The Everlasting

I really wanted to love this one. I think I overhyped it and my expectations were too high. I love time travel but this became repetitive. It was hard for me to finish because the pacing felt slow to me, making the book seem twice as long as it was. My biggest gripe was the romance as I, unfortunately, felt no chemistry between the characters. I liked the characters individually. I absolutely loved the premise for this but I’m sorry to say that I didn’t feel the connection I expected and wished there was more world building.Overall, I think this book was not bad but just not the book for me. I can definitely see why so many people love it.* please disregard grammatical errors due to accessible voice texting. Thanks.

“ ‘In order to have a future worth fighting for, you must have a past worth remembering.’ It was a good line; the heartless scholar in me tucker it quietly away for the conclusion of my next article.”This book is confusion, heartbreak and satisfaction all rolled into one story (or is it hundreds of stories?) with some narrator’s self deprecating funny moments. The characters grow on you until you root for them wholeheartedly. The significance of growth here and the connection to the world around them is incredible. This author wove such a magical story to the very end.

It arrived in perfect condition 👌🏼

Alix E. Harrow’s The Everlasting is an ambitious, restless story. I ultimately enjoyed it, even if it doesn’t quite reach the heights of her best work. It’s a novel driven by momentum and inevitability, built around the exhausting, sometimes maddening experience of reliving the past again and again, always chasing the hope that this time things might turn out differently.The structure is a rollercoaster: timelines fold back on themselves, choices echo across iterations, and progress often feels fragile. Harrow excels, as always, at emotional texture. The weight of repetition, the grief of knowing what’s coming, the temptation to believe you can outsmart fate, are all vividly felt. The characters’ persistence is compelling, even when the narrative deliberately denies them easy victories.What holds the book back, for me, is the balance of power. The villain almost always has the upper hand, and while this reinforces the story’s themes of control and inevitability, it can also feel frustrating. The tension sometimes tips into futility, making the struggle feel less like a battle of wills and more like an endless delay of the unavoidable.Still, The Everlasting is thoughtful, sharp, and emotionally resonant. Even when it stumbles, Harrow’s prose and ideas remain engaging. It may not be her strongest work, but it’s a worthwhile read.

Some books are meant to be devoured. This book was meant to be savored. I wanted to ruminate on each twist and turn. I wanted to jump back and reread parts. I wanted to dream about what was coming. I was thoroughly invested. Alix E. Harrow again delights readers with another incredible book. All of her books are so wildly different. I love the depth and breadth of her books. I believe she can write anything.