The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow * * * * *
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow was my pick for prompt #23 of the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, “A book you were hoping would fit into a prompt but doesn't”. It turned out to be one of my favourite reads of the year, and I ended up giving it five stars. On the surface, this could be described as a love story, but that barely scratches the surface of what the novel is actually doing. At its heart, The Everlasting is a story about national identity, history, myth making, and the stories countries tell about themselves. It asks how those stories shape not only the way we see the past, but also the future we create. It is a surprisingly ambitious novel, one that explores ideas much bigger than its central romance. The story begins with Owen Mallory, a historian who has spent years studying the legendary knight Una Everlasting, one of the founding heroes of the nation of Dominion. When his research draws him far closer to the legend than he ever expected, the novel gradually unfol...