Of Jade and Dragons is a solid debut. However it does have its flaws.

First the characters. There is a vast array of characters who have unique personalities. Ying is strong willed and smart. She can come off naive at times and things do seem to land in her lap. There are many characters, Ying's family, her riends at the Guild, the teachers and the prince. But because there are so many only 2 become more developed characters. Her friends were interchangeable and so were the teachers. Speaking of teachers, one was pointed out to be very jealous of Ying's father. It was pointed out several times and yet nothing was added to the teacher to make them a more nuanced character. Because of the number of times this teacher was pointed out I expected him to have more depth. Also, the female characters besides Ying were also one note characters.

Second was the story. It did feel like things did fall into Ying's lap. One of her issues of being disguised at the guild is that she can't shower with everyone else. Instead of showing us her ability to problem solve and her skills at engineering the issue is easily resolved. It was small things like this that made me raise my eyebrows. My main issue with the story is how much Ying believes it is this character's fault for her father's death and does nothing to prove it until it is near the end of the book. Ying even says she hasn't been able to find any clues on who killed her father. So, I assumed that this book would be about her graduating, finding out who killed her father, but unable to do anything against them. The second book would be about her learning about and maneuvering in the political world she has found herself in. Because now, she is in the mindset that nothing else matters except revenge. She doesn't care who she has to bring down to do it.

But I did like the ending and how it changed the relationship dynamics between the characters.

As for the worldbuilding, it felt vast and small at the same time. There are good descriptions of the settings but, unless I missed it, there was a lack of history to the place. Ying talks about this Empire and how her country has suffered because of them. And there is nothing else. There was mention of the first emperor I think.

The romance and relationships was pretty good. I was sold on the romance between Ying and YeYang. I was also very happy that Ying decides, rightfully so, this is not the life for her while YeYang is kind of delusional.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I enjoyed this coming-of-age book, found family, with Asian-inspired world building. While this is a murder mystery for the FMC (Ying) to find out who murdered her father and why, it was actually a fun read and I chuckled a few times at the dialogue. I absolutely loved the main character, Ying, because she is intelligent, headstrong, and driven. She dresses as a man and gets into her father's hidden past at the Engineers Guild. Such a great story with amazing atmosphere.

Aihui Yang has always wanted to follow in her father's footsteps by becoming a member of the Engineers Guild. However, she has a big problem. Aihui is a female, which is a big no-no for the Engineers Guild since they only allowed men to enter the trials. And her father really doesn’t want her to enter anyway, either. Too bad that the Engineers Guild hasn’t forgotten about Aihui's father. They may or may not be involved with his father, which leaves Aihui enraged. She is more than ready to investigate her father's death by entering the Engineers Guild as her brother. 

I have so many feelings regarding Jade and Dragons. What I am stressing the most is the dam ending. That was such a major cliffhanger. I feel so disarrayed. I don’t know what to do, but I know I have to freaking wait until the next book. 

What I love so much about Aihui is her wiliness and determination to be herself. She never changed her values or learned from her father. She will always remain loyal to her father's teachings. It’s so touching yet heartbreaking because it creates a ripple effect in the end. I can’t wait to see how it plays out in the next book. 

Do I think that everyone needs to read this book? Yes, I do. It’s freaking amazing and intense, which keeps you wanting more. It has so many elements at play. And don’t get me started on the endless secrets and betrayals along the way. It keeps you on the edge until the very end.

“Of Jade and Dragons” starts off with the murder of Ying’s father, a renowned engineer. She takes it upon herself to investigate his death by entering herself (disguised as her brother) in the trials for an apprenticeship at the Engineers Guild where he trained, with the help of the youngest prince Ye-yang. I was intrigued by the premise, which sounded like a melding of Mulan, Throne of Glass, and The Poppy War. However, I was quickly turned off by the clunky writing, strange dialogue, and lack of any discernible character motivation. The beginning strangely was full of info-dumping, and yet the worldbuilding was simultaneously very sparse. I never felt like I had any true insight into who Ying actually is as a person beyond what she is trying to accomplish. I think a few more rounds of editing would have made this book something worth reading, but I found it nearly unreadable.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
4.5/5 STARS

Genre: YA Fantasy/Asian Mythology

Synopsis:
When Ying’s famous engineer father is murdered in
their home, she vows to avenge his death. To do so, she must win the trials to enter the Engineer’s Guild, a male only society.

This book has all the Mulan vibes in a fantasy meets science world! I really enjoyed the girl hiding her true identity as a guy plot in a scientific guild. There was a lot of betrayal and even some romance. There will definitely be a second book and I can’t wait to find out what happens!

✨Read this is you like:
-strong FMC
- Mulan
-girls in science
-trials/competition
-secret identity
-royalty
-YA enemies to lovers
-mystery

Thank you Penguin Teen for the gifted copy! 🐉💎

4.5 ⭐️

What a rollercoaster this story was! I might have predicted a few outcomes, but I was still shocked every time a secret was revealed. If there was camera footage of me reading this, it’d show me gasping to my walls at 4am because I was in shock lol. Amber Chen I humbly as for book 2 as soon as possible 🙇🏻‍♀️.

Ying was naive and a little thoughtless, BUT she was also self-assured, inventive, unwilling to change what she believed in for anyone (FOR ANYONE 🫵🏻!!). At first, I struggled to get through the beginning 20ish% because of her naïveté. BUT, that characteristic made me question everyone’s trustworthiness (this is a good thing, it kept me on my toes!) because I was constantly wondering if it was Ying's perspective that was influencing me or my own. The feeling of something being "too good to be true" sums up a lot of what was happening in my mind lol. Regardless, Ying stood out as a fmc because she didn’t necessarily have physical strength or fighting abilities (GREAT characteristics many strong fantasy female leads have), but she did have her inventiveness, her resolve, and her beliefs.

I will say that since this is a YA story, it does gloss over some of the darker topics that could have been explored if it were geared toward adults, but I appreciated it for what it was.

I know I don’t do this book justice, but I promise it's a great story that leaves a lasting impression. If you’re a beginner fantasy reader (like me 😃), I think you’ll really enjoy this one. And for those who have read or will soon read it… I liked how it ended and I think it was exactly what should’ve happened 😌!

Thank you NetGalley & publisher for providing me with an e-arc for “Of Jade and Dragons” by Amber Chen! All opinions are mine alone. “Of Jade and Dragons” publishes June 18, 2024!

Was first drawn to the cover and the fact that it was an Asian fantasy which I almost always love.
Ying was a very likable character: intelligent, headstrong and fierce. And both of the male leads were amazing as well and I really enjoyed the academic rivals trope.
I was not expecting the steampunk vibes along with the Asian fantasy theme but really enjoyed it
This book was pretty good, nothing incredibly special but have no major complaints and overall did enjoy it.

Of Jade and Dragons is a riveting, steampunk fantasy full of mystery, hidden identities, and engineering marvels.

Aihui Ying is the exceptionally skilled daughter of the famed engineer, Aihui Shan-Jin. After her father is brutally murdered, Ying travels to the capital city of Fei to infiltrate the famed Engineering Guild to find answers. The guild does not accept females though, so Ying disguises herself as her younger brother Min. After a run in with a generous prince, Ye-Yang, she is entered into the trials of mind, body, and soul in hopes of earning a spot in the guild and solving the mystery of why her father was killed. But the more Ying uncovers, the more secrets she is realizing her father has kept from her. And while she trusts Ye-Yang with her identity, she is beginning to wonder if she can trust him with her heart as well.

Of Jade and Dragons was an interesting and engaging story. I really liked the Mulan inspired aspects of Ying having to dress as a male in order to be taken seriously by the guild, and then outshining them all with her intelligence, skill, and creativity. I also liked the engineering, steam/silkpunk elements as well - this created a rich and exciting world full of possibilities. It reminded me a little of the Fire Nation in Avatar, with the inventions. The murder mystery also plays out in the background as Ying keeps running into a mysterious assassin. Meanwhile, she is learning more about her father's past and uncovering secrets of her own. There is a bit of a found family element as well with Ye Yang and Ye Kan. As a YA title, the writing is skewed somewhat on the younger side, so it was a fairly easy and quick read for me. The ending was exciting and left me wanting more from this world.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Viking Books for Young Readers for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Of Jade and Dragons
By Amber Chen
A Review by Jamilla (@ LandsAwayBooks, a wordpress blog)

These seas can never trap those who are meant to fly.

Anhui Ying, our protagonist, is the eldest daughter of the chieftain and in the eyes of the villagers, an unrepentant delinquent spoiled rotten by her a’ma and wholly unsuitable for matchmaking or marriage.

Fine by her. Her days are spent idyllic at her father’s side, designing and bringing to life any manner of contraptions that come to mind. Her one dream is to be just like her father, to travel to the capital city of the Antaran Isles and become a master in the preeminent Engineer Guild.

One thing stands in her way — only males are allowed to apprentice to the guild.

An impenetrable wall. But, even though it’s a dream deferred, she still has her father and her siblings.

Then, with the flash of a blade, her life is ripped asunder and her beloved father left dead, assassinated.

This cataclysm sends her life spiraling down a different path, one of bloodshed and revenge — against everything her father would have wanted for her.

With new allies at her side, she gains access to the hallowed halls of the Engineer Guild and their famed apprenticeship trial— disguised as a boy, leading her to what at first appears to be everything she has ever dreamed of.

All that glitters is not gold; dark secrets and machinations lie in wait.

Of Jade and Dragons is a solid debut, one with an unsteady pace. Nevertheless, I found myself quite enjoying the cast of characters, especially Ye-Kan and Chang-en and of course the Eight Prince, Ye-yang. As for the heroine, it took some time to warm up to her, as we are almost immediately launched into action and not given enough time to orient ourselves into this world and her place in it. In spite of that, as the story progressed, Ying made for a very daring and impetuous character, I was definitely rooting for her to solve the mystery behind her father’s death and grieve.

OJAD, was a fast read, with assessable prose, however it was attempting to juggle a murder mystery, a trial and a romance and in the end, I feel as if only the romance subplot was done to any justice.(But in this situation who’d have the time for romance, I couldn’t help but wonder.) I found the trials themselves to be well thought out, with the second being especially exciting, but as the MC spends most of the book in the guild training and attending classes… a lot of it being off page, the expected little breadcrumb discoveries I would anticipate with a murder mystery were sparse. That being said, I do think that there is much to enjoy here, and especially by those on the younger end of the YA spectrum not averse to a bit of bloodshed.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I would have been obsessed with this book as a teenager. Even now, as an adult it was a compelling read. The characters are deeply compelling, and there are some really fascinating twists to keep you engaged throughout, even when the pacing slows slightly. There were opportunities to crisp up the writing or the plotlines, but not in a way where it felt like it undermined the book itself. I look forward to reading the next book in the installment!

One note - I'm so tired of publishing houses pushing books as "XX"-like, citing to some piece of beloved fiction or movie. The reality is this book stands up on its own, not as Mulan-inspired or Mulan-esque. Stop setting books up for failure where readers might feel like it's not "enough" like the beloved original.

I loved this book. I read it so quickly and was engrossed the whole time. The plot kept me guessing and ai enjoyed the chemistry between the two characters. It gave me Mulan vibes, but with a different plot.

1.5/5 stars

I hate when I pick up a promising Asian fantasy with a gorgeous cover and it just doesn't deliver. If I had a nickel for every time that happened, I'd have a couple nickels still too many because I want good Asian rep so bad but alas.

Ying is a bad main character and a little too stupid for my taste. She is reckless and I just knew that she would be like "god I should have stayed away when my father told me :'(" and voila that happened. I don't really know what her plan is, and her motivation fluctuated between wanting to be a female engineer and avenging her father, depending on what was needed for the plot.

Ye-Yang was existing, I guess, and I was not sold on the romance at all. Partly because he's barely there most of the time and when he does show up he and Ying have no deep interactions.

Ye-Kan is the best part of the book and the only reason I rounded up.

Ok. Let me just address the fact that Mulan is the SUPERIOR Disney heroine, princess, whichever you would like to call her. So when I read the synopsis for this book, I thought “ok cool! Mulan but make it STEM // Engineering. Let’s read it!” But Oh my, GOODNESS. I underestimated this so much and it overdelivered in the best way possible???

Firstly, the cover art is visually BEAUTIFUL. Being aphantasic, I would always glance at the cover every now and then just to a vibe check and getter idea of what the airships and inventions would look like as I kept reading the story. So, for me, it helped alot to have it!

Aihui Ying gave all the personality traits of Mulan. Street and Book Smart, Determined, Headstrong, Rebellious, and does whatever it takes to get what she wants (disguising herself as a man of course). Other notable characters are Ye-Yang, Ye-Kan, Anxi, and Chang-En, who all bringing dynamics of their own to the story with their unique personalities, and the relationships they had with Ying and each other.

The main academic plot was great, and it was fun reading how the Trials in the Engineer’s apprenticeship were carried out similar to the Hunger Games (minus the everyone dying part).

What really made this a 5 star read instead of a 4 star read was the ending. This was a Matrix movie moment where everything really slowed down, I became super invested and was ultra immersed in what was going on. It honestly felt refreshing for this genre, and the openendedness of it has allowed the audience to wonder what is coming next for Ying and Ye-Kang.

The notes I had for this was the pacing, political system, and geography. It felt pretty slow for the first 65%, and then it all of a sudden picked up very quickly. This might be a me preference, but I do like it when books have an even and balanced pacing to it, because I will get bored if there is no dynamic shifts through the plot. The political system was confusing too (I think the High Commander had 14 sons, and 4 of them were the main generals...?), and it would have been great to have a political hierarchy and map to get a clearer idea of who and where things and people are situated.

Overall, a great take on the tale of Mulan, and I am eager to know what direction this series will take next! Thank you NetGalley and Viking Books for Young Readers for the eARC!

A Mulan Retelling with a twist from a debut author to watch!

The pacing and plot made this very bingeable. I enjoyed the main character Ying and the dynamics between her and the two male leads. I also loved the idea and overall execution of a Mulan retelling! However, I would have liked more to the world building and character development to give the story a little more depth. Some of the resolutions felt a little to easy to give me any satisfaction.

3.5 rounded up.

3.5 for me.

There were a lot of things I did enjoy about the book, the premise, the characters and plot with lots of tropes I enjoy. But as much there was to love about the book, I was just not able to fully immerse myself in it. It was a pleasant read, but it was not an exciting read where I had trouble putting it down. I think that it might be that at times the writing felt very surface level. I think there were some missed opportunities to really make this silk punk fantasy world and the scenes jump off the pages. Such as the time spent at the Engineers gild. The was a main part of the book and what Ying had always dreamed of joining but had not been allowed simply because she was a woman. Her time going through the trials which last like 6mo if I remember correctly but we never really delve into her time other than one or two instances in-between the trials which were definitely interesting to read. It's just the way this book was described made it seem like a strong competition academia setting and while I did get the competition feel during the trials there was no time in-between to build up the anticipation of the upcoming trial, the back and forth fighting as you fight for what may be only one opening in the guild or even the making of alliances to help each other through the trials which you normally see in competition academic books. Also, this was portrayed as having Mulan influences which I can definitely see but what I loved about that movie was all the near misses Mulan had where her identity/gender may have been discovered drove up the nerves as well made for some comical moments. While there were instances where Ying was at risk of being discovered they just didn't feel the same way. They just felt to easily worked around or solved.

Overall, I enjoyed the premise of the book and what I think the author was trying to convey when it came to showing the consequences of ambition and how the things we create can have everlasting destruction which makes sense with this being centered around engineers and the creations they make that will go towards the war effort. I found the book to be a pleasant easy book to read just not the most exciting one.

This book is about Ying who dreamed of following in her father's footsteps and joining the engineer's guild but was unable to due to her gender. So, she instead spends her time coming up with her own inventions and testing them out under the supervision of her father. That is until one day when coming back from testing an invention she stumbles in on the unaliving of her father by an a$$asin. All she has left is the journal her father commanded her to destroy and the pendant of the man who unalived her father. Using this and some other clues leads to her assuming her younger brother identify and setting out to the capital to join the engineer's gild as all clues seem to point to there and her father's past there that he had kept hidden from her. With the help of an expected ally in the form of a prince, she is able to join as in the trials to join the guild so that she may uncover these secrets her father kept hidden from her and what about it was worth unaliving him for. That is if she can pass the trials while keeping her identity hidden because if she were to be found out it would mean dire consequences for her.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting book. It took me a bit to get into, but I'm looking forward to the next book. The ending definitely caught me by surprise, but I feel like everything is not as it seems. It took me a bit to get used to the names because they use their surname and then their given name after that. But I got accustomed to it after a while.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC. I think I had too high expectations for this book. I was excited to read about an engineer fighting in trials for her place and expected the book would be a much faster pace. Unfortunately, the book moved to slow for me and I found it hard to care about Aihui Ying.

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, she manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the eighth prince of the High Command. Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, and those hunting for her father’s journal. Meanwhile the prince may have mysterious plans of his own.

I had a hard time getting into this. I feel like emotion or exploration of motivation is lacking. Ying easily gets to where she needs to be so I felt no sense of journey or drama. She was just there. I also had an issue with her disguise. Maybe there isn't a need for a lot of description but I completely failed to imagine how she could fool everyone into thinking she is a man.

The romance was hard for me to believe in. I just didn't feel anything so a major part of the book had less of an impact on me.

The premise of this is quite interesting. However the writing style held me back and I was never fully immersed in the world.

An interesting tale of engineering and political intrigue.

Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father, but then he's suddenly murdered and her priorities change. Following a trail of clues, Ying ends up at the prestigious Engineers Guild determined to avenge her father. She enters the guild's male-only apprenticeship trial disguised as her brother - and with unlikely Aogiya Ye-yang, the eighth prince of the High Command. As secrets are uncovered and relationships get tangled, Ying doesn't know who she can trust and if she can succeed in her goals.

This book has a lot of the vibes of Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, and I really enjoyed that aspect. Seeing Ying succeed in engineering, a very male-dominated field in our world as well, was so satisfying. Her approach to the apprenticeship trials was very interesting and I liked the school-like setting.

I am not huge on political fantasies, but I did enjoy seeing the complex relationships Ying developed and how those evolved over the story. I think they will play an even larger role in future books in the series.

Overall, if you enjoy trials, women in STEM, or fast-paced political intrigue in fantasy, I recommend this book. I think it will appeal to a lot of readers and it keeps you hooked throughout reading.

Thank you to the Publisher for my arc!

This was just one of those cases where YA doesn't work for me and for its targeted audience this book would be fantastic for them. but for me sadly I just wasn't invested.