Ugghh. This book is so juvenile it hurts.

The writing is repetitive, bland, at times nonsensical to the point I wondered where the hell the editor was, and it tells all but shows nothing. Ying was such a weak, nothing protagonist whose voice sounds so much younger than her supposed 18 years. Ye-yang was - certainly there, and I could not for the life of me understand why he got so obsessed with Ying. The story was so goddamn boring with so much issues with pacing I had to skim to save my sanity.

I tried. I really did. But I'm sorry, this was just such a huge miss for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK Children's for the ARC

I loved it! This fantasy novel was to immersive and intriguing. I was never bored and really felt for the characters. I was terrified whenever she did something dangerous and that's the sign of a great story. The writing, the worldbuilding, the characters, perfection. I can't say anything other than read it now!

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, I first heard about it before we had a cover and I knew immediately that it was right up my alley, and the gorgeous cover sold me even more.
This was my favorite read of the year so far, I started it this morning and finished it by 5 PM because I just could not stop reading.
There were just so many elements that I usually always love. I rarely come across an Asian-inspired fantasy I don't like, I love sci-fi fantasy, I love Asian academy settings specificially (I've read a couple of books like this and I loved it every single time) and it has some tropes that I'm a big fan of. It's also a Mulan retelling so that makes it even better!

It felt like a mix of The Poppy War and The Hurricane Wars, two titles I really love, especially the former, but of course there were so many unique elements to it as well.
I loved how the book was all about engineering and the FMC getting into the Engineer's Guild, it was such a cool twist.
The worldbuilding in general was great, I really enjoyed the setting and I cannot wait to see how this world is going to expand in the sequels.

Speaking of, I think Of Jade and Dragons did a great job at focusing on the school while also giving a good glimpse of the world outside and it set up the sequels so nicely.

I adore the FMC and her character arc was incredible. I was briefly worried that she was going to be "not like other girls", but I quickly fell in love with her, plus her behavior at the beginning makes sense given that it is a Mulan retelling.

The romance is definitely more of a slow-burn and I can't wait to see how it is going to develop.
I also really enjoyed the other characters and the friendship dynamics were so nice.

Overall, this was a fantastic debut in my opinion and I am already incredibly excited for the sequel!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I quite enjoyed this one, and it was a fun quick read. I enjoyed the focus on engineering, although I think that the book would have benefited from having a little more detail both in the engineering parts specifically and the general world building. I enjoyed the characters, although again I do think a little more fleshing out of the side characters would have been nice. Overall I would recommend this to YA fantasy readers. It reminded me quite a bit of Spin the Dawn so if you enjoyed that one, I think you will enjoy this too.