Jade Fire Gold (Caffeine Book Tours)

Jade Fire Gold by June C.L. Tan
Published by HarperTeen on October 12, 2021
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 464
Format: eARC
ISBN: 0063056399
Goodreads

Girls of Paper and Fire meets The Tiger at Midnight in June CL Tan’s stunning debut, inspired by Chinese mythology, with rich magic and an epic slow-burn romance.
In an empire on the brink of war . . .
Ahn is no one, with no past and no family.
Altan is a lost heir, his future stolen away as a child.
When they meet, Altan sees in Ahn a path to reclaiming the throne. Ahn sees a way to finally unlock her past and understand her arcane magical abilities.
But they may have to pay a far deadlier price than either could have imagined.
Ferocious action, shadowy intrigue, and a captivating romance collide in June CL Tan’s debut, a stunning homage to the Xianxia novel with a tender, beating heart, perfect for fans of The Bone Witch and We Hunt the Flame.

Trigger and content warnings:

• self-harm (gouging, eye horror; non-graphic)
• child abuse (physical, verbal, emotional manipulation/gaslighting)
• parent death (implied, off-page)
• character deaths
• mentions and descriptions of fantasy/magical violence (blood, war, political violence)
• mentions and descriptions of physical symptoms that might be triggering to those with emetophobia
• alcohol consumption

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Welcome to my stop on the Caffeine Books Tours blog tour for Jade Fire Gold! Thank you so much for having me! I received an advance copy of the book from the publisher and CBT for my participation in this tour. You can find the tour launch post here! You can find all of the other tour stops there!

It began with a girl and a sword, and it will end with a girl and her sword.

Jade Fire Gold was such a pleasure to read! I was already sucked in before I knew anything about the synopsis because I had seen it marketed as similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA). Which is one of the best tv shows ever!! I think that comparison is accurate in a handful of ways – obviously no comparison will encompass a new thing completely! But in Jade Fire Gold we have elemental magic, martial artists, wise mentors, corrupt royals, and so much more. If you’re someone who loved ATLA, I really do think this book will be up your alley. And on the other hand if you haven’t watched the show, I think you’ll still love it!

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Favorite Part: World-building

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Hard to imagine our land is slowly dying and war is on the horizon. Or maybe, when you are so used to being in a perpetual state of conflict, you begin to treat is like something mundane. Especially when it doesn’t affect you.

If you saw my Top Ten Tuesday post about book settings yesterday, then you know I love when books have wonderful world-building. And boy does this book have it! You can tell that the author put a lot of thought into the physical world that our characters live in. She even talked about it on her Instagram! There were so many little details to differentiate the various cultures and lands, and I really appreciated that. I especially liked the linguistic variations between the characters from different places. I definitely recommend checking out her Instagram posts if you’d like to see more.

Another element I liked is the influences from real life that are reflected in the fictional world. There are references to a lot of Chinese cultural things (one being the legend of Chang’e), lots of tropes from wuxia and xianxia, and more. It was so cool to see how there are common tropes that span cultures. For example, the author mentions some general themes from wuxia and xianxia that she included were: chosen one, fate and destiny, balance of light and darkness, magical weapons, long hair and robes that flow in the wind, etc. A lot of these things are very common Western tropes, and it was cool see the similarities and differences.

One specific thing I liked was that there was a mentor who was kind of a tea sage?? LIKE UNCLE IROH!!!!! Okay sorry, had to get my ATLA fangirling in.

Again, I really recommend checking out the various posts that the author has made, there are so many little details that she included and it’s fascinating!

Also, there are liondogs and bearcats. I wish we had seen more of them!!!! They sound so cuuuute.

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Other Things I Liked

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I would love a spinoff novel about the side characters, because they were SO much fun to read about. Also, four of them are queer, we love to see it. It was wonderful to see how they interacted with each other. Some of them had quite a bit of history between them, so I liked seeing how they dealt with that to move forward and work together. The group became a little family and you know I’m a sucker for found family.

Also there was a particular epilogue scene that had me itching for more soooo YEAH. That’s all I’m gonna say about THAT.

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Favorite Quotes

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As you can see I’ve already shared a couple of my favorite quotes from the book, but there were more that I wanted to share with you! The writing is another one of the things that I really liked about this book. Everything was so lyrical and flowy! It really worked for me. So here’s a few more quotes that stood out to me and that I really loved. Just FYI, these are from the eARC so they may have been changed in the final published edition!

Because every life is precious, and every child deserves a fighting chance.

A typhoon, I decided as I observe [redacted] flirting with our waiter.

That’s what she is. A violent, glorious roar of wind and water that turns everything upside down and leaves you standing in awe of its raw beauty.

I can’t do anything.

And sometimes, doing nothing is the worst thing you can do.

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Things That Didn’t Quite Work For Me

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It is your choice. But know this: every choice has its consequence, and you must weigh the consequences of your actions.

I wasn’t very invested in the romance between our two main characters. Each character on their own is great, but their interactions fell a bit flat for me. I think they worked really well together as partners, and maybe this would have been better without romance – we don’t always need it!

There was something that happens partway through the book that I don’t want to spoil, but at that point Ahn starts acting quite a bit differently. I’m going to keep it vague so that I don’t give away anything. But I just felt like it could have been executed better. Obviously when large changes happen in people’s lives, this can cause them to behave and think differently. But I think we didn’t get quite enough from Ahn’s point of view to really understand why she was behaving this way. If any of you have read it, and want more clarification on what I’m talking about, let me know haha.

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You may not be able to change the past, but with each action, you can change the future.

Jade Fire Gold is out now! I hope you enjoyed reading my review, and that you go check it out!

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About the Author