Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
Introduction The story follows the 18 year old girl Ying, an engineering prodigy who sets off to the capital after her father is killed and she catches the assassin in the act. The world is East Asian inspired, and to many it is a retelling of Mulan as Ying has to disguise herself as a boy to get into the Engineering Guild where she hopes to learn more about her father's past and his killer. She is rescued and continuously supported by Ye-yang, one of the four beiles working under the High Commander, and they start catching feelings for one another as the story progresses. This is the initial setting for the story, but it quickly became clear to me that Ying didn't actually know what she wanted. In the beginning, she has her eyes set on catching the killer, but she quiet literally runs into him before even reaching the capital, but runs off since she hasn't planned what to do yet. And that is probably one of my biggest problems with the story: Ying doesn't really do ...