What can I say, I love a book with secret identities and political intrigue. Of Jade and Dragons has all of that and more. I grew up with. a deep love for Mulan and this is exactly what I wanted out of a retelling. I'm already so excited for its sequel!

Ying always wanted to go to the Engineer Guild and become one of the best following her father's footsteps. But since she is a woman, she is not allowed to. Until one day her father is murdered. Swearing revenge, her only option is going to the Engineer Guild, going through the trials, and finding her father's killer. To do that, she'll have to disguise herself as her brother and armed with only her father's notebook, she goes.

One thing that I found lacking in the book was the world building. I didn't really get a sense of the world that the characters were in. The author didn't really explore the land, nor the culture. What was so different between the Nine Isles and the Empire? What exactly was this Empire? Why was there war and animosity between them? I felt the Empire wanted to conquer everything, maybe?! But I didn't really sse that on the page. There was also talk of dissent amongst the people of the Isles. Why? The world is not established. I didn't get to understand and see the world.

The character of Ying I liked. I liked specially when she was in "engineer" mode. I liked seeing her building and understanding technology and constructs. But, even if this is the premise of the book, this isn't really the focus of the story. The author grants more time to the mistery of her father's murder (which wasn't really a mistery - it was pretty obvious) and to the romance between her and Ye-yang. I feel that Ying has promise to grow to be a really good character and, with the ending, I feel that there is a chance she will be. Ye-yang was up until the end of the book a really common romantic interest in YA novels. But I really liked what was done with his character at the end. The romance was kind of insta love-y specially on his side. She is interested on him pretty early on as he is but the book takes its time to develop the romance. But not because we see the romance developing, but actually because they spend a lot of time apart from one another. So they really have few scenes between them.

It felt like an ok book with some really great moments (again, the ones when she is developing something, the actual trials - specially the one eith the airship) up until the end. The end made me like the book and made me curious for the sequel. <spoiler>I liked how she really killed the High Commandant with what she built and that Ye-yang is kind of following his father's footsteps - it made for an interesting dynamic. I liked that she left just like her's.</spoiler>

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

I was very excited about this book, and I love the cover. Ultimately, it fell a little short of my expectations and felt a little underdeveloped and young for me. Thank you for the opportunity to read it!

Took me a bit to get into this book but it picked up eventually. It's an interesting blend of modern and the past but I do always enjoy when the main girl is way smarter than all the boys. There were a few twists that made me go wow! Not bad for a debut, curious to see what happens in the next book.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin group for the ARC!!

i cannot believe i have put this book off for so long because hello? this was amazing! such a stunning debut book by amber chen, with a gorgeoys cover too. the engineer, the mystery, mulan inspired. absolutely spectacular! the main thing that is so precious and dear to me though is the bond between ying and ye-kan, they're everything!!!! i adore them so much i look forward to more of ying and ye-kan siblingism in, hopefully, book two! aaaaaa!

a big thank you to Amber Chen and the team for providing an ARC.

Aihui Ying wants nothing more than to become a world-class engineer, like her father, who left behind his place in the Engineers Guild for a quiet life with his family, but who continued to build and design, and to teach Ying everything he knows. Ying’s life is changed forever when she interrupts an assassin in her father’s workshop, and her father, with his dying breath, directs her to a dangerous document. Going off of a clue left behind b the assassin, Ying disguises herself as a boy and travels to the city of Fei, hoping to pass the Engineers Guild’s rigorous trial, decipher the importance of the document, and discover her father’s killer. On her way to Fei, Ying meets and receives the sponsorship of Aogiya Ye-yang, a son of the High Commander, who helps her enter the trial, where her father’s name and reputation gain her both supporters and enemies among the Guild masters. A silkpunk fantasy with excellent worldbuilding, Of Jade and Dragons will appeal to teen fans of daring girls, dangerous schools, and intrigue.

This Mulan retelling grabbed my attention in the very first chapter and left me longing for more at the end. Of Jade and Dragons is a story of revenge, courage, friendship, growth, perseverance, loyalty, and love. At times, I was so wrapped up in the story I was yelling at the characters in my book as if they could hear me. I'm not typically a fan of YA, but this was done very well with enough entertainment and suspenseful moments to keep me interested. I give this book a good solid 4 star rating. I enjoyed this book and recommend it. Thank you, netgalley, for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest review.

*I enjoyed this title so much that I did purchase a beautiful copy of the book through illumicrate.

This book was enjoyable but it took me until 70% of the way through to actually get to that point. It was very slow-paced as the main character competes in a guild tournament to become an engineer under the disguise of a boy. Which no offense was boring. Overall, I did enjoy the story and I liked the characters a lot. I just felt it could’ve been more exciting. I also don’t think it intrigued me enough to continue on with the series.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was really fascinating! I absolutely loved the setting and lore. The pacing was very even and kept me hooked.

I absolutely ADORED this book! this is a Mulan retelling with a lot of interesting twists: Ying, our MC, is trying to sneak her way into her country's Engineering Guild, both because she is a great engineer but also because she want's to avenge her father's death. She meets Ye-Yang early on in her journey and he sees through her disguise right away, but offers not only to play along with her ruse, but to sponsor her entry. Ying then enters the incredibly dangerous, competitive and intriguing world of the apprenticeship trials, where her male disguise is possibly the only thing that is protecting her from being charged with treason and put to death.

This has an academy setting, which I always adore, with the addition of deadly trials, which is another favorite aspect for me. The friendships we're so incredibly fun to read about, especially the unexpected ones that begin with animosity but grow into something complex and powerful. I LOVED Ying and Ye-Yang's romantic chemistry, their tension was so believable but the author also does an amazing job of finding ways they connect on deeper levels, despite their wildly different upbringing. The charades Ying has to play in order to keep her disguise are the perfect balance of hilarious in some moments as well as heart-poundiogly threatening in others. the end of this tale took me completely and totally by surprise, in that it not only led Ying to make decisions I simply never expected from her (but made a TON of sense nonetheless,) but also in that it was prompted by betrayal I never would have seen coming.

I'm super excited for this series to continue. It leaves off in a very precarious place, and paints some incredibly interesting parallels between Ying and Ye-Yang and their predecessors. The realm is in the thick of what has become a brutal war, and I am excited to see what Ying's role in it may be after the events of book one!

Thank you so much to Penguin, Viking, and NetGalley for this eArc!

This was absolutely beautiful. The world was so captivating and intriguing. I was hooked, page after page I never wanted to put them down. It was so good. Thank you so much NetGalley for an arc of this novel.

Of Jade and Dragons is a debut YA novel. I normally try to be more generous with Debut novels when it.

In the novel we follow Ying, as she purses her dreams of becoming a member of the engineers guild and tries to uncover who murdered her father.

Honestly, this book needs a lot of editing. There’s some serious issues with line editing. It doesn’t feel like it should be considered a YA novel more of a Middle Grade novel with a couple of additions to make it YA. I found most of the characters fairly flat and they made lots of non-sensical choices. The one bright spot for me was Ye-kan, I enjoyed his character the most and Everytime he appears on page I was pretty happy to see him. The setting was pretty interesting and I loved the concept but it really needs more editing and work.

I loved the Milan retelling, and some of the twists the author chose for this story were clever and interesting.

There were some friend relationships that I was pleasantly surprised at and loved watching them develop.

I enjoyed the romance in the beginning, and it had some very promising moments.

THOUGHTS:
A few characters choices were aggravating, and some parts felt choppy.

The romance started out really strong, and then at some point, it lost me and felt .... fine. I know this is young adult, (The FMC is 18) but more often than not her and the other characters came across as 12 year olds.

The ending is what killed this for me. The entire book and all the choices made were leading up to this one purpose, and at the very end, it's wasted. It also happens to have my least favorite plot twist at the end.

OVERALL:
Read this if you aren't particular like me and you want more Mulan retellings.

I got the eARC for this so thank you to Penguin Random House for the eARC! This book is very YA but in a good way for me at least. Although I didn't really enjoy the beginning it got better as it went on. Ying very much gives "not like other girls" energy but it gets bearable later on since she is surrounded by boys later LOL. I also really enjoyed the silkpunk setting. This book is very solid standard YA, SPOILERS


but the twist at the end elevated the book for me. Plus Ying and Ye-yang's complex relationship was very interesting and I think it also elevated the book I can't wait for the sequel to see what happens!

I really wanted to like this, and despite liking a lot of what the author did, I just couldn't get into this one sadly.

I think the style of world-building just wasn't for me. There was a lot going on, and I sometimes had trouble following the story. But I really liked a lot of what the author did, so I'm hoping to check out more of her books in the future.

3.5 stars

If I were a teenager reading this book, I would have rated it higher. As an adult, however, it becomes more difficult to rate. The writing is good, if a bit formulaic, but despite some of the more mature content, it sometimes reads closer to a middle-grade book.

Ying is a girl who wants to be an engineer in a world where that's not allowed. She gets the push she needs when her father is murdered, and the answers can be found in the Engineer's Guild. I love her determination to buck the gender roles assigned to women in this society and her drive to actually follow through with her goals. She learns a lot about herself and her views on the world throughout her journey, and in the end, she sticks to those views. I have mixed feelings about the ending. She worked so hard to become an engineer and got her victory/vengeance. Then she's horrified and decides this is not the life she wants to lead. Even if she didn't want to be involved in war or weapon making, she could still be an engineer for the other things that make the city run. It felt a little like she was running away.

Ying feels much younger than 18. She grew up very sheltered on a small island with few people. Her culture shock with the big city makes sense, but her immaturity made it feel like she was 16 or so. Like other reviewers, I felt that Ying didn't have much difficulty with her challenges. This is a show versus tell situation. We are often told it's hard, but we don't really see it. Ying barely mourns her father's murder, and the trials in the Guild are challenging, but I never felt that difficulty. Many things are conveniently handed to her to help her get through to the end.

Despite some of these gripes, I read this book quickly and enjoyed the story. I hope there is more worldbuilding in the next book and that the author is able to grow with her writing skills.

Thanks NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.

4 Stars

This was such a great YA book! It totally takes you on a journey with the FMC Ying to try to avenge her fathers death. This story was told so beautifully. I loved the kind of cliff hanger ending setting us up for what is to come. I cannot wait until the rest of this series is released.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin group for the opportunity to read this book.

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.

Ugh, so many mixed feelings. I was so eager to read this book that I put down several other books to get into it. The selling point of Mulan meets engineering technicalities in a fantasy universe? Hell yeah.

Unfortunately, in a lot of ways, this book fell flat, and I’m wondering if it was the fact that it was YA–or at least, read like YA–that turned me off so much when I was expecting it to be an adult novel. For starters, the book begins with Ying (the FMC) losing her father in a murder that she walks in on. The entire subsequent plot hinges upon Ying seeking the murderer and revenge for her father’s death. But in doing so, she leaves behind all of her numerous siblings (without even thinking about any of them upon leaving), nor does she take a moment to grieve her father, who was her last living parent. The emotional lack felt incongruent with the action she was participating in, and the dissonance was just a bit wonky to read. There was also significant time spent talking around the Engineers’ Guild that Ying’s father was a part of, but little depth into the engineering aspect or the trials that were taking place within the guild.

Beyond that, a lot of the side characters felt like stock archetypes, and though there seems to be an interesting love triangle set up with two of the royal princes, I couldn’t really find it in me to be invested too deeply in either of them. This may change in an upcoming sequel, but for now, I find myself unattached.

On the whole, I was let down by my high expectations of this story. People who prefer YA to adult fantasies may like it more than I did, but I found myself wanting more that the novel didn’t deliver. 3⭐

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This book had a really interesting idea but I overall thought it was just okay. The Engineer’s Guild was really cool & I enjoyed the technology- how it’s developed, taught & put to use. I also enjoyed Ying & the friendships she created while being in the Guild! I’m not sure what age she is supposed to be… but at times she felt under 16 or over 18 which confused me.

My main issues was that everything felt very formulaic & i really really wish there would have been a map since various cities were mentioned often. There also was a very underdeveloped plot with the world building & warring states(?) cities(?) that it made me not care at all about the war & “dislike” the other guys.

This is now the third YA Fantasy book I have read this year with a love interest that had the same or very very similar twist that it just felt unoriginal - maybe this just a thing with YA fantasy? I’m not sure.