The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow is a multi-layered, time-traveling fantasy love story about a modern historian and a medieval knight trapped in a loop of love and sacrifice. This genre-melding narrative draws readers into a story of loyalty and fate, inviting them to consider the role their own choices and decisions play in the shaping of history.
As a young girl, Sir Una Everlasting became a knight after defending the Queen from roving brigands. From that moment on, her life was devoted to Queen and Country, fighting off invaders, and securing her land. Her bravery and heroic deeds live on through time as the foundation upon which the country of Dominion is built.
Owen Mallory is a historian aiming to build his academic career by studying the legends and tales surrounding Sir Una Everlasting; myths that have become central to Dominion’s national identity. But his research takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself tossed through time, face-to-face with the knight herself.
As Owen begins to comprehend the surreal nature of his situation, he realises this isn’t the first time it has happened. He comes to understand that time and again, he and Sir Una have met, fallen in love, and he has led her to her death so that she may fulfill the legend required to forge a nation.
Harrow’s writing is both beautiful and unique. The alternating perspectives of Sir Una and Owen offer distinct voices that reflect the eras they come from. Sir Una’s chapters read like a fairy tale, with heroic deeds and brave knights at the heart of the narrative. Early on, her chapters feel like a storybook destined to end “happily ever after.” In contrast, Owen’s chapters present a stark, modern voice that is grounded and analytical. Yet in both timelines, the story circles back to the figure in power and the origins of that authority.
Harrow’s distinctive style blends the familiar with the otherworldly, often using language and dialogue to immerse the reader in each time period. While there are some slower moments in the plot, these sections are effective at building atmosphere and deepening character. The supernatural elements of the world unfold gradually, as new pieces of information are revealed and the broader scope of the narrative takes shape.
The characters are the strongest elements in Harrow’s world. Sir Una is strong, independent, reliable, and masculine. Owen, in contrast, is a self-professed coward, focused on advancing his academic career, and often comes across as emotionally vulnerable. As their relationship evolves, Una frequently embodies traditionally masculine traits, while Owen plays the more traditionally feminine role in their romantic dynamic. This inversion challenges conventional expectations and creates a love story unlike typical fairy tales. Together, using their individual strengths, Sir Una and Owen confront the creator of their endless loop of love and loss.
The Everlasting presents an unconventional fairy tale love story that asks readers to reflect on heroism, power, and fate; not only within the story, but in their own lives.
Engaging, captivating, and strange, The Everlasting uses familiar fairy tale elements to craft a wholly original story; a story that reminds us that things aren’t always as they seem, and that sometimes, questioning authority is the only way to break the cycle and bring about real change.
Note: Thanks so much to TOR books for providing a review copy of The Everlasting.
The Everlasting is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis
From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-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 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―if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself.
