Book Title: Jade Fire Gold
Author: June C.L. Tan
Date Started: August 31st 2021
Date Completed: September 25th 2021
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three Stars
Review:
◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆
I have to say, I was actually really disappointed with Jade Fire Gold. It felt samey in its plot and was rather limited in its exploration of the mythical background. I didn't really feel the chemistry between any of the characters and felt like there was a lot of unused potential by the end.
The story starts off well enough (samey, like I said) but this pivotal quest for the sword only takes place right at the end and is over pretty quickly. At the centre of it, our protagonist (co-protagonist?) Ahn is actually really passive, and everything happens so easily for her. The book is a lot of talking about how important doing something is, and then the group immediately succeed in doing it, with Ahn taking very little part in the actual realisation of the goal.
Our other co-protagonist, Altan, begins as the typical brooding warrior but becomes a complete soppy mess once he falls for Ahn. I felt he, in general, wasn't very consistent, including at the end when he's suddenly mischievous and friendly because he gets what he wants - I just couldn't really buy into it.
I was umming and ahhing as to whether to include this in my review because it's probably on me for misunderstanding, but it's quite amusing - I was convinced for ages that Ahn was the lost sister Altan kept going on about. I mean, they made a really big deal about Altan's sister being dead, to the point it was obvious she wasn't, and that she'd disappeared in the desert - exactly where Ahn remembers emerging from. It made everything that come afterwards between them really quite awkward and just sort of disappeared from the narrative until I got (thankfully) proven wrong at the end. It may have a big part in why I wasn't totally involved with the narrative.
Jade Fire Gold is a perfectly readable, reasonably enjoyable book, but I've read other very similar stories that pull it off better - I always feel mean when that's my main criticism of a book, but I do think it's valid.
