Review: The Everlasting

The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow

Published By: Tor
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
Date Read: May 23, 2026
Genre: Adult – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 321

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From Alix E. Harrow, the Sunday Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest.

A legend. A lie. A love story.

A lady-knight whose legend built a nation meets a retiring historian in awe of her fame. He’s sent back through time to make sure she plays her part . . . even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: 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, and finally tell a different story, they’ll have to rewrite history itself – and change their lives in the process.

Alix E Harrow is an author who has been on my radar for quite a while. I remember seeing her books everywhere for the past few years. Despite this, I’d never actually picked up anything by her before. After seeing everyone raving over The Everlasting, I decided it was finally time to pick up an Alix E Harrow book. I had such high hopes for this one, but unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me.

I was really intrigued by the premise of The Everlasting. I am such a sucker for anything with time travel, and hearing that this was about a lady knight who is stuck in a time loop, reliving her last quest over and over again. This honestly should have been right up my street, but something about it just didn’t work for me. Initially, my biggest gripe was the fact that other than the time travel aspect, nothing about this world screams fantasy. This book is promoted as a fantasy book but there is no fantastical elements whatsoever. This was incredibly disappointing to me.

The thing that didn’t work for me, is the fact that this book is told in a mixture of narrative styles. I fast came to realise that second person narratives are just not for me. It really made me not feel connected to the story or the characters at all, and I just ended up not caring about the book at all. I really had to force myself to push through to finish this book.

I am so sad that this one wasn’t for me. I did enjoy the premise and some of the plot points, but honestly the narrative style just ruined it for me. I do intend to try some more of Alix E Harrow’s books later on but I will definitely be doing a bit more research into the narrative styles before doing so. If you’re interested in this book, I would still definitely recommend to try it out, especially if you don’t mind second person narrative. You might end up loving it.