I feel like this is going to be a hard book to top this year. It felt like an exceptionally fast read, and I couldn't put it down. I don't always love when a book goes back and forth between the past and the present, but I really appreciated the way it was done here. It felt like we learned important information as it was needed, rather than it all being dumped on us at the beginning. It also made Evelyn and Arden's love feel more important and epic. Evelyn is constantly throwing herself whole-heartedly into each life and loving everyone around her to the fullest, while Arden constantly puts walls up to protect himself (and Evelyn). The ending didn't feel rushed, and the twist at the end was fantastic! The SECOND twist was even more epic and somehow made it all the more heartbreaking. I loved that not all of their lives were female/male relationships and were, more often than not, same-sex relationships. Their love transcended the body they were given, and it never mattered to them that they might be killed or tortured for their relationship with each other. This was a sweeping love story that spans centuries and changes and grows the way we do as humans. Our Infinite Fates left me in tears as my heart swelled and burst. Laura Steven is an author I'll be following going forward!!

The only problem I had was the narrator. Her voice was lovely and made listening easy, but there was no inflection or difference in her voice with each character and each life. Her voice should not have a Welsh lilt when the character is in ancient Constantinople. It was difficult at times to tell WHO was speaking in the book as each voice was the same. I won't be listening to it again in the future, but I WILL be reading it again!

Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven is a young adult book that transcends the ages. It doesn't matter if you' re long past your teenage years or a young adult yourself, this story will absolutely consume you with its raw emotions. Hauntingly beautiful; you will fall in love with Evelyn and Arden and will feel their pain as real as your own.

Evelyn and Arden have lived hundreds of lives together, spanning 1000 years, falling in love with each other each time; however, they have also killed each other in each life. This is until Evelyn reaches her current life, which she is quite fond of. Determined to break the chain that has consumed her existence, Evelyn will do anything to change what she has been told is her fate, to either kill or be killed by her love, Arden.

There is something in this book to entertain any kind of reader, from historical fiction, to mystery, to thriller, romance, and even a touch of horror, This is a book that will be loved by all different kinds of readers. The narrator of the audiobook does an excellent job bringing readers along for the emotional ride.

I'd recommend this for ages 14+ because there is some dark material in it and a touch of sensuality towards the end. The novel touches on ideas such as gender identity as the characters live their many lives interweaving among identities, but the time readers spend in each lifetime is too short to really delve into the concept too much.

Phenomenal. Absolutely stunning. This book is one of those special books that comes along that completely engrosses you into the characters enduring pain, struggles, and love that stretches multiple centuries and lives. I cannot recommend it enough.

Our Infinite Fates - Laura Steven
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 🌶️ (barely there spice)

“I love you, I have loved you, and I will love you.”

How would you feel if you knew you were destined to be unalived in every life by the soul that you love with all your heart? That is Evelyns life over and over, she is destined to be in love with Arden who will unalive her on her 18th birthday.

This book has one of my favorite tropes ever in a book, reincarnation.

Y'ALL. I literally cannot stop thinking about this book. Like, I'm sitting here trying to write this review and my brain is just SCREAMING about how perfect every single word was. The way Laura Steven writes about love? Pure poetry. And not just romantic love - we're talking about ALL the loves. Family love, friendship love, the kind of love that makes you want to live even when everything is falling apart.

The vibes we're working with:
🌙 Reincarnation but make it DEVASTATING
💫 Enemies to lovers but across CENTURIES
🎭 Racing against time (and death itself)
🦋 Soulmates who can't escape each other
⚔️ "I have to kill you to save you" vibes
🌺 Sister bonds that break your heart
✨ Beautiful writing that feels like poetry

I literally ordered the special edition after finishing my ARC because I NEED this beauty on my shelf. If you love books that make you FEEL things, books that make you want to hug your loved ones tight, books that make you believe in love despite everything... this is it. This is THE book.

TW: Please check content warnings, but trust me - it's worth it.

Now excuse me while I go cry about that one quote again. You know the one. 💔✨

* “I love you, I have loved you, and I will love you.”

* “The cruelest fate the gods and stars had ever written: the person I loved most in the world was the person that would ultimately destroy me.”

I loved this book so damn much.

It was like the Addie Larue meets Divine Rivals, all blended together.
Which if you know anything about me, that's high praise.
It was a slow paced character heavy book, and it did take me a minute to get into it.
But switching to audio helped me, and I didn't regret a second of it.
Now, I want to reread, and annotate it!

O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D

I'm a bit disappointed in this novel because I wanted so much more from it. The positive: original story idea, and the prose is very lyrical. Overall, though, it could have been so much better. I would have liked a dual POV so that I could get to know Arden better. Also, I understand the author wanted a big "reveal" moment but it wasn't well timed,. The first three quarters unfold very slowly, and then a big rush at the end with the big "reveal" (which is becoming so clique) The romance is my biggest criticism of the story. I would have liked to understand why they loved each other instead of just being "told" that they did. It's a story of eternal love, and I still don't know what they loved about each other.

Also, they should consider a trigger warning for the amount of grief and loss in this book.

Overall, the premise and lyrical writing could have produced a masterpiece, but the pacing and forced romance (I still don't fully understand WHY their love was deep and eternal.) Not a book I will be recommending in my library.

Note, I listened to the audio book and had to speed it up to 1.5x.

A really lovely surprise. The very beginning was a bit slow, but once I got my bearings, I was hooked.

This book was a great reminder that it isn’t my job to force myself to read a book. A good book pulls you in and makes you want to keep going.

I’ve already recommended it to all my friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

The description for this book was spot on - it reads like Addie LaRue and I love it! The story was very captivating and the characters were intriguing. I've already recommended this book to many friends.

Loved the audio version of this story! It was nice to have access to both versions for a simultaneous read, and this was well done.

I am not enjoying the writing style of this one. Those who gravitate more towards lyrical/metaphorical writing styles may like it more. I find the writing is keeping me from getting into the story.

4.25⭐️ (rounded up!) this book is for the fans Invisible Life of Addie Larue (V.E. Schwab) and Divine Rivals (not ruthless vows) (Rebecca Ross)!!

i LOVE the themes in this book so much! the writing was extremely beautiful and i can’t wait to get a physical copy so i can annotate it!

i only wish that the book was longer because i would’ve loved to see more of the main characters actually falling in love in every lifetime and more about the beginning of it all with Calliope.

All around i LOVED this and am going to hold these characters so close to my heart for infinite lifetimes!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Duration:
Narrated by Sofia Oxenham
Publication Date: 03.04.25

“I love you, I have loved you, and I will love you.”

“Muse is too simple a word for what you are to me.”

* YA Fantasy
* Intertwined Fates
* Enemies To Lovers
* Invisible String
* Paranormal
* Fated Lovers
*LGBTQ+ Rep
* Found Family
* Past Lives
* Centuries Old Curse
* Multiple Timelines

Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven is such a beautiful, poetic and emotional reads. Life, love, empathy, suffering, loss, emotional turmoil, and so much more. This truly didn’t disappoint and the audiobook took it to a whole new level and experience. With such a unique concept that was executed well.

This story is about reincarnation and many lives that our FMC and MMC have been tied together. Our FMC, Evelyn, gets murdered every lifetime before her 18th birthday. Many lifetimes, as far back as she can recall, it always ends tragically. Arden, our MMC, is in each and every lifetime as her love. They do come back as different genders, which is a great twist. This has you with so many questions. A couple being; why are they destined for death to be the ending in each lifetime.. Why must it be at the hands of each other?

I truly love how unique this was. I liked how smooth the dual timelines (past and present) were, as well. The flashbacks and the gentleness of how she broached death. I enjoyed the world building and character building. It is slower paced but that helps to build the story just right. It’s definitely worth checking out.

I loved the narration of this story. She did an excellent job bringing this to life.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC.

rating 4.5 ⭐️

this book truly rips your heart out and keeps you guessing the motives throughout which is just so much more painful.

the narrator gave this book such a nostalgic life that i truly was dragged more and more into the story. she did such a phenomenal job embodying her and the emotion behind her character!!

i thoroughly enjoyed the storyline, following evelyn and arden and seeing their raw interactions with each other in this life and the ones in the past… :’) arden is such a complex character that it keeps you guessing why he does what he does and following evelyn’s true strength of humanity was such a beautiful journey. this book is the true testament to what love is, was, and could be.

such a great book with such a great ending🤍

You’ve lived many lives. You know how this ends. Is there anything you can do to change your fate? Perhaps your experience of having lived many lives will be to your benefit? Or maybe your fate is just your fate & there’s nothing you can do to change the inevitable.

Oh I had such high hopes for this one based on all of the early buzz (and the promo comparing it to Addie LaRue), and it absolutely did not let me down! I'm so hyped to get my hands on any and all special edition I can.

Evelyn knows that she won't survive past the day of her eighteenth birthday. In every lifetime, as far back as she can recall, the being known as Arden, appears to kill her. After all, their lives (all of them) are tied together. In most lifetimes, they love each other. In every lifetime, they kill each other. And the cycle starts all over again. But Evelyn doesn't understand why, or what she can do to stop it. And she really wants to stop it this time; she has a family she loves, and a younger sister counting on her for a bone marrow transplant. So she has to find Arden in this lifetime, and somehow convince him to let her stay alive long enough to save her sister - and maybe solve the curse that follows them both.

I just genuinely loved the formatting of this story, alternating between present day Wales and Evelyn's current incarnation, and progressively older lifetimes that she and Arden had lived as we get to the heart of the mystery tying them together. Honestly, though, my favorite thing in the story was the frank discussion that the two of them have about their identities and how they relate to them - after all, they aren't relegated to a particular sex or gender between lives. The acknowledgement that Evelyn identifies more comfortably with the lifetimes as a boy, while Arden doesn't feel any particular attachment to any identity - but they love each other in every one. There's also a great handling of trauma and how that continues with us, and a tactful handling of different cultures and beliefs throughout time.

The narrator is lovely for this one, too! She brings so much depth to each of the characters, which is no easy job when she has SO MANY characters to work through between the different lifetimes.

This book was written beautifully and I think listening to the audiobook really brings that out. There was a lot of softness woven into a book that revolves around death. I loved the flashbacks where we learned about each life they lived together. I actually think it would have been nice to spend a little more time in these past lives showing how they fell in love over time. There was quite a bit of diversity in their lifetimes together and I really enjoyed that aspect. The ending was a surprise to me. Not sure I exactly loved the way it went but it was nice to have a twist I wasn’t expecting!

I absolutely loved this book until about the last 20% of it. I do feel like the very end was beautiful, yet unsatisfying.

Evelyn and Arden are two souls who have lived thousands of lives, reincarnated and fated to find each other in each one. And although they've loved each other through most of these lives, they've also killed each other in every single one. In Evelyn's current life, she doesn't remember why Arden has to kill her before they turn 18, and she's grown attached to her family and the sister who needs a bone marrow transplant from her in order to stay alive. But can Evelyn either convince Arden not to kill her until after the transplant is complete or find a way to escape their fate?

I've read a few iterations of the star-crossed lovers, fated to be reborn and find each other over and over again before but I loved that this was unique. Instead of just being fated to find each other again, they're required to kill each other before they turn 18. Despite this, they find romance (however short-lived) in many of their lives, and ultimately, I was surprised by the reveal of the bargain they struck that led to this situation. I also thought it was interesting how neither was always born as their original gender, and they even talked in one of their lives about whether each of them preferred being born as a boy or a girl.

I do wish the pacing had been a little more consistent. The book definitely moved on the slower side until about the last 15% when the secret of their bargain was revealed. Although I enjoyed learning about their past lives together, I would have liked to have spent more time in that final reveal instead of it feeling rushed.

I listened to this book on audio and absolutely loved the narrator.

Read if you like:
Reincarnation
Star-crossed lovers
LGBTQ+ rep
YA fantasy
Love conquers all
Non-linear narrative

I wanted to love this one so much, but it fell a little flat for me. I found it hard to concentrate on what I was listening to, and would’ve maybe liked it more if I eyeball read it. My mind kept drifting and truly I just didn’t find myself caring about these characters.

Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven

I loved this story, it had an incredibly unique and interesting concept.

Evelyn and Arden are destined to find and love each other in every life, but they are also destined to kill each other by the time they turn 18. Just to be reborn and do it all again. They are born into different cultures, countries, genders and centuries but still always find each other and only Arden remembers why. The book goes back between various lives, but is centred on present day as Evelyn tries to figure out a way to live past 18 so she can save her sister’s life with a bone marrow transplant.

I adored these characters and their romantically tragic storyline. The poetry and wisdom about souls and family and love were so thoughtful.

There were a couple tiny things that I question, but there always is in these types of magical realism books. There were a couple moments that seemed to wrap up too quick, and I wanted more details! Still I am thoroughly impressed and can’t wait to read more by this author.

Thank you to @macmillan.audio for the audio copy (the narrator was fantastic!) and @wednesdaybooks for the ebook. This one is out on March 4th!