I purchased I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up from the bookstore on a whim, mostly as a special treat for myself. I have heard of Kodama through her vaguely infamous series, NTR, and it was nice to support an author creating queer content with content I knew I had a higher chance of liking.

Machi Morimoto has never really thought about what she wants out of life. She knows what is expected of her: she is to go to school, get good grades, get a good job, get married, and have children. She graduated school and has that well-paying job, but now her parents won't stop nagging her to find a man and get married, even going so far as signing her up for an arranged matchmaking service without her consent. During a coffee meet up with her high school friend Hana Agaya, Hana proposes a wild plan. Why don't they get married?

From the artwork to the plot, this story was deeply cute. Hana and Machi grow into each other beautifully. What starts as a joke ends up as a mutually supportive relationship. Both women are surprisingly well-developed, realistic characters, and the adult premise is a breath of fresh air among all the high school yuri stories. The pacing sometimes stuttered, or felt rushed. There was definitely enough material here for a full series, but it's all condensed down to a few chapters. If you buy the paperback, there is also a bonus short comic at the end called "Anaerobic Love." Featuring a former high school athlete falling in love with a cantankerous track star, it was an oddly melancholic note to end an adorable book on.

All 'n all, I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up delivered the sweet, fluffy treat it promised. WLW deserve cute stories too!