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No shiny picture this time, because... because I binge-read this fast in a dark room and thus no photo opportunities happened. Many thanks to NineStar Press for the ARC in exchange for a review. Some spoilers involved in the review.
Oh my friends, were you looking for a gender-flipped version of the Alanna of Trebond premise? Were you thinking it should be crossed with the disguise-and-lies aspects of Captive Prince (but less brutal), and also maybe put some actual functional thought into how a non m/f royal marriage might work politically?
CONGRATULATIONS THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. Our Hero discovers his sister has vanished on the day of her betrothal, and, for Reasons, disguises himself and participates in her stead. His sister stays confusingly vanished, and so, with the aid of her maids, Our Hero sets off on the long journey to her new home. There should be plenty of time for their relatives to find her and send her to catch up (disguised as him) and perform a switcheroo. Everything is fine. Except Our Hero is not the only party to this betrothal who is acting in disguise…
There’s swordfighting! Huddling for warmth! Amusing mishaps with false bosom-stuffing! And some actual logical thought put into the denouement and the resulting political negotiations. It’s not perfect on that score (I and my giant thesis chapter on how Royals Get No Privacy had some trouble suspending disbelief when it came to so small a betrothal entourage), but it’s workable in the terms of historical-fantasy-emphasis-on-the-fantasy.
Identity wise, this book is both less problematic and less interesting than, say, the Alanna books, in that it is clear all along that Our Hero does not like being dressed as a woman and does not experience it as changing his sense of self in any way. That’s… that’s probably better than what you often get in the girl-dressed-as-a-man stories, where the experience is clearly transformative of her identity but you can tell she’s ‘really’ a girl because she’s attracted to a guy. But at the same time, if you’re after a nuanced investigation of gender through cross-dressing, this book isn’t really it. It does introduce a functionally realised non-binary option, wherein Our Hero is for some time compared to members of a sect called ‘The Kindred’ who dress in gender-ambiguous clothing and do not observe gender differentiation among themselves, which is interesting. That’s presented as an option but not one Our Hero prioritises. There’s nothing wrong with this, but the existence of this group is definitely an accessory to Our Hero’s great gay marriage, so, uh, don’t come here if you want non-binary fantasy.
Relatedly, I wasn’t entirely on board with ‘we both knew we could never love wives, but now look!’ I mean. It works? It definitely works. But I feel like the plot might have been more interesting, and the working out of the distinctions between ‘this is a political arrangement I can live with’ and ‘I want to bang you’ and ‘I’m in luuurve with you’ more complex, if one of them had been either established bi, or clueless.
So, in short: it’s fun! It is a bunch of tropes and approaches I have really wanted to see for a long time! If you like things that are fun and involve crossdressing you will probably like this.
Oh my friends, were you looking for a gender-flipped version of the Alanna of Trebond premise? Were you thinking it should be crossed with the disguise-and-lies aspects of Captive Prince (but less brutal), and also maybe put some actual functional thought into how a non m/f royal marriage might work politically?
CONGRATULATIONS THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. Our Hero discovers his sister has vanished on the day of her betrothal, and, for Reasons, disguises himself and participates in her stead. His sister stays confusingly vanished, and so, with the aid of her maids, Our Hero sets off on the long journey to her new home. There should be plenty of time for their relatives to find her and send her to catch up (disguised as him) and perform a switcheroo. Everything is fine. Except Our Hero is not the only party to this betrothal who is acting in disguise…
There’s swordfighting! Huddling for warmth! Amusing mishaps with false bosom-stuffing! And some actual logical thought put into the denouement and the resulting political negotiations. It’s not perfect on that score (I and my giant thesis chapter on how Royals Get No Privacy had some trouble suspending disbelief when it came to so small a betrothal entourage), but it’s workable in the terms of historical-fantasy-emphasis-on-the-fantasy.
Identity wise, this book is both less problematic and less interesting than, say, the Alanna books, in that it is clear all along that Our Hero does not like being dressed as a woman and does not experience it as changing his sense of self in any way. That’s… that’s probably better than what you often get in the girl-dressed-as-a-man stories, where the experience is clearly transformative of her identity but you can tell she’s ‘really’ a girl because she’s attracted to a guy. But at the same time, if you’re after a nuanced investigation of gender through cross-dressing, this book isn’t really it. It does introduce a functionally realised non-binary option, wherein Our Hero is for some time compared to members of a sect called ‘The Kindred’ who dress in gender-ambiguous clothing and do not observe gender differentiation among themselves, which is interesting. That’s presented as an option but not one Our Hero prioritises. There’s nothing wrong with this, but the existence of this group is definitely an accessory to Our Hero’s great gay marriage, so, uh, don’t come here if you want non-binary fantasy.
Relatedly, I wasn’t entirely on board with ‘we both knew we could never love wives, but now look!’ I mean. It works? It definitely works. But I feel like the plot might have been more interesting, and the working out of the distinctions between ‘this is a political arrangement I can live with’ and ‘I want to bang you’ and ‘I’m in luuurve with you’ more complex, if one of them had been either established bi, or clueless.
So, in short: it’s fun! It is a bunch of tropes and approaches I have really wanted to see for a long time! If you like things that are fun and involve crossdressing you will probably like this.