For the record: I was very excited about the book and thought that it would be a great YA fantasy read but oh boy, I was in for a disappointment because ultimately, the novel feels very half-baked and unfinished.

Ultimately, the novel doesn't just feel very unfinished, it also seems to be aimed at the wrong target group. Based on Ying's age (18 years), I would have expected something that is aimed at 16+ but it reads as if it should be aimed at younger readers (e.g., Middle Grade). The only aspect that is slightly too much for Middle Grade is the light violence, the brothel scene (although it's mild), the romance and Ying's age herself.

Aside from this, my main issues are:
1) The engineering focus is lacking. The setup makes it seem as if it will be on the engineering aspect as Ying also enrols in the equivalent of a university for engineering that offers academic competition. It could have been great to highlight how technologically advanced the nation is and could have been used to showcase Ying's genius for engineering. Instead, it is shoe-horned into the plot instead of acting as a well-incorporated device for plot and character development. If I'm not mistaken, there are four scenes where Ying does something related to engineering. The author mentions multiple times how much Ying loves engineering, how much she learned from her father by shadowing him and being trained by him, so I would have assumed that her skill would be a major key element to solve the murder mystery. Instead, Ying just shows her skills when she meets her love interest, during two trials, and when she develops two weapons in the last 80%. It is very underwhelming because the author could have done so much with engineering in an Asian-inspired fantasy world.

2) The lack of character development for Ying and the side characters. Ying is the main character who is 18 years old, is the oldest daughter of her family and has ultra manly brother (yes, she highlights that Wen is very manly in comparison to the boys/young men that she meets in the Guild), and several younger siblings. Unfortunately, she acts much younger than her 18 years because she is reckless, hot-headed and never thinks things through. Concerning her siblings: as oldest daughter, I would have expected her to step up into a mother-like role as it would fit into the expectations of their society/culture. Instead, she seems not to be involved in their upbringing at all. Further, she is completely unchanged and unfazed by the deaths of her parents. Yes, she is angry at her father's death, and whines that neither him nor her mother fought enough to stay alive, but she never truly grieves. He's dead, they hold the funeral and then she is off to find revenge. Of course, she's a special snowflake who survives everything by luck or because of the side character.
The side characters are two-dimensional, stereotypical-like, underdeveloped and often inconsistent. There's Ye-kan who is feisty/bratty/selfish/entitled/angry/... and whose behaviour differs in terms of "Does it benefit Ying or not?". Chang-en is supposed to be Ying's best friend in the Guild but you could swap him for anyone else and it wouldn't make a difference. His only personality trait is to rile up another character. Ye-yang, the love interest, is as grey and bleak as his eyes.

3) The romance happens out of nowhere. It felt very unrequired to begin with as it quickly becomes just a plot device to add some tension. Aside from that, it is instant love/attraction after one scene and I don't understand what they saw in each other.

4) The world-building doesn't exist. The book starts on Ying's home island and highlights that they live in tents and have a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Then, Ying travels to the neighbouring island which has solid houses and already fancy technology. Then, she ends up on the main island with the capital and here, the world-building just leaves the book. The city is barely described and when it is described, I cannot get an image of it in my mind. There's the guild, the new palace, the most famous brothel, tons of canals, a bridge that's 10 stories high (???), and an artificial forest outside of it. Apparently, there are six more islands (technically seven islands but the 10th island is forbidden and the kingdom's leader even wages war against the 10th island although one of his wives/concubines came from there) but names are never mentioned. In general, the entire political aspect of the kingdom's clans & co is extremely underdeveloped. An important aspect of the novel is engineering and how technologically advanced they are with airships, robots, and steam-powered carriages, ... - it's very futuristic in some aspects but there's no explanation of how they got to it aside from "yeah we basically copied the airships from the Jade Empire and the green-eyed strangers". There's also no explanation for why the capital is so advanced while Ying's island has no technological tools to use.


TL;DR
A Middle Grade novel in the trenchcoat of a Young Adult novel. Extremely underdeveloped in terms of writing, world-building, plot and characters. The engineering and competition aspect is reduced to the sidelines and the plot is inconsistent and jumps from chapter to chapter. The murder mystery is no true mystery and the author throws a romance into the mix to keep the reader from figuring it out too early. The only reason why I gave it two stars instead of one star is that there's nothing truly problematic in the book. It just needs more editing and a few more rounds of revisions. And another marketing strategy that pushes it to younger readers in the Middle Grade age range.

A cdrama in a book, at least that's what it felt like for me, when I read this one. It has a great writing style. The story and the characters are well developed and I just couldn't stop reading. I had to know what happens next. I hope to see more from the author in the future.

Mulan is still my favourite Disney movie of all time! So when I heard that there was a new Mulan retelling in town, I just had to read it! The cover alone had me convinced that this must be an interesting story and I wasn't disappointed.

Ying is an intelligent, headstrong girl who infiltrates the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial to solve her fathers murder. The Asian setting and Steampunk atmosphere was a perfect fit for this story and it was a quick and delightful read. I was definitely suprised by the ending (which doesn't happen often if you've read as many fantasy books as I have) but for me it was a really good ending that matched Yings character perfectly. It was a nice suprise for the end.

I can't wait for the sequel and I hope we will get just a bit more world building and background for some of the other parts of the story.

Fast paced, edge of your seat action that will have you enthralled right from the very start (The cover is beautiful too!!)

Of Jade and Dragons drew me in and held my interest right away. The author did a fantastic job creating a vivid mental picture of the well-developed, distinctive society that this narrative is set in, notably the city of Fei. This was such a great debut novel and a delightful read even with its imperfections. I'm very happy that I had the opportunity to read this gem before it was published. But I'm positive that this would have been an impulsive cover purchase even if I hadn't seen it on NetGalley! The characters, idea, and storyline of this novel truly appealed to me, and I particularly liked how Ying demonstrated to everyone that girls can be engineers as well.

To me, this book is close to C-Dramas similarly as how "The god and the Gumiho" is to K-Dramas. Just to clarify my statement, these two books have nothing in common apart from reminding me of the vibes and recurring tropes you can find in these two distinctly different types of TV dramas.
While the book read a little younger than I expected, I finally found a MC whose story I was happy to follow, and didn't drive me crazy. Aihui Ying's story is not necessarily unheard of, but touches meaningfully on topics and thematics that are - as a woman in tech - close to me. While I will definitely continue with the duology as I think Amber deserves all support she can get, I do understand this book is perhaps better suited for a younger audience - to me this is the perfect christmas stocking book for everyone with a younger someone that may appreciate a little encouragement in following their own path, mind and morals.

This felt slightly like a retelling of mulan in a way with the hidden identities but thats not a bad thing. Ying is probably the most persistent and righteous FMC I’ve read about in a while. She strives to obtain justice and the truth, and find out who murdered her father. She enters the guild as a would be apprentice to uncover secrets and betrayals.

Nothing cuts deeper than that ending with Ye-Yang, I wont give anything away but I’m truly hurt by his order of priorities after the way he uses Ying for his end game. I really hope there’s a book 2 because this was a great story.

It definitely feels as if Ying and Ye-Yang’s adventures are only just beginning and I’m excited to read more.
With a wonderful mix of palace intrigue, intellect, gender defiance and resilience, the war between the Empire and the Nine Isles is secondary to Ying’s journey of discovery.
There’s an element of mystery as Ying attempts to find out the truth behind enigmatic assassins and her father’s hidden past.

The pacing and development of the novel didn't feel rushed leading to believable friendships and relationships between characters and avoiding periods of stagnant filler! Although I can understand why it may not have been possible (she had a hectic schedule with the assassins/hiding her identity/passing the guild tests) I would have loved to see Ying inventing more and developing her own creations - perhaps this is something to look forward to in the subsequent novels!

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

Whoop, I really meant to finish this one before the release date! It took me a little while to get into it, but I think that was a me-problem, not the book.

Of Jade and Dragons was a great read; I do my think I’ve read anything considered “silk-punk” before, but I genuinely really enjoyed the uniqueness of it. I loved the world building; the weapons and other feats of mechanical engineering - all of it brought to life by easy flowing prose.

The plot was easy to follow; not mind-blowing in the end. I wasn’t honestly that invested in the main romance of this; but I didn’t dislike any of the characters either.

Overall, it’s a great addition to my Asian Fantasy shelf!

4✨

I absolutely loved this book! I was invested from early on and loved finding out more from this world. Anytime I wasn’t reading this I kept finding myself thinking about it which is the sign of a great book for me!

There is an engineering school with fantasy elements and trials so I was immediately interested in this book and it didn’t disappoint! I liked the main character but I was also a big fan of the side characters and I enjoyed seeing some of those relationships develop.

Often in fantasy many of the more ‘magical’ elements are explained away as being part of the magic system of the world, but in Of Jade and Dragons I particularly enjoyed the engineering aspect and how big of a role it plays in this world. I have a background in STEM so I loved that aspect.

I am now desperate for more in this world!

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH, luckily got the pretty illumicrate edition too!!

It was just so beautifully written, I’m now off to find everything by amber chen

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and author for providing me with an ARC copy of the book.

There are some plot spoilers.

I admit to have anticipated to read Of Jade and Dragons. Like the author I enjoy watching Chinese fantasy TV series (widely known as C-dramas, though there are many sub-genres), which provided the inspiration for the book. I think overall it is a very encouraging step that recently more and more books written in the style of East Asian TV shows/fantasy novels are being published directly in English. I appreciate some of the books have become topics of discussion in regards to whether they provide accurate representation, but most are actually written by new authors with East Asian heritage and at very least they, I hope, will encourage more and more readers to diversify their reading and look into the culture and history as a result.

This is why I was quite saddened by the lost promise of the book, which unfortunately did not come up to expectations or even its own potential.

As the author suggested it is very obviously inspired by C-dramas and reads as one. An 18 year old girl called Aihui Ying, daughter of the clan's leader, is more interested in engineering than marriage and spends time with her father in his workshop inventing rather than engaging in the expected "housekeeping" activities expected of her, and is supported in this by her progressive father. One night she bares witness to his murder, and discovers secrets from his hidden past. Despite her dying father;'s wishes to leave things alone, of course she decides to investigate and disguises herself as her brother to enter the elusive Engineers' Guild of her father's past in order to uncover the truth. Throughout this ordeal, she meets one of the nation's Princes who is also a war leader, and who becomes an ally in her quest, but also puts her in the middle of palace politics and intrigue.

The premise and storyline are quite stereotypical - I can recall numerous dramas where the rebellious daughter of a patriarchical society disguises herself as a boy and follows a quest, meeting a handsome comrade and various allies and foes on the way. This book was aiming to be silkpunk, ie Asian based fantasy with technology that would not normally belong to an ancient era, and that could have led to interesting plot points, and so could the integration of engineering, murder, Guild secrets and politics.

I think the biggest problem is that despite the plot, the book is not actually YA but very much middle grade. The heroine is supposed to be 18yrs old and yet reads as barely a 13-14y old, and so does the whole book in terms of complexity of ideas and character development. There is very little that is not easily predictable, too many plot conveniences, very shallow characters and motivation and, in the end, the book loses its interest and drags. The relationship between the two main characters is supposedly developing into a romantic attraction but that is not really felt, and the villains are more caricatures in the end. There is also a lot of dialogue that is entirely out of keeping with the era/premise, such as the word "chauvinistic"-which makes the heroine read like a modern teenage character chewing out a speech on the rights of women.

This is going to be a series, and I will probably read the sequel as I always try to finish the sequels.. but the book might have been better off if targeted to a much younger audience and if editing smoothed out the oddities in speech/expression and gave the plot more complexity.

I think I would have loved this when I was a child! I really enjoyed the silkpunk worldbuilding, the decisions on what technologies and inventions had been created.

Ying was hit and miss for me - I liked some of her spunk and interest in engineering, but it really felt like she didn't think things through or have much strategic thinking ability. I also wish that her relationships and conversations with Yeyang, Ning, even Lianshu had gone deeper. I did really enjoy the sibling bond she created with Ye-kan though.

I also liked this enough as a standalone - I'm not sure I want there to be a relationship development because her ending up at home understanding her father's choices is a perfect bittersweet parallel.

This wasn’t quite the book I was expecting it to be but there was an interesting element of deception as Ying infiltrates the exclusive Engineering Guild as her brother in an attempt to find answers and exact revenge. Her sponsor, Ye-yang, has power in the city and is entangled in the politics, isolated from his ambitious brothers out of necessity as they all vie for the most coveted position of heir to their father’s growing empire. I found the Guild very interesting and the creations and work a cool part of the story. I also love it when female character say F the patriarchy and prove themselves in a “male” space. However it did feel overall quite slow and I don’t think the friendships were written in a way that made them feel significant in the story, more like were told they’re friends than seeing it and considering how much time Ying spent with those boys/men that would have been a nice addition to the story. I also wanted more from Ye-yang and Ying’s relationship - or maybe just more from Ye-yang. He obviously didn’t deserve Ying and their part of the story took a strange turn and I felt pretty cheated out what was setting itself up to be a great slow burn romance.
Overall I wasn’t invested in the characters or the plot, and it didn’t hit the mark for me, but the concept was interesting and as the pieces came together there were definitely surprises!

I'm at a point in my reading process where I need all the silkpunk, C-drama and Asian mythology in my books. I'm enjoying the setting, worldbuilding, and the mix of fiction and history.
Of Jade and Dragons has one thing more going for it: the engineering aspect of it all, which is really interesting and gives a whole new set of plot possibilities.
I must say though I'm a bit tired of the trial stories, because more often than not they're not holding up and it's more of a structural thing than an interesting narrative. In this book the trial aspect to me is also the least interesting of it all.
The FMC was really tough and straightforward, although I think all of the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. I got attached to them, but I didn't get hooked or ached/feared for them.
I'm definitely gonna keep on reading though, and I have the urge to go back into this world.

4/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @puffinbooks for the eARC!

#OfJadeAndDragons #Netgalley #Bookstagram

The cover of this book is stunning and pulled me in at the first place and I’m happy the story is just as amazing! I’ve always been a fan of Mulan and Six Crimson Cranes and this is pulling of the vibe amazingly. I really liked the FMC and how she went through engineering school. The plot twists aren’t crazy and I wish they were a little less predictable but it’s a great one if you look for high fantasy!

A surprisingly light novel about a talented tinkering girl who gets caught up in plots of murder, ambition, and pride. Regarding its vibes, conflicts, protagonist's arc, pacing, and resolution of the plotlines, this novel vaguely reminds me of aspects of Elizabeth Lim's Spin the Dawn, Joan He's Descendant of the Crane, and Kylie Lee Baker's The Keeper of Night.

The story's worldbuilding regarding the Engineering Guild and the inventions within its world is superb. The chemistry between Ying and her chaotic fellow engineers is charming as they squabble and hunger over the prestige and challenge of engineering and joining the Guild. We see Ying balance her hunger for perspective and connection with her father's mysterious past, her desire to create a positive impact with her inventions, and her thirst for justice and truth about her father's murder. We get hints of Antara's political relations with other isles and the Empire. Ying and Yeyang's relationship definitely has its cute moments.

I could guess most of the twists, small and big, but that's not a detriment to the story's execution as clues were laid for eagle-eyed readers to notice.

Seeing as there would be a sequel, hopefully, it would progress, resolve, and flesh out the supporting crew and their plotlines, the love story, the potential tension between Ying and Yeyang's families, and the foreboding clash between the Nine Isles and the Empire. It felt like we've barely scratched the surface of this story, making the novel feel quite light.

All in all, this is a dip of toes into a new world (and series).

Thanks to Netgalley and PRH UK Children's for providing me with the e-ARC/DRC in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I think it will be a massive hit for Fourth Wing fans and anyone who likes steampunk kind of vibes. It’s a bit of a Mulan retelling, with a rural girl disguising herself as male to enter the competition for a place at the engineers guild but also to find out about her father and avenge his murder. There is a little bit of tame romance but it makes sense and does not detract from the plot which is high fantasy.

Would recommend, I cannot wait for the next one.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

I think I would have loved this book if there was more world building: there is something about steampunkish elements in an Asian-inspired world that just captures my imagination. And while I really enjoyed the plot, I wish the main character would have spent more time focusing on her studies or her quest of revenge. Instead we got a lot of scenes with the main love interest (which weren't bad, I just would have prefered less of them).

A very strong 3.5 stars

Having expected a quest for vengeance, I was surprised when It seemed to turn into a story of an outsider against all odds entering a school (for engineers), with trials and disapproving teachers. A storyline I seemed to have read a lot recently- particularly with middle grade books. Thankfully, this was better than a lot of them. It is aimed a bit older, with hints of romance and some blood thirsty moments. Set in an oriental style world, it reminded me a little of Six of Crows, although it's not as twisty. The one thing that kept bugging me was that early on, when one student gave his name, I immediately thought ' He's from that family', yet no one in the book seemed to realise.
It kept me reading as I really wanted to find out what happened, a sign of a good read.