Our Infinite Fates was simply magnificent. It was easily one of the best books I read last year.
It has such a fantastic premise—I mean these lines are irresistible: “They’ve loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They’ve killed each other in every one”. That is a killer hook that draws you in and promises an epic, tangled knot of a story to unravel. Luckily, Laura Steven builds on this brilliant premise to deliver a devastating and delightful ode to the power of love. It is the type of book that imprints onto your heart and leaves a trace long after the final page.
While being careful not to spoil anything, the characterisation is stellar in this book. We get a main timeline with two central characters and also various glimpses into the lives they have inhabited before. As a long-time reader of Steven’s work, I knew going in that characterisation was one of her strengths in her extensive toolbox but this aspect really shines here. They just feel so believable, with great development, dialogue and chemistry. Everyone feels three-dimensional and you find yourself caring about their hopes and dreams. A special shout-out has to go to the snarky, hilarious Gracie who you will lose your heart to.
Truly, it is an epic tale that stretches across aeons and countries. The excerpts from each lifetime are haunting fragments that establish character deftly and effectively in just a few lines. You get a sense of each person and the life they have inhabited, as well as the sense of love and inevitable loss about to hit them. It is doomed and tragic and yet you still root for them to succeed. The skill to be able to pull this off in often just a few pages is incredible. Steven pours so much heart and soul into this book. It is emotional lightning in a bottle—fraught and tender. You find yourself being pulled into these pages and hoping for a happy ending this time despite all the odds.
These excerpts also serve as chilling reminders of the effectiveness of this endless cycle. It is fated to always end in death. You have that ticking clock on your mind throughout, after one hell of an opening chapter clearly establishes the stakes and set-up of the journey you are about to embark on. It is action-packed and has a deliciously dark sting in its tale. From there, Steven has you in the palm of her hand. It is exquisitely paced, with a constant sense of tension permeating the pages. We move from timeline to timeline and person to person seamlessly. I was astounded to never feel a let-down in tension despite these interludes. Instead, they had the opposite effect of just reemphasising this vicious cycle over and over again. There is also a touching celebration of love overcoming all within these—it is a force regardless of gender and sexuality, meaning that we get various examples of potential match-ups throughout time but that central connection is between these two souls. It powerfully emphasises love being beyond a body or physical appearance, instead as an unknowable, intangible thing that just brings people together. That kind of message is wonderful.
Also, this is packed full of surprises and twists. Throughout, you have the mystery of this cycle and what kickstarted it. Steven keeps you guessing through the pages, leaving little crumbs along on the path. It is such a well-crafted mystery and the twists are nothing short of jaw-dropping. I think about those final few chapters most days since reading. Every detail is sewn together excellently and feels cohesive.
Our Infinite Fates delivers superb characterisation that builds on an ingenious premise and spins it into a story that you will never forget. It was absolutely phenomenal, moving and bound to be the book on everyone’s mind.
Our Infinite Fates is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, from 27 February in the UK and 4 March 2025 in the US.
Will you be picking up Our Infinite Fates? Tell us in the comments beow!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A star-crossed lovers romance that spans a millennia, for fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, They Both Die at the End and One Day
‘Maybe that’s all love is, in the end. An endless tempting of fate.’
Evelyn can remember all her past lives. She can also remember that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday.
The problem is that she’s quite fond of the one she’s in now, and more importantly, her sister needs her for bone marrow transplants to stay alive. So now she has to:
- find the centuries-old enemy who hunts her through each life and destroy them forever
- figure out exactly why she’s being hunted in the first place,
- try quite hard not to fall in love with them
…again.
