I enjoyed this debut novel by Amber Chen! The story follows Aihui Ying who, after catching her father's assassin in the act, dresses up as her younger brother and journeys into the heart of the kingdom to join the Engineers Guild and ferret out the one who sent the assassin.

I thought Ying was a great YA protagonist, though I did find the budding “romance” between her and Ye-Yang not compelling in the least. That said, I was pleased with the ending when she chose herself and the life she wants rather than falling for his platitudes. 

I enjoyed the guild scenes the most, especially the ones where the candidates were taking part in the trials and we actually got to see some steampunk engineering at play. Those were super fun scenes and the side characters were enjoyable.

I listened to the audiobook and Jen Zhao did a great job with the narration. It really helped as I learned to pronounce some of the character names and other cultural words.

I think I will continue this series and find out what’s in store for the MC next! An aside: I have the Illumicrate edition and it’s one of the most beautiful editions on my shelf. I love the illustrated endpapers by jhocaaa on instagram!