Book Review: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

Title: The Everlasting
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Pages: 320
Publication Date: Oct. 28, 2025
Publisher: Tor
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Fantasy / Romantasy
Synopsis:

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

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“They were to one another what fixed stars are to sailors: the only way through the dark.”

Every once in a while, an author comes along who reminds me why I love reading so much. Alix E. Harrow is definitely one of those authors for me. Everything I’ve read by Harrow has stunned me with its beauty and depth and thought-provoking themes and stories. Her books are an experience, and The Everlasting is no exception. It’s a brilliant story and one of my top reads of the year.

At its core, The Everlasting is a story about two people and the impossible loop that binds them together across centuries. Sir Una Everlasting is a mythic knight whose stories define an empire, and Owen Mallory is the timid historian who falls in love with her story. Though they live centuries apart, Owen is charged with traveling back in time and aiding Una.

I loved Owen and Una! They are both such well-developed and compelling protagonists, and I was completely invested in their journeys. Una’s knighthood and fierce warrior spirit contrast well with Owen’s softness and quiet strength. Interestingly, the story is told in the second person, which is a bold choice that initially took me by surprise. I don’t often read books in second person, and I don’t generally like it. But, in this instance, it totally worked. The second person gives the novel an intimate and personal, deeply emotional feel, since Owen and Una are speaking to each other. The prose is beyond beautiful, as are some of the things they say about and to each other.

And I like how both characters challenge gender norms and expectations. Una is the warrior knight, more at ease in armor and with a blade in her hand, while Owen’s a scholar who struggles with anxiety and considers himself a coward. She embodies strength while he leads with vulnerability. They’re the opposite of what you’d expect, and that’s what makes them so compelling together. Their love story is so beautiful and powerful that it literally transcends time.

The time travel aspect of the story was a mind bender, as Owen and Una must relive their tragic story over and over again. But this isn’t just a time-travel story. It’s a novel about the stories we inherit and internalize and the defiant act of rewriting them. It was so powerful and moving and really thought-provoking. I love how the story questions the myths of history as it creates new ones, while also exploring the way love, the absence of love, and the desire for power reshape people.

I absolutely loved The Everlasting. The plot is intricate and twisty, the characters are fantastic, and the love story is brilliant. I admit, it wrung me out emotionally, and I may have cried more than once, but if I ever meet the author, I’ll thank her for it. lol

Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

“I am not sure which I prefer: To be taken for something I am not, or to fail at being what I am.”

You were Una Everlasting, the Drawn Blade, the Red Knight, and I was a boy again, choked with that covetous tangle of desire and desire-to-become that had driven me to war and back again, to archives and libraries and finally here, through time itself, to the far side of history. My whole life existed only to bear witness to yours, and God! it was worth it.

“In order to have a future worth fighting for, you must have a past worth remembering.”

a former academic, adjunct, cashier, blueberry-harvester, and kentuckian, alix e. harrow is now a full-time writer living in virginia with her husband and their semi-feral kids.

she is the hugo award-winning and nyt-bestselling author of THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY (2019), THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES (2020), a duology of fairytale novellas (A SPINDLE SPLINTERED and A MIRROR MENDED), STARLING HOUSE (2023) and various short fiction. her next book, THE EVERLASTING, will be out on october 28th, 2025!