Of Jade & Dragons - An ARC Review

Of Jade and Dragons

Book Information:

Author: Amber Chen

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Retelling, a little romance

Published Year: 2024

Kindle Unlimited: no

My Review

Rating:✨3.5 stars✨

Review Updated: 6/18/2023

Of Jade & Dragons by Amber Chen is a promising debut novel (with a beautiful cover!) set in the fantasy world of Antara.

Ying has always wanted to travel to the fabled capital city of Fei and enter the Engineer’s Guild. She dreamt of being an engineer, just like her father before her. But everything changes after her father is murdered. Hoping to find answers and get revenge for his death, she travels to the capital disguised as her brother to the Engineer’s Guild. She manages to enter the guild’s apprenticeship trial, with the help of Ye-yang, one of the powerful beile’s of the kingdom, but once there, Ying must protect herself from the assassins who seek her father’s precious journal and stay in the difficult guild trials. But there’s more at stake, and there seem to be more secrets and questions than answers, between Antara’s complicated politics, threats of war, and Ying’s own complicated relationships.

“She couldn’t recall knowing anyone else with eyes the shade of overcast skies, with the occasional spark that reminded her of lightning – dangerous, but captivating.”

Of Jade and Dragons was an overall pretty good and engaging book. Although sometimes I had trouble getting myself to start reading, once I got started, I got more into it and wanted to stay.

When I first read the blurb of this book, I thought it would be a fantasy novel, and there definitely were fantasy elements, but when I started reading, I found it to be leaning more on the science fiction side, especially with some of the weaponry and airships. I even got a little dystopian vibe, and the challenges to get into the Engineer’s Guild reminded me a little bit of the trials to get into a faction in Divergent (not the best similarity for me, but haha its fine). I definitely enjoyed the more advanced technology and would love to have seen more airships and flying time!

Ying is a strong and relatable main character. She’s intelligent and brave and makes a good FMC (especially in a Mulan retelling). There was also a nice cast of characters around her. Ye-kan was probably one of my favorites! I liked how he was almost a younger brother to Ying, but he was also a good friend and helped her many times. They both weren’t what they seemed, and both had secrets to keep, and Ye-kan was a lot smarter and less naïve than he let on :) However, I felt like the apprentices in the trials weren’t developed enough. Apparently, there were a lot of them, but there were only a few who actually had any page time, and that too because they were at a position of power or importance.

“This is where dreams are made reality.”

I felt like through Ying’s perspective, the Engineer’s guild was portrayed as this prestigious, exalted institute that was perfect in every way, when in reality it was less than perfect, and it was obvious there were a lot of cracks beneath the surface. I was happy that as the book progressed, really near the end, she realized the truth, but the continuous praise of the guild did start to feel a little too much in the earlier parts of the book.

“It’s only a matter of time, Ying.”

Ying and Ye-yang had so much potential in this book, and I would have loved to see more of them together, without all the complications! The yearning….

But there were some shocking twists near the ending, from Ye-yang’s motives to the High Commander and his involvement. I didn’t know how to feel about Ye-yang: his motives and his progression to an ambitious conqueror. I also didn’t like Nian and the marriage, especially since it's obvious Ye-yang and Ying have feelings for each other. What I don’t understand is that Ye-yang is promising to come back for her, and Ying fully expects to see him again, yet isn’t her sister still to be married to him?

But I am happy with the ending. It was fitting, and I liked that Ying stayed true to herself and her beliefs, even if she had to walk away from other things. Although, let’s see how long that lasts, since it definitely seems like the ending is set up for a sequel, and I can't wait to see Ying and Ye-yang meet again at some point :).

So, overall, I enjoyed reading Of Jade and Dragons and can’t wait for what’s next!

I received an eARC of this book thanks to Netgalley and the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.