Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie, Vol. 1 (light novel) by Hiroro Akizakura

Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie, Vol. 1 (light novel) Reviews

• 
  Rebecca

  What do you get when you mix Twelfth Night and My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom? Something a lot like this book, which combines the obliviousness of Katarina with the intelligence and gumption of Viola. It's honestly closer to a 3-star read if I'm being strict; it really does hit many more familiar notes than it needs to. But it also has a nice take on the Katarina/Sophia/Acchan friendship that I haven't seen in many (if any) isekai novels and it just is a breezy, entertaining read. It could wear with length of use, but right now, I'm happy.
• 
  Jessie The Librarian

  A reincarnated villainess who cosplays as a boy to escape her fate, a BL addicted love rival, a brother with a sister complex, a very bi-confused ML love interest, and an assassin walk into a school. . .
  
  If that comment alone didn’t intrigue you, then the book certainly will work magic on the rest! It’s literally the best book I’ve read all year (yes, it’s also the first book I’ve read this year)! It’s the perfect blend of romance and comedy with a quirky reverse harem blended in to win you over. I can’t express how obsessed I am and how excited I am for the next volume!
• 
  Jen

  Absolutely LOVED this book! Not quite sure how she decided dressing and passing as a boy would save her from all bad ends, but it seemed to work a tad. Made the story interesting for sure!
  
  I was right about Lean, WOOT! Though I want to see Cecilia and Lean pow-wow about how to avoid the bad ends for everyone. And what about the mysterious Azalea-marked girl? What has become of her??
  
  Already pre-ordered the second one. April can’t get here soon enough!
  
  5, that was amazing thank you to my friend who directed me to this, stars!
• 
  My

  Entertaining, ridiculous, and Cecilia reminds me a bit of Katarina too! Called it early about Lean but very pleased that I was right.
  
  I'd like more of the mystery plot and the bits involving the whole knights and Holy Maiden thing (reminds me of Angelique somehow), so will wait for the next volume to see how this goes.
• 
  Lissa Hawley

  I still prefer manga to light novels, but in my quest for more villainess tropey goodness I came across this one. I think the art in manga makes the necessary naivete of the MC a little more palatable as they can do more showing and less telling when the heroine has to be oblivious of her growing harem.
  
  Still it was enjoyable and I definitely want to know more of the story.
• 
  Conni Wayne

  So much fun! I have so many theories about what's going on! I can't wait for volume 2
• 
  Aaron

  Tedious and pedantic, amid ungainly strides toward clever puffery and romantic humor, CROSS-DRESSING VILLAINESS CECILIA SYLVIE #1 is a mediocre offering. On the one hand, the book may delight readers new to mixed-genre light novels, and the book may well find a home among readers unbothered by shallow characters and adynamic plotting. But a clearer view will discover CROSS-DRESSING VILLAINESS #1 to be a narrowly written farce akin to a work of ill-bred fanfiction.
  
  The tale of Cecilia Sylvie, the daughter of a duke, is rather fraught with self-induced anxiety. The teenager is convinced she is the reincarnated antagonist of an otome game, no thanks to the untimely death of her past-life counterpart, Hiyono Kanzaki. Cecilia is proud, noble, wealthy, full of gumption, and struggles her mightiest against the perceived forces of fate that would surely position her against a lovelier heroine in due course.
  
  Naturally, Cecilia would rather avoid a "bad end" at all costs. Her plan? Cross-dress as a male student at her local high school for the wealthy, blend in with the crowd, and surreptitiously manipulate events or scenarios that will guarantee it's somebody else who gets knifed in the chest by an assassin's blade by game's end. It's not a bad plan, honestly. The plan isn't the problem. The problem is Cecilia. She's catty, nosy, fussy, and can't get out of her own way. Alas, for a girl doing her utmost to avoid the threat of weird black-mist phantoms, uncover the identity of a serial murderer, and bequeath a vaguely saintly legacy to a peer, Cecilia Sylvie sure is hogging the limelight.
  
  CROSS-DRESSING VILLAINESS #1 privileges the small ironies that make Cecilia's turn of adventure as "Cecil" more awkward and self-inflicted than the character clearly intends. On this end, the novel is spot-on quirky. For example, readers who identify with the obsessive fangirl in Cecilia will soak up the character's fanciful ogling of pretty-boy characters who appear at random and convenient times. Cecilia obsesses over rewriting her character's future, but every attempt to control her fate spirals a few degrees off course.
  
  The reverse, however, is also true: Readers who have encountered this tale before will quickly tire of the girl's directionless gossip and presumptuousness. Cecilia is single-minded and overconfident, thereby leaving little room for legitimate character development or more layered, dynamic storytelling. It surely doesn't help that nearly all of the male co-protagonists look and sound alike. The flares of anger the author grants Gilbert Sylvie, the adoptive brother whose affection for his sister is one of the book's sources of clarity, help square a few of the characters' relationships, but not nearly well enough to carry the whole novel.
  
  The book's worldbuilding is equally facetious. The whole novel occurs within the confines of the high school for the nobility, with minor exceptions carved out for an awkward field trip (e.g., an excuse for the author to leave several characters off the page) as well as a botched kidnapping (e.g., an opportunity for cooperation that kind of, sort of works). More specifically, readers learn almost nothing about the actual geographic, social, or political landscape within which these characters function. Readers know nothing about what the physical country is like, nothing about what types of business or technology are prevalent, and nothing about the country's varied population or diversity of social strata. The world of CROSS-DRESSING VILLAINESS #1 is boring and dead; it's completely blank.
  
  One good example of each of these problems arrives in a character named Oscar, the brooding crown prince. He's the typical, shadowy teen male with a surprisingly witty side to him. But that's about it. Readers learn nothing more about the guy. His title is the only real fact Cecilia, or the readers, discern over the course of the novel. Scant detail about his political role. No detail about his political knowledge. No detail about what ambitions he may hold for himself. And so on. As with most characters in this novel, Oscar is a bit boring and dead, completely blank.
  
  And sure, there are other characters who expand the otome trope to its fullest: the bookish guy, the overprotective guy, the unkempt charmer, and Cecilia's alter ego, the indulgent and princely type. But seeing as these archetypes serve as drifting tufts of lint for Cecilia's static-charged obsession, with being a surviving "villain" of sorts, one shouldn't expect these pretty boys to provide any respectable level of narrative intuition.
  
  Speaking of which, the novel's narrative style is incredibly problematic. Whether a consequence of an author's inexpert show-and-tell balancing act or of hyper-tenacious translation work, the novel's third-person-limited perspective is fragmented and ill-fitting. To wit, the book reads as if it were penned in third person, but by the individual on whose shoulder the perspective rests. The result is a flippant but conceited, awkwardly melodramatic narrative voice that cares far more than it should about characters and events whose stakes are extraordinarily low.
  
  CROSS-DRESSING VILLAINESS #1 amounts to mildly satisfying fluff, packaged all nice and neat for all of the fujoshi out there. And although one wonders why yet another light novel blithely uses the term "villain"/"villainess" in its title, despite its protagonist being anything but, one might suppose these kinds of semantic errors are best left alone.
• 
  Riri

  This was a delight to read. It's not like this book is the most well-written book ever, nor is it deep with a complex story or something like that. But it's so much fun. Cecilia Sylvie is a villainess from an otome game who's destined to die in every single route, so she decides to avoid that fate by… cross-dressing. That says a lot about what kind of protagonists we have here. She's not exactly the brightest, but she tends to tackle her issues in the wildest way possible.
  
  The concept of the otome game reminds me of Angelique, with two girls competing to be the Holy Maiden by earning approval from the knights. Our protagonist is a fan of the game, so when it got turned into a movie, she went to watch it with her BL fangirl best friend. Except the movie theater then caught fire, so she died and became Cecilia in her next life. Her actions quickly changed a LOT of things since Cecilia is now nothing like the villainess she was supposed to be, but so is the game's original heroine, Lean. The story never tries to hide who Lean really is, but it's still fun to watch the entire thing unravel.
  
  For starters, Lean and one of the knights are now into BL. Extremely so. Cecilia, in her disguise as Cecil, is their favorite subject to write about, so the whole Holy Maiden selection goes out the window since Lean is so busy pairing Cecil with the knights instead. The fact that Oscar, the crown prince and Cecilia's fiancé, seems to be developing a crush on Cecil is really not helping either. It's like if you're playing Angelique, but Angelique is busy shipping genderbent Rosalia with all the knights and we all end up in BL land LOL.
  
  That being said, the book does what needs to be done when it reaches the climax. It has a good balance of comedy and mystery, with nicely written action scenes as well. It's a different take on the villainess genre, and I enjoyed it a lot.
• 
  Elle

  Bro I've been reading stories about a girl crossdressing as a guy for super convoluted reasons since I was like 10. They always slap. I like that we've gotten to a point where these stories can now actually address the lgbt undertones of the situation (even though this one was couched in BL related comedy and isn't trying to be especially deep). I just know there HAS to be light novels with this trope done 10x better, and I'm hoping by supporting this one those will eventually translated and seen by a wider audience... and if they don't exist yet I can hope someday they will? lmao
  
  In any other circumstance this book would be so easy to write off because it's super simple. None of the characters are particularly complex or interesting and the story is paint by numbers. But honestly the tropes it employs are so rare to see in traditional publishing that I'm just glad I can even hold it in my hands. I'm happily anticipating the sequel. Yay for crossdressing!
• 
  Aria

  When I'm in a mood for some light reading I immediately go for my villainess/isekai backlog so you will see me go down this route a LOT. Sometimes I love me some silly HanaKimi-esque shenanigans and this villainess isekai has them aplenty. Can't particularly say I 100% enjoy the way we're going with the romances (bumbling prideful prince x overprotective probably yandere childhood friend?) but I DO enjoy how their love is so obvious to everyone...except Cecilia. Hang in there boys!
  
  
  Originally posted on Instagram.
• 
  Kit

  None of the logic makes any sense, there was too much whining from the MC, and none of the guys remotely stood out. I didn't even want to root for the MC, I just wanted her to shut up. I felt absolutely nothing but annoyance reading this. I've read better fanfics than this. There are much better offerings in this genre out there, and this should be an automatic skip.
• 
  Rosina

  Mostly a lot of fun and I adore the way the friendship between Cecilia and Lean is going to go. The author took something very predictable and made it cute.
  
  That said the Foster brother having romantic feelings for the heroine just feels worse in this one than others. Gil kinda grosses me out.
  
  But I love Oscar and Dante!
  
  I'm definitely looking forward to reading more
• 
  JW

  Cross dressing reverse harem. Cecilia is a hoot. In an attempt to rewrite her foreseen bad ending, she is crossdressing and going by the name Cecil at school. She has the prince flustered and confused and has her own brother on high alert. Will Cecilia be able to maintain her secret?
• 
  SunShiney10

  Very good and funny as hell
• 
  J-Lynn

  Honestly, not a bad story. Characters were different and fun without being too in your face. In addition, the reveal at the end was phenomenal and a happy surprise!
• 
  Shaelee

  I felt it got better the more I read it. The obtuse characters are kind of unbelievable but I had a fun time and I'm willing to read the second volume.
• 
  Alicia Hern

  I'm so excited this is as good as host club
• 
  Mindy

  3.75/5
• 
  Sam

  Silly fun
  
  I’ve seen a lot of novels like this recently (a modern person reincarnated as a villainess) and this one was pretty good too. It’s well executed and the plot works really well for this volume. It did make me laugh and I enjoyed the plot.I’m a bit worried that it’ll fall into the trap I’ve seen before of stretching it out too long but that’s a matter of taste. For now I’m going to buy the second one and see how it goes
• 
  Jennifer

  This has all the Bakarina vibes I've been craving lately
• 
  Phoebe

  5/5 ☆ stars I am pleasantly surprised! I wasn't expecting this isekai to be so interesting, funny and cute at the same time.The serial killer murder mystery plotline is very interesting. I like how the characters are written, especially Cecilia's brother Gilbert. He is fussy and protective of Cecilia, which I find adorable. I also found it a fun twist that the ML, Oscar, seems to be attracted to Cecilia even when she cross-dresses as Cecil. (⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠)
• 
  D

  Highly recommend this to people who like romance. Its in the "villainess isekai" subgenre, but it's really cute. It reminds me of like 90's/early 2000's shoujo.
• 
  Avani

  Three weeks down the line I remember precisely nothing about this book, except for a vague sense of enjoyment from reading it???
  
  Clearly it was forgettable, if, knowing my tastes, well-written.
  
  For my remnants of fondness, three stars.