The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow – Review

Published: October 28, 2025

Publisher: Tor Books

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 320 (Kindle)

My Rating: 5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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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Lady knight. Bespectacled Historian. An unholy groundhog day time loop where they find each other, slay a dragon, save the queen, and the knight dies again and again in the historian’s arms. The Everlasting is a properly tragic story and has the honor of being the first book that’s made me cry this year.

The Everlasting follows Owen Mallory, a historian turned soldier who returned from the war with a hero’s medal and stronger feelings of cowardice and alienation than he ever had before. He’s returned to his work as a historian specializing in the history of Dominion when a book proclaiming to be a firsthand account of the death of Una Everlasting arrives on his desk. Una is possibly the most famous figure in the history of Dominion, having been essential in the crowning of the first queen, the retrieval of the grail, and the slaying of dragons. Una is the reason Dominion exists as it is, but there has never been a firsthand account of the events surrounding her death. When the book is promptly stolen from Owen’s home he goes to the address listed on the business card left in its place. Here begins Owen’s torturous time loop where he watches Una die over and over again, falling in love with her more each time and retaining memories of each previous encounter.

Una is past her glory days when she first finds Owen Mallory at the yew tree they both grew up playing beneath, so close yet centuries apart. She’s been sent on one last quest to save the queen she’s grown to hate even as that feeling wars with decades of love and loyalty. Owen convinces Una to complete the quest to find the grail and slay the last dragon, promising her that this is the last one and she can rest afterwards. Una exists purely to fulfill the role she has been playing for Dominion since its founding- a piece of propaganda that sends boys to war and crushes convenient enemies beneath the heel of Dominion. 

The Everlasting is a tale of love that defies time and the cruel revision of history. It also takes a hard look at national myth being used for modern day propaganda and as an excuse to oppress those who are ‘other’. This is hands down one of my favorite books of the year, mostly for the tangled story of Una and Owen, but I also appreciate the deeper messages and the villainy that brought the pair together in the first place. I do love a good time loop story and I feel that The Everlasting was executed particularly well, and illustrated how, theoretically, small changes to the past can have unpredictable, rippling effects through time. 

This has now secured itself as my favorite of Alix Harrow’s books I’ve read. If you’re wanting a taste of The Everlasting’s vibes before the release date, or hell, even afterward when you have a book hangover, I would highly recommend her short story, The Six Deaths of the Saint. I am living for all the lady knight books this year and The Everlasting is an excellent entry to this fun little niche of the fantasy world. If your TBR is dying for more books like this, check out The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig, The Isle and the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri, and The Second Death of Locke by V.L. Bovalino.