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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an E-ARC. All thoughts/opinions are my own.

Release Date: June 18, 2024

“‘Living in the shadows of someone else means you’ll never realize your own potential.’��

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Of Jade and Dragons tells the story of Aihui Ying, an eighteen-year-old girl who longs to follow in her father's footsteps and become an engineer. However, after his murder, Ying finds herself venturing to the capital of Fei for a different reason: to discover her father's killer and get revenge. Ying must disguise herself as a boy as she seeks to further her knowledge of engineering and her father's past and, most importantly, find his killer within the deeply sexist Engineer's Guild.

I was so excited to pick this up, and it first caught my eye because of that gorgeous cover! This book certainly did not disappoint- it is filled with unique characters, mystery, and creative concepts, all set in an intriguing world.

Of Jade and Dragons immediately captured my attention and sucked me in. The world that this story is set in is well thought out with unique customs, and the author did an amazing job painting it in my head, especially the city of Fei.

The characters were one of the biggest things that stood out to me within this book. They are unique, well thought out, and the author did an excellent job building and shifting their relationships with each other. Ying was one of my favorites: she was everything I wanted and more. She's intelligent, creative, witty, curious, and an incredible main character in general. One thing that I also really liked about her was that she wasn't too gullible. Ying wasn't immediately trusting or naive- she was alert, careful, and thoughtful. While she did pick up on many things that, if this had been written differently, she might have overlooked, she did not come across as the all-knowing heroine who faces no problems. I enjoyed reading about a sharp and intelligent heroine who doesn't let her guard down easily. I also enjoyed how this affected her relationships- the author did a nice job of taking a guarded and cautious character and slowly letting her open up.

When it came to the smaller but obvious details, Ying was hard to fool. But when it came to the mystery itself, I was pleased to find that the author had managed to pull off tricking her main character (and me) without having Ying be the typical "oh my goodness, how did I miss that" kind of character. While Ying did have a moment like that, there was clearly more to it than that, and it added to the complexity of Ying's character- this revelation that Ying hadn't noticed played into her values and what she had been hoping her life would become (I won't say any more on this to avoid spoilers!).

I also really liked the other characters, particularly Ye-Yang and Ye-Kan. I enjoyed learning more about Ye-Yang throughout the story, and the author did a nice job sprinkling little details about him that led to more intrigue and questions. I also loved reading about his and Ying's relationship and watching it shift.

Ye-Kan was one of those characters that you just hate at the beginning, but by the end, he's one of your favorites. His character development was beautifully done, and his and Ying's friendship blossomed beautifully. I'm very curious to see how the author builds on their relationship in the next book.

Ying's main goal in this book is to discover her father's murderer, and she makes that very clear in the beginning. However, most of this book did not feel very focused on that. The middle of this book is more focused on Ying's current situation trying to become a member of the engineer's guild and the trials she and the other apprentices must face. While discovering her father's murderer is still touched on, Ying makes very little progress on it during the middle of the book. It almost felt like the plot and Ying's goals had shifted- instead of trying to discover her father's murderer, she was more focused on passing the tests and becoming an engineer. I didn't find it boring, it just felt like the main focus of this book had changed.

There were also some parts of this book that I found confusing. I had a hard time understanding the political system and the ranks of different characters, but I think if I read this again it would make a lot more sense. It didn't make the story hard to follow, I was just confused at times.

While I did highly enjoy the characters in this book, I had a hard time connecting with them. The characters did have flaws and weaknesses, but I felt like they weren't deeply explored enough and touched on by the author to make them relatable. I still cared about them, I just had a hard time connecting with and relating to them.

The only other problem I had with this book was the action. It was good and it could be exciting, however, I felt like the characters had an easy time getting out of tough situations. There wasn't a moment where I was like "oh my goodness, I can't imagine how they're going to get out of this". I especially felt this way with the climax of the story. The consequences of it felt more internal and focused on Ying's thoughts and feelings as opposed to affecting her actual position in life and society.

Despite the flaws, this was such a fun read and a fantastic debut. I'm so grateful I've gotten to read this masterpiece before it comes out. But I feel confident that even if I hadn't stumbled upon this on NetGalley, this most definitely would've been a cover impulse buy! I really enjoyed the characters, concept, and plot of this story, and especially how Ying showed everyone that not just boys are capable of being engineers. It makes me so happy to see more and more stories with women in STEM, especially not just white women. I cannot wait to read the second one, and I'm looking forward to seeing this gorgeous book out on the shelves in June!