Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father, but the prestigious Engineers Guild doesn't allow female applicants. But when Ying's father is murdered, and the clues lead back to the guild, Ying is determined to infiltrate their ranks. Disguised as her brother, Ying finds an unlikely ally in Aogiya Ye-yang, the broody eighth prince of the High Command. Despite being just as capable as her fellow competitors, Ying's father's renown paints a target on her back. If she wants to get to the bottom of her father's death, Ying must stay one step ahead of his killer. When Ying discovers that Ye-yang has plans of his own, she must decide if avenging her father will be worth the cost.

I've seen other reviewers describe this as a STEMinist retelling of Mulan, and that's the perfect description. I admired Ying's determination to find her father's killer using whatever means necessary. She was intelligent and brave but a little naïve. I enjoyed watching her go through the trials, but I wish they were more prominent because I love the competition element in fantasy books. I thought the secondary characters could've been fleshed out more, as well as the world-building. I got a vague sense of it, but it felt very surface-level. There's also a little romance between Ying and Ye-yang, which felt like your stereotypical YA romance. It had all the makings of something great but needed a few more tweaks. Still, I'm interested enough to pick up the next book when it comes out.

I want to thank Net Galley and Penguin Group for allowing me to read this ARC

Spoilers ahead!

So, let's address a common gripe: the ending, particularly concerning Ying and Ye-Yang. I didn’t want them together. I am glad she could no longer trust her judgment or his words. Some relationships cannot continue to build when you realise that the foundation was lies. second chances don't always lead to a happy ending.

Now, diving deeper into Ying's character, I admired her strength, intelligence, and independence. Unlike your typical female protagonist, she didn't start as a timid flower and morph into a warrior; she wielded a fan and fought fiercely from the get-go trying to protect her a-ma.

I found the character development of Ye-Yang to be a bit lacking. You didn’t really get to know him, you didn’t really see him as anything more than a passing distraction for Ying. I’m not sure if I liked him at all, and I’m not sure that I hated him at the end.
I didn’t feel the strong pull between the two of them either.

HOWEVER. Ying and Ye-Kan, there was something there, cant put my finger on it, but there’s something there.
When it came to the ending that was really the only disappointing thing I was upset about. Ye-Kan was a constant for Ying even if she didn’t want him to be, he protected her secret ashs he did for him. He stood by her, believed in her, and even tried to fight for her.
Then at the end she ignored him till she went home. I felt let down by that.

Which is why I don’t categorise this as ‘found family’ at all in the guild, all the “Friends” she had in the guild just evaporated at the end and they never really developed that much either, she had her own mission to accomplish, she rarely had any meaningful conversations with them.

All the things she was trying to prove also evaporated. I understand completely why she would not trust her acceptance into the Guild, but to just walk away without looking back at all? And with no backstory about what happened when she did get home. Nothing about her brother? The lack of closure on these fronts felt unsatisfying.

Lianhe's demise provided a fitting revenge plot, with Ying delivering the decisive blow, a surprising twist I thoroughly enjoyed. You don’t usually see it being followed through by the FMC, usually the hero MMC steps in and saves the day. So that was nice.

I gave this book 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 because I did really enjoy it, I really liked that it felt new and original. I didn’t get any Mulan vibes, not sure where that came from other than her posing as a boy.
This is also the first time I have ever heard of SilkPunk, and yes I would agree that’s what this book is. I concur that this is an exemplary YA novel.

This is an ARC review.

I didn’t know if I would like this, but I ended up loving it. Ying was such a relatable character, and I loved the found family aspect of it from the guild apprentices. The plot was complex, moved at a good pace, and wound together really well at the end while also leaving enough conflict to go into the next story.

I would definitely read the second book!

Thank you for the eARC NetGalley and Penguin Group. All opinions provided are my own.

Of Jade and Dragon is about Aihui Ying, an eighteen year-old girl, and her journey of uncovering the mystery of who murder her father and obtaining her dreams of entering the Engineering Guild. While trying to find clues of who murder her father, she has to avoid being discovered as a girl (only men can enter the guild, pass the three tests that determines if she can enter the guild, and figure out her feelings for Aogiya Ye-yang.

Between the title, summary, and cover of the book, I was really excited to read Of Jade and Dragon. I have always loved Mulan and I liked Iron Widow so I was curious to see how the story would go. Sadly it didn't take long for disappointment to set in. In the very beginning of the book, Ying's father asked her to do 3 things: do not look at the journal, burn the journal, and do not investigate/ avenge his death. As soon as he was buried, she immediately disregarded his requests. Look, I get it. There would be no story if she did not investigate her father's murder but it felt like she was using his death to go live the dream she always wanted. It felt like she had to constantly remind herself why she was taking the guild test. She was investigating and taking the tests for selfish reasons. Nothing similar to Mulan in that regard. I had to force myself to finish the book.

There was a lot I did not like about this story but I did enjoy the world building and side characters. It was pretty cool how the steampunk elements were intertwined into the world.

Overall I did not care for the book. I gave it 3.5 stars with a round up to 4. I usually enjoy Asian fantasy: YA or adult, so I'm not sure I was not vibing with this story. Hopefully others will enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me this book as a preprint in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. Ying is the fiercely intelligent, loyal, and strong female character that I love seeing in books. I enjoyed her character growth and development at the Engineers guild even as my heart broke for her. As the book progresses, layers upon layers of secrets emerge and I felt Ying’s pain as she discovered all the new information around her. The last 20 percent of the book was amazing even if it was painful to see things unveiled and unraveled with the truth brought to life. There is closure at the end of the book but I also hope there are more sequels coming. I especially loved reading about all the inventions of the engineers and the various contraptions used in Fei. It lended a wonderfully creative steampunk element to the the Asian world that was created. Highly recommend!

Every time I choose a book based of name and cover alone and then the blurb hooks me, I have not been disappointed. Actually I fall in love. This time is no different.

While the book starts out with a murder and there's some chaos here and there, it is a slower paced book. And I was delightfully enthralled. I should have put every other arc down to get to this one sooner. But all that matters is I read it and fell in love.

This is very Mulan as an engineer seeking revenge for her father's death. Still a daughter, a force to be reckoned with and one who still wants to make her fate proud. Even his death.

This book has everything, YA fantasy with a slow build romance and acts of betrayl and unexpected friendships. I can't wait for the sequel.

I think this was my first silkpunk book, and I really liked it! It's definitely YA-the main character makes some
decisions of questionable intelligence-but it was good other than that. Some plot points were a little cliche, but they are common tropes for a reason. I do wish I had a pronunciation guide, because I know I was butchering everyone's names. I really enjoyed the different inventions and kind of wish the focus had been more on the Engineering Guild instead of Ying's father's death.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I was excited to read this but ended up not being able to get into it very well. There were a couple scenes that were interesting but 90% of the book was a trudge. The plot was very slow, very “everything falls into place” (more so than a typical YA). I think this falls more on the lower end of YA/middle-grade besides one graphic scene. It did have solid writing and potential for the story and world to develop further in the series, making it a decent debut into the traditional publishing world.

My favorite quote from "Of Jade and Dragons" --> "A lamp can light up the darkness around you, but a story lights up the darkness within." And, oh boy/girl, did Amber Chen deliver the latter! I finished this book in one sitting. The last 40% of this book is Chef's kiss! I was glued to my e-reader. The tension! The twists and turns! The tenacity of our main character!

Mulan is one of my favorite Disney princesses and the main character is Mulan if she was an engineer. Being the eldest daughter and a woman in STEM, I enjoyed all of the science and STEM references and related to Ying on a personal level. I did feel that the first book focused heavily on plot/action, and the characters (outside of the FMC) had very little character development. Was this meant to be written as a standalone? I'd love to see more character development/backstory for our other characters in the upcoming books.

Will there be a time lapse between this and the next book? I can't wait to see where Amber Chen takes our FMC/MMC next! (I just found out this will be a part of a duology. Excited!)

Thank you, NetGalley/Penguin Teen for the ARC!

Solid, exciting, and passionately-written debut. The cover is absolutely fantastic and the marketing surrounding this book was very accurate and well done. The book really encompasses what you'd expect in a young adult book- broken hearts, trials and tribulations, beautiful world-building, fun characters, and a bit of badassery. I always like to note in reviews for YA books that I am much older than the intended audience, but still found it to be thought-provoking, steam punky, and heartfelt. I would definitely read more by this author.

Thank you for the ARC!

Amber Chen’s Of Jade and Dragons is the sort of novel I would have loved back when I was fourteen. At its best, it’s a YA Mulan with delightful worldbuilding and a compelling mystery to be solved, but at its worst… well, we’ll get into that.

Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying is the oldest daughter of an engineer who left the Engineers Guild a long time ago and now lives with his family in a rural village. Ying shares his fascination with building mechanical devices, from a fan that shoots darts (a success) to silk-and-bamboo wings that will enable her to fly (not such a success).

But one day, a scar-faced assassin attacks her father. She tries to fight the assassin but succeeds only in tearing something off his cloak - a jade pendant carved with a dragon. Her father dies, but first he gives Ying his journal and warns her to burn it. Naturally she looks through the journal, which contains notes and sketches for powerful weapons such as cannons. And since the dragon is the symbol of the Jade Empire, the enemy of her people (the Antarans), she suspects her father’s murder was intended to give the Empire an advantage in a battle to come.

Ying’s older brother, Wen, tells her there’s nothing more to be done, since a search for the assassin has proved fruitless. So Ying travels to the capital city, Fei, to get more information from the Engineers Guild. But as a girl, she’ll be turned out summarily. That gives her the idea to disguise herself as a boy and enter the apprenticeship trials for the Guild. There’ll be stiff competition, and she’ll need to avoid drawing attention to herself as she investigates her father’s death. But she’s got his journal, and she has some unexpected help from Ye-yang, a prince who saves her from an attack by a chimera, and who seems to be oddly interested in her.

The story’s worldbuilding is excellent, and it feels authentically silkpunk, from the weaponized fan to the bamboo tubes shuttling food orders from tables to kitchen in taverns. My favorite was the chimera, a cyborg fox with a mechanical eye. I would love to read more about that.

Unfortunately, the plot slows down once Ying becomes an apprentice. After that, she gets pulled in multiple directions at once - find father’s killer, pass apprentice tests, keep other apprentices unsuspicious about her, deal with attraction to Ye-yang - so there are stretches when Dad is relegated to the back burner, only for some new development to usher him back to the priority list. Like in Harry Potter, there’s a master who takes a swift dislike to Ying (plus the secret journal which helps her), and her romance with Ye-yang is very Cinderella-esque. I was starting to feel that this was all predictable when there were a couple of great twists, which saved the book from a C grade.

And while I liked the older-sister relationship Ying develops with another apprentice, the other characters didn’t make much of an impression. We never get Ye-yang’s perspective, so he seems like the typical cool, enigmatic, handsome aristocrat who appears when necessary to help the heroine out, then retires so she can retake center stage. Then towards the end, he does something that torpedoed him as the love interest. Readers sticking with the series might find him more developed in later books, because someone as ambitious as he is could be either a hero or an outright villain. He has a lot of potential as a character. I just didn’t like him as a love interest.

Finally, the heroine-disguises-herself-as-a-boy-so-she-can-do-something-forbidden-to-girls is a pretty tired trope unless the story does something new with it, and that doesn’t happen here. I didn’t feel the take-home message of this is that girls should have the same opportunities as boys. Instead, the message seems to be that only one girl is exceptional enough to play at a male level. Ying’s friendships are all with other boys, and even the revelation of her gender occurs off-screen and without consequences. Oh, and one last thing - the Chinese steampunk atmosphere is kind of undercut by comments like “That’s bullshit” and “they have sticks up their asses”.

In summary, there’s a lot to like in Of Jade and Dragons, but I’m not in a rush to pick up the sequel without reading a few reviews first. It gets a qualified recommendation.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Of Jade and Dragons is a spectacular YA fantasy with sci-fi elements, a clever main character, and a swoon-worthy love interest, all set in an intriguing world that is inspired by Qing Dynasty history and the Chinese classic The Butterfly Lovers.

Ying has grown up in a sheltered environment, encouraged by her father to learn and innovate, instead of sitting at home dreaming of a good marriage. Her father himself is a genius, so the apple didn't fall far from the tree in her case. However, her siblings are completely different from her: one aspiring to become a good wife, the other trying and failing to be a good heir *if you ask me*. But when her father is murdered at their home, Ying insists on investigating who did it and why. She found her father's journal, and even though her father said to burn it, Ying can't help wondering why this journal brought his demise. So she leaves her home and goes out to join the Engineer's Guild, where all talented minds gather to innovate and evolve.

At some point, both Ying and the reader meet Ye-yang who is so swoon-worthy!!! I admit, I have a huuuuuuge thing for brilliant, strategic, and competent characters who also happen to be lonely. What can I say? I love them and I can forgive them for anything lmao. Ye-yang is ambitious, and he doesn't attempt to try it. Does he have more reasons to want and have certain goals? Yes! But I felt like he knew he was also the best person for the position, so he's been going for it! Another thing I loved about him was that he didn't undermine Ying. The world is rather patriarchal; no women are accepted into the Engineer's Guild, for example. However, Ye-yang always saw Ying's brilliance, and he never thought that she didn't belong in the Guild. I LOVED this about him.

I also loved the character development in this book. Ying goes from a sheltered brilliant girl to a young woman with a keen mind and a nuanced worldview, whereas Ye-yang goes from a young man with nothing to lose and everything to gain to a young man who realizes not all plans go according to plan and not all people behave like you expect them to.

The worldbuilding is so rich and so authentic. We have some sci-fi elements in the vein of technology, and we don't really have magic in the sense of the fantasy genre. The author does an amazing job at bringing the Qing Dynasty history into an alternative life. Furthermore, the author does an impeccable job at characterization of the characters, the peoples, and their societies. The consequences and aim of wars is also deftly explored in this book.

The plot twists were interesting, and the prose kept me wanting to read more and more.

If you enjoyed The Hurricane Wars and Strike the Zither, you'll love this one!

PS 1
This book is the monthly pick for 2 boxes, and feel free to renew without a second thought! The cover is already gorgeous, the story is amazing, and I believe the monthly book box companies will make great edges for it.

PS 2
I really want a physical proof of this one 😭

2 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑

DNFing at 30%

This book is very YA. I was expecting a little more new adult based on the premise but it is absolutely for young readers and I’m just not vibing with it. 2 stars because it’s a me problem not a book problem and I can see the targeted age range devouring this one.

I received this book as an arc from the publisher.

Of Jade and Dragons combines a Mulan-type feel with engineering and crafting. I was extremely excited about this book but found it hard to get into. The dialogue felt forced and awkward. The main plot also happened too fast in my opinion - before even getting 3% in, there is a murder and her life is turned upside-down. I would have liked more background into the world before the ball started rolling.

My initial sentiments continued throughout the book. While I think it was a very fun idea, I thought the execution of the writing could have been better, making the book more immersive and the main characters' decisions more believable.

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, feel 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 n 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.

This book gave me the Mulan vibes I was promised. Aihui Ying embarks on a quest to uncover the truth behind her father’s death. She disguises herself as her brother, and infiltrates the Engineers Guild. As she navigates the guild's trials and dodges threats on her life, she grapples with her growing connection to the prince. I absolutely love when books have trials that the main character has to overcome.

While I was so excited about this book because it sounded like a Mulan retelling, for me it didn’t draw me in and capture my attention the way I was hoping it would. It was an easy read and enjoyable enough. The trials were fun and I especially liked those parts of the book, but at times I found the pacing too slow to keep my attention. I struggled to connect to the characters or care too much about the main characters connection throughout the book.

I think adding a little more scene setting and description would have drawn me more into the world.


Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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!

I don't think this book is for me. The premise is interesting, but I don't feel for Ying. I don't feel her pain and her quest to find her father's murderer. I don't feel her attraction to Ye-Yang (also that name is just way too similar to Ying). I don't feel the tension with Ying pretending to be a boy at engineering school. DNF at 35%.

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 )

the fact that this is kind of mulan-inspired makes me so so happy !!

Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father, but after his sudden murder, her life falls apart.

Excellently written and realized, I cannot wait for the next book in the series!