Notes from the Shelf

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Book Summary

They’ve loved each other in a thousand lifetimes—and in every one, Evelyn dies. Evelyn remembers all of her past lives. She remembers falling for Arden, the supernatural being bound to her soul—and she remembers Arden killing her before her eighteenth birthday, every single time. But this life is different. Evelyn has a little sister who depends on her, a future she’s desperate to protect, and no intention of dying again. To survive, she must track down Arden before they find her, uncover the truth behind their deadly bond, and somehow break the curse that ties them together. But with fate—and her heart—pulling her toward the one person she’s sworn to escape, the past might be harder to outrun than she ever imagined.

My Thoughts

General Impressions

I really enjoyed this book! I thought it was a unique concept that two ill-fated lovers must continue to kill each other before they turn 18, and they are reunited in the next life that immediately follows that life. I found it interesting that Evelyn didn’t remember many of the past lives, but Arden remembered them all. Later it’s revealed why, and I was glad for that because it didn’t make much sense to me initially.

I really liked that it was told as like an enemies-to-lovers, because as far as Arden and Evelyn remember, Arden hated Evelyn, and then their love had to grow over the years into the power that it was at the end. It was a little different than I thought it would go, although the ending with the twist was exactly how I thought the origin story had started, so I was excited that at first it was so different and surprising. I could see how the first twist would come out of nowhere for people though, so not every reader will be into it.

I like that at the end Evelyn and Arden were both men. Since it had started with them both being women, it felt like a full circle moment to me. The ending also made me tear up, with all their dreams coming true and the little hints of the past showing through, with Evelyn having a feeling about it all but not knowing why.

Gender Identity & Representation

I also liked the concept of them being men in one life and then women in others, or a man and woman in one. It gave some LGBT representation, and it felt natural that they would not be the same gender over and over across 1000 years of lives.

I also found it interesting that Evelyn referred to Arden as them when thinking of the past lives. Since Arden and Evelyn have lived for so long and had been both men and women before, it made sense that they recognized each other as their souls and not their gender for that time period.

I thought it was a bit odd that neither of them ever felt like they were trans because I thought that would’ve been an obvious thing to include in a book about constantly reincarnated people, but thinking about it more, Evelyn often didn’t remember their past lives, and Evelyn also said they don’t care really which gender they are, so I guess Evelyn wouldn’t be bothered even if they did remember.

Arden would be more inclined to feel trans since they said they prefer to be male, but Arden also always remembered the past, so they probably also wouldn’t care enough to talk about it with their community since they know they’ll just die and be reincarnated anyway. And toward the end, Arden would isolate themselves to not feel as bad leaving behind loved ones when they died, so I guess it wouldn’t come up anyway within Arden’s community.

Disability & Diversity in the Book

I did like there was blind and deaf representation as well. I feel like that’s something that is often overlooked in books, so it was a nice touch.

Historical Authenticity & Naming

I did question Evelyn’s name at first, because Evelyn doesn’t seem like a name that would be from 1,000 years ago, but I was satisfied with the reasoning that was revealed later. Arden did seem like an older name, and looking it up, it can be tracked back to before 1066 in the UK area, so I’m satisfied with that.

I’m sure there was a lot of research Laura Steven put into the names for the different areas they were born in. I thought each life sounded realistic and authentic, and I liked the different glimpses into other parts of the world.

Love Across Timelines

I did want a bit more on their past lives to show how their love developed over all those years. I also wanted more poetry from Arden’s book Ten Hundred Years of You, a poetry collection on his love for Evelyn. I’m definitely buying that poetry collection if Laura Steven ever writes it.

Decoding the Prologue Timeline

I usually try not to do any super major spoilers when I discuss my thoughts, but for this one I want to discuss the timeline, so it will contain major spoilers below. Read at your own risk.

I mapped out the timeline because I was obsessed, and I’m probably thinking too much about everything, but I wanted to know two things. First, where does the prologue fit in and second, which gender were they most often?

The timeline as well as their names and genders for each time period are in the table below. Some of them didn’t reveal names, and some of the genders are guesses based on context clues, so could be wrong. Also, some of the time periods weren’t chapters with explicit dates, but they were mentioned as the next life or previous life when discussing the other time periods.

Year	Dates	Evelyn	Arden
986- Greece	986	Daphne- F	Calliope- F
1006- Lundenburg	986-1006	Evelyn- F	Arden- M
The next life- Bavaria	1006-1024	M?- in monastery	M
1042-Northern Song	1024-1042	Zhao Sheng- M	F
	12 lives + 14 yrs
“Several hundred years ago”		M?	F?
1290-Mali Empire	1272-1290	Thiyya- F	Lalla- F
	9 lives and 2 yrs
1472- Ottoman Empire	1454-1472	M	M
	Exactly 8 lives
Previous life- Finnmark	1616-1634	Urzula- F	?
1652- Norway	1634-1652	F	M
	5 lives plus 10 yrs
1770- Dutch East Indies	1752-1770	M	F
	4 lives plus 2 yrs
1862- US, Vermont	1844-1862	Harriet- F	Augusta- F
Previous life- Bombay	1862-1880	M	F
1898- Austria-Hungary	1880-1898	Tobias- M	Ferenc- M
1915- France	1898-1915	M	Henri- M
1932- Algeria	1915-1932	M	M
1 missing	1 life
1968- Nauru	1950-1968	Heilani- F	Elenoa- F
1986- Russia	1968-1986	Nadezhda- F	Mikha- M
2004- El Salvador	1986-2004	Adella- F	Rafael- M
2022- Wales	2004-2022	Branwen- F	Dylan- M
2054- Scotland	2022-2054	Leon- M	M

So, first thing I saw after I mapped it out was that the years didn’t all add up to be every 18 years. I’m a little confused by this since the ones listed in the book are exactly 18 years apart, but the large gaps don’t equate to full 18-year lives when divided by 18. Maybe in some lives they just died very young, but I’m not convinced.

But to get to my first question, where do you think the “several years ago” prologue goes in the timeline? It has to be after the Northern Song life because Arden hated Evelyn before then. I would say it needs to be a few lives after the Northern Song at least, because Arden just started to like Evelyn after they sacrificed themselves to save Arden’s father. It would take some time to go from that to wanting to be married.

I got Viking vibes from the prologue, but Vikings were from around 800–1050 CE, so that overlaps with the first lives that are rigidly mapped out. The term “several hundred years ago” makes me think like 500–700 years ago, so it probably does still go somewhere between Northern Song and the Ottoman Empire since there are 12 lives missing there from the story.

Also, as a side note, when I first read the prologue, I kind of assumed it was Evelyn as the bride and Arden as the groom, but I don’t think that’s the case. Arden always remembered what was going on, and Evelyn often forgot, and it also seems Arden often did the killing, so for the prologue, it was the groom that was totally clueless and the bride that knew what was happening and killed him, so I think Arden is the bride and Evelyn is the groom, and have it marked as such in the table above.

For my second question on which gender had they been more often, I thought of this because Arden said they preferred to be a man, and Evelyn didn’t really care either way, so I was interested to see how it ended up from the lives we saw.

Evelyn has one more tally than Arden since it was revealed about their past life in Finnmark, and Arden wasn’t mentioned for that past life, but Arden was a male 11 times and a female 8 times, and Evelyn was even with 10 times for each.

Final Thoughts

While there were a few things that made me question the story at first, Our Infinite Fates was an enjoyable read. I don’t often read YA anymore, but this one was worth it, and it was a pretty fast read, too. I enjoyed watching Evelyn and Arden through different lives, but I wish there was a bit more to explain their undying love for each other despite constantly killing each other. I didn’t mind the two twists toward the end, but I could see why one of them was a little out there for some readers. That first twist was definitely not expected, which for me was a bonus.

What are your thoughts on where the prologue goes in the timeline? Did you like the twists at the end? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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