A review by chrisljm
Jade Fire Gold by June CL Tan

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed reading this book. The descriptions were so vivid and beautiful and the main cast of characters are so likable. Story-wise, the pacing was set up very well. It contained a lot of time jumps which worked well with this set up. However, character-wise, I feel like the set up stunted the growth you get to see between characters. I think you see this especially with Altan and Ahn’s relationship because they have the chemistry and the tension, and they’re so dumb (in a good way), and you get glimpses of how they slowly start to care for each other, but a lot of it takes place in between time jumps and I really wish I got to see more of their relationship instead. I liked what I read, but I know it had the potential to make me love it so much more.

I also felt like this had the potential to be an epic novel, and along with all the other things it had the potential for, it could’ve easily been done with a much longer length. I know Jade Fire Gold is an homage to xianxia novels, but I think making it only 400~ pages does it a huge disservice because it truly could’ve been extraordinary — so much more rich, captivating, and epic.
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