Can I Crossdress My Way Out Of This Arranged Marriage?

by Fern V. Bedek

Our poor Half Elven protagonist has had an arranged marriage sprung on him by his mother. Not only did she effectively sell him for the dowry, but she's handed him over to marry the daughter of an Orc. At least our protagonist has managed to think up a last minute plan to get out of it.

The Orc's daughters won't want him if he can convince them he's a girl, right?

Genres: Fantasy

74 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 15, 2022

About the author

Hello!
I’m a Canadian trans woman with a love of art, science, and writing. I have been writing on Scribblehub for a year now, under the username Beedok, and am working on making a full time career out of it.

Reviews

[Anniek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this novella to the cozy fantasy crowd! It has a trans girl MC and a sapphic romance, and it was a quick, cute read.

[Kogiopsis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute little novella with a straightforward plot and a sweet resolution. There were a few grammatical errors, and I'm not personally a fan of adult female characters being continuously referred to as girls, but I also recognize that everyone has their own relationship to gendered terms and that says more about me than the book.

Overall, a nice narrative snack, but ultimately simple which keeps it at a three for me, as there wasn't much to pique my interest.

Edit: I keep forgetting to add this, but I felt Bedeck did a fantastic job drawing parallels between our protagonist's experience as a half-elf in Elven society and her experience as a trans woman who hasn't quite figured that out yet. That was very thematically satisfying and well-handled.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute story. ♥️
Low stakes, cozy, fantasy fun.
No heat.
Recommended by Skye. 📚

[Autumn Lanning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute and delightful little read. The characters were fun, the story was adorable, and the egg was very very very strong with this one.

[Issy Waldrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and enjoyable trans story of a half elf trying to get out of an arranged marriage, and discovering certain aspects about themselves along the way.

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple and cute

[Eel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook in one sitting and loved the smooth narration.
This story is short and sweet with the main character pretending to be a girl to get out of a marriage before accidentally falling in love. It’s disturbingly lacking a character depth though—MC does not mention being male until the disguise, so I assumed she was female from the start of the book. The story seems to be entirely about the MC’s transition, but there’s no tension as she is accepted as female immediately with no obstacles. It’s a whole lot of dress shopping and walking around. I wish there was more tension or hurtles.

This story fell flat for me.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5

This was a quite simple and nice sapphic fantasy novella.

Half-elven Anrik pretended to be a girl to avoid arranged marriage, but in the process, went through a self-exploratory phase, as it turned out that being a girl felt natural. Falling in love wasn’t the plan either…

Btw, what a mother?!

It was fun to read it and I loved understanding and acceptance of the orkish family. There is not too much depth, but overall it was a good and easy read.

[Littlebookterror · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's what it says on the tin.
It's a wacky premise and does not take itself very serious - not really my thing.

[Freya Faust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute!