The Everlasting

My favorite book of the year. The prose was perfect and the story was beautiful the characters were all fleshed out so well not a single word was wasted I love this book so much

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 👌🏼

Dear authorThank you for tearing my heart out and stomping on itRepeatedlyAnd thank you for the endingThe Reader

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.

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.

Loved this so much. My favorite book in ages. Smart and interesting. Clever and complex. Romantic and heart wrenching. Really great.

This book was so beautiful. From the very beginning I was entranced and now, as I sit here, I’m sobbing because I will never get to read it for the first time again.

The Everlasting is unputdownable. I devoured it in under 24hrs in two whirlwind sittings that seemed to defy time itself, they moved so quickly. I was not in a race to finish this book, but I felt breathless the entire time, wanting -- needing -- to know what happened next as each chapter hurtled into the next at a pace that was at first comfortable, then quicker, and then breakneck. I, quite simply, could not stop reading.I laughed out loud, I cried (okay, fine - wept), I dutifully covered whole parts of the book with my hands to prevent my wandering eyes from skimming ahead, which would have cheated me out of one of the most incredible reading experiences I've ever had. I have never read a book quite like this and know, sadly, that I never will again. There's a sweet saddness that touches every page of this book that lingers even after the last page. The journey in these pages will leave you changed. The prose was delicious and so perfect that I found myself highlighting (Kindle) entire pages as often as I found myself highlighting two or three utterly unforgettable words or lines. The way in which Harrow writes is at times so infuriatingly beautiful, so intoxicatingly perfect, I felt like I was watching a movie, everything so vivid and alive. She does not just have a way with words, she has a command of them, and it is pure magic.This is hands down one of the best books I have ever read. Unique in style, in voice, in genre - the story of Owen and Una will stick with me for a while to come.

Such a unique and beautifully written story. This is my first time reading this author and we read it for book club. I will definitely read more books by her.

Love reading all of this author's books. I was pulled into the story right from the start. I've always loved a good time travel story. My only complaint is some of the language used when describing a ladies intimate parts. Did you really have to use the "c" word? And I'm not talking about "crazy".

Listen. I haven’t read it yet, but I have adored everything else Alix E. Harrow has ever written so I already know this will be five stars.

Fantasy isn't my usual genre, but I loved this book. Best I can describe it is a mash-up of Game of Thrones, Fourth Wing, historical war fiction & Handmaiden's Tale. The pacing made me feel like I was on the run right along with them. The romance was sweet & heart-aching. Highly recommend any skeptical readers give this book I try.

Well, that was a book. It took me three sittings just to get through it. It is a book about how people in a tale go into other tales as the tale itself is manipulated by others to get to their point, their wanted point of view, and their point of victory. The people in the tale are of a genre that can be manipulated in that point. Then, within all that monkeying around with what the constructor of that point of view is doing, a strange thing happens. Those characters develop a way to resist it. Some of the literary techniques used while covering the hop between one medieval form to the next, I recognized from science fiction forms. There is a loop going on. The difference in how the loop is or is made is through 'fantasy' elements because this _is_ a fantasy. However, what I truly admired was the hop between one medieval form to the next. It is a skating on how to deal with meta-narratives, that is, the characters that are in the story are aware they are in one, and where the narrative is based on. In this case, the narrative is very much King Arthur though standing on two feet with all the wrong lessons that someone learns being its own curse. I really loved that. I suppose the romance was needed and the realism in said romance appealed to the romance lovers. I am here for the fantasy elements, and the writing techniques (or literary devices) used while telling the tale and it was very well done.

Sir Una Everlasting is a hero, an inspiration and a legend in the thousand year history of Dominion. It was Sir Una who fought to place Queen Yvanne the First on the throne. It was Sir Una who rid the empire of dragons. It was Sir Una who pulled the mighty sword, Valiance, from the heart of a Yew tree and led the army in the Queen's name. Sir Una was beautiful, even angelic. She was just and good and she died for her Queen. Her likeness graces the currency of Dominion. Posters of her call to citizens to serve their country in battle. Museums are filled with paintings of her with her blue eyes and bright blonde hair.Present day Owen Mallory has studied Sir Una and written about her and taught classes about her. He has also fallen in love with her legend and feels she has saved his life no less than four times. He knows more about Sir Una Everlasting than anyone in Dominion. But when the Minister of Dominion calls upon him because his country needs him, that Sir Una "needs him", it makes no sense. How could a legend "need" a bespeckled history professor with PTSD and shaking hands? How could the great Sir Una Everlasting need a man estranged from his own father? It makes no sense. Why him? Because he knows how her story ends. He knows her death is what made Dominion become the united republic it is now.Then the Minister stabs the back of his hand and sends Owen one thousand years back in time.But when Owen finds Sir Una, she is nothing like the paintings or the legends or the stories. The enormous woman with the large scar across her face is in hiding. She is angry, unwashed and she is tired. Tired of the fighting and the wars and the death and destruction Sir Una herself has wreaked upon Dominion. The Queen has sent her to slay the last dragon and rescue the Holy Grail but Sir Una would rather fall asleep under the mythical Yew and never wake up again. Owen is stunned that the legend he fell in love with is brooding and world weary. She is not an angel, she scares him to death. Also, her eyes are not blue, like in the paintings, they are gold, dark resinous gold.Alix E. Harrow is a strong storyteller and a beautiful writer and a phenomenal world builder. Her characters are human and flawed and memorable and relatable. We fall in love with Owen and Una and all their missteps and fears and flaws and less than legendary selves. We fall in love with their small gestures and wicked thoughts and furtive glances and kickass sword play. We fall in love with how they fall in love. We fall in love with their story and we don't want this story to end the way it is supposed to end.Harrow keeps the reader enthralled and on their toes because this story has more twists than your intestines. Most impressive of all, Harrow is able to tell a story involving multiple timelines without losing or leaving the reader behind. She also uses the two main characters as the storytellers. They are telling the story to one another. We learn the story from their own points of view and each tells a different version of the story. Not once did I get lost or confused. That is some damn good writing.It's a beautifully written story and even though I don't like to play favorites, this is my favorite out of all her books.

Just enchanting… speeds up significantly in the second half. Just lovely & delightful. A very fine story of true love. So jealous I didn’t write it

A really good adventure. The characters are easy to root for, the world-building is great and the plot is entertaining. I really liked it (in fact, I loved it). Alix E Harrow’s writing works for some and not for others. If you enjoy books that feel whimsical and aren’t childish, then you will probably like this.

“Wait for me beneath the Yew tree”This was the best book that I have read all year. Absolutely phenomenal writing and storytelling, the audio was fantastic, and I loved Owen and Una.Una feels very Brienne of Tarth in the best possible way and I loved seeing her character arc and viewing her through Owen’s eyes. Owen reminded me a little of Roman Kitt - a brilliant coward, but willing to go forward into war and the unknown for the possibility of love.Our villain was compelling, dastardly, and so easy to root against, even when we weren’t sure who it was.I wrote down so many quotes from this book and had to keep myself from writing down even more. I will be heartily recommending this to all my reader friends.

I absolutely LOVE Harrow's books. They're phenomenal. Characters, pacing, creativity, and just her sheer prose is breathtaking in its beauty and complexity. BUT... this is the first book of hers that I can't have in my classroom. This is the first book where the language and sex scenes are too spicy. Maybe she gains an audience, but she's also lost an audience as well.