Amber Chen Books In Order

Publication Order of Of Jade and Dragons Books

Amber Chen is a novelist with Singaporean Chinese roots who graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Cambridge. She also went to the Singapore Media Academy where she got a screenwriting Diploma in Film and Television.
She has since become known for her novels in contemporary, historical, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Chen is also an alumna of PitchWars from 2020 and a star on Wattpad.

While “Of Jade and Dragons” is the first novel that she ever published in the traditional way, it is not her first. Previously, she has published several novels on the publishing platform Wattpad including the contemporary new adult story “The Cutting Edge” about celebrity hairstylists.

In 2021, the book was made into a TV miniseries in Singapore which is Chen’s home country. Given that she has graduate and undergraduate degrees and also studied screenwriting, it is not surprising that her works often have a cinematic feel to them.
She has often said that her screenwriting habits and skills are easily transferable to her novels, particularly while writing young adult fiction which needs very fast pacing.

While many do not know it, Amber Chen is a scientist who went to college and graduated with a Biochemistry degree. For much of her life she has been a science student and many times she wonders how she ended up an author of fantasy fiction.
In one of her interviews, she asserted that she believes her inclination toward science was instrumental in shaping the silk punk world of her debut novel “Of Jade and Dragons.” For the most part, Chen believes that science is not too different from magic.
During her childhood years, she used to find a lot of fascination in learning what made the world tick whether it was the macroscopic nature of the universe or the complexity of the living cell as seen through a microscope.

That sort of hunger and curiosity for knowledge is a trait that she would then pass on to Ying, the protagonist of her novel “Of Jade and Dragons.”

Chen also loved the idea of empowering girls to get involved and even become excellent in STEM fields and this is an important theme in the novel since it is a theme that remains very close to her heart.

Unlike most authors, the idea of becoming an author was not something that Amber Chen had ever since she was a child.

When she was very young, all she wanted was to become an astronaut and work at NASA. Nonetheless, she always loved reading fiction and nonfiction but never thought about writing fiction until she was in college.
While going through any TV drama she could find and in between tutorials and lectures, she realized that there were so many unsatisfying endings and plot points out there. Unfortunately, she eventually ran out of content she could indulge in and hence she took matters into her own hands and began writing.

She has always loved reading historical works and one of her favorite hobbies is making speculations about the lives of historical figures.

By writing “Of Jade and Dragons,” she started filling in the gaps in history which found inspiration in the story of the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty and Harjol the woman he believed was his soulmate.
Other inspirations for the novel include real-life historical happenings of the 17th century and “The Butterfly Lovers,” the classic Chinese tale.

It was at the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic that she started getting serious about her manuscript. She rushed her draft since she was trying to beat a Pitch Wars deadline. She was fortunate enough to finish and submit it in about four months which got her a place in that year’s contest.

She was mentored by Daphne Tonge and Kat Dunn who provided her with a lot of advice while writing the manuscript. Nonetheless, she changed her representation several times and finally ended with Triada US’ Laura Crockett.

In the UK, her work is edited by Penguin Teen’s Awo Ibrahim while she works with Viking’s Kelsey Murphy in the US. Chen believes the cover alone which was designed by Ellice Lee and Lily Kim Qian is responsible for nine out of every 10 books she sells.
“Of Jade and Dragons” is essentially the first novel of a duology, since Chen loved the response it received and thought she needed to give her fans something more.

The novel has so far received positive reviews and the blurb was written by Xiran Jay Zhao the bestselling author of “Iron Widow.” She has also received a lot of attention on social media where teenagers particularly love her debut.

“Of Jade and Dragons” by Amber Chen is a work that tells the story of Aihui Ying, an eighteen-year-old dreaming of one day becoming a world-class engineer.

But following the death of her father who was one of the best engineers in his space, her life falls apart. All she has left is a journal of the engineering secrets he had and a jade pendant that had once belonged to an assassin.
Heartbroken, she heads to the capital as she believes she needs to talk to the Engineers Guild who she believes have information on her father’s hidden past.

She will do anything to discover why anyone would want to take out a man who chose a life of quiet over fortune and fame. She disguises herself as her brother and infiltrates the male-only organization as an apprentice.

But right from the get-go, she learns that she is being targeted and she will have to be on her toes if she is to escape the attentions of her detractors including someone determined to get his father’s journals for some unknown reason.

To further complicate matters is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who seems to have some very mysterious plans. It does seem that the many secrets the guild is hiding are just as deadly as the weapons they have been known to produce.
With the future of her homeland and her life at stake, Ying is at a loss at who she can trust.