Book Review for March: Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven

My 13th book read of 2025 was a YA fantasy novel that came from right here in The North.

Recently, I went to the ‘Our Infinite Fates’ book launch in Newcastle; it was held in the Garden Room of The Biscuit Factory, which is a wedding-ready romantic dream of a room – complete with water feature, live greenery in the ceilings, along the walls and a platform in front of alive bonsai trees, where Laura sat answering questions for the evening.

And answer she did – with such open and comical book related chat, it was a joy to be part of and a real positive vibe. I love YA fantasy and I am not alone. I might write a blog post one day about why I think women in adulthood like reading YA and how it makes us feel, I had similar ideas when I enjoyed reading Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell last year. OIF is for an older audience than Impossible Creatures I want to add. Laura and I chatted about writing at the signing table. I came home inspired and wanting to read OIF immediately, and now I have I am happy to report.

Our Infinite Fates is a YA fantasy that follows Evelyn and Arden through a Millenia, a multitude of different life times and although they kill each other before their 18^th birthday in every one, their souls always manage to find each other in the next. It is well crafted to hold sweeping sentiments through acts and statements of love, lines like:

‘Love was a palimpsest, written over and over again.’

and

‘Maybe that’s all love is, in the end. An endless temptation of fate.’

Each chapter is beautifully situated and the imagery is seeded forwards and backwards through space and time, with a little poetry too. I particularly like how solid their teenage narrator voice was, with internalisation that fits. I like how familial love was honoured too. I like the idea of the story.

Nothing is read in isolation. Each book choice is nudged by what came before, and what we will choose afterwards. We shape our reading journey like a river. I came to OIF through the combined comparison to The Invisible Life of Addie la Rue by V E Schwab and This is How to Lose the Time War by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone (a personal favourite I have mentioned here on my blog before). Incidentally both V E Schwab and Amal El Mohtar have new books coming out soon: The River has Roots and Bury their bones in the midnight soil. I can see where my reading year is meandering downstream. Both Schwab and Steven have a great newsletter too and I love their transparency over process and hard work. Being a broke wannabe author myself, I appreciate it.

Book 12 of 2025 was The Mercies by Kiran Milwood Hargrave, I re-read for book club and I liked the nod to Vardo witch trials OIF had too, it felt like a coincidence, but it is good to listen to coincidences. If Laura had the Taylor Swift song lyric ‘I think I’ve seen this film before and I didn’t like the ending’ for OIF then I have had ‘Women like hunting witches too’ whilst writing my most recent short story and reading book 12 of the year. Kiran Milwood Hargrave is predominantly a YA author but The Mercies was her first adult novel and Laura Steven will be publishing her first adult fantasy novel, Silver Cloak, later this year too.