The premise of this sounded really good and I love the idea of exploring the idea of chosen one through a nonbinary and queer lens. Unfortunately this book just did not click for me, despite the many positive responses I saw. Wholly a case of being the wrong audience after all.

Unfortunately, I don't feel comfortable reviewing this book because of the controversies regarding the author.

This book was part of my OcTBRChallenge reading list, for one very shameful reason: I got the ARC for it like 2 years ago, before I even HAD a blog, when I was still using tumblr and basically only had the vaguest idea of how NetGalley worked. I downloaded it and then... completely forgot about it! ... and then since I've been using Netgalley again, the more time passed the more ashamed I was and the least I felt like reading it because of that. (You're supposed to read ARCs in a timely manner and this is the complete opposite of timely). I'm now mad at myself for waiting this long, because it was a super enjoyable read!

I rarely enjoy every story in a collection - I actually tend to find short story collections difficult to rate/review because they're often unequal. Not so here! Every story is a twist on the gendered prophecy ("no man born of woman can harm Macbeth" type thing) with trans, genderqueer and nonbinary characters who find themselves confronting various evils.

I especially loved the Sleeping Beauty retelling, "Early to Rise", with a bi-gender (?) character who bargains their way out of their own curse. It was a great twist, and not what I expected even within this specific brand of stories. King's Favour, about an evil witch-queen who kills every magic practitioner in her kingdom to avoid being killed by them, was also a highlight for me, in both the concept and the execution of it/the ending.

But really, every one of the short stories was great in its own way, and the last one, Wish-Giver, was so heart-warming, and such a nice way to conclude the collection.

The writing style also had that fairy tale quality to it that worked great with the topic, and I flew through this book in only a few short hours. Definitely recommend, and I'm angry at myself for waiting so long to read it!

I had completely forgot what this was about and why I had requested it in the first place.
So I went into this with as mush as an open mind as I could and found that I just didn't like it or care for the characters and felt that the stories were rushed.

Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

It was such a refreshing experience reading a book with all stories about people who don't conform to gender standards, especially as a nonbinary person myself. Although too short sometimes to be truly satisfying, I would recommend this.

What an absolutely incredible collection of stories! This centering of trans and non binary narratives in NO MAN OF WOMAN BORN made for such a wonderful reading experience, and is something I desperately want to see more of.

If you've ever wanted your fairy-tales to be queerer, especially more trans, this is the book for you.

Every short story centers around the idea of trans people, non-binary and binary, being loopholes for prophecies because the prophecy has weird gendered language.

Usually I'd go through each story of an anthology and give a short summary, but I'm not going to do that this time. Why?

1. All stories were 4 stars or higher, which is a rarity for me. Usually there's one story I really like, one I hate and the rest are average, but this anthology was just *chef's kiss*

2. I think it's best to go in blind with these. There's content warnings before each short story, as well as a pronunciation guide if there are neo-pronouns in the story, and that is, I think, all you should go on. Each story has their own fantasy setting, new magic rules, new political climate, new family structure, and I feel like all the fun is in delving in with a fresh mind and seeing what this story has to hold.

This was a really solid anthology and I wish this was more popular.

I had some other books to review that I DNF’ed and was so ashamed I didn’t log back into my NetGalley account which is unfair to this book because it is a true gem.

As soon as I read the synopsis of this book I knew I would love it.

I had no idea I would love it THIS much.

Each of these stories are completely perfect. Wren’s story. Breathtaking. If I could get the entirety tattooed on my body I would. This is the kind of fantasy that made me fall in LOVE with reading and I was yearning for more. As I was reading I kept thinking to myself “Oh PLEEEEEASE let there be a full length novel by this author ...” AND THERE IS :D I am a total Ana Maradoll fan now. I need a print copy of this book and all the rest.

Something I also want to mention is the diversity of pronouns used in this book instead of just the ones we might be used to. This is an important reminder to keep learning and never to assume. I also applaud the content warnings at the beginning of each stories, this is something that should be normalized.

I usually hate the star system because it’s so limiting but this book is 5 dazzling stars out of five.

Did not finish. Thank you for this anthology though, the trans representation is always very much needed.

This book is an incredibly creative and inspired series of shorts that plays on traditional fantasy tropes but creates stories for LGBTQ+ readers who may have felt excluded from this genre in the past. In fact, I would love to see some of the characters and worlds from this collection given their own novel.

This short story collection was a sheer joy to read and I can't even begin to imagine how wonderful it would be for younger people to read this - especially those who are questioning their gender. I wish my teenage self had had something as wonderful and empowering as this to read.

Now onto the stories themselves. They are all self-contained, and come with a list of content warnings at the beginning, which I thought was really nicely done and something that more authors should consider doing. And they were all just really nice, I don't know what more I can say! The writing was excellent, the characters well fleshed-out despite them being so short. I particularly enjoyed the last one, which was short but oh, so sweet.

If there were more books like this the world would be a kinder and lovelier place. I especially appreciated this as a fantasy fan, and the nods to prophecies and the way their wording can be twisted, were excellently done.

I hope to see more from Ana Mardoll in future, as well as more inclusive fantasy for people of all genders.

This novel is a good one that I’ve read this year! The characters are so dynamic yet relatable. I loved the flow of the story. It held my attention the whole time.

Wow I think that if you're transgender, gender-fluid or a nonbinary person, you should totally give this book a chance and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

I personally loved to see so many representations in a single book (even though I don't feel capable enough to talk about them since they don't represent me particularly), hopefully we'll get to see more books like this in the near future because they are needed.

Another extraordinary aspect of this book is that you have stories that are "coming out" ones and others where the characters' gender is understood and no one questions it! Sometimes what we all need is to read stories were the characters get to show their true selves without anyone judging like it happens in real life (at least that's my experience reading about lesbian characters).

Moreover, this is an anthology where all of the stories are fantasy ones but at the same time, all of them had their unique plot twist, world and extraordinary creatures. Tangled Nets, His Father's Son and The Wish-Giver have to be the stories that I loved the most but the other ones are not that far behind.

I would honestly recommend this collection of short stories to everyone, not only because we need more stories with these kind of representations but because the stories are also fun, interesting and gripping. There is magic, dragons, royalty, everything you could ask for in a fantasy collection plus amazing characters representing people that hadn't gotten their spot light in stories until now.

I couldn't quite connect with this book or its stories very well at all. The issue, I think, might have been the lack of any character development. The characters wound up feeling rather cookie cutter and unoriginal.

I feel like there was no character development which there very much should have been. I wasn't able to connect with the writing so it was hard to get through and very slow to get through.

This is a good collection of short stories and I enjoyed reading most of them.

The stand-out factor for this anthology is that Mardoll takes gendered prophecy and other fantasy tropes and subverts them with trans and non-binary protagonists – which I loved.

My favorite stories were His Fathers’ Son, Daughter of Kings, and Early to Rise, all of which I felt had the strongest characterisation and backstory but I enjoyed aspects of the other stories as well.

Mardoll ensures to include any triggering themes at the beginning of each story which I appreciated, and each protagonist gets to speak with their own voice. An enjoyable read.

I would like to thank Ana Mardoll, Acacia Moon Publishing and NetGalley for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I have DNFed this book, but gave it 2 stars because the book was okay; I was the problem.

I started this ARC for Reading Rush this year, but could not finish it in time. It's a collection of 7 short stories about queer main characters that have great destinies. The book itself seems great and I'm sure it is /will be some people's favourite book, but it wasn't for me.

I've read the first story - Tangled Nets - and gave it 3 stars, because I like the main character and the story as a whole, although some characters felt flat.
But when I got to the second story - King's Favor - I got really confused. So I lost interest in it and read other books, and when I tried to continue with this one, I felt like I just could not get on with it. So I decided to give up and focus on other books that are waiting for me.

Again, this is a beautiful and emotional book, and if you like short stories/anthologies and queer books, go for it. You might like it or even love it.

These stories were fine, but since I got it as an ARC and did not read much of a synopsis, I did not realize they would mostly all end in exactly the same, already-spoiled-by-the-collection-title way. There was no variety! It became pretty monotonous. I get the emotional catharsis of having your identity validated by prophesy, but I think allowing trans and nonbinary protagonists more than one kind of story would have been way more affirmative.

Absolutely lovely collection of stories. Here are some individual reviews for some of the stories!

Tangled Nets - 4/5 - A fun read but a bit slow going. Fairly obvious plotline but a pleasure to read nonetheless.

King's Favor - 5/5 - This was a delight to read. I love the hedge-witch concept and the simple solution to resolving the tyrannical ruler."

"His Father's Son - 4/5 - Another expected plotline but well executed. Good writing and kept me invested."

This is such a good concept - trans and non-binary characters subverting gendered prophecies - and I thought it was executed really well too. I loved the writing style, and most of the plots and characters were quite well-rounded for short stories. There was just a little something missing that prevents me from giving this 5 stars, but it was a great read and definitely worth checking out.