One of the first things we learn about our protagonist Ying is that she's spent most of her life shadowing her father's engineering work and nursing it into a love and skill for the trade herself. We're repeatedly told how much Ying has inherited her father's passion, and at the very least how confident she is in her own talent, and so I assumed this meant that seeing Ying showcase her engineering skill and using it to solve problems and move the plot forward would be a key element in the book. And yet, despite the fact that 80% of the book takes place at engineering college, there is so very little engineering to be found.
Throughout the entire run of the book, we get to see Ying use her supposed talents exactly four times:
1) To plug a leaking barrel
2) During the second and third trials
3) To create one (1) weapon of her own invention.
And despite the fact that this is supposedly her passion, we never see her using or thinking about her rumored abilities at all outside of these instances. The instigating premise of the plot is Ying wanting to infiltrate the guild so she can uncover who was behind her father's death, but not once does she attempt to incorporate her abilities into solving that problem. There were so many blatant opportunities this book could have used to apply her engineering skills in service to the plot, such as:
• Having her create some sort of recording or listening device so she could spy on the people she suspected of being involved in her father's death
• Creating an early warning notification system so she could snoop in areas she's not supposed to be in, or at least sneak her bath in peace
• Crafting some sort of disguise that would either enable her to go undetected during conversations, or help keep her identity a secret.
And those are just the things that occurred to me with 5 seconds of thought as incident after incident occurred where Ying's lack of planning and foresight got her into trouble.
I think this is one of the ways where the book really falls victim to telling rather than showing, and neglects an open opportunity to weave its themes together to make the character feel like she actually has well-rounded and applied traits. Instead, every time we got to see some engineering device come into play, it always felt incredibly shoe-horned in, and as though it was only included because the book suddenly remembered it was supposed to be about talented engineers.
"High stakes" trials that the book seemed to forget were high stakes
The competition for a place in the engineering guild was the one area where I thought this book would be able to pull me in, but this device as well always felt like it was only included as an after-thought. When I compare this book's competition element to that of books like Divergent or The Blood Trials or even Fourth Wing, I think the major difference is that in those, as a reader we were made to feel the looming pressure of the next trial even when we were not actively in that scene, which is something that this book never managed to do.
The trials in this book would appear almost without any notice or discussion, and even though it is theoretically the biggest stressor in Ying's life, we never get more than a few throw away sentences suggesting she's thinking about it. The only trial that felt like it got any build up whatsoever was the first one, with at least a couple paragraphs spent talking about how everyone was cramming to study before their written exam (except Ying of course because she's too Special and Different for that). There was never a good sense of how much time had passed since the last trial or until the next one, nor the kind of work and study that would go into the students preparing for the trials.
The stakes of these trials also felt random and inconsequential at best. We're told at the very beginning of the book that during the last year of competition, only one in a hundred hopefuls earned their place in the guild, and so you'd expect a commensurate amount of pressure and desperation from the applicants to fight for those limited spots. However, because every part of the trials were treated so haphazardly, I never once felt the degree of odds that needed to be overcome to stay in the game. Supposedly about half the class was cut after the first trial, and an unknown number more after the second, but because we never got to know any of the characters who were cut in any degree whatsoever (only a few of them were even so much as named), it went almost completely without mention just how much the original class had been culled down as the trials went on. While being the kind of book it was, you already knew Ying was going to have plot armor to make it through to the end, it still would have made me more invested if any energy had been spent making me feel there being stakes at play, and if we had gotten to know any of the characters who were cut to make the consequences of failure feel more tangible.
While this is more of a nitpick, one thing I couldn't get over was how stupid the first trial was. The entire first trial consists of a 10-hour written exam where the applicants are asked a single broad question about the history of airships that they're supposed to respond to with everything they know about the topic. Beyond the fact that this setup in and of itself is nonsensical (there's no way any essay written on a single topic, from memory, for 10 hours straight is going to provide useful insight into their knowledge), the question itself was also something completely unhelpful to gauging engineering aptitude. If this guild has any real interest in determining who is actually a good fit to help advance their engineering efforts, it would have made far more sense if the question was something that tested their ability to think critically about a problem and find creative solutions to something complex and open ended. Being asked to recite everything you know about the history of something is not at all indicative of the skills one would need to think outside the box and develop new technology, and is the kind of set up that is doomed to lose them bright applicants who simply don't have as good of a memory as others. On top of this, when Ying is apparently the only applicant with the bold idea to take the question and use it to make an actual engineering suggestion, the guild leadership is shocked and appalled at her gall, and would have chastised and failed her had the High Commander not seen and been impressed by her work. (Which, side note, but you're telling me that with 100 students providing 10 hours worth of writing, this extremely busy and important military leader decided to take time to read their essays thoroughly enough that he was able to pick out the potential in Ying's out of everyone's??? bsffr.)
Every single character was underdeveloped, inconsistent, or, if they're lucky, both!
Despite this book being over 400 pages long, there was not a single character who got any meaningful or interesting development.
• Ying: Despite being our main character and getting the most page time, there was never any point where I felt like I knew who she was, or that any of the things we were told about her made sense. According to the blurb of the book Ying is supposed to be 18 (which I say because I don't remember her age ever being explicitly mentioned in the book itself, though it's possible I could have missed it) and the eldest daughter with only one older brother and multiple younger siblings. However, this is very much the sort of thing we're only told and never shown, because maturity-wise, I would have assumed she was about 14 based on how she talked and acted. Along with this, there's no useful explanation of how Ying came to be the way that she is. How did Ying, who supposedly cares about her siblings, avoid the pressures that came with helping care for and guide them as they grew up — especially considering she lost her mother years earlier? How is it that Ying is seemingly completely unchanged by the loss of either of her parents, and is able to continue acting like a child even when her circumstances should have forced her to grow up? Even immediately after losing her father, there's no time spent showing us that Ying is grieving or mourning what is supposed to be her most meaningful familial relationship. While to some extent that could be explained away with everyone grieving differently, and maybe her even channeling her mourning into a desire for revenge, more than anything her desire to infiltrate the engineering guild felt motivated by her own ambitions, with the goal of using it as an opportunity to dig into her father's death feeling like more of a convenient secondary benefit.
Especially since this is a YA book, I think it's possible to start with a character who is young and naive and sheltered so that we can see how they change and grow as they undergo different trials in their life. I think that Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Six Crimson Cranes both did a good job with this, with both protagonists coming from similarly sheltered and naive upbringings, but being forced to grow up when they lose/are separated from their parents. While I think the opportunity was here for Ying to undergo a similar arc, she felt completely unchanged up until possibly the last 10 pages of the book, and even then, I wouldn't trust the changes to last meaningfully into the next book.
• Ye-yang: Despite being the love interest and arguably the next most important character, I know nothing about this man. His actions were inexplicable and inconsistent at best, and there was never a single moment where I could understand what he saw in Ying, or she in him.
• Ye-kan: Possibly the only character in this book who got any amount of development, but even his arc felt like it changed arbitrarily to suit the whims of the plot. We're introduced to him as being a selfish, bratty, and entitled kid, but there would randomly be moments where he'd show kindness and loyalty seemingly out of nowhere. Honestly I think his arc was the only one I was at all interested in, but I think his growth needed to be treated with more consideration rather than just making him act the way the story needed to either for tension or salvation.
• Chang-en: Supposedly Ying's best friend, and yet we know about as much as we do as the other nameless and faceless characters in their guild class. He just sort of shows up and decides he and Ying are friends, and is kind to her (sometimes to his own detriment) for no rhyme or reason. How old is he? What is his background? What are his dreams? Why doesn't he have any other friends? This man literally only exists so Ying can have someone other than Ye-kan on her side and is completely insignificant on his own.
Worldbuilding? What world-building?
Again, this is a 400+ page book, and yet I don't think I could tell you a single thing about the world outside of the engineering guild. Apparently there's a war going on? Against some other country? That's been going on for some amount of time? For some reason? It's possible this was info-dumped on us at some point early on and it just didn't make an impression. If it was, it was never explained in a way that made it feel like it was meaningful to the overall story— despite the fact that the instigating plot event has to do with the creation of weapons for this mystery war.
This book is crying out for another round of editing
Listen, you know it's bad when I actually go to the cover page to make sure there is an editor credited, because there were just so many things in this book that felt like no one had ever looked at them with a critical eye. For context: though I was gifted an early copy by the publisher, the copy I was sent was a finished, hardcover version, and thus these are things that I can't just put down to it being an ARC.
While a lot of these were little things in and of themselves, noticing choices and (possibly) mistakes multiple times throughout this book just contributed to the overall feeling I already had that this book read like a first draft. There were just so many things that felt like they would have been caught if this book had been looked at by a competent editor, but instead we're left with choices like:
• General scene inconsistencies/dropped threads, such as:
◦ Ying falls and apparently bloodies her hands early on in the book, but is described as climbing up a ladder later that night with no mention of pain or discomfort
◦ Similarly, Ying is supposedly beaten so badly that she claims she thought her legs would break, but is up and running around during the trial the next day with no mention of pain or difficulty
◦ Ying is caught unaware while leaving Ye-yang's bathing chamber, and while one moment it's said she can't go outside due to her "state of undress", a page later she's talking to Ye-yang without any mention of her either having dressed or being uncomfortable being in his presence in her undergarments.
• Redundant use of abnormal dialogue tags (e.g., describing Ying as having "squeaked" her response twice within the span of a page and a half)
• Dialogue tags that just do not make sense for the things being said (e.g., a character described as having "quipped" something when he was literally just stating general information)
• Words simply being used incorrectly (please explain to me what a "bemused glimmer" of someone's eyes is supposed to look like)
• General awkwardly worded sentences (e.g. "she had swallowed everything down her throat" [what, as opposed to down her nasal cavity?])
I'm not someone who is particularly inclined to pay attention to or nitpick specifics about writing style choices, but all the little things in this book were distracting enough to pull me out of the story, and all just felt like something that could have been fixed with better editing.
Frankly, this is a middle grade book in a YA trenchcoat
I'm someone who reads a lot of YA fiction, so while I recognize that there's an extent to which I am not within this book's target demographic, I think that over the years, I've come to recognize when a book is otherwise good, but is just too young for me. However, even if it's targetted at the younger half of the YA age range, I feel like this book reads too young to even feel like a good fit for those in their early teens. Everything about the way its written — with lots of telling and no showing, everything over-explained, and very short, choppy, stilted sentences — feels like it's meant for a middle grade reader and not like it has any faith in the intelligence of the teenage readers who are supposedly the target audience. The protagonist herself feels as though she's in her early teens at best, and certainly does not feel like the 18 year old eldest daughter that she's supposed to be. I assume this book wanted to be YA so that it could spend more time on a romance subplot than middle-grade books typically do, but even that element felt so underdeveloped that it wasn't worth trying to age this book up in other ways. Simply having a (technically) new-adult main character and throwing in some violence and mention of brothels does not a YA book make. I think that if this book had just let itself be middle-grade and leaned into marketing itself towards that audience, it would have more luck finding its readers and its shortcomings would have been more forgivable.
Ultimately, I think the main reason I have so many complaints about this book is because it had all the bones to be something I could have really enjoyed and loved, but never managed to be anything more than a skeleton. This book read like a (very long) outline for a book that I'd actually like to read, and I'm just incredibly disappointed that there was not a single thing in this book that managed to deliver. Quite honestly, the only reason I'm not giving this book 1 star is because I tend to reserve that rating for books that I think are actually harmful in some way, which I don't believe this book was. However, I think this book needed a lot more work and refinement to suit its intended audience before it was ready to be published, and I think it's a shame that it didn't get it.
Many thanks to Penguin Teen for the early copy of this book. I'm so sorry I don't have nicer things to say about it. 😭
October 21, 2023
I think this book is pretty good and reads like a C-drama! Full disclosure, it's my book!
ARCs of Of Jade and Dragons are beginning to going out into the world, so stopping by GR for the first and last time to welcome everyone who is about to read the book or is considering picking it up - from the bottom of my heart, this little debut author appreciates all of you so much :)
Content warnings include: parental death, murder, violence (with blood, not much gore), mentions of war, descriptions of weapons of war, misogyny as is typical of a society entrenched in patriarchy
Here's a list of random things about the book you might be interested to know:
- Of Jade and Dragons was inspired by actual historical events and characters from the late Ming to early Qing dynasty, specifically the life and times of the first Qing emperor, Huang Taiji, and the woman that he supposedly loved most, Harjol (you may also recognise her name as Hai Lan Zhu 海兰珠). This story was born out of my fascination with the blank pages of Harjol’s life before she entered the palace, and how her relationship with the emperor may have begun.
- The Comps. If it were up to me, my ideal comps for Of Jade and Dragons would be Scarlet Heart meets The Long Ballad. If you recognise these titles, it means you're a C-drama enthusiast like me. Unfortunately, in publishing, one cannot comp as and how you like. Here's a quick dissection of my publisher's chosen comps, so you know what to expect: Mulan because there's a girl dressing as a boy in order to perform a role that is restricted to boys in a patriarchal society; Iron Widow because Chinese and Technology (that's literally all they have in common); Six Crimson Cranes because YA Asian Fantasy vibes.
- There are no real dragons in this book.
- I am still undecided between Leo Wu, Dylan Wang and Zhang Linghe being the best possible actor to play the role of the male lead Aogiya Ye-yang in a (currently non-existent) drama adaptation of this book. I spend a lot of time thinking about this and I welcome any other suggestions!
I hope you enjoy the book and thank you once again for giving it a chance! :)
ARCs of Of Jade and Dragons are beginning to going out into the world, so stopping by GR for the first and last time to welcome everyone who is about to read the book or is considering picking it up - from the bottom of my heart, this little debut author appreciates all of you so much :)
Content warnings include: parental death, murder, violence (with blood, not much gore), mentions of war, descriptions of weapons of war, misogyny as is typical of a society entrenched in patriarchy
Here's a list of random things about the book you might be interested to know:
- Of Jade and Dragons was inspired by actual historical events and characters from the late Ming to early Qing dynasty, specifically the life and times of the first Qing emperor, Huang Taiji, and the woman that he supposedly loved most, Harjol (you may also recognise her name as Hai Lan Zhu 海兰珠). This story was born out of my fascination with the blank pages of Harjol’s life before she entered the palace, and how her relationship with the emperor may have begun.
- The Comps. If it were up to me, my ideal comps for Of Jade and Dragons would be Scarlet Heart meets The Long Ballad. If you recognise these titles, it means you're a C-drama enthusiast like me. Unfortunately, in publishing, one cannot comp as and how you like. Here's a quick dissection of my publisher's chosen comps, so you know what to expect: Mulan because there's a girl dressing as a boy in order to perform a role that is restricted to boys in a patriarchal society; Iron Widow because Chinese and Technology (that's literally all they have in common); Six Crimson Cranes because YA Asian Fantasy vibes.
- There are no real dragons in this book.
- I am still undecided between Leo Wu, Dylan Wang and Zhang Linghe being the best possible actor to play the role of the male lead Aogiya Ye-yang in a (currently non-existent) drama adaptation of this book. I spend a lot of time thinking about this and I welcome any other suggestions!
I hope you enjoy the book and thank you once again for giving it a chance! :)
July 1, 2024
4.5 stars rounded up
Of Jade and Dragons could loosely be called a retelling of Mulan, except the heroine dreams of joining the men-only engineering guild and is also seeking revenge for her father's murder. It's great. It has this cool sci-fantasy world that gives me East Asian steampunk vibes, and Ying is a fantastic character to follow. She's smart, determined, ruthless at times, but also cares for people. She is also very much a teen girl who might catch feelings for the wrong person. I don't want to say too much about this story, but I enjoyed the element of Ying going undercover as an engineering trainee, and I didn't see some of the twists coming. I would read on in the series! I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
Of Jade and Dragons could loosely be called a retelling of Mulan, except the heroine dreams of joining the men-only engineering guild and is also seeking revenge for her father's murder. It's great. It has this cool sci-fantasy world that gives me East Asian steampunk vibes, and Ying is a fantastic character to follow. She's smart, determined, ruthless at times, but also cares for people. She is also very much a teen girl who might catch feelings for the wrong person. I don't want to say too much about this story, but I enjoyed the element of Ying going undercover as an engineering trainee, and I didn't see some of the twists coming. I would read on in the series! I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
Want to read
September 22, 2023Did someone say "Qing dynasty-inspired world of towering pagodas, monstrous airships and cut-throat politics" I'm so here for this silkpunk story fdkljfa
edit 9/21/2023: LOOK AT THIS STUNNING COVER!!!!! IM SCREAMING
edit 9/21/2023: LOOK AT THIS STUNNING COVER!!!!! IM SCREAMING
April 28, 2024
I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Reading Of Jade and Dragons today was hands down the best decision I have ever made. Well, for a Sunday, that is. Or maybe for all of 2024? I have no idea, but the year is still young. Anyway, in this, you will meet Ying and she dreams of being an engineer in the guild her dad was once in. The only problem is that they don't take girls. Which is rude and definitely needs to change.
It honestly doesn't take long for someone to see through her disguise and then for someone else to find out as well. On top of that, they are both princes in the same family. Along the way, there's a hint of a possible romance and some tension-filled moments between the two. And yet, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The betrayal and secrets came and knocked me off my feet. Thankfully, I was sitting down to read this book, but I am so happy that they happened in the ways that they did. I am also happy with how everything ended. It's never fun when things are easily forgiven just because of love. I'm hoping a certain someone grovels a bit and earns that forgiveness.
In the end, I'm excited for this book to be published so everyone else can enjoy it. I also can't wait for the next book to be written because I want to know what's going to happen next.
Reading Of Jade and Dragons today was hands down the best decision I have ever made. Well, for a Sunday, that is. Or maybe for all of 2024? I have no idea, but the year is still young. Anyway, in this, you will meet Ying and she dreams of being an engineer in the guild her dad was once in. The only problem is that they don't take girls. Which is rude and definitely needs to change.
It honestly doesn't take long for someone to see through her disguise and then for someone else to find out as well. On top of that, they are both princes in the same family. Along the way, there's a hint of a possible romance and some tension-filled moments between the two. And yet, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The betrayal and secrets came and knocked me off my feet. Thankfully, I was sitting down to read this book, but I am so happy that they happened in the ways that they did. I am also happy with how everything ended. It's never fun when things are easily forgiven just because of love. I'm hoping a certain someone grovels a bit and earns that forgiveness.
In the end, I'm excited for this book to be published so everyone else can enjoy it. I also can't wait for the next book to be written because I want to know what's going to happen next.
March 6, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an E-ARC. All thoughts/opinions are my own.
Release Date: June 18, 2024
.•°°•..•°°•..•°°•..•°•.🐉🗡️⚙️🌊.•°°•..•°°•..•°°•..•°•.➷
Of Jade and Dragons tells the story of Aihui Ying, an eighteen-year-old girl who longs to follow in her father's footsteps and become an engineer. However, after his murder, Ying finds herself venturing to the capital of Fei for a different reason: to discover her father's killer and get revenge. Ying must disguise herself as a boy as she seeks to further her knowledge of engineering and her father's past and, most importantly, find his killer within the deeply sexist Engineer's Guild.
I was so excited to pick this up, and it first caught my eye because of that gorgeous cover! This book certainly did not disappoint- it is filled with unique characters, mystery, and creative concepts, all set in an intriguing world.
Of Jade and Dragons immediately captured my attention and sucked me in. The world that this story is set in is well thought out with unique customs, and the author did an amazing job painting it in my head, especially the city of Fei.
The characters were one of the biggest things that stood out to me within this book. They are unique, well thought out, and the author did an excellent job building and shifting their relationships with each other. Ying was one of my favorites: she was everything I wanted and more. She's intelligent, creative, witty, curious, and an incredible main character in general. One thing that I also really liked about her was that she wasn't too gullible. Ying wasn't immediately trusting or naive- she was alert, careful, and thoughtful. While she did pick up on many things that, if this had been written differently, she might have overlooked, she did not come across as the all-knowing heroine who faces no problems. I enjoyed reading about a sharp and intelligent heroine who doesn't let her guard down easily. I also enjoyed how this affected her relationships- the author did a nice job of taking a guarded and cautious character and slowly letting her open up.
When it came to the smaller but obvious details, Ying was hard to fool. But when it came to the mystery itself, I was pleased to find that the author had managed to pull off tricking her main character (and me) without having Ying be the typical "oh my goodness, how did I miss that" kind of character. While Ying did have a moment like that, there was clearly more to it than that, and it added to the complexity of Ying's character- this revelation that Ying hadn't noticed played into her values and what she had been hoping her life would become (I won't say any more on this to avoid spoilers!).
I also really liked the other characters, particularly Ye-Yang and Ye-Kan. I enjoyed learning more about Ye-Yang throughout the story, and the author did a nice job sprinkling little details about him that led to more intrigue and questions. I also loved reading about his and Ying's relationship and watching it shift.
Ye-Kan was one of those characters that you just hate at the beginning, but by the end, he's one of your favorites. His character development was beautifully done, and his and Ying's friendship blossomed beautifully. I'm very curious to see how the author builds on their relationship in the next book.
Ying's main goal in this book is to discover her father's murderer, and she makes that very clear in the beginning. However, most of this book did not feel very focused on that. The middle of this book is more focused on Ying's current situation trying to become a member of the engineer's guild and the trials she and the other apprentices must face. While discovering her father's murderer is still touched on, Ying makes very little progress on it during the middle of the book. It almost felt like the plot and Ying's goals had shifted- instead of trying to discover her father's murderer, she was more focused on passing the tests and becoming an engineer. I didn't find it boring, it just felt like the main focus of this book had changed.
There were also some parts of this book that I found confusing. I had a hard time understanding the political system and the ranks of different characters, but I think if I read this again it would make a lot more sense. It didn't make the story hard to follow, I was just confused at times.
While I did highly enjoy the characters in this book, I had a hard time connecting with them. The characters did have flaws and weaknesses, but I felt like they weren't deeply explored enough and touched on by the author to make them relatable. I still cared about them, I just had a hard time connecting with and relating to them.
The only other problem I had with this book was the action. It was good and it could be exciting, however, I felt like the characters had an easy time getting out of tough situations. There wasn't a moment where I was like "oh my goodness, I can't imagine how they're going to get out of this". I especially felt this way with the climax of the story. The consequences of it felt more internal and focused on Ying's thoughts and feelings as opposed to affecting her actual position in life and society.
Despite the flaws, this was such a fun read and a fantastic debut. I'm so grateful I've gotten to read this masterpiece before it comes out. But I feel confident that even if I hadn't stumbled upon this on NetGalley, this most definitely would've been a cover impulse buy! I really enjoyed the characters, concept, and plot of this story, and especially how Ying showed everyone that not just boys are capable of being engineers. It makes me so happy to see more and more stories with women in STEM, especially not just white women. I cannot wait to read the second one, and I'm looking forward to seeing this gorgeous book out on the shelves in June!
Release Date: June 18, 2024
“‘Living in the shadows of someone else means you’ll never realize your own potential.’”
.•°°•..•°°•..•°°•..•°•.🐉🗡️⚙️🌊.•°°•..•°°•..•°°•..•°•.➷
Of Jade and Dragons tells the story of Aihui Ying, an eighteen-year-old girl who longs to follow in her father's footsteps and become an engineer. However, after his murder, Ying finds herself venturing to the capital of Fei for a different reason: to discover her father's killer and get revenge. Ying must disguise herself as a boy as she seeks to further her knowledge of engineering and her father's past and, most importantly, find his killer within the deeply sexist Engineer's Guild.
I was so excited to pick this up, and it first caught my eye because of that gorgeous cover! This book certainly did not disappoint- it is filled with unique characters, mystery, and creative concepts, all set in an intriguing world.
Of Jade and Dragons immediately captured my attention and sucked me in. The world that this story is set in is well thought out with unique customs, and the author did an amazing job painting it in my head, especially the city of Fei.
The characters were one of the biggest things that stood out to me within this book. They are unique, well thought out, and the author did an excellent job building and shifting their relationships with each other. Ying was one of my favorites: she was everything I wanted and more. She's intelligent, creative, witty, curious, and an incredible main character in general. One thing that I also really liked about her was that she wasn't too gullible. Ying wasn't immediately trusting or naive- she was alert, careful, and thoughtful. While she did pick up on many things that, if this had been written differently, she might have overlooked, she did not come across as the all-knowing heroine who faces no problems. I enjoyed reading about a sharp and intelligent heroine who doesn't let her guard down easily. I also enjoyed how this affected her relationships- the author did a nice job of taking a guarded and cautious character and slowly letting her open up.
When it came to the smaller but obvious details, Ying was hard to fool. But when it came to the mystery itself, I was pleased to find that the author had managed to pull off tricking her main character (and me) without having Ying be the typical "oh my goodness, how did I miss that" kind of character. While Ying did have a moment like that, there was clearly more to it than that, and it added to the complexity of Ying's character- this revelation that Ying hadn't noticed played into her values and what she had been hoping her life would become (I won't say any more on this to avoid spoilers!).
I also really liked the other characters, particularly Ye-Yang and Ye-Kan. I enjoyed learning more about Ye-Yang throughout the story, and the author did a nice job sprinkling little details about him that led to more intrigue and questions. I also loved reading about his and Ying's relationship and watching it shift.
Ye-Kan was one of those characters that you just hate at the beginning, but by the end, he's one of your favorites. His character development was beautifully done, and his and Ying's friendship blossomed beautifully. I'm very curious to see how the author builds on their relationship in the next book.
Ying's main goal in this book is to discover her father's murderer, and she makes that very clear in the beginning. However, most of this book did not feel very focused on that. The middle of this book is more focused on Ying's current situation trying to become a member of the engineer's guild and the trials she and the other apprentices must face. While discovering her father's murderer is still touched on, Ying makes very little progress on it during the middle of the book. It almost felt like the plot and Ying's goals had shifted- instead of trying to discover her father's murderer, she was more focused on passing the tests and becoming an engineer. I didn't find it boring, it just felt like the main focus of this book had changed.
There were also some parts of this book that I found confusing. I had a hard time understanding the political system and the ranks of different characters, but I think if I read this again it would make a lot more sense. It didn't make the story hard to follow, I was just confused at times.
While I did highly enjoy the characters in this book, I had a hard time connecting with them. The characters did have flaws and weaknesses, but I felt like they weren't deeply explored enough and touched on by the author to make them relatable. I still cared about them, I just had a hard time connecting with and relating to them.
The only other problem I had with this book was the action. It was good and it could be exciting, however, I felt like the characters had an easy time getting out of tough situations. There wasn't a moment where I was like "oh my goodness, I can't imagine how they're going to get out of this". I especially felt this way with the climax of the story. The consequences of it felt more internal and focused on Ying's thoughts and feelings as opposed to affecting her actual position in life and society.
Despite the flaws, this was such a fun read and a fantastic debut. I'm so grateful I've gotten to read this masterpiece before it comes out. But I feel confident that even if I hadn't stumbled upon this on NetGalley, this most definitely would've been a cover impulse buy! I really enjoyed the characters, concept, and plot of this story, and especially how Ying showed everyone that not just boys are capable of being engineers. It makes me so happy to see more and more stories with women in STEM, especially not just white women. I cannot wait to read the second one, and I'm looking forward to seeing this gorgeous book out on the shelves in June!
January 13, 2024
These seas can never trap those who are meant to fly.
a young engineer disguises herself as a boy to compete for a spot in the esteemed engineer guild while solving her father's murder, sponsored by one of the heirs amid a power struggle for succession.
"A lamp can light up the darkness around you, but a story lights up the darkness within."
steampunk x Mulan vibes, good pacing, no worldbuilding info dumps, & romance subplot. a little violence as war is a very central theme. i genuinely enjoyed the story and would continue the series (i'm curious to see what happens next).
"If I want to conquer the world, will you stand by my side?"
mmc has a dimple hehe
an honest arc review <3
a young engineer disguises herself as a boy to compete for a spot in the esteemed engineer guild while solving her father's murder, sponsored by one of the heirs amid a power struggle for succession.
"A lamp can light up the darkness around you, but a story lights up the darkness within."
steampunk x Mulan vibes, good pacing, no worldbuilding info dumps, & romance subplot. a little violence as war is a very central theme. i genuinely enjoyed the story and would continue the series (i'm curious to see what happens next).
"If I want to conquer the world, will you stand by my side?"
mmc has a dimple hehe
an honest arc review <3
April 25, 2024
THIS is the YA sci-fi/fantasy book I’ve been ACHING for!!
Aihui Ying is a girl with dreams she knows will never happen simply because she’s a girl. But when her father is murdered in front of her, she makes the decision to channel her inner Mulan and seek her revenge. And, while she’s at it, maybe get into the engineering guild and follow in her father’s footsteps.
But on the way, she runs into a snafu when she’s attacked. Luckily she is saved by Ye-yang, the eighth prince of the High Command, and he agrees to assist her in disguising herself as her brother to get into the guild and complete the trials. As time passes, Ying realizes she doesn’t really know her father. Or her brother. Or Ye-yang. Or anyone in the guild. She can’t trust anyone or anything beyond her gut. Can she make the right choice? Do the right thing?
I loved Ying. I loved her motivations, I loved her attitude, and I love her self assured moral compass that she won’t stray from for ANYONE. This was truly her story, and the men and their problems were secondary to her and what she needed to do.
The relationship between Ying and Ye-yang was fantastically written, and felt so realistic in terms of what I would have done in her place. Or wanted to, anyway—I’m not convinced I’m as strong or awesome as Ying. The way the arc went for these too was absolutely perfect and ended on the perfect note to continue the story. I’m genuinely excited to see what direction it goes in from here.
If you love Asian fantasy/sci-fi, women taking no ****, trials/competition games, and always wondered how Mulan might have played out if Shang knew she was a girl from the start—this is for you. This was my absolute favorite YA Fantasy read in AGES.
Thank you SO MUCH to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this one. I can’t wait for book two!
Aihui Ying is a girl with dreams she knows will never happen simply because she’s a girl. But when her father is murdered in front of her, she makes the decision to channel her inner Mulan and seek her revenge. And, while she’s at it, maybe get into the engineering guild and follow in her father’s footsteps.
But on the way, she runs into a snafu when she’s attacked. Luckily she is saved by Ye-yang, the eighth prince of the High Command, and he agrees to assist her in disguising herself as her brother to get into the guild and complete the trials. As time passes, Ying realizes she doesn’t really know her father. Or her brother. Or Ye-yang. Or anyone in the guild. She can’t trust anyone or anything beyond her gut. Can she make the right choice? Do the right thing?
I loved Ying. I loved her motivations, I loved her attitude, and I love her self assured moral compass that she won’t stray from for ANYONE. This was truly her story, and the men and their problems were secondary to her and what she needed to do.
The relationship between Ying and Ye-yang was fantastically written, and felt so realistic in terms of what I would have done in her place. Or wanted to, anyway—I’m not convinced I’m as strong or awesome as Ying. The way the arc went for these too was absolutely perfect and ended on the perfect note to continue the story. I’m genuinely excited to see what direction it goes in from here.
If you love Asian fantasy/sci-fi, women taking no ****, trials/competition games, and always wondered how Mulan might have played out if Shang knew she was a girl from the start—this is for you. This was my absolute favorite YA Fantasy read in AGES.
Thank you SO MUCH to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this one. I can’t wait for book two!
Read
July 17, 2024Very sad that I didn’t enjoy this. It was one of my anticipated releases this year. DNF’d the ARC at 15% was trying to push to 20% to give the story a chance but I did not like the writing style.
I go into most of my books blind so I didn’t realize that this was a “mulan retelling”. There has been a few books this year that have come out with the same theme and I feel like it’s getting a little repetitive. I am also not a the biggest fan on any retelling story so there’s that also.
Because this is a stand alone, by the 10% mark it got a little predictable.
I go into most of my books blind so I didn’t realize that this was a “mulan retelling”. There has been a few books this year that have come out with the same theme and I feel like it’s getting a little repetitive. I am also not a the biggest fan on any retelling story so there’s that also.
Because this is a stand alone, by the 10% mark it got a little predictable.
April 10, 2024
I ended up loving this even though it started off a little slow for me. Around 20-50% I felt like the pace hit a bit of a lull, but I’m glad I stuck with it! It definitely picked up and I cannot wait for the next one after that ending!
I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book and that doesn’t happen often. Usually there’s a character who does something that annoys me or another character who just isn’t written out well. That is not the case for any of these characters and a lot of what kept my interest, even in the lull, was because of them. You’ve got a couple of great main characters and a good amount of side characters who all bring something unique to the table.
There’s a lot of fantasy in this book, but it’s not overwhelming at all. I found the world easy to understand, but also different from my typical reads. The mystery in the book kept me guessing too. I wouldn’t say I was shocked by the reveal, but even so there were parts of the reveal that did surprise me.
I cannot wait to read the next book and will definitely be keeping an eye on Amber’s future works as well!
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the ARC.
I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book and that doesn’t happen often. Usually there’s a character who does something that annoys me or another character who just isn’t written out well. That is not the case for any of these characters and a lot of what kept my interest, even in the lull, was because of them. You’ve got a couple of great main characters and a good amount of side characters who all bring something unique to the table.
There’s a lot of fantasy in this book, but it’s not overwhelming at all. I found the world easy to understand, but also different from my typical reads. The mystery in the book kept me guessing too. I wouldn’t say I was shocked by the reveal, but even so there were parts of the reveal that did surprise me.
I cannot wait to read the next book and will definitely be keeping an eye on Amber’s future works as well!
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the ARC.
May 3, 2024
I didn’t think I was going to get approved for this one but wanted it so badly. So I was ecstatic when Penguin Young Readers Group approved me for the ARC. Big big thank you!!!
Overall: 4 stars
This is for YA and I kept the expectations and parameters open minded for that. This is overall a cozier good read. It is a nice light read to take a break with between heavier books. I can see myself re-reading this and I am def looking to pre-order the next installment.
Pros:
-Cover is beautiful
-MULAN-y premise (girl pretending to be a boy) mixed with murder mystery? Here.for.it.
-The friends and friendships! I particularly love when someone that’s not liked a lot in the beginning grows to be close.
Cons:
-This seemed more like sci-fi than fantasy
-Politics mirror and remind of Hunger Games.
-A bit predictable but was enjoyable nonetheless
-Things were a bit too easy and conveniently resolved.
Overall, good! I will be picking up the second installment for sure.
Overall: 4 stars
This is for YA and I kept the expectations and parameters open minded for that. This is overall a cozier good read. It is a nice light read to take a break with between heavier books. I can see myself re-reading this and I am def looking to pre-order the next installment.
Pros:
-Cover is beautiful
-MULAN-y premise (girl pretending to be a boy) mixed with murder mystery? Here.for.it.
-The friends and friendships! I particularly love when someone that’s not liked a lot in the beginning grows to be close.
Cons:
-This seemed more like sci-fi than fantasy
-Politics mirror and remind of Hunger Games.
-A bit predictable but was enjoyable nonetheless
-Things were a bit too easy and conveniently resolved.
Overall, good! I will be picking up the second installment for sure.
July 17, 2024
4.5/5 stars
i have sat with this book for a good 6 hours... i let it marinate in my brain... and i honestly fucking loved it. it was amazing, i love ying as a main character and i love her resilience and determination. i love and hate the side characters with equal measure, i was also stupidly invested in the romance especially because of how book 1 ends. it has its flaws, like the clans and hierarchy not being explored enough, but i had so much fun reading it, and i hoped it got touched upon more in the sequel
i have sat with this book for a good 6 hours... i let it marinate in my brain... and i honestly fucking loved it. it was amazing, i love ying as a main character and i love her resilience and determination. i love and hate the side characters with equal measure, i was also stupidly invested in the romance especially because of how book 1 ends. it has its flaws, like the clans and hierarchy not being explored enough, but i had so much fun reading it, and i hoped it got touched upon more in the sequel
June 29, 2024
✩┄•͙✧⃝•͙┄pre-read review✩•͙͙✧⃝•͙͙✩
you had me at
"a girl who must disguise herself as a boy and enter the dangerous Engineer's Guild trials to unravel the mystery of her father's murder, while aligning with a secretive prince with plans of his own."
😳Excited for this!!!!!
✩┄•͙���⃝•͙┄review✩•͙͙✧⃝•͙͙✩
Of Jade and Dragons was one of the few anticipated releases I have read in a while that met my expectations. The story starts off with Ying, our protagonist, discovering her father's injured body as an assassin watches from the shadows. Ying is desperate to discover why her father was assassinated and what happened during his time at the Engineering Guild. In order to investigate, she disguises herself as her brother and enters a competition amongst other men. Ying soon finds her own life entangled with the eighth prince, Ye-yang, a man who has more secrets than he does truths.
The beginning starts off rather quickly, not establishing Ying's relationship with her family and people as much as I would have liked. However, once the book found its rhythm, it had quite an interesting story. Ying as a character gradually grows more and more complex. She has a perfect balance of maturity and immaturity, flaws and strengths that make her an intriguing protagonist. I haven't read that many silkpunk books, but I found the unique genre to be a new experience.
As Ying goes through the many trials in the competition, she learns more about herself and her father. I love how Ying is a very determined protagonist. Even with Ye-yang entering the picture, Ying stays true to her desire for revenge, something I don't see happening often in YA anymore. Ying is a woman who sticks to her morals. Watching her make difficult decisions and ultimately choose herself was beautiful. While I would have loved for Ye-yang and Ying relationship to be explored more and the romance to be more gradual, I adored how Amber Chen wrote them.
The conclusion of the first volume was one I really enjoyed. There is angst in this novel, and the ending is definitely bittersweet. This is a great read for those looking for another fantasy novel to fall in love with!
✅PLOT
✅CHARACTERS
✅PLOT TWISTS
✩┄•͙✧⃝•͙┄quotes✩•͙͙✧⃝•͙✩
"Because one move can win you the battle but lose you the war."
-Ye yang
"A lamp can light up the darkness around you, but a story lights up the darkness within."
-Ying
"You said that if I wanted to seek revenge, that you would wield the sword on my behalf. But that was a lie. I was your sword, but you were never mine."
-Ying
you had me at
"a girl who must disguise herself as a boy and enter the dangerous Engineer's Guild trials to unravel the mystery of her father's murder, while aligning with a secretive prince with plans of his own."
😳Excited for this!!!!!
✩┄•͙���⃝•͙┄review✩•͙͙✧⃝•͙͙✩
Of Jade and Dragons was one of the few anticipated releases I have read in a while that met my expectations. The story starts off with Ying, our protagonist, discovering her father's injured body as an assassin watches from the shadows. Ying is desperate to discover why her father was assassinated and what happened during his time at the Engineering Guild. In order to investigate, she disguises herself as her brother and enters a competition amongst other men. Ying soon finds her own life entangled with the eighth prince, Ye-yang, a man who has more secrets than he does truths.
The beginning starts off rather quickly, not establishing Ying's relationship with her family and people as much as I would have liked. However, once the book found its rhythm, it had quite an interesting story. Ying as a character gradually grows more and more complex. She has a perfect balance of maturity and immaturity, flaws and strengths that make her an intriguing protagonist. I haven't read that many silkpunk books, but I found the unique genre to be a new experience.
As Ying goes through the many trials in the competition, she learns more about herself and her father. I love how Ying is a very determined protagonist. Even with Ye-yang entering the picture, Ying stays true to her desire for revenge, something I don't see happening often in YA anymore. Ying is a woman who sticks to her morals. Watching her make difficult decisions and ultimately choose herself was beautiful. While I would have loved for Ye-yang and Ying relationship to be explored more and the romance to be more gradual, I adored how Amber Chen wrote them.
The conclusion of the first volume was one I really enjoyed. There is angst in this novel, and the ending is definitely bittersweet. This is a great read for those looking for another fantasy novel to fall in love with!
✅PLOT
✅CHARACTERS
✅PLOT TWISTS
✩┄•͙✧⃝•͙┄quotes✩•͙͙✧⃝•͙✩
"Because one move can win you the battle but lose you the war."
-Ye yang
"A lamp can light up the darkness around you, but a story lights up the darkness within."
-Ying
"You said that if I wanted to seek revenge, that you would wield the sword on my behalf. But that was a lie. I was your sword, but you were never mine."
-Ying
Shelved as 'future-releases'
January 2, 2024I want this with every fiber of my being, fingers crossed that I get approved for an arc!!
July 10, 2024
4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2024/07/08/...
So, I have a bad habit of not paying too close attention to book blurbs and hence completely missed the allusions to Mulan in the publisher description for Of Jade and Dragons until I actually picked up the book and started reading it. My first reaction? Groan, not another one! But you know what they say about avoiding making snap judgments. This book ended up exceeding my expectations, delivering a richly told tale of mystery and ambition set against a silkpunk fantasy world inspired by Qing dynasty China.
The story follows 18-year-old Aihui Ying, who spent her life looking up to her father, the greatest engineer of his generation. But her life takes a drastic turn when she witnesses her beloved A-ma’s murder, the killer escaping with a dropped pendant as the only clue as to their identity. Armed with only her father’s journal for guidance, Ying sets out to become an apprentice by joining the prestigious Engineer Guild, where she also hopes to track down and exact revenge on the assassin.
The only problem? The male-only Guild will not accept a girl, leading Ying to adopt her brother’s identity to gain entry and prove herself worthy of following in her father’s footsteps. In the capital, she befriends a few of her fellow aspirants, including Prince Ye-Yang, who has entered the candidate trials for his own reasons. An alliance—and later, an attraction—forms between them as they promise to keep each other’s secrets and face the apprentice challenges together. This bond and partnership later become crucial as the trials give way to more and more dangerous obstacles, revealing treacherous guild politics and hidden agendas among its members.
First off, I loved the writing. Amber Chen’s prose is vivid and evocative but flows well without being too effusive. I enjoyed the world she created, which is brought to life by intricate details which make it easy to visualize the surroundings. The setting feels both historical and fantastical, which is a hallmark of this particular style of silkpunk blending magic and technology.
Ying is also a great protagonist, driven by her determination and resourcefulness. Despite the characters’ ages, Of Jade and Dragons exudes YA vibes and yet manages to avoid some of the most common genre pitfalls. Relationship dynamics feel genuine, capture the essence of each character’s personality and motivations. Dialogue reads as sharp and authentic. Sure, the plot isn’t without its predictability or clichés, but Chen’s sense of timing and ability to pace things just right make up for it. I found myself hooked on both the intrigue of Ying’s quest to find her father’s killer and the adventure of the guild challenges.
These trials are fraught with danger, but they also introduce wonders like mechanical beasts and other imaginative technology. The Engineers Guild is old and respected, steeped in tradition, but there are factions and infighting within. The wider threat of war looms as well. All the while, the characters grow and their relationships develop. Every thread comes together to fill out the plot, contributing to a gripping narrative.
All in all, I’m reminded that patience pays off. The elements in Of Jade and Dragons came together to deliver a good story with characters that made me feel invested, and I was happy to discover it’s the first installment of a series. I’m looking forward to continuing.
So, I have a bad habit of not paying too close attention to book blurbs and hence completely missed the allusions to Mulan in the publisher description for Of Jade and Dragons until I actually picked up the book and started reading it. My first reaction? Groan, not another one! But you know what they say about avoiding making snap judgments. This book ended up exceeding my expectations, delivering a richly told tale of mystery and ambition set against a silkpunk fantasy world inspired by Qing dynasty China.
The story follows 18-year-old Aihui Ying, who spent her life looking up to her father, the greatest engineer of his generation. But her life takes a drastic turn when she witnesses her beloved A-ma’s murder, the killer escaping with a dropped pendant as the only clue as to their identity. Armed with only her father’s journal for guidance, Ying sets out to become an apprentice by joining the prestigious Engineer Guild, where she also hopes to track down and exact revenge on the assassin.
The only problem? The male-only Guild will not accept a girl, leading Ying to adopt her brother’s identity to gain entry and prove herself worthy of following in her father’s footsteps. In the capital, she befriends a few of her fellow aspirants, including Prince Ye-Yang, who has entered the candidate trials for his own reasons. An alliance—and later, an attraction—forms between them as they promise to keep each other’s secrets and face the apprentice challenges together. This bond and partnership later become crucial as the trials give way to more and more dangerous obstacles, revealing treacherous guild politics and hidden agendas among its members.
First off, I loved the writing. Amber Chen’s prose is vivid and evocative but flows well without being too effusive. I enjoyed the world she created, which is brought to life by intricate details which make it easy to visualize the surroundings. The setting feels both historical and fantastical, which is a hallmark of this particular style of silkpunk blending magic and technology.
Ying is also a great protagonist, driven by her determination and resourcefulness. Despite the characters’ ages, Of Jade and Dragons exudes YA vibes and yet manages to avoid some of the most common genre pitfalls. Relationship dynamics feel genuine, capture the essence of each character’s personality and motivations. Dialogue reads as sharp and authentic. Sure, the plot isn’t without its predictability or clichés, but Chen’s sense of timing and ability to pace things just right make up for it. I found myself hooked on both the intrigue of Ying’s quest to find her father’s killer and the adventure of the guild challenges.
These trials are fraught with danger, but they also introduce wonders like mechanical beasts and other imaginative technology. The Engineers Guild is old and respected, steeped in tradition, but there are factions and infighting within. The wider threat of war looms as well. All the while, the characters grow and their relationships develop. Every thread comes together to fill out the plot, contributing to a gripping narrative.
All in all, I’m reminded that patience pays off. The elements in Of Jade and Dragons came together to deliver a good story with characters that made me feel invested, and I was happy to discover it’s the first installment of a series. I’m looking forward to continuing.
January 28, 2024
*Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review*
This was a little disappointing, not going to lie. There are multiple reasons for this, but I do want to say that I think the story had real promise. A large part of that was due to the world-building. I thought the world was really cool and interesting. I loved the steampunk/silkpunk elements (I'd love if this were more common in books, but I recognize that it's not all that popular) and I thought the base story "Girl disguises herself to join prestigious inventors' guild to solve her father's murder" is interesting. Unfortunately, nothing else about this story really hit the mark for me.
Firstly, the pacing felt... off. This is a pretty chunky book and while right off the bat, Ying sees her father being murdered, the bulk of the book felt a bit of a slog at times. The ending, too, felt far too rushed for all of the build-up up to that point. There's another issue I have with the pacing that ties into the ending, but I'll get there (because it is a bit of a spoiler).
As the main character, I feel like Ying could've been really interesting. I never really connected with her, though. Part of that was because there was a lot of telling rather than showing in regards to Ying's thoughts and emotions. That, and it seemed like her character was stretched into too many different paths and never really committed too hard to any of them. At least, not in a way that felt satisfying to me.
As for the characters, they all had some of the same problem that Ying did, in that they were largely just imprints of characters rather than people I rooted for or hated. I feel like where it struggled the most was with Ye-yang (Ying's "love interest") and her father. Considering her father is such a looming presence over the entirety of the book, I thought he didn't play enough into the story in a way that felt like it mattered. And Ye-yang was... there. Again, he felt like a mirage of a character. His "romance" with Ying felt forced and boring to me. I couldn't figure out what, exactly, he saw in her and vice-versa. Plus, there's the fact that some of the power dynamics there were a little off from the beginning, which meant that I never really rooted for them. Point is, I never fully cared about Ying or Ye-yang as individuals, so trying to put them together was essentially pointless in my head.
Now, for the spoilers. I usually try to avoid doing this, but unfortunately, the ending really soured the entire book for me and I don't think I can explain why without spoiling just a little bit. So please avoid this part of the review if you don't want that.
The ending felt a bit like a slap in the face. This really ties into the pacing issue, mostly, because I feel like in another book this ending could have been very poignant and bittersweet. If the book had, honestly, avoided the Trials portion of the Guild stuff and relegated that to the background and focused more on Ying's father and her attempting to solve his murder, I think this could've worked. But a lot of the book was focused on the intricacies of the Guild, the other Trial-goers she makes friends with, her relationship with Ye-yang.... By the time the ending rolled around, it turned out that none of that stuff mattered. Her goal of being a Guildmaster as a woman and continuing her father's research was just thrown out the window. Again, this would've been a good reason, if we hadn't spent the majority of the book getting to know her competitors, having her make friends with them, getting to know the other Guildmasters... like, it all just felt pointless, in the end. And that frustrated me. I feel like it just could have been done so much better than it was.
I recognize that this is probably going to work for a lot of people. It does read like a C-drama and it has cool world-building. It just didn't work for me and left me frustrated at the end of it.
This was a little disappointing, not going to lie. There are multiple reasons for this, but I do want to say that I think the story had real promise. A large part of that was due to the world-building. I thought the world was really cool and interesting. I loved the steampunk/silkpunk elements (I'd love if this were more common in books, but I recognize that it's not all that popular) and I thought the base story "Girl disguises herself to join prestigious inventors' guild to solve her father's murder" is interesting. Unfortunately, nothing else about this story really hit the mark for me.
Firstly, the pacing felt... off. This is a pretty chunky book and while right off the bat, Ying sees her father being murdered, the bulk of the book felt a bit of a slog at times. The ending, too, felt far too rushed for all of the build-up up to that point. There's another issue I have with the pacing that ties into the ending, but I'll get there (because it is a bit of a spoiler).
As the main character, I feel like Ying could've been really interesting. I never really connected with her, though. Part of that was because there was a lot of telling rather than showing in regards to Ying's thoughts and emotions. That, and it seemed like her character was stretched into too many different paths and never really committed too hard to any of them. At least, not in a way that felt satisfying to me.
As for the characters, they all had some of the same problem that Ying did, in that they were largely just imprints of characters rather than people I rooted for or hated. I feel like where it struggled the most was with Ye-yang (Ying's "love interest") and her father. Considering her father is such a looming presence over the entirety of the book, I thought he didn't play enough into the story in a way that felt like it mattered. And Ye-yang was... there. Again, he felt like a mirage of a character. His "romance" with Ying felt forced and boring to me. I couldn't figure out what, exactly, he saw in her and vice-versa. Plus, there's the fact that some of the power dynamics there were a little off from the beginning, which meant that I never really rooted for them. Point is, I never fully cared about Ying or Ye-yang as individuals, so trying to put them together was essentially pointless in my head.
Now, for the spoilers. I usually try to avoid doing this, but unfortunately, the ending really soured the entire book for me and I don't think I can explain why without spoiling just a little bit. So please avoid this part of the review if you don't want that.
The ending felt a bit like a slap in the face. This really ties into the pacing issue, mostly, because I feel like in another book this ending could have been very poignant and bittersweet. If the book had, honestly, avoided the Trials portion of the Guild stuff and relegated that to the background and focused more on Ying's father and her attempting to solve his murder, I think this could've worked. But a lot of the book was focused on the intricacies of the Guild, the other Trial-goers she makes friends with, her relationship with Ye-yang.... By the time the ending rolled around, it turned out that none of that stuff mattered. Her goal of being a Guildmaster as a woman and continuing her father's research was just thrown out the window. Again, this would've been a good reason, if we hadn't spent the majority of the book getting to know her competitors, having her make friends with them, getting to know the other Guildmasters... like, it all just felt pointless, in the end. And that frustrated me. I feel like it just could have been done so much better than it was.
I recognize that this is probably going to work for a lot of people. It does read like a C-drama and it has cool world-building. It just didn't work for me and left me frustrated at the end of it.
April 10, 2024
2024 reads: 88/250
i received an advanced review copy from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. this did not affect my rating.
aihui ying dreams of following in her father’s footsteps by becoming an engineer, but after he’s murdered, her life falls apart. she disguises herself as her brother to infiltrate the male-only engineers guild apprenticeship, sure she’ll find her answers there.
so, i actually didn’t know what “silkpunk” was before reading this, but now i really want to find more books that fit the bill! i enjoyed the blending of chinese mythology with ying’s drive for justice and the engineering aspects. we love a woman in STEM😌
overall, this was a wonderful story that blended science with fantasy. i highly recommend this and can’t wait for book two!
i received an advanced review copy from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. this did not affect my rating.
aihui ying dreams of following in her father’s footsteps by becoming an engineer, but after he’s murdered, her life falls apart. she disguises herself as her brother to infiltrate the male-only engineers guild apprenticeship, sure she’ll find her answers there.
so, i actually didn’t know what “silkpunk” was before reading this, but now i really want to find more books that fit the bill! i enjoyed the blending of chinese mythology with ying’s drive for justice and the engineering aspects. we love a woman in STEM😌
overall, this was a wonderful story that blended science with fantasy. i highly recommend this and can’t wait for book two!
Shelved as 'tbr-fantasy-slash-adventure'
September 21, 2023Kelly Chong should just take all my money immediately cause how am I supposed to resist a cover like this 😍
Want to read
May 12, 2023i'm always here for some silkpunk fantasy and cut-throat politics
June 18, 2024
"Of Jade and Dragons" is the first installment of "Fall of the Dragon" , an Asian-inspired ya fantasy series written by Amber Chen and currently in progress.
I have been pointing at this book since its announcement, captivated by the intriguing premise and the gorgeous cover. I had pretty high expectations and in the end I was not disappointed! A few things didn't convince me, but overall I enjoyed it so much and am very happy!
The captivating, light and simple writing absorbed me completely, making it hard to tear myself away from the story. I admit that I expected a more evocative and lyrical style, a more epic atmosphere, but in the end I still enjoyed it.
The story takes place in the Antaran Isles, a complex of nine officially recognized islands, diverse in economy, society and geography, ruled by a High Commander. An area with limited resources, in depletion, which finds in the neighboring Great Jade Empire their greatest enemy. The Antaran Isles possess a powerful military arsenal, heavily focused on airships, and place great importance on the prestigious Engineers Guild, which trains and prepares engineers for use in weapons construction and many other fields. I was fascinated by this large and complex world building that mixes fantasy elements with more steampunk ones! I found it to be well described, managed and curated, although not fully explored. I liked the part about the Engineers Guild a lot, but I admit I would have liked to see more about the airships or the infamous Great Jade Empire. The former appear very little up close, limited more to figures in the background to admire, while the latter is mentioned several times but never shown. I hope these aspects will be further explored in the sequel, but otherwise I can only express kudos!
The story proceeds fast and brisk, between lessons, trials, investigations, assassination attempts, deceptions, secrets, lies, power plays, and very enjoyable interactions. I found the whole part about the Engineers Guild and the various trials super interesting, as well as the protagonist's investigations and attempts to kill her. I admit that I detected the various plot twists in advance, but this did not bother me. On the contrary, I was a bit puzzled by the general lack of urgency, of danger. Ying resolves the various situations far too easily, with far too convenient systems and aids. Also, as I mentioned above, the non-appearance of the Great Jade Empire in my opinion removes any sense of tension. Overall, however, the narrative entertained me a lot, so I am satisfied!
Ying, the protagonist with her only third person pov, convinced me. An 18-year-old from the remote island of Huarin, she disguises herself as a boy to infiltrate the Engineers Guild and search for clues about her father's murder. Ying is a determined, courageous, loyal and intelligent girl gifted with a natural talent for engineering and driven by the dream of becoming an engineer. An impossible desire to achieve because admission to the Guild is restricted to men only, at least until she disguises herself as a boy for her investigations. I enjoyed following her adventures and found her to be well portrayed, although she didn't particularly strike me in terms of expressiveness. Among other things, I struggled to perceive her grief for her father's death, her mourning, and her affection for the brothers and sisters she left at home. I liked Ye-yang, the eighth prince of the High Commander! Ambiguous, mysterious, and taciturn, he captivated me with his enigmatic attitude and his attentiveness to Ying. The relationship that blossoms between the two seemed to me an insta-love really insta, but this did not bother me since it was mixed with excellent slooow burn and lots of angst. The rest of the secondary characters, including academy classmates, masters, and Ying and Ye-yang's relatives conveyed nothing to me and seemed rather shallow and vague.
All in all, "Of Jade and Dragons" is an excellent debut that left me eager to read the sequel!
Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I have been pointing at this book since its announcement, captivated by the intriguing premise and the gorgeous cover. I had pretty high expectations and in the end I was not disappointed! A few things didn't convince me, but overall I enjoyed it so much and am very happy!
The captivating, light and simple writing absorbed me completely, making it hard to tear myself away from the story. I admit that I expected a more evocative and lyrical style, a more epic atmosphere, but in the end I still enjoyed it.
The story takes place in the Antaran Isles, a complex of nine officially recognized islands, diverse in economy, society and geography, ruled by a High Commander. An area with limited resources, in depletion, which finds in the neighboring Great Jade Empire their greatest enemy. The Antaran Isles possess a powerful military arsenal, heavily focused on airships, and place great importance on the prestigious Engineers Guild, which trains and prepares engineers for use in weapons construction and many other fields. I was fascinated by this large and complex world building that mixes fantasy elements with more steampunk ones! I found it to be well described, managed and curated, although not fully explored. I liked the part about the Engineers Guild a lot, but I admit I would have liked to see more about the airships or the infamous Great Jade Empire. The former appear very little up close, limited more to figures in the background to admire, while the latter is mentioned several times but never shown. I hope these aspects will be further explored in the sequel, but otherwise I can only express kudos!
The story proceeds fast and brisk, between lessons, trials, investigations, assassination attempts, deceptions, secrets, lies, power plays, and very enjoyable interactions. I found the whole part about the Engineers Guild and the various trials super interesting, as well as the protagonist's investigations and attempts to kill her. I admit that I detected the various plot twists in advance, but this did not bother me. On the contrary, I was a bit puzzled by the general lack of urgency, of danger. Ying resolves the various situations far too easily, with far too convenient systems and aids. Also, as I mentioned above, the non-appearance of the Great Jade Empire in my opinion removes any sense of tension. Overall, however, the narrative entertained me a lot, so I am satisfied!
Ying, the protagonist with her only third person pov, convinced me. An 18-year-old from the remote island of Huarin, she disguises herself as a boy to infiltrate the Engineers Guild and search for clues about her father's murder. Ying is a determined, courageous, loyal and intelligent girl gifted with a natural talent for engineering and driven by the dream of becoming an engineer. An impossible desire to achieve because admission to the Guild is restricted to men only, at least until she disguises herself as a boy for her investigations. I enjoyed following her adventures and found her to be well portrayed, although she didn't particularly strike me in terms of expressiveness. Among other things, I struggled to perceive her grief for her father's death, her mourning, and her affection for the brothers and sisters she left at home. I liked Ye-yang, the eighth prince of the High Commander! Ambiguous, mysterious, and taciturn, he captivated me with his enigmatic attitude and his attentiveness to Ying. The relationship that blossoms between the two seemed to me an insta-love really insta, but this did not bother me since it was mixed with excellent slooow burn and lots of angst. The rest of the secondary characters, including academy classmates, masters, and Ying and Ye-yang's relatives conveyed nothing to me and seemed rather shallow and vague.
All in all, "Of Jade and Dragons" is an excellent debut that left me eager to read the sequel!
Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
May 2, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
“Of Jade and Dragons” by Amber Chen can be described as mulan with engineering plus a murder mystery. The protagonist, Ying, disguises herself as a man to join the exclusive men-only engineer’s guild after her father, who was a member, has been murdered to discover who was behind it.
In order to become a member of the engineer’s guild, one must compete in a set of trials. I love when books have trials or games that someone must win. I do wish that the trials had been a more substantial part of the plot or were more intense, but I really enjoyed this part of the book. I was really rooting for Ying and it was super fun to read the trials. Outside of the trials, I felt the book was slow at times.
There are two main male characters throughout the book: Ye-yang and Yekan. Both sons of the emperor that aid Ying throughout her journey. Personally, I favored Yekan to Ye-yang. However, this was not a love triangle situation. Chen created very loveable and intriguing characters throughout this book.
Overall, I think this is a great YA fantasy that can be read by any age!
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
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