“Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father, but after his sudden murder, her life falls apart. Left with only a journal of her father’s engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, a heartbroken Ying follows the trail to the capital and the prestigious Engineers Guild—a place that harbors her father’s hidden past—determined to discover why anyone would threaten a man who ultimately chose a quiet life over fame and fortune.
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.
The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?” - taken from Goodreads.
I thoroughly enjoyed this East Asian steampunk/silkpunk story about a young girl, who after witnessing the death of her father, travels to the capital to avenge his death. Along the way she meets the eighth prince who secures her a spot in the engineering guild trials, a male only competition. Hoping to discover more of her father's past, she disguises herself as her younger brother to take part in the competition. It's not long before secrets are uncovered and our heroine discovers she isn't sure who she can trust. That ending was a heartbreaker. Sorry but there are no actual dragons in this book.
Book two, The Jade Dragon, is due out June 17, 2025.
Visit Amber Chen’s website.
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