I picked this book up because it sounded interesting, though I didn't realise quite how small an area of study it covered - as a result, it seemed like it went round in circles at least once and that was a shame.

The amount of work the author had done to create this work, to look at those who had chosen (for whatever reason) to live their lives as men to the point of getting married to women, was clear from the outset. What was lacking, clearly because it's just not there in the source material, was the reasoning behind those individual decisions - that's the thing with primary sources, if the words of the people concerned are not there, they're just not there. So it was left to the author to try and reason why they did what they did.

What I found most interesting was that these lives were often lived without issue until either bad behaviour led to discovery or a relationship hit the rocks. It makes me wonder just how many others lived their lives right through to the end without a similar unmasking of their 'true' nature. Similarly, as women gained more rights over property, how they dressed, education and work, these stories faded out - does that mean it stopped happening or just that it became a different kind of relationship in the eyes of society?

Technical issues made this e-ARC more of a challenge to read than it should have been - the formatting meant that there were often multiple words compressed into one or words split into two, while a better proof-reader might have been helpful too (bares resemblance, anyone?).

Reads much like a term paper or graduate thesis. The knowledge within would be invaluable to a lgbtq enthusiast. Female husbands have been around since the beginning of time and will continue to do so. The author does a fine job breaking down historical articles and adding personal tidbits which provide insights into both the husband and wives psyche. Some notions are repeated frequently as well as opinions