I really liked Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House, so when I saw The Everlasting in my local independent bookstore, I knew I should read it, especially after reading the synopsis, and it turned out to be better than I hoped it would be.

The Everlasting is set in an alternate world, much like our own but with dragons and a bit of magic. It’s not the type of high fantasy fairy smut that the BookTokers go crazy over; The Everlasting is more like magical realism. It is about a man named Owen Mallory, a former soldier who is a professor at the Cantford College Department of History. Owen lives in the country of Dominion, which is like an even bleaker post-war version of England, minus the royal family.

Dominion’s history is rooted in the Arthurian-esque legend of Sir Una Everlasting, a knight who as a young girl drew a sword from a tree and became the champion of the first Queen of Dominion, and whose tragic fate saves her queen and allows Dominion to become a dominating empire. Owen has dedicated himself to researching Una Everlasting and comes into possession of a mysterious book that contains an account of Una’s life that no one has ever seen before. This book leads to him being sent back in time to ensure that Una completes her final task for the queen and meets her tragic fate. The only problem is that now that Owen has met the very real woman behind the legend, he finds himself falling in love with her and doesn’t know if he can watch her die, even though he has watched her die many times before.

I am not going to say much more about the plot of The Everlasting because I don’t want to spoil any more of the many twists and turns this novel throws at the reader. It is a beautifully written love story that transcends time, literally as there is a lot of time-travelling involved. The tragically heroic couple find themselves up against a cleverly diabolical villain who is desperate to cling to power regardless of the socio-economic implications of their meddling with Dominion’s history. It is too bad The Everlasting isn’t set in our own world, but that might have made it too unwielding of a story considering how complicated our own history is. Still, this novel’s settling is close enough to our own to make it an interesting examination of political control.

The best part of the story is of course the sensual, not at all smutty, relationship that develops between Owen and Una, and their desperate attempts to be able to have a life together. This book was making me very anxious about their ability to outsmart the villain. I have no idea if any of the time-travelling in this novel makes sense, I just went along for the ride because of how gripping the story is. The Everlasting is a very good novel, and I am glad that I picked it out that day in the bookstore.