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Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father, but after his sudden murder, her life falls apart. Left with only a journal of her father’s engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, a heartbroken Ying follows the trail to the capital and the prestigious Engineers Guild—a place that harbors her father’s hidden past—determined to discover why anyone would threaten a man who ultimately chose a quiet life over fame and fortune. Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous 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. The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?
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0 0**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**
Actual rating: 3.5
Amber Chen debuts with her Asian-inspired YA fantasy, Of Jade and Dragons. Marketed as a retelling of Mulan, main character Ying disguises herself as her brother as she pursues information about the man who assassinated her father. When the clues lead her to the esteemed, male-only Engineering Guild, Ying decides to sit the exam for entry aided by the eighth prince of the High Command who has promised to keep her disguise a secret. When the capital is revealed to have secrets on top of secrets, Ying must learn whether knowledge and vengeance are worth the price she must pay to obtain them.
I am a fast reader. I read 58 books in June. This book took me an embarrassing amount of time to read. I got about 21% of the way in and realized that I was completely not feeling the writing style, which was a true YA conversational-type style despite the characters being new adult ages. In order to give this book the best shot, I waited for the book to be on audio at my library which is how I completed it. I would have otherwise DNFed. I also knew this was going to be June's Illumicrate book and skipped it after the initial 21% since I knew it would not be a book I kept on my shelves after reading it.
That being said, I did enjoy my time with this book. The steampunk approach to fantasy with heavy emphasis on weapon design and engineering was very much my kind of thing. There were a lot of complicated relationships with family and with characters exploring the morality of their situations. The audiobook narrator did a great job at maintaining Ying's youthful, small-town naivete while also ensuring that she came across as capable and intelligent.
I was happy to have read Of Jade and Dragons, and would not hesitate to recommend it. I would consider picking up the next book in the series, provided I had access to the audiobook.
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