Published: June 2024
Pages: 480
Summary
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.
My thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed the steampunk aspect of this book, but unfortunately that is the only thing I truly like about this story, and there is very little acknowledgement of the steampunk world. I really wanted more on that.
I wanted to love this book. I adore Mulan and reviews promised this as a type of Mulan retelling, but that is not this book. I loved Mulan because she was smart, resilient and courageous. The main character in this story, Ying, is an 18 year old with the mental capacity of a 10 year old. She’s juvenile, childish and has no critical thinking abilities. She’s horrible to her friends and throughout this whole book she thinks only of herself. There is no comparison and apart from her being undercover, disguised as a man, there are no similarities to Mulan.
What also really frustrated me through this story was how she treated the people in her life. Ye-kan was her friend and genuinely cared for her, but she treated him poorly and was repeatedly horrible to him. If I was Ye-kan I would have cut her right out of my life, it doesn’t really make sense why he didn’t. But as another reviewer said “all the characters in this book were faceless cardboard cutouts of people whose actions and motivations would seemingly change on a whim for the sake of plot convenience”. and I found that to be true.
The ending of this story left something to be desired. A ridiculous plan which was painful to read as Ying just doesn’t think. However by that point I had no desire to see her succeed, and I was checked out.
One of my least favourite tropes of all time is instant love, and in this book it was too much for me. They barely spent any time actually together it does not make any sense how feelings developed as quickly in the way they did. Let us not forget Ying’s father has been murdered and she claims she is on a mission to seek the truth. But as always with instant love, the main plot and character’s passion and drive, fall away when the love interest is introduced. Daughter of the Moon Goddess has a similar story – a child on a mission for a parent – however that is a fantastic example of a young woman’s resilience and determination that is not swayed by a man with a charming smile (even a powerful man at that).
I understand Ying is young, but I’m so frustrated reading young women that claim to be powerful and determined, but they fall apart and drop their goals when a man they’ve just met comes into the picture. She has no will power and it’s exhausting to read.
Would I recommend?
No, I wouldn’t. This was not for me, and if you dislike similar tropes then I wouldn’t suggest picking this up. If you like steampunk and want to read something that is more romance focussed, then you may like this one. If in doubt, you can always give it a try.