Evelyn will just about do anything to save her younger, prickly, funny sister from her Leukemia diagnosis. But her own time is running out.
She hasn’t told her family that she herself will die at 18 years of age. In fact, she has died at 18 years or younger for the past one thousand years.
Evelyn has lived multiple lives across the centuries. She has experienced first hand the 1472 ottoman Empire, the Western Front trenches, and the time of the Witch Trials.
In 1290 she travelled across the Sahara in a camel caravan that trades across the sands, lived in Athens in its historical prime, and been an inmate at a horrific insane asylum. She was incarcerated for speaking the truth of her existence. She and her beloved named Arden are doomed to the fate of living their lives over and over and over – reborn near each other, to enable Arden to find her and kill her before she turns 18.
They are born in both girl and boy existences, sometimes at the same time, drawn to each other regardless of time or gender. Evelyn wants to know why Arden does what he does. She yearns to live her life to the full, to age, have a big family and wrinkle and love them all, even as she loves desperately the one who kills her again and again.
This fate was struck at the beginning of time, and Arden will not tell Evelyn the answer she’s desperate to know. Why?
Now living in Wales in 2022, she just needs to stay alive until she can give the hospital the stem cells her sister needs to survive. Each time she is reborn, she doesn’t remember her fate at first, but when she does, she is hyper aware of those around her as she ages.
Could her work colleague at the bookstore be Arden? Watching. Waiting.
Could it be the cute boy at a nearby cafe? All she needs is a few more days to save her sister.
Such a fascinating premise, and written beautifully – Our Infinite Fates is an intriguing read!
Much of the novel is set in 2022 Wales, where main character Evelyn lives on a small farm, and works in a bookstore. Needing to stay alive for her younger sister with the imminent threat of her coming murder at age 18, Evelyn is constantly on edge. This amps up the tension as she does everything to stay alive.
She and a guy named Arden are inextricably linked in love and murder as they live their lives over and over, magnetically attracted to each other, but also in Evelyn’s case, trying to stay apart. The secret of why this must happen every 18 years is a jaw-dropping one which I much enjoyed.
I also loved the way their past lives were sprinkled throughout the story, showing Arden’s love for her even as he knew he had to kill her, and Evelyn’s love for everyone around her. Love in fact, despite the continuing murders through time, is a huge part of this tale.
“I love you. I have loved you. I will love you.”
Great read.
Author – Laura Steven
Age – 15+
Publisher – Penguin UK
Set in – Across 1000 years
Orphan – Lives multiple lives
Violence – Yes
Real Life – Yes
Fantasy – Yes
Sex – Yes
Blend – Romance / Determined Fate / Fantasy
(2025, Love, Betrayal, Family, Fantasy, Grief, Historical, Romance, Secret, Star-Crossed Lovers, Doomed, Murder, Deal, Leukemia, Hospital)