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A review by fatime_sino
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!
This was enjoyable, but ultimately kind of all over the place in terms of characters and story.
After Ying’s father is murdered, she goes to the engineering school that he went to for answers. What I love about this plot line is that Ying is a HORRIBLE detective. She figures out absolutely nothing and gets no clues, and it was honestly kind of refreshing to see. She’s an engineer, not a detective.
I really had trouble with Ying and Ye-yang’s relationship, as I didn’t trust him even a little bit the whole time (and I was ultimately right), but I think this was intentional. It made me feel uncomfortable and unsure, and I think (hope) that was the goal, to show some truly morally gray characters.
One relationship I loved was Ying and Ye-kan, they were great together and I know they had a brotherly/sisterly bond but I was still like… I could get behind that romance if the author went that way. They had great back-and-forth and they truly cared about each other and made each other laugh.
Ultimately, the biggest issue with this book for me was the pacing. Time was going by so fast and we weren’t seeing some moments that I felt we should have seen. We didn’t see ANY of Ying’s lessons and schooling so I’m really not sure what she learned and what growth she had as an engineer other than her starting to design and build weapons. Everything felt very rushed and convenient to me.
I’m probably going to read the next book because I am curious to see where the story goes and I think there’s room for a lot of growth and interesting story ideas, plus the writing potential is there.
This was enjoyable, but ultimately kind of all over the place in terms of characters and story.
After Ying’s father is murdered, she goes to the engineering school that he went to for answers. What I love about this plot line is that Ying is a HORRIBLE detective. She figures out absolutely nothing and gets no clues, and it was honestly kind of refreshing to see. She’s an engineer, not a detective.
I really had trouble with Ying and Ye-yang’s relationship, as I didn’t trust him even a little bit the whole time (and I was ultimately right), but I think this was intentional. It made me feel uncomfortable and unsure, and I think (hope) that was the goal, to show some truly morally gray characters.
One relationship I loved was Ying and Ye-kan, they were great together and I know they had a brotherly/sisterly bond but I was still like… I could get behind that romance if the author went that way. They had great back-and-forth and they truly cared about each other and made each other laugh.
Ultimately, the biggest issue with this book for me was the pacing. Time was going by so fast and we weren’t seeing some moments that I felt we should have seen. We didn’t see ANY of Ying’s lessons and schooling so I’m really not sure what she learned and what growth she had as an engineer other than her starting to design and build weapons. Everything felt very rushed and convenient to me.
I’m probably going to read the next book because I am curious to see where the story goes and I think there’s room for a lot of growth and interesting story ideas, plus the writing potential is there.