Reviews

Velasin vin Aaro is a lord from Ralia who is meant to marry a Lady of Tithena to improve diplomatic relations. Plans go haywire when he is unexpectedly and drastically outed to his father, and is instead then pledged to marry her brother, Caethari Aeduria. These two are from different worlds, with the people of Ralia shaming those who desire same sex partners or identify as other than their biologically ordained sex. Not only is Velasin having to deal with the trauma of the exposure and coming to terms with his new status as a husband, but there is someone in the shadows who is willing to kill to end this new alliance.

This is my first LGBTQ romance, and WOW is this author killing it. The book is amazing and really brings to light the flaws within our society. I’m assuming that Ralia is meant to be current societal norms and that the new lands that Velasin is married into are what we one day hope to strive for regarding consent, identity, and autonomy. I look forward to the day we can accept one another as they do. This book was thrilling and heartwarming, and my .oh my the deception!

Features:
✔️LGBTQ Romance
✔️Murder Mystery
✔️Arranged Marriage
✔️Fantasy

Trigger Warnings:
✔️Rape
✔️Murder
✔️Brutality

Pub Date: 26 July 2022

knight_12's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

The book started off with a lot of promise for character exploration and workd-building in terms of the politics but it stagnated after the 1/3rd mark on both fronts. The political plot & romance plot didn't work well together though it could have. I would have easily given this book a 3.5 if the exact series of events took place over a much, much longer time period.
Spoilers: all of the events from the meeting between the protagonists take place in 7 days. That's too short.

Content Warnings

wheemsicott's review against another edition

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3.5

I really wish this book had been more. More well-plotted, more intriguing, more everything. Instead, the only thing that grabbed me were the characters.

I believe that, had Foz Meadows shown more of Laecia's unraveling interior from the start, things would've flown a bit more fluidly. She would've become a more interesting villain, making the mystery more compelling in turn. Instead, she's only ever presented as a bit of an insecure, over-compensating but ultimately friendly girl, which robs her of anything interesting to say until her plan is revealed--by accident, of course. Because the MCs are such awful investigators and I was I done with their modus operandi like halfway through.

My final rating is still a 3.5 because of the care and nuance the author put into talking about sexual violence. It was impressive, and the reason I wanted the rest of A Strange and Stubborn Endurance to deliver as well. Alas, this was a novel of mystery and court intrigue that fell broadly flat on its face.

solly's review against another edition

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4.0

3.5

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and characters and a lot of things in this, but the plot resolution felt a bit unsatisfactory to me. There's a graphic rape scene at the beginning (which is dealt with in great detail over the rest of the book) there was a TW for it so I was prepared and read through it alright, BUT there's also a graphic animal death scene that did not have a TW so I wasn't expecting it and it was jarring (less violent than the rape scene by far but since there were TWs at the beginning I thought that would be included but it wasn't)
I'll still probably read the next one but yeah outside the violent scene I felt like the balance between mystery/intrigue and romance/character arcs wasn't the best at times, but that's a pretty personal opinion. Overall I still enjoyed it a lot, and I'm curious about the next book

eagle0515's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

tan_yah's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A

4.0

willowbee_jones's review against another edition

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3.0

meh, they had me in the first half not gonna lie

all it was was “oh no, something happened, you need to come here NOW! let’s investigate the bad thing for 50 pages, then we can have some bonding time. let’s sleep (it’s just a nap). bonding time. SOMETHING HAPPENED COME HERE NOW! investigate for 50 pages. bond. flirt. ANOTHER BAD THING GET OVER HERE! okay now for real let’s go to bed.” AND THAT HAPPENS OVER AND OVER

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