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.

Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying's dreams of becoming an engineer like her father fell apart after his murder. She has a journal of her father’s engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, and soon is determined to enter the Engineers Guild to discover why he was murdered. Disguised as her brother, Ying infiltrates the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial. She has the help of Eighth Prince of the High Command Aogiya Ye-yang, but her father’s renown makes her a target. Ying must stay ahead of her fellow competitors, the guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.

This is billed as Mulan meets Iron Widow, as it's basically a steampunk C-drama in print form. She finds her father and he dies in her arms, but her older brother seems more interested in maintaining the status quo. She discovers he was essentially threatened to do so, which cements her decision to leave. Entanglements get her to the apprenticeship trial, which is only the start of her trouble. Logistics are an issue, given that the school isn't built for women, as well as the fact that some teachers had known her father and disliked him, so that enmity passed down to Ying. The prince is one of multiple possible heirs, so he has a lot of backbiting and social jockeying to deal with himself. The two are drawn to each other, adding in another complication.

There are multiple sequences related to the engineering guild classes, the teacher and student interactions, as well as intermittently searching for answers. It's difficult for Ying to learn much about the assassin, though she sees him again and eventually discovers the identity in a way she didn't expect. She's able to move forward and put aside some emotions and impulsive behavior, a far cry from our first view of her diving off a cliff. She's grown up a lot over the course of the novel, and the finale really brought it home. Without spoiling the ending, I can say that she delivered real zingers of lines, was incredibly brave and clever, and had gadgets that absolutely reminded me of Chinese martial arts movies. I mean it the best way, because Amber Chen really nailed the vibe of her inspiration. Once the story got going, it was hard to put down and I loved seeing the journey Ying took.

This reminds me of many other books I've read recently. Like a person with the kind of face that always makes you think you recognize them. It might be because the story uses a lot of particularly popular tropes/story elements throughout - that's not intrinsically bad, but I felt this book relied on the readers' experience with and knowledge of the genre. I know it's kind of a retelling, but even so.

My main critique of this book is that it never felt like the main character had to try particularly hard. The book explicitly told me that it was hard, but it also went out of its way to show that Ying isn't in danger. A favored prince nominated her for the trial and backed her throughout. The emperor himself intervened on her behalf during the first trial. Her father was a lauded genius and pioneer in the field and had the respect of the highest-ranking scholars and officials. The work for her final exam was basically just adapted from her father's notes.

I was interested in the setting and conceit of the book's focus on engineering, but I'm not sure it added substance to the story. You could easily swap it out with magic or martial arts or something else without affecting much.

Also, I disliked the male love interest for the entire book, so yeah.

Thank you to NetGalley andnPenguin Teen for sending me this ARC.

I think this book had a ton of potential, but I think suffered in a couple areas. It is a YA Fantasy and with how it was written does feel very young. The author does have good technical writing skills, but I feel like this novel definitely feels like a debut and it suffers a bit. It feels more like you are being told elements in the story rather than being shown and watching the story play out. We are told the characters are attracted to each other, but we don't really get that chemistry. It was also a bit of a challenge to really care about any of the characters.

This book has been described as a Mulan retelling, but I think the only thing it took from that is a girl pretending to be a boy. However, in the first couple chapters the MMC already figured out the FMC was a girl so it doesn't sounds like she was very good at it.

I also really didn't like how this book chose to end itself. Our FMC wants desperately to be like her father and join this guild and become an engineer, but then at the end says "nah, nvm." You can see the corruption from the beginning, but as soon as she gets her revenge the corruption in this land is too much and she dips to go back home. The ending also made it unclear if it was going to be a sequel or not until I looked it up on GoodReads.

Overall, I did have fun with this book and thought it had some good potential. It feels like as the author gets more comfortable in writing the novels are going to be getting better. I will be picking up the sequel and am excited to see where this book goes from here!

My son read this book and found it riveting and hard to put down. He finished it quickly and liked the characters and story line progression.

After Ying finds her father dying in his ransacked workshop, she disguises herself as a boy and sets out to join the Engineer's Guild in an attempt to unearth the secrets that cost her father his life.

Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen crafts a soaring and imaginative steampunk fantasy filled with airships, mechanical beasts, and deception.

First of all, I adored Ying so much as a main character! As a girlie who grew up playing with Legos and loving Violet Baudelaire, it's really refreshing to have an inventor-type protagonist who uses her wits to solve problems instead of a sword.

Overall, Chen made a unique, genre-bending fantasy here that, instead of pitting magic and science against one another (like To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods *cough cough*), creates an inventive alchemical fusion of the two.

I really enjoyed this one and can’t wait to read the next one! I’m not sure how I felt at the very end and am not sure where it’s going from here but I’m in it for the long haul! I really enjoyed all the characters (although I’m not sure how I feel about one of them by the end) Ye-Kan is my favorite

I really enjoyed this read a lot. It was a little bit of a departure from the romantacy books that l've been reading lately. There is a bit of a romantic element, but Ying also very independent and there is a lot of focus on the friendships as well! Ying definitely gives Mulan vibes, and I really enjoyed her character. The story wa engaging and kept me wanting to read more. There were a couple points where I got a bit lost (but that might have just been because I was reading while I was tired). Overall, it was such a fun read though!
Thank you to @netgalley for an advance copy on exchange for my honest review.

To solve her father's murder an 18 year old girl must disguise herself as a boy and enter a dangerous Engineer's Guild trials to get the answers she's been searching for. Aihui Ying wants to become a famous and talented engineer, just like her father... but when he is suddenly murdered her entire world crumbles. Ying is determined to find out who murdered her father and with his journal filled with engineering secrets and a jade pendant from the assassin, Yingis heading straight to the Engineers Guild Trials to discover her father's past.During the trials she disguises herself as her brother and gains an unlikely ally, Aogiya Ye-Yang, the eighth of the High Command. Ying will do anything to win and stop the killer from finding her father's journal. Yet she is also struggling with her very complicated relationship with the prince who seems to be having his own plan. This was definitely a slow burn mystery with an interesting world. I was definitely expecting dragons/fantasy elements but its much more gear/steampunk kind of feeling. The story itself felt really slow and the build was a really slow one, it didn't really pick up until the 50% mark. It's the first book in a series as well. Overall, it was a bit too slow for me but if you love a slow burn mystery with an interesting world and a bit of angsty romance, definitely give this a go!

Release Date: June 18,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Viking Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

“𝐎𝐟 𝐉𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐬” 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Mulan vibes in this book were immaculate 👌🏻 I really enjoyed this one! Such fun twists and betrayals, one of the best ya fantasy’s I’ve read so far this year! The writing was beautiful and the ending has me so excited for book 2! Definitely recommend picking this one up!!

Thank you so much to @penguinteen for my review copy; all thoughts and opinions are my own. #penguinteenpartner #ofjadeanddragons @amberwrites88

As a woman working in the construction field- very male dominated- I adored this story! Definitely gave me some Mulan vibes but the story itself takes on a life of its own. I love that it's the Engineer Guild that is held in such high honor and that there are so many STEM attributes to it. The characters were intriguing and I want a sequel! I like where the story ended, but I would love to come back to this world to catch up with a few of my favorites! Especially a certain Prince. .. please!