Books Like Pursuit of Jade: 5 Reads for the Withdrawal
Just finished Pursuit of Jade? Here are 5 books like Pursuit of Jade that recreate the yearning, court intrigue, and morally gray men, plus whether the C-drama is based on a book.
So you finished Pursuit of Jade, and now there is a hole in your chest where the drama used to be. You have tried to fill it and nothing has touched it, and now you are just wandering, looking for the next thing that hits the same vibe. Same. That is the whole reason we are here. When the show wrecked me, I let my Instagram algorithm run my TBR for a week, and it fed me a run of books by Asian authors that all promised the same c-drama vibe.
This is the list of books like Pursuit of Jade that will deliver for you, each one recreating a specific piece of what made the show hit: the court intrigue, the yearning, the morally gray men who have no business being that compelling, the historical drama that guts you. A quick heads up before we start: most of these I devoured on audio while I was deep in the withdrawal, so if you are an audiobook person, you are in very good company here.
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First, though, the question everyone asks.
Is Pursuit of Jade Based on a Book?
Yes. Pursuit of Jade is adapted from the Chinese novel Zhu Yu (逐玉) by Tuan Zi Lai Xi. Here is the catch: there is no official English edition. Nothing you can legitimately buy or borrow in English exists yet. There are unofficial fan translations floating around, but I am not going to point you to those. So if you want this story in a book you can actually hold, the honest answer is that the closest thing is not the source novel, it is the list below. That is unless you can read Chinese, and then you can grab a copy of Zhu Yu.
That said, I know you are curious how the book differs, because I was too. I have not read the fan translations myself, but from readers who have, the novel is a little bit darker. The Xie Zheng of the page is far more ruthless and far less sweet than the marquis the show gave us. He was clearly softened for a modern audience (and the female gaze). The tender relationship between him and Changyu’s little sister, the one that melts you on screen, is a lot less endearing in the book.
And here is the one I am genuinely sad we missed: the novel puts you inside his head, so you actually get to watch him fall first. The show only lets you infer it, through Zhang Linghe’s ridiculously expressive eyes and the smallest, most deliberate hand movements. Both work. But I would have loved to live in his POV for even a few chapters.
Since the novel is not officially available in english, here are the books that fill the gap.
5 Books to Read If You Loved Pursuit of Jade
Prefer to watch? I made a whole video on these, with my full reactions and the reels that sent me spiraling in the first place.
Shop the whole list: All 5 of these books are in one place on my LTK. Tap to grab the reading list without hunting them down one by one.
The Nightblood Prince by Molly X. Chang
If what you are chasing is Fan Changyu herself, the strong, independent heroine who never once plays the lovesick fool, start here. Fei is prophesied to become the empress who unites the warring kingdoms. She refuses the ruthless crown prince she was raised to marry, escapes to hunt a legendary tiger for her own freedom, and runs straight into Ye Xue, a rival prince who commands an army of vampires. Both of her love interests are villains in their own right, both morally gray, and Fei keeps her eyes wide open and chooses her own freedom over both of them, every single time.
It is enemies to lovers, royal court intrigue, chosen-one prophecy, touch-her-and-die, and slow burn, all the DNA in one book. And if the obsessive red flag secondary couple was your favorite part of Pursuit of Jade, this is your book. Darker than your typical YA fantasy.
Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan
This one recreates Changyu’s arc specifically, a heroine who has to reclaim her identity and find powers she did not know she had. Yining, a thief, is trying to recover a magical ring her stepaunt stole, which drags her into palace intrigue, a ruthless prince, and a pile of dangerous secrets. There is a fairy godfish, exactly as delightful as it sounds, though the book itself points out that systemic inequality does not get fixed with a nice pair of shoes, even magic ones.
You go in certain you know who the villainous prince is, and then you are completely wrong, and watching Yining process that and step into her own power is the fundamentally C-drama arc that sold me instantly. Lush landscapes, incredible food, couture-level costumes. It runs fantasy heavy and light on romance, but the political intrigue and the morally gray cast scratched the itch.
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Behind Five Willows by June Hur
If it is the yearning you are grieving, the aching, holding back, historical kind, this is the one, even though it swaps China for Joseon-era Korea and C-drama energy for K-drama. It is Pride and Prejudice meets You’ve Got Mail in historical Korea. Haewon is a clever book transcriber, Seojun is a noble who secretly writes, and they are forced to chaperone their siblings’ courtship while slowly realizing they are already connected through anonymous letters. He falls first, he falls harder, and the slow burn is endless.
It is also about censorship, class, patriarchy, and a woman who wants to read and write in a world that forbids her both. No spice, just longing stretched to its absolute limit. This was a five star read for me, and the ache is identical to the one the show left behind.
The Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee
Here is one that shares Pursuit of Jade’s bones in a past secrets kind of way. Without spoiling either, there is a secret about the true identity of one of the leads, and it ties back to the love interest and their family in a way that will feel very familiar if you know the show.
It is a tender male-male retelling of the classic Chinese folktale: Zhen, a white snake spirit who transforms into a boy, falls for Prince Xian, who happens to be hunting a white snake to cure his mother, so Zhen has to hide what he is from the person he loves. This is the soft, YA palate cleanser of the list, all yearning and no darkness, and the audiobook is gorgeous.
To Dream in Darkness by Ann Liang
I saved this one for last because it is the book most directly aimed at people like us. The algorithm sent it to me because Ann Liang literally cut a promo reel out of Pursuit of Jade stills, and I grabbed an ARC on the spot. It is historical fantasy set in ancient China: a death god and a healing god strike a bargain that spirals into a journey across realms to retrieve a missing crown prince, with a romance growing out of all of it. Hades and Persephone meets Romeo and Juliet, with lyrical prose, East Asian mythology, and that same touch-her-and-die vibes.
Which Book Should You Start With?
If you want Changyu’s strength and that obsessive red-flag romance energy, start with The Nightblood Prince. If it is the pure yearning you miss most, go straight to Behind Five Willows. If you need the gentlest possible landing, no darkness anywhere, The Legend of the White Snake. And if you want more fantasy takes start with To Dream in Darkness and then Never Ever After.
Final Thoughts
I will be honest with you: none of these will fully fill the Pursuit of Jade-shaped hole, because nothing has for me either so far. But every one of them scratches a specific part of it, it made it better, and that is the best any of us can do until these two leads reunite on screen. If you have not read my full thoughts on the show itself, my Pursuit of Jade review is right here, and the rest of what took over my month is in my June 2026 reading wrap-up. Now do me a favor: if you have any more C-drama-adjacent book recs, drop them on me, because I am still actively hunting.
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