I would put money on this book being studied as part of English literature degrees in the future.

If you’re looking for a romance book that’s different from the norm, that makes you think and requires you to take your time, this is the book for you.

Olivie Blake does a fantastic job of making you read the book from the characters point of view without writing in the first person. Instead, the prose reflects the broken and disjointed feelings both characters are going through.

A very interesting read and one I’m sure will be talked about for years to come.

Thanks NetGalley and PanMcMillan for the ARC.

This book was so beautiful and raw and poetic. So different and refreshing from The Atlas Six. I can’t wait to read more of Blake’s books!

This is easily one of my favourite reads this year. It will stick with me forever. It was so achingly raw and beautiful, it resonated with something inside of me, and I can't thank her enough for writing it.

I've said before Blake writes characters you just want to keep reading about. I am so happy to follow the mundanities of life with her characters because they're so very real. I felt such a deep connection to both Regan and Aldo, saw a lot of myself, my traits, my insecurities, my flaws IN them. And I felt so seen.

Blake's writing was just gorgeous as always. I absolutely love being inside a characters chaotic thoughts, I love being dragged along with an inner monologue. I was highlighting whole huge passages of this book because it was just beautiful and relatable and wonderful.

So yeah here I am simping over Olivie Blake again. Deal with it 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

This was a truly amazing story, I know it's something that won't be for everyone, but I know that a lot of people will feel the connection I felt, and be so thankful for that.

WTF did I just read?

I feel equal parts happy and confused by this book, and yet I couldn't put it down despite my head spinning (read: feeling totally stupid!) most of the time. The truth is, as with Olivie Blake's other work, this starts off feeling like a flex of intelligence. The prose, the confusing narrative approach and the obscure plot isn't a new idea of hers but it's definitely hugely emphasised in this particular book. As a result I felt like I was missing something, couldn't keep up or just fell asleep reading for the first quarter until finally I got it - that was the point, it turns out.

The story follows two people, uniquely different but with a shared perspective towards acceptance and how other people choose to live their lives. Aldo is a mathematician and is super smart, working as a doctoral student and teaching in maths. Charlotte (who doesn't really go by Charlotte) has a criminal conviction and floats through her life committing to things in a totally non-committal sort of way. Their chance meeting results in them agreeing to have six conversations, nothing more, to determine if they can work each other out.

What's lovely about this book, in all of its awkwardness and deliberate obscureness, is that they both completely accept who the other one is - peculiarities are a puzzle to solve, strangeness a facet to explore and mystery considered a pleasure to share but not understand. There is something oddly beautiful about that.

The trouble is, it's a weird story, it doesn't really go anywhere (there is next to no plot!) and the characters, despite being cute to watch, are also real oddballs. Sometimes that's fun to watch, but most of the time I was just wanting to find out the ending (which was also a bit of a nonentity).

So, I closed the book (actually, I spent most of the book) thinking "WFT did I just read?". But, I didn't think it was bad - it just was totally unusual and not entirely good either. It's fair to call it a bit of a "dreamscape" or a "fever dream" as I've seen in other reviews - that's pretty accurate - but it's therefore calling to a specific sort of reader who appreciates that I think, and I'm not convinced that was me. What I will say though is that I can absolutely say with certainty that I have never before read anything like it, and that's pretty cool.

DNF at 25%

This book was really well written, I just don’t think the writing style was for me. I didn’t like the disjointed feel to the writing (although this could have been intentional) and the narrator constantly changing was a bit confusing. The main characters were very well described and I felt like you got to know them well, however the side characters felt a bit shallow and it felt as if they were only there to serve a purpose for the plot. I liked the setting, however and I think Olivie Blake is amazing at creating very vivid scenery.

Thank you so much to Pan MacMillan for the DRC.

I am really struggling to put into words my thoughts, so I'll keep it short...

I LOVED THIS BOOK. BUY IT.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read a proof of this book!

This book is normal people meets all the bright places, and the result is stunning. I was ready to give up on Olivie Blake after not loving The Atlas Paradox but I wanted to read her in a different genre and I was so glad I did - Alone With You in the Ether is by far the best thing she’s written.

I was sceptical about the narration to start with but I quickly grew to adore it. The way the speech was there but implicitly, the conversations held almost in third person. I thought with these far-away characters themselves it worked beautifully and reflected Regan and Aldo perfectly.

Although it centres around a love story that’s not how I would label this at all, instead a philosophical way of looking at relationships and dependency, compulsion and companionship.

Highly recommend to all - those who already love Olivie’s work, those who are falling out of love with it, and those who haven’t read it yet at all.

This is definitely not a typical love story, I love how flawed and imperfect the character were it made them and what they were going through feel so much more real than in your average romance novel, which makes for an incredibly compelling novel.

I also loved the choice of switching the writing styles throughout the book, I thought it was very unique and effective at helping to portray how the character thought, and their inner monologues.

At times I did find this novel quite hectic and confusing however upon reflection I think that was the intention. I was never fully sure how I thought the story was going to go or who I was rooting for but I think that made it all the more interesting.

Not at all what I expected from this book, but that’s what made it worth it.

Ugh I just have no words for how talented this woman is ?! Like damn it! An absolute gem in the world. I have found a new immediate buy author! Thank you NetGalley!

Another WOW book from Blake. Her writing always sweeps me up and I just adore everything she has to say. The characters are so individual and I have not read anything like this. I can;t really describe how this book made me feel, it is something you have to read to understand. Read this book, it is lovely and it just needs all the love.

Beautiful! I honesty feel this book could quite happily exist with a simple, one word review of 'beautiful', but I get that's not how this works!
'Alone with you in the ether' is a complex love story between mathematician Aldo and Regan, who leads tours in an art museum. They are almost exact opposites in character and yet, through a series of conversations fall for each other. So little happens in this novel in terms of plot, but the way in which it charts the emotions of both protagonists is just stunning to read. I initially found it hard to get into but fairly soon I was well and truly lost within the wonderful minds of Aldo and Regan.
Aldo is a wonderful character, so kind and logical. He has a unique way in which to view the world and people and becomes curious about Regan, who is bipolar and seeing a psychiatrist after she had been caught committing fraud. I truly felt her insecurities and her desire to be loved. These are two characters who will stay with me for a long time. I adored going on this journey with them as they learn about each other.
I'm becoming a huge fan of Olivie Blake and her writing style. As someone who has struggled with mental health issues it was both heartbreaking and inspiring to read about Regan's journey.
Thank you so much to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an arc in return for an honest review. I absolutely adored this book.

This was a book I picked up because I adore Olivie Blake, and the premise of this book really caught me.

This is not a typical love story in the slightest, it is an all consuming relationship that is the plot, there is no major plot twist as this book is majority character driven with Charlotte and Rinaldo being the main drivers in this story.

This book deals with some heavy subject matter with mental health and mood swings taking the forefront of the story, and watching as Aldo and Regan cope with their own lives, as well as finding meaning and love in each other's.

This is a story that provokes talking points, this is not a comfort type book that you can lose yourself in to forget it as soon as its over, the characters will stay with you, and if you feel yourself represented in those characters it will feel like a lightbulb moment, as I know a few people have credited this book for that.

Now for me personally this book is not what I was expecting in all honesty, there were times I did struggle with the book as the writing was quite jagged and unstructured and I did struggle to immerse myself in the story, but this does not take away the impact this book has and will have, and also the authors note and acknowledgement at the end was beautiful and I and thankful and grateful that she was able to open up about her own life.

This is a wild ride of a relationship between two flawed characters who ultimately try to find their happy ending in surrendering themselves to their feelings despite the advice and discouragement of friends and family.

The style is breathless and compulsive, offering real insights into the minds of Regan and Aldo, and examining the workings of a close relationship. The story is shown with no judgement of the couple's mental health challenges, and when reading you really want the criticisms from family and friends to be wrong.

Regan and Aldo find everything in each other, the challenge is how to make it last.

Thank you to Tor for this eARC of "Alone With You in the Ether" by Olivie Blake.

"Alone With You in the Ether" follows the relationship of two characters, Regan and Aldo. It is a raw, provocative read. This book made me deeply consider my relationship with myself, as well as how I treat myself and others.

Both characters are compelling and ultimately very flawed which is exactly what makes this story work. Aldo and Regan are complex, distinctive and, in many ways, dislikeable characters, which makes you much more invested in their development and the conflict between the two.

Blake uses some interesting writing choices. For example in the first section, the book is written almost like a screenplay with different narrators dipping in and out, but this is not continued throughout the entire book. Later on, the narrative voice takes on Regan’s intrusive thoughts by way of her mother’s critical rants.

It is a unique story, unlike any I’ve read before, and is by far one of my favourite reads of the year. I’d strongly recommend this book. I would be aware that there are strong themes of mental illness, along with mentions of suicide, mental illness, drug overdose and drug use.

It’s taken a bit of sitting and pondering before I knew how to rate or review this book. I didn’t, as so many have, instantly love it. Sometimes I revelled in the wonderful wordery of it, other times I found it manic and confusing and lost the thread of what was happening. I think on reflection this was the author’s design and was a way of giving us a glimpse into a world that, to a lot of us, is completely alien. Kudos to you Ms Blake, you did that and much more, you crafted a love story like no other, there’s no ‘hearts and flowers’ but plenty of Heart.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Alone with you in the ether felt like a new take on the romance genre, I have never read anything like it before but I really enjoyed myself and found that I couldn’t put it down. Both Regan and Atlas are complex characters and their stories were so interesting to read. It’s a beautiful story about two strangers meeting, getting to know each other, and then falling in love — the story depicts love in a beautiful and terrifying way and I thoroughly enjoyed this complex aspect. I would definitely recommend this refreshing take on romance.

after not really loving the atlas six or the atlas paradox, i wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book as much as i whole-heartedly did. alone with you in the ether felt like a new take on the romance novel - one where you’re never sure if you should be rooting for the characters to get together or not. aldo was a very likeable character for me, i found his obsession with time fascinating and i love how into it reagan got too. aldo’s relationship with his dad was so endearing, i loved their phone calls and the way that his dad was always quietly looking out for him. reagan was a bit more complicated for me, a lot of her ethics and behaviours i found unlikeable, but as the book went on i found myself liking her more as i understood her insecurities. aldo and reagan as a couple were so lovely - i loved how they each said the other made them feel like a whole person and like they could finally trust they were able to be their full selves, no matter how crazy they thought they were being. one of my favourite parts was when aldo saw reagan’s art for in the exhibition for the first time towards the end of the book - the amount of love he felt for her just from seeing her painting was beautiful. i loved the ending of this book and the idea that “healthy” was always going to be a relative term for aldo and reagan’s relationship. i think it’s true that one kind of stable relationship will never work for everyone, and aldo and reagan show how much true love can exist in a relationship others think is doomed to fail. the writing itself in this book was beautiful, i loved how olivie blake combines so many different writing styles based on the character’s feelings and the situation. this book is a beautiful story of how love can prevail in even the most uncertain of people, and i loved it so so much.

This book is unlike any romance book I’ve read before - both in terms of the storyline but also the characters and how they are portrayed as being practically unlike any other book characters I can think of

It includes heavy topics such as mental health and mood disorders and different ways in which people cope with them

I like how different parts are set out in different ways, one part is set out out like a play script and another is just whole blocks of writing with barely any speechmarks - as if it’s just the two characters thoughts written exactly as they are

At the beginning it did take me a bit to get into, but I think that if I’d just sat down and read it rather than little bits here and there I would’ve got into it a lot quicker and the story would’ve made sense faster

This charts the relationship between Regan and Aldo, both of whom are considered broken by their friends and relations.

It narrates the story from their perspective and very much through their brokenness.

The question raised was whether they are genius or broken, and what that means for how long their relationship will last

A constantly surprising and beautiful novel. I loved Alone With You In The Ether.

It's a story about two people meeting, getting to know each other and falling in love, though possibly not in that order. To be honest, it's hard to tell in precisely what order they do those things, because Alone In The Ether has a tendency towards turbulence, turmoil and confusion. This is both deliberate and incredibly effective, beautifully capturing the mixed up emotions of love, desire and all that come with it. I've never known a story so cleverly depict the human need to pull people close while also pushing them away, the conflicting fears that we're not good enough for somebody and that they'll end up hurting us if we let them, the mixed up emotions when we just don't know what we're feeling, what we're thinking, what we want but there's this voice in our heads screaming someone else's name on repeat. Love is beautiful and terrifying, it can heal and hurt us, leave us feeling more connected to someone than anything else in the universe and entirely alone. Somehow Olivie Blake gets this all down in her gorgeous book.

It's also a book about mental illness, and how people cope with it, or pretend to cope with it while really not. The author pulls on her own personal experience to show us her own truth, or rather a version of it as lived by Regan. Aldo has his own struggles and his own ways of coping. And again, we see the turmoil and confusion and peace and everything else along the way.

The style is really quite remarkable. It's constantly shifting, changing the way it tells the story. There's a sequence I loved with different narrators popping up, from a Chicago cubs fan to a bored sixteen year old girl, giving their own narrative spin on proceedings. Then it will move into a screenplay style. Conversations are laid out at times in reported speech. It sounds confusing, I guess, but it somehow works incredibly well, matching the storytelling style to the story being told, keeping things fresh and interesting. One of the most powerful sections is just the voice Regan hears in her head, telling her unhelpful things about herself and her relationship, and there's a blurring between voices, between what is her and what is her mother internalised and what is external, bringing her back to Earth. It's unsettling and disturbing and incredibly effective.

There are so many gorgeous moments in this book. The idea of only having a set number of conversations with someone is very moving. There's a beautiful sequence in a church showing the power of just touching someone else, how incredibly erotic someone's fingers on your leg can be. It finds all of the beauty and eroticism in everyday things and it's just gorgeous and sexy.

This is a story about two people who are broken in different ways, and how hard it is to find someone who can accept your brokenness and who will understand you, or at least nod and smile while not caring that they don't understand you, but will accept you and maybe fuck you. It is a story about art, and what art means, and science and bees and time. But ultimately it is a story about love and how it changes us into different people. With its jumbled confusion, it captures it beautifully.