June CL Tan’s ‘Jade Fire Gold’ is a solid YA fantasy, and I have enjoyed reading it. I have especially enjoyed the atmosphere and the setting of the book (and the cover is so gorgeous!).

Anh and Atlan are both intriguing characters with a lot of baggage and complicated family history, probably a reason why they’re so drawn to each other. While ‘Jade Fire Gold’ was enjoyable read, it felt a little short for me in terms of plot development and romance pacing. I think at some moments it was a case of the book being aimed at slightly younger YA reader than myself, and I can imagine enjoying Anh and Atlan’s story of revenge and forgiveness resonating with me more a few years back.

I absolutely loved it! Definitely will be reading it again. Tan did a wonderful job putting into words the adventures of these characters and their portrayals.

Jade Fire Gold is a good debut novel. The story switched between Altan and Ahn's POVs, the two main characters, and we have political intrigues, magic, Chinese mythology and adventures. This story has all the elements of YA book, so the young me would have enjoyed it more 6/7 years ago. Nonetheless, it was engaging and easy to read, despite some flaws here and there (i.e. the characters lacked some depth and the romance could have been developed better). All in all, it was interesting and I think the young audience could enjoy it more than me.

5/5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jade Fire Gold is a novel told in dual POV that follows Ahn, a peasant girl with powers many see as a curse, and Altan, an outcast prince hell-bent on finding his way back to the throne. Realising each can help the other get what they want, the two characters end up becoming allies, albeit reluctantly, and the book follows their journey.

The writing in Jade Fire Gold is lyrical but also easy to read, arguably a perfect introduction to fantasy/YA fantasy for those who have not read much of it, and a comfortable read for those who enjoy it already. The worldbuilding is similar, satisfying but not overtly complex, just the right level of development in relation to on=page action, making Jade Fire Gold an extremely engaging read.

For me, the best part of this book was without a doubt the characters, especially the side characters. While I loved both Ahn and Altan, the real stars of Jade Fire Gold were most certainly the side characters, and I adored reading about each and everyone of them, along with watching the relationships between different characters develop and grow.

My only complaint about this book would be the pacing, but, honestly, in my eyes the characters make up for this enough for me to retain my five star writing, and I'm beyond excited for Jade Fire Gold to be released into the world, and also to read whatever June C.L. Tan has in store for us next.

Content warnings (provided by the author): self-harm (gouging/eye horror; non-graphic), child abuse (physical, verbal, emotional manipulation/gaslighting), parent death (implied and off-page), character deaths, mentions and descriptions of fantasy/magical violence (blood, war, political violence), mentions and descriptions of physical symptoms that might be triggering to those with emetophobia, alcohol consumption.

thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. i wasn’t sure how i felt about this book at first, but i really enjoyed it. because of this i’m giving it 5/5 stars.

2.5 stars

Jade Fire Gold was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. The blurb and - to be honest - the Zutara vibes immediately hooked me.
I really wanted to like it, but, sadly, it ended up in a big disappointment.

The story follows Ahn, an orphaned peasant girl who has no memory of the first six years of her life and Altan, the rightful heir who seeks revenge for his murdered family and the throne that was stolen from him. In a world where magic is blamed for the desertification that is plaguing the nation, Ahn and Altan must put their divergences aside and work together to uncover a new, potent kind of magic that can save their land... or doom it to destruction.

While I really liked the alternating POVs and the references to Chinese mythology, everything else... well, it did not work for me. My major issues with this book were:

🔸 The pacing was uneven and poorly managed - at times extremely slow, at times excessively rushed, with frequent time jumps.

🔸 The main characters felt two-dimensional and quite flat and didn’t stir up any emotions in me. Some side characters were much more interesting (Leiye above all) but we didn't see enough of them to truly get attached to them.

🔸 The romance was probably the most frustrating element of Jade Fire Gold. I couldn't feel any chemistry, any true connection between Ahn and Altan. To be honest, they barely interact with each other, so it was beyond me how they manage to actually fell in love.


~I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to NetGalley and the editor~

That was a no from me.

I might get back to this if I ever feel like I can push myself through it, but this has too many YA tropes that I can't abide. The chemistry was non-existent and the characters were too predictable. Romance for the sake of romance is really frustrating to me and this read like just your usual generic YA.
I DNF'ed it around the midpoint because I could already predict every scene.

This book is so beautifully written! Inspired by Chinese folklore and mythology, this debut xianxia novel is full of action, tension, and a whole load of drama!

Ahn is a peasant girl, fighting to keep herself and her adoptive grandmother alive. But when she stumbles into Altan, an exiled prince looking to avenge his family, her life is quite literally flipped.

The characters were amazing, they all had their flaws which just made them more relatable and likeable. I also loved the LGBTQ+ representation, and all of the hints of Asian mythology.

The only reason I didn’t give this book 5 stars is because I found the pacing a little off - the middle seemed to drag at times, and then the ending seemed rushed.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and I am so excited to see where the next book will take these characters!

Just WOW!
This book was so beautifully written that you can’t help but fall in love with the whole book universe.
In this book, ‘Jade Fire Gold’, we follow our two main characters Ahn and Atlan. We have a dual narrative which i loved as we are able to see the different perspectives without it being confusing.
Let me start by saying that at no point in the book was i bored, there was amazing fight scenes, dragons, phoenixes, a lost heir, betrayals, magic, LGBTQIA+ representation and so much more!
The world building was amazing and the detail included was phenomenal. You can clearly see the amount of love and work that went into this book and it is definitely worth reading.
Every single character in this book was a joy to read about (especially Ahn who goes through a lot of character development and learns to embrace/accept herself (in my opinion anyway))and i adored the slow-burn romance.
This is also one of those books where it doesn’t feel like your reading as it is easy to picture the scenes in your head and make it seem like you are following a movie. (sort of like an out of body experience if you get what i mean)
This book is definitely worth the hype and i am incredibly grateful and lucky to have received an ARC from NetGalley. A huge thank you to June C.L. Tan for this amazing action packed book which i will being recommending to loads of people so that this gets the attention it deserves! There is so much more i could say about ‘Jade Fire Gold’ but i don’t want to ruin any of the details for others.

I’m just going to go ahead and say that this book is now one of my favourites. A unique and exciting take in a young adult fantasy book.

This is like nothing you have seen before. It is thrilling, eye catching and enjoyable to read with nothing out of place. Ahn and Altan’s backstories are perfect for this book, everything seems to align and its incredible to read.

When I say I did not want to finish this, I mean it. I felt truly involved in it and at every chapter I couldn’t stop myself from continuing. I think the way each chapter ended kept me wanting to know more.

The actual writing style in this is my favourite maybe ever. It is written so you know how the characters feel but also that you can see the from an outside point. Every sentence in this made me happy, well apart from the sad bits but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

As a reader, I can not fault this book and I am so grateful that I got to read it. I highly recommend pre-ordering it because I want as many people to read this as possible.

I am aware that this book may not be for everyone but if you love fantasy and enemies to lovers, I highly recommend it. Thank you to netgalley for an e-arc of this book.

Trigger warnings: self-harm, child abuse, parent death, (death, blood, war, politcal violence mentions), potentially triggering descriptions of emetophobia, alcohol consumption

5 stars/ 5 stars, I will be re reading this!!!

Fans of Sabaa Tahir, Hafsah Faizal, and Elizabeth Lim will love this fast-paced, engaging fantasy novel inspired by wuxia, xianxia, and Chinese mythology.

Jade Fire Gold begins with our female protagonist, Ahn, living a hand-to-mouth existence in a quiet backwater village, driven to stealing food in order to keep her and her sick grandmother alive. Of course, Ahn is soon torn from her old life after an incident involving magical powers that she barely understands, and is launched into a new world of lavish wealth, political machinations, and betrayals. After a chance first encounter, she becomes entangled with the mysterious (and handsome, of course) Altan and his own personal quest of reclaiming the throne. For the most part, the worldbuilding feels natural, though there’s a very exposition-heavy conversation early in the book establishing key figures and power dynamics. I always try to pay attention during these passages, but I find it difficult to concentrate and often end up skimming through; if it goes on for too long it can start to feel like studying for a history exam, though in this novel it thankfully doesn’t go on for too long.

Other than this, I liked that the story kept moving along at a brisk pace with plenty of action and tense interactions. I found Leiye to be a particularly enigmatic figure, and I’m interested to see if he and his relationship with Tai Shun are explored more in the sequel. I like how Ahn has a different dynamic with each character, from the antagonistic sparring between her and Leiye, to her easy friendship with Linxi. Ahn and Altan have a slow-burn romance with some of the typical tropes (instant attraction, denial of feelings) but I like how Ahn takes the more active role in their back-and-forth: there’s a cute moment where her flirting catches him off-guard. Not to spoil the ending, but I also appreciated the status of their relationship at the end of the book, which speaks to the emotional maturity of both characters.

The novel ends on a cliffhanger that sets up the next book in the series, and I will admit I did not see it coming. The potential raised by this last-minute twist is intriguing, but my main motivation for reading the next book is the fact I genuinely want to see more of these characters and where they go next.

Jade Fire Gold was, above all, a fun read. In the past couple of years, or so, I’ve struggled to get along with YA fantasy, finding it alternatively with not enough worldbuilding, or dragging too much in the middle section. I didn’t have either of those issues here.

The story follows two narratives: Altan, the rightful heir to the throne, alone and, honestly, somewhat bitter, looking to get revenge on the family members who wronged him (and also searching for a way to avoid death at the hands of his foe), and Ahn, struggling with money to look after her grandmother and fearful of her life in an empire that doesn’t look kindly on magic. Their paths cross and, for the avoidance of spoilers, Things Happen.

Firstly, what I liked about this book was the fact that there’s a lot of action, but at the same time, there’s sufficient worldbuilding that you don’t feel like everything’s left to the imagination. And it’s all woven together effectively in the narrative. Okay, so maybe I did, from time to time, want the worldbuilding to go a bit more in depth, but that was, overall, well-judged and well-integrated into the story. There weren’t massive and pointless info-dumps. And the action meant that it was a fun read.

It helps, too, that the characters were great. Altan feels at the start a little like he might turn out to be broody and mean, especially to Ahn, and overly focused on vengeance over all else, but it was all put together in such a way that I didn’t really mind it. Mostly because there was some definite character development happening (and also, I suppose, that his narrative isn’t self-loathing). And it’s offset by Ahn, who has to be among my favourite YA protagonists. She’s just a lot of fun to read about, and her journey and development is the best in the book.

I think the reason I gave this 4 stars, not 5, is because, sometimes, the plot seems quite coincidental. Things happen just when they need to, they find out what they have to at the right points. I mean, to an extent, that has to happen in books, sure, but it was a little… heavy-handed, I suppose (in the nicest way possible, because that doesn’t sound a nice way of saying it, I realise). I think the other part of that is that this is a debut. Of course it’s not going to be perfect off the bat. But there’s so much to like in Jade Fire Gold and I cannot wait to see what June Tan does next.

Although I would, if possible, prefer it to be a sequel to this, after that ending. Please, June?

☆☆☆☆☆

How can I even start describing how much I loved this book . One of my highly anticipated releases and it just proved to be it . Right from the world to character building everything was just beautiful and memorizing.
This book is a Chinese mythology retelling and you could see the rich culture , myths and tales flowing through it . Considering how fast and short this book is I'm awe at how brilliantly every single character had their own character arc . This book gives of a complete experience of a fantasy world filled with magic , wars , fight , love and friendship.
This book is such masterpiece that everyone should have it on their tbrs if it isn't already

TW: self-harm (gouging, eye horror; non-graphic), child abuse (physical, verbal, emotional manipulation/gaslighting), parent death (implied, off-page), character deaths, mentions and descriptions of fantasy/magical violence (blood, war, politcal violence), mentions and descriptions of physical, symptoms that might be triggering to those with emetophobia, alcohol consumption)

June C. L. Tan's debut novel is a dual-POV fantasy inspired by Chinese mythology and revolving around two teenagers with agendas that don't quite align. Ahn lives with an old woman she calls her grandmother. She has no memory of the first six years of her life – not her parents, nor her home, nor how she ended up in a remote village with nothing but the clothes on her back and a jade ring in her pocket. All she wants is to live safely and provide for her sick grandmother any way she can. In contrast, Altan remembers his past too well: it's rather difficult to forget being the crown prince of an empire, after all. He has vowed vengeance upon his family's murderers and will stop at nothing to reclaim his rightful throne.

Perhaps I would have liked it better had I not begun it with such high expectations.

Everyone I know has been talking about Jade Fire Gold, consistently recommending it to whoever has an eye out for new fantasy releases (like me!). Its premise, too, is impressive, and marketed well (any mention of Avatar: The Last Airbender works wonders): once I found out what the novel was about, I was eager to get my hands on it. It turned out to be your average young adult, complete with insta-love and some scenes far too clearly inspired by existing tropes in fiction. Objectively, there's nothing wrong with that: there's an audience for everything, and I'm sure plenty of adolescents will find this to their liking. All I'm saying is that it wasn't for me; although I, too, have my moments filled with longing for trope-filled writing, I was hoping with this novel for something fresher, more original – and it did not deliver.

That isn't to say I disliked everything. Because of my aforementioned vulnerability towards fantasy, I genuinely enjoyed my time reading this book, both for the plot progression and for the worldbuilding (which was intricate and appealing). The fast pace made for a light, easy read; I also thoroughly appreciate a good story-within-a-story, and this book's storyline was based on one of those.

The characters... while all of them did have a few distinct traits that set them apart from the rest, their relationships felt a little too rushed and two-dimensional for me. There wasn't enough depth given to their bonds with each other, such space in the book being used more often for moving the story forward. This ended up being costly: due to my own lack of attachment to the cast of characters, crucial emotional scenes did not find me very invested. I talked about the fast pace earlier; at times it was a little too fast, and I often wished certain moments had been given more length and attention, rather than briefly touching on them and moving forward.

If I were to recommend this novel, I'd say teenagers with a love for fantasy would find this much more satisfying than I did, especially if they don't mind ordinary writing as long as there's a fun, engaging plot to be found. Jade Fire Gold is set to be published mid-October; if you've decided you'd enjoy this, look out for it then!

I am usually very meticulous about my reading choices that I rarely DNF a book. This is one of those rare times that I have to do it.
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This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year but I just could not get into the story even if I badly wanted to.
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I could not connect with any of the characters, the story was interesting at first but then the pacing went a bit off and I was just confused majority of the time, and I could not find qualities that can get my interest and attention.
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But I do see this author's great potential in writing. I just wished this book was done better and was for me.
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Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for approving me of an ARC! I sincerely apologize that I could not finish and review the book.

I am absolutely certain this will be some lucky reader’s favourite book of 2021. Alas, I am not that reader. For me this was just…fine. I hate writing reviews for ok books because it feels like I’m damning with faint praise, when in reality I passively liked it but just didn’t quite fit the target audience. It’s very difficult to wow me with fantasy because I’ve read so much and when you then add the current restrictions YA currently faces (as in things it must include, things it mustn’t, how paint by numbers the plot is) then it becomes doubly difficult. That is not this book’s fault. It was an enjoyable enough read, the character’s didn’t really gel but the mythology and worldbuilding were great. It just didn’t rock my world – far more a problem with me than the book.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.
I really enjoyed this book.
I loved Ahn and Altan so much!
I really enjoyed the plot and while I know this is a Standalone I definitely need more.

A kind thank you to the publisher who granted me an e-ARC of this book.

I usually write my reviews as soon as I finished the book, but in this case, I had to let my head process everything so I could find the words to convey my infinite love over this beauty. Alas, words still elude me, but I'll do my best to write a loveletter to one of my all-time favorite books.

Jade Fire Gold is told by two perspectives, of Ahn's and Altan's. The author does an excellent job at immersing us into both character's heads and hearts. The voice is distinctive and leaves no margin to wonder whose pov you're reading. Ahn and Altan, as characters, are brilliantly constructed and developed. You see and feel their development vividly as if it was your own. To be honest, I love both main characters so much. I want to high-five Ahn and give Altan a tight hug. As a duo, you also feel their chemistry from the first time they meet. I have no idea how the author made their connection so real and genuine and alive.

The world is outstanding. If you're a Chinese or Asian dramas enthusiast like me, you'll just sit back and enjoy reading this book as if you were watching your favorite Asian drama. I especially recommend this book to those who loved The Imperial Coroner, The Untamed, and Word of Honor. If you're not familiar with wuxia or Asian dramas, get ready to be immersed into the most majestic and captivating world-building ever.

As for LGBTQIA+ representation, I'd say the world is queernorm. We have a f/f couple and a m/m wishing-to-be couple, and there are no homophobic comments. Personally, this is how I prefer it: LGBTIA+ characters living their lives just like any straight character.

And don't make me choose between the characters. I literally love everyone in this book A LOT, which hasn't happened in a long while. Every single character is their own person, with their habits and quirks and unique mannerisms. The author really made sure to offer fully-developed characters that steal our hearts, so thanks for that.

The plot was also so interesting. The author kept surprising me with the plot twists and the choices the characters made. I really, really, REALLY enjoyed the plot that always kept me hanging.

To conclude my loveletter, I'd like to state that I'M OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK. I've read a lot of books, many great, many that I love, but Jade Fire Gold is in another dimension of adoration. It honestly devoured my mind as I was reading it. I couldn't think about anything else except GO BACK TO IT. I haven't felt this way in a long while. In some ways, it reminds me of We Hunt the Flame, with the undeniable main duo and found families.

BUY THIS BOOK. IF I COULD, I'D HAND IT TO EVERY PERSON I KNOW AND MEET. PLEASE. BUY THIS BOOK.

FIVE STARS IS SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH. THIS IS EXCELLENCE AND BRILLIANCE IN ONE PERFECT PACKAGING, AND IT RENEWED MY LOVE FOR READING--AND ASIAN DRAMAS.

This book was AMAZING. Honestly, I want to reread it all over again!! I was very lucky to have been sent a physical ARC as well as a digital one and I couldn't help but tab this book. I fell in love with the characters of Ahn and Altan and how realistic and raw they both were. This is definitely one of my favourite fantasy books I've read in a while!
The magic descriptions of this world and the concept of the life stealer were truly interesting, and I loved the flip of POV for certain scenes.
June also keeps you guessing throughout the book, and I was left feeling shocked in the last few chapters as the way it tied up was just... wow.
I can't explain it without giving details away but you must read this book! It is an absolutely fantastic book and I'm happy to say it's in my top list of books.

Wow and wow. This was an amazing debut by the author and I’m happy to say that it won’t be the last time I pick up any books written by her in the future.

First of all, I was hesitant to go into this book because the tag line being “Her destiny. His revenge” drew me in and I feared that it wouldn’t reach my expectations. I was wrong!

Altan was an excellent character. He was flawed, misunderstood and trying his best to figure out a way to survive after becoming a mere exiled prince. I think his arc was superb and it’s huge credit to June Cl Tan for perfecting his arc.

Ahn, the peasant female character is doing everything she can do make money for medicine for her Ama. At only 16 years old shes trying to navigate through the world and has a much more larger role then what we see, both altan and ahn are broken souls who try to come together and make the most of what they can before it’s too late.

An excellent read full of magic and plot twists that leave you craving more. Credit to the author for an amazing debut.