Of Jade and Dragons should have been aimed at younger YA/upper Middle Grade readers

FULL DISCLOSURE: I've only read the first two chapters of Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen (the June 2024 Illumicrate book), but already I feel like the publisher have done this book such a disservice.

The writing in the first two chapters is very young--and I genuinely don't mean that as an insult. Immediately this novel reads to me like upper Middle Grade/younger YA, and I don't think that's a bad thing at all because there is such a lack of younger YA-leaning fantasy at the moment. Every major YA fantasy right now feels like it's trying to be baby's first romantasy, but there will still be so many readers out there who don't want to read fantasy with a strong romance element and I think Of Jade and Dragons could have been great for them if only the book weren't trying to be older than it feels.

Obviously everyone ages differently - some 15 year olds are more mature than some 20 year olds, depending on their personality and life experiences - but I'm finding it really difficult to believe that the heroine of this novel is 18. She feels like she should be around 14 and I'm honestly so disappointed that the publisher didn't just lean into this being a book for the younger YA crowd.

Either way I'm still planning to finish reading this at some point - I'm a big fan of the classic 'girl disguises herself as boy to infiltrate a guild/society/palace/whatever' trope - but I just don't think it's been aimed at the audience it should have been aimed at.

Has anyone else felt similarly or am I talking nonsense?