I’m still recovering from this book. While on paper, it looks like it took me forever to read, it’s because I wanted to savour it.

The concept 👏🏼 the writing 👏🏼 the love 👏🏼. And not just romantic love too, the strong familial love was gut-wrenching. For me, this book had it all. It was so beautifully written, with such detailed settings of the past.

The title OUR INFINITE FATES is a heavy one, and it surely delivered. Although it gives ADDIE LARUE fall vibes, it could also be best read in the colder months!!!!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of the book.
The concept of the book was very interesting. I loved the idea of ressurection a lot and seeing the characters previous lifes was intriguing.

For the first 30-35%, I was interested in both storylines. Seeing their past and how they feel for each other every single time was very fascinating. I also liked the first small plot twist in the first chapters, it was a fun one.
I also liked the small poems at the end of some chapters, showing us how the love interest felt. I loved the characters personality as well!

The problem is that after a while, the plot became a bit repetitive, knowing how every past memory will end.

I'm a little bit insure about the ending, it became confusing. It was too easy <spoiler>They really defeated the enemy with the power of love.</spoiler> There's also the fact that the origin of the "curse" isn't very clear. The love interest tells us about how it began but we discover something else? I'm confused a little. We also had no real hint for us to analyse, trying the guess what happened. I wish we had more.

In summary, it was a good book but a little bit too repetitive reaching the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

This book was gut wrenching and beautifully written and just wow. Really made me think. I often don’t like that in a “fun book” but it works here.

I can say without a doubt that this is one of the most beautifully written, heart wrenching stories I have ever read. I haven’t had my heart broken and mended that many times while reading. I cried 7 times due to being overwhelmed by the pure beauty of the writing and from the story itself.

I find myself struggling to find the words to describe this book because this is a love story but it is so much more than that. It is agonizing pain, heartbreak, swoon-worthy love and harrowing adventures that will actually make your heart do leaps and bounds throughout the story.

What would you do if you were destined to kill your soulmate every year before your 18th birthday for centuries? What will you do to survive and get answers? Why are you stuck in this twisted turn of infinite fates?

That is this book in a nutshell. I went into it completely blind and can honestly say that is the way to go. I haven’t sobbed that hard in a while and it was honestly refreshing to have a book elicit that much emotion from me. I will definitely be rereading this book and it will be a book that sticks with me for many years to come.

y’all. this book 😭 i have so many feelings to unpack so buckle up because this is going to be a long one.

evelyn and arden are two souls inextricably linked, destined to meet each other in every lifetime, but kill each other before their eighteenth birthday. the book is primarily told in the present where evelyn is more desperate than ever to break the curse so she can give her sister a life-saving bone marrow transfusion. but every few chapters, we also have the delight of flashing back to a previous life, tracing their tragic story across the world and throughout history.

everything about this book with its incredible hook, stunning writing, and gut-wrenching plot twists had me devouring it cover-to-cover in five hours. i literally could NOT put it down. don’t even speak to me about the final two chapters..... i think about them every day and break down again every time i do.

one thing is that i REALLY loved how steven raised the idea that a person is not their body, but their soul, and as she takes the reader through evelyn and arden’s past lives, they are reborn each time as someone completely new. this meant that evelyn and arden had no way of identifying each other beyond a gut instinct. because of that, there is a really compelling element of mystery and suspense that is almost always at the back of evelyn’s mind.

but it also meant that their relationship is not always straight-presenting. for a book that is centered on this incredibly powerful, tumultuous, tragic, beautiful love between two characters across a hundred lifetimes, it brought me to tears to see it presented with equal weight and importance whether it was girl meets boy, or boy meets boy, or girl meets girl. in short, evelyn and arden, you will always be famous and always be carried in a special place in my heart.

so. this is me formally requesting that each and every one of you go online to preorder this gem, or go in person to wherever books are sold on march 4th, 2025 because you DO NOT want to miss this. thank you so very much to netgalley and st. martin's press for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!!

Our Infinite Fates is a deeply moving story focusing on two lovers who have found each other time and time again across a thousand years and hundreds of lifetimes. Each Life time one must murder the other before they turn 18 but only one of them remembers why.

What I loved
1. The relationship between our main characters is complex and compelling for its complexity.

2. in alternating chapters the reader is treated to glimpses of the past lives shared by the characters allowing for a deeper understanding of the connection between them than what their modern day interactions would grant.

3. Both main characters have incarnated as other sex's or genders making their nature feel transcendent of modern notions of gender, sexuality, and relationships.

What didn't work for me as well
1.There is a side character our leading lady originally suspected of being our leading man , and I wanted so much more about what happened to him after the events of this book.

2. The law enforcement in the book felt woefully incompetent.


Who I would recommend this title for

Fans of lyrical writing such as in Lani Taylor's Strange the Dreamer or morally complex love stories such as in the invisible life of Addie La rue are in for a delightful treat with Our Infinite fates.

*A note on the ending*
I loved the revel of a heroine's nature and how the lovers had to sacrifice in standing up to The Mother but something about love being how to defeat the literal incarnation of suffering as a being felt a bit heavy handed after the delightfully subtle way much of the narrative had been handled.

I absolutely loved this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! Imagine killing the person you love in infinite lifetimes before you turn 18. For thousands of years.

I was so intrigued from day 1 when I read about this book. If did not disappoint! Evelyn has been murdered in every lifetime by Arden before the day they turn 18. But in this current lifetime, Evelyn’s younger sister Gracie has cancer and without Evelyn’s bone marrow transplant, Gracie will not survive. Evelyn is determined to make this lifetime the one where she survives in order to save her sister.

A great book with a twist I honestly didn’t expect. I’d read more by this author any day.

Our Infinite Fates presents a compelling concept of love and reincarnation, blending elements from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and This Is How You Lose the Time War. I was drawn in by the intriguing premise, eager to explore Evelyn and Arden's tumultuous relationship through the ages. However, something about the execution fell short for me.

Evelyn's struggle to break the curse that leads to her repeated deaths before her eighteenth birthday is an engaging hook, but I found myself wishing for a different approach. The constant cycle of death limited the exploration of their characters, and I think the story would have benefited immensely if they had the chance to experience life as adults. This might have allowed for richer development and a more profound emotional connection to their journey.

While the writing has its moments and the themes of love and fate are beautifully woven, the repetitive nature of their story ultimately detracted from my enjoyment. If Evelyn and Arden had the opportunity to navigate life beyond their teenage years, I believe I would have connected with their narrative on a deeper level. As it stands, Our Infinite Fates offers an interesting read, but it left me craving more substance and growth from its characters.

Amazing is the first thing I need to say. Somehow I finished this book in one sitting. The narrative was so beautiful, it made my heart ache. To feel the want of Evelyn and Arden made me want to cry. The love and suffering of these two characters are written throughout the whole book. 100% one of the best books I read in a while.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven is an excellent YA contemporary fantasy romance following two souls deeply bound together throughout time. Evelyn and Arden have known and loved each other for centuries and only truly know themselves in each others. However, they are just as bound to die by each other's hands before they can turn 18, no matter how hard Evelyn tries to live beyond this cut-off. Arden, though, is inflexible, insisting that it is impossible for them to live any longer than this point, less something terrible happen. In this life however, Evelyn is determined to get to the bottom of why this must always be so.

Throughout the book, which is written entirely from Evelyn's POV, we see alternating scenes from their current life in Wales to the lives they've had together in the past, both the good and the bad. What shines clearly on every page of this book is the depths of love and devotion that these two have to each other and it was by far my favorite part of the book. We also see a profound level of reflection and introspection, while Evelyn thinks on what it means to love, to live, and to find happiness in another and in one's one life.

I would recommend this to fans of reincarnation and star-crossed lovers who love to see a tragic relationship that can never truly bloom.

This was a beautifully done reincarnation story, it had that element that I was looking for and was engaged with in the genre. The concept worked well and was written in a way that was engaging and kept the readers attention. I enjoyed the way the characters were written and enjoyed the past lives of this story. I’m excited to read more from Laura Steven as this was a really well done book.

⭐️3.75

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC of Our Infinite Fates.

This novel reflects on the themes of love, loss, and grief. Have you ever been visited somewhere and the place felt familiar? Have you ever met someone and it was as if you had met before? So have the main characters of Our Infinite Fates. Except their souls have met before, in multiple lifetimes, and they have been forced to kill each other over and over again.

This book will really have you digging into emotions and having high hopes for the main character. And that ending? Beautiful.

The star and a half was removed because the of the visit to the underworld and with The Mother was just too corny for me. I was reminding myself it’s a YA book, but I’m not sure even teenage me would have thought that it wasn’t corny.

Thank you to Laura Steven, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!
This was my first by Laura Steven after hearing such high praise for her writing, I was excited! But this book just fell flat for me. I did really love the glimpses of the historical fiction side to this book as I love that genre all on its own, along with the bit of mystery in the story. I also really enjoyed the “present day” story and characters and would have loved to see a HEA there. Overall, it was okay. I think I won’t go out of my way to read more by this author.

A magical realism tale of two people destined to kill each other, again and again. Evelyn & Arden have known each other for centuries: in the trenches of France during World War I, at the height of the spice trade in the Dutch East Indies, and now in modern day Wales. Each interaction ends in the same way: one of them kills the other before their 18th birthday. Discovering why they are fated to this existence is a tale full of magical realism and heart. I would say this is solidly YA, the poetry bits especially, but still an enjoyable read if YA typically isn't your thing. I enjoyed unraveling the relationship between Evelyn & Arden and though the ending felt a bit rushed, I was still thoroughly invested in the story and characters and enjoyed this trip through time.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books & Netgally for the ARC.

unfortunately, i did not enjoy this book. about two people who are destined to murder each other in every lifetime, it was definitely an interesting premise, however i think the execution didn’t work all that well. the love story of the two main characters is told through flashbacks and i think the format of it made it hard for me to connect with the characters. they felt very underdeveloped; at the end i felt like I knew nothing except that arden was secretive and liked writing, and evelyn liked fashion and was compassionate. the ending felt rushed and anti-climatic. the writing was very flowery, almost to the point of excessiveness, and it felt a lot like reading random quotes about love and life. the chapters were short, which did made it a quick read, and i liked the relationships shown with evelyn’s current family. overall though this book fell flat for me.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher.

I absolutely love love love books like this. Give me all the magical realism and time jumps and reincarnation and star crossed lovers. It was phenomenal.

When I heard the description of this book, I JUMPED on it and immediately downloaded a copy from NetGalley. (My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this opportunity!!)   

Two star-crossed lovers fated to fall in love again and again and then kill each other?  LET ME AT IT!!!  I expected silly angsty goodness.   What I did not account for is that the two characters are fated to die <b>before they turn 18</b>.  So basically they are perpetual children, for hundreds of years they have been children.  

And I also did not expect the writing style, which is so similar to E lockhart's that I started to wonder if they are the same person (they are not, so far as I can tell).  So, if you loved "We Were Liars" then by all means pick this one up too!   

<blockquote><i>As the sun cracked over the horizon like a brilliant orange yolk …

His eyes were like the mouths of volcanoes

The knowledge was a bear claw closing around my ribs.

every line, every stanza etching grooves into my chest.

So many details of Arden had been washed away like seashells on an ebbing tide, leaving behind only a blank plain of sand and foam.
Flooded with star-bright adrenaline,</i></blockquote>

(This book has already been published in the UK so I think it's okay to include some quotes from it.)  This is just from the first five chapters.   (And, I ask you, what does “Star-bright adrenaline” even <b>mean??</b>)

The idea for the story wasn't bad, there's a decent explanation for what's going on that I did not anticipate, and this definitely brings the angst and melodrama by the truckloads, but I could not get over the ridiculous writing style.  The final plot resolution was ridiculous, too.

It became clear that I am not the intended audience for this novel , so it's a definite case of "it's not you, it's me" happening here.  This is the type of YA that is solidly YA, without all-ages appeal.   I am just far too old.

This is a compelling story that drew me through history with the sage wisdom of The Alchemist and beautiful weavings of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. The love and sacrifice between Evelyn and Arden always had me rooting for them as they sacrificed for each other from one lifetime to the next. The themes surrounding love and life are deeply moving, and I couldn't put it down. This story will follow me for a long while.

Favorite quotes:

"Yet, for better or worse, I will always let myself love anyway."

"I love you, and I have loved you, and I will love you."

𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠: 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝙸𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝙵𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜 𝚋𝚢 𝙻𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗

Rating: 4 stars
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, soulmates
Spice: 🌶️
Genre: YA Fantasy
Release date: 3/4/25

This book was everything everyone else is saying minus two personal things for me. One: the end REALLY made me suspend my disbelief. I’m not sure the lore/world building set up for the end. It kinda came out of left field, which really pulled me out at the end. Second: also at the end (which makes me feel like it was rushed for some reason) what happened to their bodies??? Wasn’t Evelyn super concerned about her mother finding her body? But all of a sudden she was chill with her body being found with her accused k*ller?? Seemed out of place.

I do love that their love transcends everything (even murdering each other lol), but I’m a romantic at heart. I don't know why every time they killed each other is was fairly funny. There were two that were very emotional, but the rest they were like "dang it, AGAIN!?" As they find new and unusual ways to k*ll each other.

The prose in this novel was touching. I was smiling, crying, confused (in a good way), and hopeful the whole book. I wanted the HEA so badly. I’ll leave you with when the book ended, I ugly cried.

I’d definitely recommend this book despite my two little qualms. I don’t think they ruined it for me, just made me feel conflicted.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fated lovers. Curses. Love. Heartache. This book had me in a beautiful chokehold and I wouldn't have it any other way. I was happy, sad, heartbroken and angry all at once (a little less on the angry). The tragedy, the plot twists, etc. Absolutely beautiful writing and I'm so happy I have the book preordered already so I can have a physical copy to hold and read all over again.