These Seas Can Never Trap Those Who Are Meant To Fly

I recently finished reading Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen. This is OwlCrate's June YA 2024 book. This is book #1 in the Fall of the Dragon series.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT

  Rating: 3.25/5 stars

"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?"

So first of all, there are no dragons.

Of Jade and Dragons is a YA Fantasy Mulan reimagining following a young woman who travels to enter a competition to join the Engineers' Guild, in order to discover the truth behind her beloved father's assassination. The book includes an M/F relationship, women in STEM rep, war, betrayal, and secrets all set in a steampunk-infused East Asian world. If you like Chinese Dramas, this might be up your alley!

I am really impressed by Amber Chen's choice to make the central conflict revolve around engineering, and in particular, the weapons that were created during wartime. The book shows the repercussions and consequences of ambition, which Ying has in spades, and what people will do for power. 

I liked Ying a lot, and I have a soft spot for a fellow woman in STEM. She's bold, brave, stubborn, and has strong morals. She is naive, but not afraid to embark on her journey. She does make some typical YA protagonist dumb decisions, but they weren't egregiously off the mark of what a naive person would do.

I appreciated that there wasn't too much info dumping from the beginning, and the book does not take long before you get right into the action. My issue was mainly with character building. It's common in a lot of YA books, but I found a lot of the characters besides Ying extremely forgettable or uninteresting. The characters we are supposed to care about have no flavor for me, so I hope they get fleshed out.

The story was easy enough to read, writing style-wise, but I did not feel moved by the story. I see what Amber Chen was trying to do, but I think improvement needs to be placed towards fleshing out the characters, both main and side. The ending was also a bit confusing in the direction the story would go in regards to Ying's path.

Check out Of Jade and Dragon, and discover what happens to a hidden woman in STEM.

Happy Reading :)