Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press / Wednesday Books for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

2.5 stars

I really struggled with this one, but I was intrigued just enough to see it through and see how this story started and how it was going to end.

The concept of this was really interesting and I was pretty excited for it. But the execution just was not there for me. These two characters have been killing each other for 1000 years, and one of them really has no idea why. And we don't get any of that information until the end.

I wish that information would have been provided earlier as it would have helped me connect with both characters. But as it was, I had no idea why any of this was happening, and every other chapter was a snapshot of a previous life. In theory, that sounds really intriguing, but it left me not feeling any kind of connection to either character and I was getting whiplash from the constant back and forth.

It's also not ever very clear why the main character says she's so in love with the other. Why? We don't get any details on their relationship growing and developing. We're dropped right in the middle of it, and I just couldn't understand why she felt so strongly about her "soulmate" when all we really know is he keeps killing her.

So this was mostly a miss for me 😣

I love you, I have loved you, and I will love you.

A tragically poetic love story that transcends gender, space, and time. I fell in love with Evelyn and Arden in this lifetime and every lifetime before that.

My jaw was on the floor the last 20% of the books
and I’m currently sobbing and feeling all the emotions of a millennium of love and loss.

My first 5 star read of the year!

This is my first time reading a book by Laura Steven, and she certainly did not disappoint. The love story between the two main characters was tragically beautiful, spanning multiple lifetimes. The story was full of mystery that I hadn’t anticipated when I first read the description but was the main driving factor that kept me intrigued from start to finish. It added an exciting layer to the story, making it even more engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed the way she blended romance and intrigue, leaving me hooked until the very end.

I was first intrigued by this book after finding out that it was about a love across time, which seemed so interesting. This book lived up to my expectations and was carried out perfectly. I loved watching their relationship as they found each other in each life despite their identities and genders, while the poetic writing scattered throughout was amazing and added to the meaning of the story. I’ve always loved the concept of fate, which might be why I find their story so incredibly beautiful. However, because we got to see so many of their past lives, this left some of them feeling lacking, and I wanted to know more about each of them. However, overall it had such a deep meaning and felt so magical. I would definitely recommend it to everyone!

I need a some time to stop crying and to collect my heart in pieces on the floor before I write a full fledged review. This book wrecked me.

UPDATE: (FULL REVIEW HERE)

“I love you, I have loved you, and I will love you.” 

The words that echo through this story time and time again. When I saw that this book was being described as The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets This Is How You Lose The Time War with a blurb by the queen herself V.E. Schwab I knew I immediately had to read it. And I can only say that it has altered my brain chemistry. This book thoroughly wrecked me and I am ok with that. I just wish I had more of their story. I needed more pages.

This is the story of Evelyn and Arden. They are destined for each other, to fall in love in every life, to die by each other's hand in every life before their 18th birthday. It's heartbreaking watching Evelyn's past lives unfold while she just knows the inevitable is coming. It's tragic to watch Arden love her and have to kill her every time. Their love is anything but simple and yet it is unconditional and complex and that's what makes this story amazing.

The writing is lyrical and gorgeous. The story spans over centuries and continents. I loved all the side characters. Everyone, go read this book. Please. 

That is all I'm going to say before I tear up again. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the e-arc. My opinions are my own.

somebody play "the prophecy" by taylor swift!!!!!

this was very, very good and i think this will end up blowing up (more than it already has) on social media following the publication date.

first, i 100% see the comparisons with the invisible life of addie larue - and i also found it to be reminiscent of divine rivals, more with the writing style and romance between the two main characters.

the writing was well done and i adored the poetry (written by one of the characters) that was sprinkled throughout.

the pacing of this is slow, which i personally enjoyed! this story has little action & focuses more on weaving the many threads of a love story spread throughout a millennium. i really liked traveling back through time with the characters, getting small glimpses of different periods throughout history and the various ways our two main characters connected. i do wish we were able to have a bit more time in these chapters - i think that would have helped in showing the readers the relationship built up between evelyn & arden. while you certainly know they are soulmates, i would have appreciated reading more scenes about the development of their closeness.

overall, this was an excellent read! this book made me much more emotional than i was expecting & serves as a reminder that time is a gift. it truly is a privilege to be able to age and grow old!

Our Infinite Fates - Laura Steven
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 🌶️ (barely there spice)

“I love you, I have loved you, and I will love you.”

How would you feel if you knew you were destined to be unalived in every life by the soul that you love with all your heart? That is Evelyns life over and over, she is destined to be in love with Arden who will unalive her on her 18th birthday.

This book has one of my favorite tropes ever in a book, reincarnation.

Y'ALL. I literally cannot stop thinking about this book. Like, I'm sitting here trying to write this review and my brain is just SCREAMING about how perfect every single word was. The way Laura Steven writes about love? Pure poetry. And not just romantic love - we're talking about ALL the loves. Family love, friendship love, the kind of love that makes you want to live even when everything is falling apart.

The vibes we're working with:
🌙 Reincarnation but make it DEVASTATING
💫 Enemies to lovers but across CENTURIES
🎭 Racing against time (and death itself)
🦋 Soulmates who can't escape each other
⚔️ "I have to kill you to save you" vibes
🌺 Sister bonds that break your heart
✨ Beautiful writing that feels like poetry

I literally ordered the special edition after finishing my ARC because I NEED this beauty on my shelf. If you love books that make you FEEL things, books that make you want to hug your loved ones tight, books that make you believe in love despite everything... this is it. This is THE book.

TW: Please check content warnings, but trust me - it's worth it.

Now excuse me while I go cry about that one quote again. You know the one. 💔✨

4.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for a review. This review contains my honest thoughts and personal opinions on the book. Please note that any quotes included in this review are subject to change upon publication.

“[...] this was the one blind faith I had: that love was a physical force, and it was never wasted. Once it was called out into the universe, it would echo back to us forever.”

This book follows the story of two lovers Evelyn and Arden as they reincarnate over the centuries to fall in love over and over again, only to kill each other before their eighteenth birthday. I was immediately drawn to this book because of its concept and was definitely not disappointed. This story is told solely from Evelyn’s POV who doesn’t remember why her soul reincarnates only to die before she turns eighteen, whereas her killer, Arden does. As a result, the first couple chapters can be confusing as you try to get your bearings and understand the rules of Evelyn and Adren’s curse, but as you progress in the story, it gets easier.

This book felt like discovery or falling in love which fits well considering the premise of the book. I say this because as Evelyn recalls parts of her past lives you get to unearth the story with her and begin to understand why Arden and her fall in love again and again. You get to discover the characters’ different facets; as you read their love story you begin to fall in love with them in turn.

“I love you, and I have loved you, and I will love you.”

I also appreciated all the different places this story goes. From the Siberian wilderness, the Ottoman Empire, and present day Wales, this story travels all across the globe during various times and significant events. I like the idea that their love story is embedded across history. With each new destination they live in the author evokes the senses to make each place come to life. The imagery is vivid as the Evelyn memories seem to become mine, which is such a wondrous thing.

Even though this was mainly a romantic love story, I liked how the author chose to highlight platonic love– the love we have for our family and friends. It made the story have more depth instead of just trying to be all about the romance. It also fits the aspect of immortality as both characters have to deal with the grief of loss, not just once, but a hundred times over. It is inevitable, but it is also very human even if they are untouched by time. In this way, as the story deals with love, endurance, and immortality it echoes themes in The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V. E. Schwab.

“That to be human was to love and love and love, knowing it could only end in tragedy?”

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the beautiful poetry sprinkled throughout the novel. Each poem was very poignant. Despite being a small aspect to the overall novel, I felt drawn to them as they brought out the heart in the story. Not only is Laura Steven a great author, but a lovely poet and that takes a lot of skill. I’ll leave my favorite below:

in the last thousand years:
empires have risen and fallen
and I have loved you,
plagues have leaped from rat to daughter
and I have loved you,
humanity has conquered sea and sky
and I have loved you,
kings have been slain and forest razed and witches
burned and gold struck and maps redrawn and
fourtunes traded and volcanoes erupted and
moons landed and cathedrals sculpted and rivers dirtied and
masterpieces painted and battlefields bloodied
and I love you,
and I have loved you,
and I will love you.

* “I love you, I have loved you, and I will love you.”

* “The cruelest fate the gods and stars had ever written: the person I loved most in the world was the person that would ultimately destroy me.”

I loved this book so damn much.

It was like the Addie Larue meets Divine Rivals, all blended together.
Which if you know anything about me, that's high praise.
It was a slow paced character heavy book, and it did take me a minute to get into it.
But switching to audio helped me, and I didn't regret a second of it.
Now, I want to reread, and annotate it!

O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D

Evelyn remembers all her past lives and each one of them she gets murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a boy who hunts her through every single life. He is the person she loves the most, but ultimately destroys her in every single life. She has not been able to figure out why.

In her current life, she has a sister who's sick and needs saving but in order to do so she needs to break the curse and get to the bottom of why she's destined to be killed by Arden in each life time.

Infinite Fates takes the reader on a journey through time. Evelyn and Arden change -- face, bodies, gender -- but to each other they are always just THEM. I loved this message of two souls calling to each other and destined to be together in every single lifetime regardless of gender, but to me this was also the weakest part of the book as the time jumps and different characters (albeit same souls) took me out of the story on more than one occassion.

Let me finish by saying though that I think Laura Steven is an incredible talent and her writing is absolutely gorgeous -- I was taken by the poetic prose and I look forward to her next book! I wouldn't be surprised if Our Infinite Fates becomes the next Divine Rivals.

Thank you @netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.




They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.

The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life before they find her first, figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse, and try not to fall in love . . . again.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

This was a highly anticipated read for me. However, when you comp something to Addie LaRue…the expectations are HIGH and I’m slightly bummed that it didn’t measure up.

BUT! I still really enjoyed the read, and here’s why:
- a beautifully tragic premise: two people are reincarnated over and over again, and fated to kill each other in every life (and fall in love in most of them)
- the mystery of WHY this has to keep happening that kept me reading, and I did not see the answer/twist coming
- poetry and unique words from many different languages were interspersed throughout the book and as a word nerd I really enjoyed that
- in each life, the two souls are reincarnated as different genders each time (and still find and love each other) and I’m always here for queer/LBGTQ+/non-binary representation

My only qualm with the book is that in every flashback to prior lives, the focus is on the time before imminent death. I really wanted more of their blossoming love in each life in order to be fully invested in their love story and fates.

Overall, though, this is a great book that explores the ideas of fate, souls, language, and the enduring power of love in a death-filled world. Releases March 4th!

I have written and rewritten this post a dozen times since I finished this well over a week ago.

To start, I’m pretty sure this just appeared on my NetGalley shelf so I take that to mean that the universe wanted me to read this book.

As soon as I heard the premise, I was sold. The idea of fate or destiny being what drives our life has always been something I’ve pondered. Some small chances seem so unlikely in this big world that it’s hard to not believe in destiny.

The stories of Evelyn and Arden’s past lives and deaths are woven in seamlessly throughout their current life and offer constantly changing worldviews for each of them. Despite changes to everything about their life, location, gender, socioeconomic class, and more, they are still recognizable as their “true” self. Some lives you see them know each other deeply and some lives they are barely acquaintances, yet the draw between Evelyn and Arden is always there.

The more I got to know Evelyn, the more my heart would break. But, just as with Evelyn, as a reader we don’t get the full story of why this is her fate.

I can’t wait for this to be out in the world as it’s just a beautiful story of love and hope and how destiny can be changed and not be changed at the same time.

ARC review: 𝒪𝓊𝓇 𝐼𝓃𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝐹𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓈
𝐵𝓎: 𝐿𝒶𝓊𝓇𝒶 𝒮𝓉𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Where to even begin? This story was beautifully written, so beautiful that it had me crying in the middle of the night.

Evelyn and Arden are connected, tethered, fated. They’ve lived many lives and always find each other, it’s beautiful, BUT in every life Evelyn has died at the hands of Arden before their 18th birthday.

“𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮.”

As I mentioned above, our main characters have lived many lives, they’re reincarnated, reborn. In each life they’re different, different bodies, different people, different genders. Which is what makes it all more beautiful, because no matter what, they managed to feel that pull and fall in love or feel some sort of strong connection to each other.

I loved how the book was formatted with getting to see glimpses into their different past lives, I just wish there would’ve been more 🥹.

“𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐦𝐞”

this was seriously a solid book. poetic, beautiful, tragic, and reflective.

I was absolutely not expecting to love this book as much as I did. I was not a fan of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, but I wanted to give this book a try. I am so glad I did. I was sucked in from the very first chapter and did not want to stop until I had my answer of WHY? Why does this happen, and why can’t it stop? I kept trying to guess the reasoning throughout the entire book, and I was nowhere close to the correct answer. When a book can provoke strong emotions from me, then it’s definitely a five-star read. I was so invested in this centuries-long relationship of two reincarnated soulmates

I am now in a book hangover and have been ruined for my next books.

Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

DNF- This might be a right book wrong time situation but I am struggling with the lyrical writing style and decided to set this one aside. I am sure this book will work for a lot of people but I am not one of them right now.

“You see me to my very core. I know that to be true. Nobody has ever known me, or will ever know me, like you do. That’s such an intimate thing. You can’t help but be drawn to someone who understands your every word, your every step, your every heartbeat. And I love the connection you have to nature. Your roots are buried so deep in the earth. When I see a gnarled tree root or a beautiful lake, I think of you. It makes it feel like you’re all around me, in every branch and leaf, in every butterfly and every bramble.”

This book made me weep. It was gorgeous, raw, and so heartbreaking. Possibly my favorite book I’ve read this year (and it’s February). Laura Steven did such a beautiful job with this book — it broke my heart and put it back together and broke it again. The love between Evelyn and Arden weirdly made me feel very seen — I saw myself in Evelyn, and I can imagine many readers see themselves in her too. Her capacity for love, her intense emotions as she loses Arden again and again in her many, many lives. It was gorgeous and heart wrenching and genuinely made me feel.

Our Infinite Fates follows the heartbreaking story of Evelyn and Arden, cursed to live to eighteen years old hundreds of times throughout the centuries. They have a gravitational pull forwards each other — they are the suns in each other’s orbit, the center of each others’ lives, despite being dated to kill each other over and over. Despite losing their families, their freedoms, and experiencing history in gut wrenching ways, they always find their ways back to each other. Arden, a tortured poet, and Evelyn, a girl who loves deeply and reverently, are deeply written and unfold across the pages beautifully. I loved how Evelyn loved in particular — not only Arden, but every family member and friend she had come across in her many lives.

“We were everything, we were everyone. We were love and want, pure and raw and perfect.”

I thought the twist of their relationship and the real reason for their fates made it even MORE tragic. I thought Steven fleshed out the story wonderfully and every small detail made it even more compelling. I also loved the snippets we got of some of the lives they got to experience. It added to the story and made their relationship real.

This was a gorgeous book and I’m so excited for you all to read it. It means so much to me already, and I can’t wait for it to come out!

***I apologize in advance, I cannot write this without some spoilers***

I have to say I respect the way this came together at the end. I was shook in such a good way. Now having read the whole thing, the choppiness and the melancholy is the entire point. I think there could've been a bit more chemistry between the characters as their love was soooo deep and for such a long time, I feel it could've been expressed more. Also, I thought it was a bit unrealistic to say they had never had sex. If you've loved someone for that long, it had to have happened at some point.

Enough yapping, overall this was a really good read. I loved traveling in time and to all the different locations and the poetry seriously is so beautiful. Read this book

I enjoyed the centuries of love between these characters, and the different genders/stories of each life were unique. However, the past snippets of their story were so short that I almost didn't care as much about their love as I wanted to. I know the whole concept was that they lived such short lives, but I just wanted more of the love? Maybe it's because their love story felt more like something written in a different time period because it lacked the banter and modern yearning that we've become accustomed to. It definitely makes it a unique story that sort of transcends our modern books and I appreciated what the book was doing there, I just wanted more of the falling in love part, I guess.
Anyway, overall I thought the book was beautiful and the twist was unexpected! I'd say a 4.5/5 stars. I really enjoyed how the soul's personality shone through no matter the time period or gender of each character.
Definitely written masterfully in that aspect.
Is this a book I will fan girl over? No, but I don't think that's its intended purpose and would sort of cheapen it. Do I recommend it? Absolutely!

This book was such an amazing read, with the beautiful love story along with the beautiful writing. I honestly don’t know what to say about this book besides how this relationship was an excellent example of what love can truly mean. On top of this devastatingly beautiful love story, the plot twists somehow kept hitting me left and right and I truly had no idea how the story was going to end until it did.

I loved seeing how the relationship between Evelyn and Arden transformed over time through each era, and how each life influenced their dynamics in the next one. Their love for each other was shown in the simplest but most meaningful of ways, and it is the literal definition of unconditional love. Evelyn’s outlook on the necessary coexistence of living and loving brought so much meaning to the story and the reasons for all of their choices.

The ending destroyed me, but it was perfect for the circumstances. I loved all of the messages the author sent with this story, and it truly hits home with the message that love can and does conquer all.

Thank you thank you thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced e-copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio copy to listen to in exchange for an honest review.

The description for this book was spot on - it reads like Addie LaRue and I love it! The story was very captivating and the characters were intriguing. I've already recommended this book to many friends.