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A review by dancerava
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
4 out of 5 stars
⚙️🧡 Poppy War meets steam punk!🧡⚙️
Overall description: This book reminds me of the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode where they discover engineers working out of the air temple. A duality of engineering is explored in this book between invention and engineering as a public benefit or as an arms race for war.
The setting and plot has academia, a girl undercover as a boy (Mulan vibes), a beautiful asian inspired setting and age appropriate romantic pining🏮. The story was interesting with twists and political maneuvering while the characters are loveable yet frustrating at times. I feel like the character development and relationships were realistic in how they build and grow. I would say this book skews to the upper end of YA as there were more mature and complex plot lines that I don't usually see in YA nowadays.
What lacked for me were the politics seeming one-dimensional, a few logic things that took me out of the story and the geography/empire was a bit complex, For example, there 10 isles, 9 banners and 8 banner-men - or something of the sort. It only minorly detracted from my understand and enjoyment of the story. The story wraps up nicely with room for the overarching plot in future books.
I’d recommend this if you enjoy steampunk or Asian inspired fantasy.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the opportunity to read and review this eARC.
⚙️🧡 Poppy War meets steam punk!🧡⚙️
Overall description: This book reminds me of the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode where they discover engineers working out of the air temple. A duality of engineering is explored in this book between invention and engineering as a public benefit or as an arms race for war.
The setting and plot has academia, a girl undercover as a boy (Mulan vibes), a beautiful asian inspired setting and age appropriate romantic pining🏮. The story was interesting with twists and political maneuvering while the characters are loveable yet frustrating at times. I feel like the character development and relationships were realistic in how they build and grow. I would say this book skews to the upper end of YA as there were more mature and complex plot lines that I don't usually see in YA nowadays.
What lacked for me were the politics seeming one-dimensional, a few logic things that took me out of the story and the geography/empire was a bit complex, For example, there 10 isles, 9 banners and 8 banner-men - or something of the sort. It only minorly detracted from my understand and enjoyment of the story. The story wraps up nicely with room for the overarching plot in future books.
I’d recommend this if you enjoy steampunk or Asian inspired fantasy.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the opportunity to read and review this eARC.