The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow is a magical and emotional story that drew me in with its beautiful writing. The world felt alive and enchanting, and I loved how the themes of love and sacrifice were woven into the character’s journey. While a few moments dragged a little, the overall story was powerful and left me thinking about it long after I finished—an easy 4 stars.

The writing here is lovely, and the our two main characters have a really compelling and moving dynamic and connection, but the story just lost me a little bit as the book went on. The whole time-travel aspect of it felt a little too much for me. Time travel stories tend to be very complicated and have a lot of moving parts, and I feel like in this case this took away from the grounded, moving dynamic between our two main characters.

ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE!!!
I love everything about this book.
It’s beautiful, poetic, magical and Hands down a forever favorite.

knights seem to be trending in literature right now, and I expect we will be encountering even more of them for the foreseeable future. This makes "The Everlasting" all the more impressive, because despite the current popularity of the subject matter it felt wholly fresh and unique. Beautifully written and an utterly compulsive read.

A truly strange, magical, and peculiar read, not quite like anything else. Unique to Harrow’s voice, and style of transporting you to a world within a world with wonders and history to explore.

Alix never disappoints!! This was intense and dark and as good as her last book. 5 stars easily!!! I loved it

It's like King Arthur meets "The Light Brigade" by Cameron Hurley or "Forever War" by Joe Haldeman. It's all timey-wimey with knights and dragons and nation building myths and propaganda and so much love. It asks, with a life that long, what is worth it? What is worth fighting for?

Thank you to Net Galley and Tor for the ARC. I will be recommending this to so many people when it's published.

First, thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read Harrow's Fracture Fables series last year and I loved it so when I saw her name on NetGalley, I knew I wanted to give it a read. And I was not disappointed!

This story is very unique. I haven't read anything similar to it thus far and that really drove me into the book as I wasn't sure where this book would lead. There is a cyclical behavior to the story that feels entrancing. At times it was like I was reading the same story again, getting the same deja vu the characters were experiencing only with slight variations. To some, this might make those sections repetitive and dull but for me I loved analyzing those differences between scenes, scraping for what it could mean when character does this instead of that.

Harrow knows how to write diverse characters. Our characters defy gender roles, maybe even defy gender itself. They're cowards and strong and sensitive and a little stupid in love. It's alluring and keeps you connected to them in the best ways.

I loved the academics to it, as I always do in a book that contains any sort of academics. The fact that it also makes a point about the stories we tell as a society and the thoughts and feelings behind those transcribing history make it all the more interesting. I was reminded of A Study in Drowning by these themes.

My biggest setback for me with this book was the 2nd person POV. Let me note here that it was done really well and came off pretty natural. As a personal preference alone, I felt thrown off by this choice. I haven't read many books from 2nd person POV so who knows, it could be the newness of it that made it difficult for me to get into but as I continued reading I found that it bothered me less and less. It just made it an extremely slow start for me to get into.

I think overall this was a great read and I'm thankful for the opportunity to have read it as an ARC. I would recommend others to read it as I think there's definitely more to it than just what I have stated here. It was a good read.

Review to come on instagram (@seas.library) by publication date.

This book explores magical realism, fantasy, love,and my favorite of all defying gender roles. The FMC in this novel is a strong, dangerous, and powerful knight for the queen. The MMC is a quiet professor who is fascinated by the life of the knight, and suddenly finds himself back in time following her and the events he already knew befalls her. It is a bit mind bending but my favorite part is learning how unwilling she is on her famous quests and the backwards gender roles. Strong v weak. Masculine v Feminine.

Well, I finished The Everlasting—actually, it finished ME. It took me half of July to read not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because I didn’t want it to end. I kept putting it down to savor Alix E. Harrow’s beautifully devastating writing, to prolong my time with Una Everlasting and Owen Mallory.

I needed at least 3-5 business days to stare into space, the void, the chasm that was cleaved open in my heart with reading this book. If you, like me, adored The Six Deaths of the Saint and have silently (but lovingly) cursed Alix for not developing it into a full length novel, The Everlasting absolutely delivered on that fervent wish, but even more (painfully) so.

If you’re into star-crossed lovers, the enormity of desire, yearning, sword and sorcery, fairytales, portal magic, with allegory on colonialism, empire, mythmaking and propaganda to boot—preorder (or buy, or borrow depending on when you’re reading this. Perhaps you’re me in the future, fated to discover and experience this tale repeatedly) The Everlasting right this second.

I can’t imagine any other book will top this as my favorite of the year. I honestly think this may be within one of my top three books of all-time. Will I be rereading this asap? With certainty. Bury me with a copy of The Everlasting under a yew tree.

Thank you to Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to Alix E. Harrow for the emotional damage.

This book was absolutely incredible. I genuinely think this is one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read.

I think Harrow handled the cyclical nature of the story in such a good way, it did not feel too repetitive and the little changes in the way the story is told and the prose was absolutely lovely. I want to go back and reread it already because of all of the foreshadowing.

I really appreciate the author actually showcasing a FMC and MMC that are actually different than the typical character, physically. I love that Una is actually large and strong and weathered. She correctly represents what it was to be a warrior and knight. I love the approach to their relationship. THIS is proper yearning.

I love that this was inspired by Six Deaths but not just a long version. I am glad that story gets to stay it's own thing while thing is it's own tale. My favorite book I have read this year, without a doubt.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this early, I will do everything in my power to make sure everyone I know and everyone who follows me to READ THIS BOOK!

Alix Harrow returns again with another story full of beautiful prose and lovable characters. The narrator grew on me as the book progressed, and I was cheering for him and Una by the end. If you like stories about academia in fantasy settings and what could go wrong with time travel, you'll enjoy this!

Alix Harrow's writing is always absolutely phenomenal, and this book was no exception. It was whimsical, it was dark, it was heartbreaking, and every part was shrouded in beautiful prose. This is a book about finding yourself in a love that spans the ages. It is a book about losing yourself in death and manipulation. It is about defeating monsters against all odds, about steering the fate of a nation, about how one person can have lasting historical impact...And it is about a very badass lady knight. This story is artfully told through death after death after death of Una, always beginning at the Yew tree with her anxious historian by her side. I did not feel as connected to the characters as I would have liked, seeing as this story has more of a recounting of history type tone. Nevertheless, this tale will absolutely sweep you away.

This book consumed my every waking thought over the past 4 days as I was reading it. Owen and Una were never far from my mind, even as I had to do boring adulting things that didn't involve immersion in this centuries spanning love story. This is the kind of fantastical romance that is truly worthy of the "epic" title - Logan Echolls kind of epic. I swooned, I cried, I paced around the living room.

My favourite Alix E Harrow book so far, and in contention for my book of the year.

I am already a HUGE Alix E Harrow fan and I almost cried when I got this arc.
I expected nothing less. The writing was impeccable, the story is strong, It was immersive and emotional. Takes you in like a big hug and doesn't let you go until it's over. And then you go on to crave that hug.

Thank you so much NetGalley & Tor Books for this gifted e arc. All opinions are my own.

OH but I loved this. I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. Couldn’t-breathe-through-my-sobbing-during-the-final-chapters loved this. It tore out my heart, planted it, and regrew it all over again.

I didn’t expect to love it this much. I don’t think I had the right expectations going in to this, and I wouldn’t say that it’s necessarily my style of story. I usually find time loops (especially in fantasy) exhausting and hard to reconcile. This was not the case here. I loved how it was handled and each iteration felt fresh. I really enjoyed the writing style (don’t know if I’ve read a book in second POV before?) and both Owen and Una were just captivating.

Honestly this is just a beautiful story with love at its center and it made me feel all sorts of emotions but most of all, I’m just happy it exists.

Alix Harrow is a fucking magician, and The Everlasting is her most devastating spell yet. I didn’t read this book so much as fall headfirst into it, tangled in its roots and thorns, happy to bleed for every page. This is a story that feels carved into stone and whispered across centuries — an endless dance between a weary knight and the historian doomed to remember her, told over and over beneath the yew tree.

"Who is free, who loves another?"

It’s romantic in that aching, inevitable way where you already know the ending but you can’t stop hoping this time will be different. It’s sexy in the way tragedy is sexy — a magnetic pull toward someone you can’t save. It’s painful, it’s tender, it’s even laugh-out-loud funny when a certain menace of a horse steals a scene. And it’s all wrapped in Harrow’s prose, which drips like honey over a blade: sharp enough to cut, sweet enough to make you crave more.

“There was a certain pleasure, God knew, in following orders, in placing the heavy reins of your life in someone else's hands. All your sins were not truly yours, then; all your unruly desires were safely curbed. But now the knight held her own reins, and her hands shook with the weight of them.”

The dual second-person POV is intoxicating, pulling you so close it feels like you’re standing between them, watching them break and rebuild each other with every loop. I highlighted so many lines my e-reader was practically glowing. And still, it’s not just about love — it’s about stories, the myths we’re told, and the ones we tell ourselves to survive. The stories we are fed that allow the powerful to continue to flourish. It’s about the rot in the heart of kingdoms and the power of a single life to bear witness, again and again.

“There are only two kinds of stories worth telling: the ones that send children to sleep, and the ones that send men to war”

I’ll be returning to this book the way the knight and historian return to each other: forever, in every lifetime. The Everlasting is already one of my favorites of the year, maybe of all time.

“Then you would fall, and I would watch you, and in a hundred years or a thousand, in my time or in yours, we would meet again beneath the yew. There was no such thing as fate, but this was ours”

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and the author for this physical ARC and eARC

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy (ARC).

In a tale of timeless love, two souls find and cling to one another. Owen, historian and professor, receives a book unlike any book ever, a book recounting the story of a hero, and a myth, the legendary origin story of his world: Dominion. The priceless tome is stolen, shattering, at least for a time, Owen's quest to bring it to life.

This book is a masterpiece. I hope I can someday write with this much caliber. It’s so creative and unique, oh I loved it! I loved how Harrow told this story, it felt at times like I wasn’t reading a story but a love letter.

Two people bound by legend, magic, and time; caught in a web woven and driven by a lust for power. But how to stop the cycle?

I will be getting myself a hard copy of this book! It was fantastic! A masterpiece!

The Everlasting is not a novel but rather an experience and a performance that must be experienced in a lifetime.

Would give 6 stars if I could.

I thought that Starling House was something special but this- this is by all means a masterpiece to me. The message on the restrictive and controlling nature of every narrative harmonized with my own personal thoughts and opinions on the matter that I felt shocked to my core.

Genuinely the exponential climb in the quality of Harrow's writing should be studied in a lab. It will be monumentally difficult to find a read that tops this, this year.

This read has also solidified Tor as the publisher that I trust the most. If it's Tor, I want more!