I liked this book, but there was something missing to make me love it. It had all the elements that I like. The morally ambiguous heroine, a school or trial setting, and dual identities. Ying is a clever girl from a small clan in the Nine Isles. She is a bit of a rebel as she is more interested in building things than traditional roles. Her world is turned upside down when she witnesses her father being murdered. This leads her to the path of the Engineer’s Guild in the capital. She knew her father was once a member before moving back home, but she knows very little else about him. On her way to the Capital, she meets, Ye-Yang, a prince in the high command. She has to disguise herself as one of her brothers because women are not allowed to join the Engineers’ Guild, even though they are capable of doing it. She is sure that the answers as to who murdered her father are there and is determined to do what is necessary to find justice. As always the case, there are a lot of twists and turns, and she finds it hard to know who to trust. She, of course, starts to fall in love with Ye-Yang despite the obvious red flags. Always a complication to everything. In the end, Ying will discover how far she is willing to go to avenge her father and the cost along the way. There is nothing wrong with the book itself. Maybe a little too many times, reminding us of the stakes and at times a bit over description, but that is par for the course with novels like this. I got the audiobook from my library because it was available right away, and maybe that had something to do it with it. The narrator’s voice was very breathy and at times didn’t match the scenes she was reading. I don’t know. It was a good book. I still plan on reading the sequel. Maybe I’ll check out the physical book if I can and see if that makes a difference.