I received this via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it guys. This book was just what I wanted It to be. The world building was fun and enticing. The characters were very well flushed out. I loved the plot of this. I can not wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book.

Netgalley requested ebook which I really enjoyed.
A collection of original fairy tales with usually a prophesy and transsexual heroes.

Tangled Nets - Wren finds out how to become a witch with a dragon and a fish net. (Reminded me a bit of Loki making a net and Fáfnir, also Lord of the Rings I guess beyond the clear "virgins sacrificed to a dragon" theme.)
King's Favor- A kingdom in which anyone with magic could be queen (particularly liked this one)!
His Father's Son - I quite enjoyed the family dynamics within this one, swords and wandering families, world have liked to see more (reminded a bit of Mercedes Lackey Oath books).
Daughter of Kings - A bit Arthurian but a queen to be pulls her grandmother's sword from a stone in the Witchwood.
Early to Rise - Sleeping Beauty with a fairy godmother twist.
No Man of Women Born - A prophesy starts the training of a chosen one who's parents are alive to enlighten and encourage.
The Wish-Giver - A dragon gives a wish if you defeat it, so a little girl just wants everyone to see the truth.

I really loved this anthology and thought all of the stories were so well written and lovedd this take on all of them. I loved that this anthology exists.

A great short story collection, but a bit too slow for me. Nevertheless I recommend it as it is nice to read about trans and non-binary characters in fantasy, my favourite genre, and it is great to see the genre shift from the white cis-centre it has largely focused on in the past decades.

I cried many times during this book because of how good it felt to read these stories. THESE are the tales about prophecies and magic with gender identity I wish I read when I was younger. I really loved how the main character's gender played into the prophecy for each story. Like, '"no man or woman"? oh good i am neither'. All the little loopholes found in "classic" prophecies. I also really liked how much worldbuilding there were in each of these stories, so many new worlds for my imagination within barely 30 pages? Kudos. And honestly, from the author's not on page one I knew I would love this book. This is why own voices stories and representation in books are important.

This collection of short stories re-imagines various folk tales (and well known literary constructs like the titular "No Man of Woman Born") in settings where transgender, agender and other non-binary characters have central roles in the narratives. It's usually fairly obvious how that facet of the characters will play into the narrative, though I don't think that surprising the reader was the main focus in any case. Ana Mardoll is genderfluid xerself, and pretty open about the fact that xie wrote the stories to give non-cisgender persons some heroes of their own. Which is something I can heartily support. I'm also pleased to say that even if they aren't exactly packed with shocking twists, they're well executed. In particular, I'd like to read more about what happens to Caran, from the story "King's Favour", in the time after that story ends.

A lot of pretty good short stories, helpful in increasing both knowledge and acceptance when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues, especially relating to gender identity. At the same time, I don't feel like it was taken as far as it could have been, and most of it could work as novels if the author had gone deeper into both plot and characters.

It took me a while to get through this book but this was caused by personal matters and my inability to read short stories collections somewhat consistently and has no say on the quality of it. I loved that every story has trigger warnings and pronunciation guides of neopronouns if needed.

★★★★⭐ | Tangled nets
Good start. I like how it was family-focused and Wren's motivation was xer mother and sister first and the whole unjust system latter. I'm pretty sure it was a retelling of 'The Lottery'? & that Wren's autistic.

★★★★⭐ | King's favour
I think the only thing I didn't like was that the scarce dialogue and listings of herbs made me lose focus every now and then. Other than that I loved the tragic irony the Witch-Queen got herself into and how Caran saved nerself with the simplest magic.

★★★★⭐ | His Father's Son
Trans boy getting revenge on the bastard who killed his family. Cool society concept with many mothers and I think remarrying? Or the concept of marriage as a couple which is currently rising a child together?
A bit deus ex machina but still satisfying.

★★★★,5 | Daughter of Kings
Never say no to a nice trip to an evil magic forest. Cool things may happen.
King Arthur's Excalibur retelling with a bi, trans woman. Also, men are such useless rulers in this one.

★★★★⭐ | Early to rise
Genderfluid sleeping beauty retelling! When you spend your life getting yourself ready for the influence of prophecy but then nothing goes as planned you need to be really clever to get yourself and your kingdom out of the trouble.
Also, I'm pretty sure that MC is ace.

★★★★,5 | No Man of Woman Born
Why the prophecy that "no man of woman born can't kill you" doesn't make you invincible? a. there's a lot of people who are not men, and b. not every person to give birth to another person is a woman.
A story about exploring one's gender in the light of prophecy. Do I feel like my assigned gender does not fit me because I want to fit the prophecy or am I trying to fulfill the prophecy to have an excuse to explore my gender identity? Is there a point at which I should have a definite answer? Will this answer change the more I learn?

★★★★⭐ | The Wish-Giver
A badass little girl battling a dragon to get her gender recognised. Just imagine a tiny girl facing a big ass dragon and tell me you don't want to know how THAT plays out.

This book is an interesting new experience - almost like relearning how to read, and definitely learning what should be new norms. I enjoyed the main characters being transgender or nonbinary because this created scenarios where familiar fairy tale gender-related tropes gets turned on its head. I won't deny that the new pronouns tripped me up quite a bit because it's the unfamiliar words that jump off the page first. The guides at the beginning of each story were helpful in telling us what to expect. I really hope to see this kind of inclusion becoming more common. We all need this.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this novel.

DNF at 25%

I have been "currently reading" this for months and it's getting to the point where I am dreading picking it up...which should never be the case when reading a book, so I have decided to pass on this one.

It's definitely a "me not you" situation and I urge anyone who likes the sound of this to check out other reviews before going by what I say!

First up, what I liked:
-Diversity. This book is packed with short stories filled with diverse characters. All characters are trans and use neopronouns or "they/them" pronouns. It's also own voices!
-after reading the introduction, you can tell how much this means to the author and I think this is such an important novel that definitely deserves the attention it gets. It's such a shame there are not more stories like this.
-I love the fact that trigger warnings are added to each story.


Onto things I didn't like:
-The world building and character appearances were sorely lacking.
-I just couldn't connect to anything that happened or any of the characters.
-I found the short stories very slow-paced and I much prefer fast-paced stories.

Overall, I am very glad I had the opportunity to read this one and just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it wouldn't work for you!

This book features seven short stories all about trans and nonbinary character with a twist on the common trope "no man of woman born". The idea is ingenious and all of these stories are very different from one another.
The author herself says it in her notes but I loved that no wrong pronouns or deadnames were included unless absolutely necessary. You can tell it's not necessary at all, there were enough other troubles around to keep the story interesting.
I loved the whole setup of these stories and the unique ideas Mardoll has. There are some character who have strong relationships with siblings and friends which I very much enjoyed. Sometimes, I was confused by the unexplained magic and felt it did not fit into the actual plot.
These are all short stories and soetimes I feel the story needed more pages or a more well-rounded ending.

Seven legendary stories with allll the representations we can ever ask for!!!!

No man of woman born was everything! I would've preferred more if it wasn't short stories cz i love standalones and series.

No Man of Woman Born is anthology with full of fantasy and an amazing characters. I really enjoyed some stories but couple of them felt like unfinished. I wanted to know more. The Wish Giver and Early to Rise were my favourite stories. I loved the concept and i loved the Ana Mardoll's writing. Neopronoun pronunciations and content note parts were really usefull too. Thank you for this arc.

Seven really well written stories that will have you turning your pages waiting to see what comes next! You want revenge? you have it! You want dragons? They are there! Witches? Magic? Swords? Check check and check! You want Ace, Trans, genderfluid, nonbinary great representation? YES! This is the book!

A amazing collection of fantasy stories with amazing characters, and even more amazing neopronoun pronunciation guides so that we don't butcher it up. Smooth writing, and very thought out plots!

"No man of woman born" hooked by the title because it is a great title and references not only Shakespeare but also makes me think about Tolkien. Gender is a big part of our lives but it is only when books like this end up in our hands that we realize how much it matters since we are children. In several of these short stories, the hero is able to defeat the villain because the gender that they've been assigned or the gender with which they are perceived is not the one they are. Some of the stories even have neopronouns which may take the reader a bit to get used to adding more layers to the characters. I also particularly liked the fact that the short stories dealt with very bloody and serious matters because whereas gender is something that can be quite serious even more when people are misgendered.

As diversity begins to really fill out YA fiction and starts to make its way through the speculative genres, gender variant and trans characters are still being left behind. This anthology of short stories helps to fill that gap with many different stories that twist cleverly on the base premise.

No Man of Woman Born is a wonderful collection of short stories that center trans and nonbinary characters in traditional fantasy-story roles and prophecies in ways that are always true to their gender.

Content warnings can be found at the beginning of the book and at the start of every individual short story.

The book starts with an author's note that already touched me deeply, and it only got better from there on. The short stories feature a wide variety of characters all over the trans spectrum, from trans women and men to genderfluid to nonbinary to questioning. Some of them use neopronouns, all of which are briefly noted at the beginning of each story.

Overall I adored this book and had a great time reading it. I had no idea how much I needed to hear these stories until I actually read them. Especially the story giving the book its title, No Man of Woman Born, will stay with me for a long time and become something to reread again and again.

Individual ratings for and quick thoughts about the short stories:

Tangled Nets: 4 stars
I'm not a big fan of the Evil-Dragon-Needs-Annual-Sacrafice trope, but it was well executed here. It helped that the sacraficial system in this story is pretty reasonable, actually. I was a bit confused by technicalities of the climax, but ultimately it was a nice story.

King's Favor: 4 stars
This one started out slow and had a bit too much retrospection for me, spending most of it's time setting the scene and world and not enough on the actual story. The second half of it was very cool, though, with a great open ending!

His Father's Son: 5 stars
One of my favourites. It made me cry, had very interesting worldbuilding (without dragging like the previous story) and I loved the family dynamics, for lack of a better word.

Daughter of Kings: 5 stars
Another favourite! A great take on the sword-in-the-stone prophecy. I loved the brother and the companion, the interpersonal interactions in this one were the best.

Early to Rise: 4.5 stars
Fun and intriguing retelling of Sleeping Beauty with a genderfluid aromantic protagonist, which I adored!! The ending, while super cool, seemed almost too easy however and didn't entirely convince me.

No Man of Woman Born: 5 stars
This one resonated with me a lot. It's different from the others in that it doesn't actually.... fullfil the prophecy, slay the dragon, etc. Instead it's introspective and soft, with wonderful conversations about identity and knowing who you are, featuring a questioning protagonist. I absolutely loved it.

The Wish-Giver: 5 stars
THE CUTEST 😭😭😭😭😍

Admittedly, I am not actively a fan on fantasy, but I don't mind it either, and I love short stories and trans content. Besides, I knew of Mardoll as an activist on Twitter, so I figured I'd like this. Sadly, I didn't.

Most of the stories aren't so much fantasy as they are set in fantasy worlds - they're more Ronia the Robber's Daughter than Circle of Magic. And in fairness, my not caring for that is just a matter of personal taste. But an additional frustration is that although Mardoll is a trans writer ostensibly writing for a trans audience, the stories still follow the tropes of trans literature too closely for comfort.

"His Father's Son" and "Daughter of Kings" (a take on the sword in the stone myth) are essentially coming-out stories, and I suspect that most trans readers are, like myself, tired of those. "Early to Rise," featuring a genderfluid Sleeping Beauty, is a definite step up in terms of both trans content - the main character's fluidity is critical to the plot, but is presented as a simple fact - and fantasy content. But even that one left me feeling unsatisfied, with an ending that felt rushed and unnatural. I finally had to stop reading when I hit the painfully didactic (and lexically anachronistic) line "Innes hadn't realized it was possible to be a gender other than the one you'd been assigned at birth."

In the end, I feel like this is a case of "better idea than delivery." Hopefully, either Mardoll or someone else will make another attempt that really follows through.

I enjoyed this book. I liked the different approach to some of the standard fairy tale plots. At times, it felt as though the author was really stretching to make a point about gender, instead of letting the "tell" flow naturally from the story. However, that's a minor quibble about what was a refreshing take on the fairy tale genre.

DNF at %10.
This book is a collection of short stories which are interesting subversions of classic fairy tales. I gave it 2 stars because I think it was Okay. The focus of the stories are on gender-neutral, transgender, and gender-fluid individuals. The author uses gender-neutral pronouns in these stories. Although I appreciate the way the author incorporated less-represented characters in her stories, I'm not a fan of short-stories. I always feel as though they end right when it starts to get interesting.
That's partially a compliment, because these stories were interesting. However, they just aren't for me.