3.5 stars

Olivie Blake knows how to write complex and flawed characters and this book focuses in the main on our two protagonists, Regan and Aldo, and she does an excellent job of embedding us inside their heads. Not always the most fun places to be.

I wonder if that may be why the POV is more omniscient. For me it put distance between us and them, almost like we were gods on Mount Olympus watching the mortals below. However, maybe being purely in their heads would have been too much. In fact the earlier sections include random character narrators - this gives an interesting ‘relationship in the eyes of observers’ vibe.

There is a recurring motif of bees and hexagons and the book is consequently presented in six parts (with an additional hypothesis). I have to admit to finding the earlier three parts easier to read. I think the will they won’t they part of their relationship was the most engaging to me. In part four, although I assumed we were still talking about Aldo and Regan, they didn’t get named for much of it - increasing the distance for the reader especially because of how part three ended and the feeling of missing out on part of the journey. It also focused on sex - a lot.

In the latter parts the focus on Regan’s mental health becomes more intense and there is an author note about this in the acknowledgments which I do think it’s important to read (about medication use). I think the mania that the character is feeling is perhaps reflected in the choppy tangental way the story is told.

I’d wondered if there was going to be more on the time travel aspect so maybe a slight sci-fi or magical realism element, but, like Aldo’s calculations, that stays firmly in the theoretical. I really enjoyed all of the mathematical discussions and their early conversations was so true to how neurodivergent people braindump to connect. I loved it.

Regan’s relationship with art is complex and how that developed alongside her relationship with Aldo did demonstrate how at times we do need others to see the potential in us. He was her muse if you like, unlocking what he already knew to be true.

This book is complex for me to review because I think it does what it sets out to really well - exploring how two people that society would consider broken connect. It’s complexity is in how healthy or unhealthy that relationship is - and the fact that both are true is truer to life than we usually see in fiction.

I do think it would make a marvellously romantically complex film in the vein of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Silver Linings Playbook and so if you are in the mood for either of those in book form I’d definitely pick this up. It’s much quieter and less plot heavy than The Atlas books though so do be prepared for a change of pace.

The writing is exquisite and there are some wonderfully described phrases and moments. I would say that to me the book reads more on the literary end.

Olivie Blake is such a fantastic author, but I doubt I need to tell you that ! I find her style so unique, it can be light, but manages to be deep and philosophical at the same time, it sounds impossible but read an Olivie book and you’ll know that it isn’t. Alone With You in the Ether is completely magical, it’s such a fascinating read and so romantic.

It’s so beautiful, how real the romance is, that the characters aren’t perfect, they are flawed realistic people with their own issues and histories. This is also part of what makes this romance so compelling and intense, there’s no niceties, no rose tinted glasses, no lies that love heals all, it’s just raw and honest love, the message so thoroughly received that real people with real problems deserving to love and be loved. That love isn’t something reserved for the perfect, gorgeous unrealistic people we read about (and see in life too).

As someone who has mental health issues, I have had depression and anxiety,’suffered and recovered’ from in the past, currently dealing with it and I know once I am ‘better’ as people see it, that I will definitely experience it again. I related so much with this book, with Aldo and Regan, who are so complex, so amazing and so utterly likeable. I can see my own struggles and successes, facing up to things, acceptance, trying to get and be ‘better’. I cried quite a bit reading this and I still can’t figure out how much is for the characters and how much for myself.

I won’t ruin or spoil this book for anyone, the ending is just, wow, can’t put into words how I feel and this is a book that touched my soul and I don’t think will ever truly leave me, nor would I want it to.

Thanks to netgalley, Tor UK, black crow PR and Olivie Blake for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and voluntary review, all opinions are my own and freely given.

This is a very unusual book, in its ideas and in its structure - which is sometimes prose, sometimes script.. The writing is beautiful. The descriptions of mental illness and the characters’ inner lives feel very intimate, and the writing about art and science is fascinating.

Beautiful. This book was insanely beautiful with the complex characters that are so full of raw humane emotions that I just couldn’t help rather love them and live vicariously through them. would 100% recommended

This book took me 5 days to read and that is a long time for me. The only reason is I had to stop every other page to digest the insanely beautiful writing I experienced in this book. Olivie Blake is a lyricist, a poet. I highlighted so many gorgeous lines in this book and forced everyone around me to read them.

5 stars. Everyone should experience this book at least once. I found myself asking so many times how can this book be both darkness and light? Beautiful yet ugly? Sorrowful yet joyful?

I fell in love with both characters and didn’t want this to end. Would 100% recommend.

Thank you so much NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this early! Olivie Blake’s writing is loved for a reason and Alone with You in the Ether is just another feather in her cap. I will admit that I went into this book completely blind, not having read its self-published version and not knowing really anything about it, and I was swept away almost immediately. I never have read a book quite like this and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to dip their toes into the sci-if/fantasy genre or who wants something wholly original. The characters were just as unique as the story and half the fun of them was how unlikeable they are. But as you are thrown headlong into their relationship just as quickly as they are, you cannot look away. A book about love, loving yourself and another despite all the roadblocks in the way, Alone with You in the Ether has the makings of a new modern classic.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Tor, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Sometime in Chicago, two strangers meet in the armory of the Art Institute. Aldo Damiani is a doctoral student, with destructive thoughts, compulsive calculation about time travel and obsessions, while Charlotte Regan is a bipolar counterfeit artist, forced to undergo court-ordered psycotherapy. After their first meeting, they decide to set six dates in order to know each other better, but nothing is simple. Since their first encounter they struggle to be separated from one other and both with obsessive and intense personalities, both a bit self-destructive, manipulative and depressed, as they get to know each other better these characteristics get worse and worse, as their reliance on one other. Alone with you in the ether explores the complexities of love and falling in love, time and art, obsession and pain, self-sabotage and codependency, what it means to realize and accept you're not well, but still deserving of love and being loved.

Alone with you in the ether is, like all the books written by Olivie Blake, an experience. Intense, piercing, wonderfully written, able to get to uncover your truth and lies with deep character, skillfully alive and brimming with love and pain and very relatable. An obsessive math theoritician (very relatable in his "coping" mechanisms, according to me), a manipulative liar, with family's problem, self-destructive actions and both eccentric and unique.

One of the things I loved the most in this book is how the author wrote a compelling, intense love story, without obscuring the facts, without conveing the false idea love can cure all. These are broken and unwell characters and they are deserving of love and being loved. Olivie Blake explores the nature of love, what it means to be unwell, that love doesn't magically cure and solve anything, but that doesn't mean these characters aren't deserving of that. Underlining the fractures of themselves, accepting, facing, trying to get better, while also loving someone else, is truly beautiful and wonderfully written by an author who doesn't ever stop to surprise me.

Ooooo wow, this took my breath away

This was a last minute snag on Netgalley. If I'm honest the synopsis sounded a bit high brow for me....
𝑪𝑯𝑰𝑪𝑨𝑮𝑶, 𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑻𝑰𝑴𝑬—
𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒓𝒕 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆. 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒅𝒐𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍; 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒃𝒊𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕, 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕-𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒚. 𝑩𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔....
however I couldn't have been more wrong, this story was so captivating. At times the writing was so beautiful and lyrical it was bordering on poetic...

💏In this story with a tiny cast, Aldo is the geezer with destructive thoughts, he is just exquisite to read, I absolutely and totally fell in love with him. The bipolar artist is Regan and the contrast between their characters is immense yet the magnetism between them is so strong and natural. The hand touching scene in the church is delish.

It was a privilege to read this work of art

I'm a little confused ...

On the one hand I liked this book very much but on the other hand there is something that didn't make me love it immensely! Now let's try to figure it out XD

The thing I liked was definitely the writing style: Olivie Blake writes very well and we all know it! Her style is something unique, it is very light but deep and thoughtful. In Alone With You in the Ether, writing is one of the strong points of the novel and this is what makes this reading an immersive and magical experience!

Another point in favor of the book are the characters, especially Aldo! I loved him and his mind, the way he thinks, how he talks, how he reacts, how he sees the world… it's all perfectly described! I liked Regan too but not as much as Aldo, I couldn't get in tune with her!

The beginning of the novel fascinated me very much and kept me glued to the pages, but, when I arrived in the middle of the book, everything collapsed! I lost interest and the story got pretty boring, don't get me wrong, as I said earlier, the characters and writing style continued to be on point but the plot got completely lost!

Having said that, Alone with You in the Ether is a very interesting and well written book, it is a very deep and romantic book, it is a book with two truly real and flawed characters, but the plot in my opinion was not developed in the best way!

Thanks to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan Tor and Olivie Blake for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review! Alone with You in the Ether is out everywhere on November 29, 2022! If you are looking for a complicated love story, real and flawed characters and exceptional writing, don't miss it!

I was excited to read this book - the premise read really well, two people meeting by chance, he with a destructive and compulsive personality and her with a bipolar disorder and how they fall in love - but sadly it was a rollercoaster ride which ultimately I ended up not caring enough about either of the main characters.
The story starts slowly and it really took me a while to become invested in the characters, however around the mid point I found the story did get going and I enjoyed the relationship of Aldo, a mathematician, and Regan, who comes from a wealthy background and has a secret hidden in her past. But the final third of the book relied heavily on sex scenes, trying to explain their relationship in physical terms and working through their likes and differences and it left me indifferent to both of them. I couldn't fully work out whether they should be together or whether they should leave each other. In the end I was quite worried about both characters - were they really suited to each other, should Regan have abandoned her medication, was Aldo looking for something he wasn't going to find?
In the end I finished the story hoping for some sort of improvement in the relationship but I didn't find it. I can only hope the characters did, although I somewhat doubt it.
I did find the author's note at the end an interesting addition. I'm glad she found happiness, and sorted herself out.
With thanks to the author, Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for giving me immediate access to Alone With You in the Either by Olivie Blake.

I would repeat this over and over, Olivie Blake’s writing is something beyond imagination and she continues to amaze me constantly. The way she writes is so powerful and intriguing. I’ve never read a book with such beautiful and deep meanings. Each word had a very strong impact on me.

AWYITE is a book that captivated me since page one. The story follows two atypical people who find intellectual and emotional stimulation with each other, giving some colour to their motionless lives.
Keep in mind that this is not a traditional romance novel. This is so much more. I’m not even able to put my thoughts into words.
I never related to fictional characters that much until I read Regan and Aldo’s stories. Yes, plural, because this book does not only follow their love story but shows their struggles with mental illnesses and addictions as individuals.

This is my third book written by Olivie Blake (and second arc) and she never stops fascinating me. She’s slowly becoming one of my favourite authors. Can’t wait to read more of her books.

Alone With You in the Ether is easily one of my favourite books this year, and one I will reread again and again. From the description I had high expectations, but what I expected seemed miniscule to the joy I had while following the story of Aldo and Regan, time-crossed lovers. I was hooked from the prologue, and while it didn't last for long (but did return toward the end of the story), I loved how the narrative of the first chapter is interspaced by a screenplay writing style, characterising the main characters' disconnect and dissociation from the world and others around them. The rest of the writing style is both beautiful and easy to follow, and I often found myself putting my phone down just to take a moment and let a particular passage sit with me for a while. As a whole, this book feels like you've passed through into not only the characters' minds, but the very space their consciousness inhabits. It's less of a liminal space, and more of an omnipresent space, switching between characters' perspectives in a single sentence (which would usually bother me as a reader as it would be distracting, but something I loved in Alone With You in the Ether.

The characters are incredibly well-fleshed out and three-dimensional (or perhaps six-dimensional, if I want to make reference to the hexagon motif that is peppered throughout the narrative, almost as if the bees themselves are constructing the story). Their struggles with their individual hopes and failures as well as their relationship as its own, is made tangible in the text. Every introspective scene, every intimate conversation between two brilliant and troubled minds, and every detailed passage of description or dialogue is deeply beautiful. Both Aldo and Regan describe each other with such reverence it would be a surprise to no reader that their relationship will become something more than six fleeting conversations with a stranger. This book was incredibly inspiring to read, with conversations from theoretical math and time-travel to art, and it had me visualising Aldo and Regan's love story as a spiral, only I was trying to figure out whether it was a spiral spinning inwards to an inevitable ending, or spinning outward, into an endless chasm of possibility. I won't spoil the ending for anyone reading this, but the ending is anything but disappointing.

While the characters are deeply flawed, their complexity brings them to life and are thus incredibly likeable. Their mood disorders and neurodivergence isn't used as a source of drama in the story but rather a fact of the characters' lives, for which, as a neurodivergent reader, I am incredibly grateful for. This book doesn't frame mental illness as beautiful or something to overcome, only that it is something that they both have to work around, even when the fight is neither pretty nor gritty, it's obsessive and compulsive and above all, incredibly emotional. You can tell from the get-go how well researched this book is, even if it's from the author's own experiences, and the care that Blake puts into their story is blinding. Reading the acknowledgements page, it was no surprise to me that Alone With You in the Ether was an almost love story to the author's husband.

Alone With You in the Ether is everything I want in a book, so a huge thanks to Tor Books for allowing me to add to the numbers singing this book's praises.

This is an unconventional love story told passionately and with bags of energy. I found myself pulled into the slowly unfurling love story between the two characters. The author brings to life the passion, the contradictions and struggles of someone with a mood disorder.

This book is beautiful. Couldn't put it down. Was thinking about the characters for so long afterwards. Highly recommended.

I really quite enjoyed ‘Alone With You in the Ether’. I felt like both our main characters were well set up, and I really enjoyed their quippy dialogue, especially in the first half of the book. Nearer the end it got a tiny bit wearing, but I think that was kind of the point, as the story reached the make or break catalyst.

I don’t want to call Aldo and Regan flawed, per say, as they’re both characters who are dealing with their own mental health problems, in their own ways, and adapting as they learn to co-exist. Aldo has thrown himself into mathematics, and complicated ideas around time theory, so he has something to focus on, and Regan…well Regan is a bit all over the place, but understandably so.

I think it’s ultimately a beautiful story, about two people who fall in love despite all the noise. I thought it was very beautifully written. I found myself rereading certain sentences, because I just immediately fell in love with them. For instance, ‘It is perilously wonderful to suffer so sweetly with you.’ which I feel sums up the book quite well.

Upon reading the acknowledgements for this book, I absolutely understood why the author wrote this story, as she deals with a mood disorder herself. I think she’s done a good job of putting it all into words.

Thank you to the publishers Panmacmillan and Netgalley for the review copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for an opportunity to review this book.
I'll also post a review of this book on my instagram account @hurri_books and my goodreads account.

AWYITE wasn't an easy read for me - not because of big words or cosmic concepts but because I know how it is to deal with a difficult brain. This book has changed the chemistry of my thoughts and I'll be forever grateful for Olivie Blake for writing it.

AlWYITE tells a story of Regan and Aldo, two individuals on a complicated spectrum, who find each other somewhere in time and define their own concept of love. This love, outside of the rigid social construct and outside the frame of "how it's supposed to feel like", showed me how important it is to challange acceptance and to accept the challenge. It shouldn't be easy, it shouldn't be straightforward but you need to be willing to understand the other side - or the other part of you.

When it comes to the book itself, I love the way it was written - beautifully chaotic, sexy and very romantic. I give it ten stars.

Having previously enjoyed her previous work I was full of anticipation for the new novel by Olivie Blake. Unfortunately this one is just not for me, I’m finding the writing style and themes just too much for me to enjoy. I wasn’t really drawn to either of the main character which makes it hard to be invested in what happens in their story. I’ve seen a lot of five star reviews so does seem like there’s a market there for this book, just not for me.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is TikTok viral! It is character driven and based on two main characters called Aldo and Regan. Whilst being a romance story, it is not in the traditional sense and is very unique.

Thank you to Pan MacMillan for the copy of this book!!

It’s a beautiful story which is as stunning as it is heart wrenching (in a good way). Olivie’s prose is once again incomparable and this book is so unique and beautiful that I want to scream at everyone I know that they should read it.

Regan and Aldo are complex, they’re inexplicably changed by the end of the book but yet are still the same characters you fall in love with. I feel that it isn’t often authors can delve into the depths of how relationships can change people without it being too blunt to a point where at the end of the book you feel like you have two completely different characters. (I feel like the last point made by the narrator is incredibly important and I just follow each sentence of it in my head with so many exclamation marks!!!)

If Aldo figures out how to go back in time I think I’d like him to erase my memories of this book so I can read it again and again relishing in things being slightly different.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me the opportunity to read and review this one via a free eARC!

I went into this not really knowing what to expect, and finished it feeling an abundance of emotions. To say this was a surprising read for 2022 would be an understatement. As someone whose reading focuses mostly on young adult and fantasy, with very little of that interest being taken by the 'romance' genre. Though, arguably, this isn't a romance at all - sure, it focuses on a love story between two complex and different individuals, but this isn't a story about romance. It's far more of a character study than anything else; investigating the intricacies of human nature, where those humans involved might be considered broken by society's standards.

The literary devices used by Blake in this book are honestly genius, and add such an extra element to the story telling. By no means is this an easy read, and by no means is it the most accessible. But it is brilliant. The reams of conscious thought spilled across pages, the sometimes endless dialogue, the use of the narrator and the different perspectives; it feels incredibly real. I think that everyone reading this would be able to relate to Regan and/or Aldo in some way, shape or form, even if not entirely.

With themes of mental health, toxic behaviours and relationships, difficult families, and extreme codependency, this tackles the anatomy of the romance head on and tears it apart. We see the characters at their best and at their worst - together and apart; see the ways they are good for one another and the ways that they are terrible for one another. This isn't a healthy relationship (though really, so few of us have those these days), and it shouldn't be romanticised, but it feels very realistic to me. The desire to want to fix people but also let them be themselves, the juxtaposition between wanting to help and wanting to show that you aren't like the others in their life pressuring them to do this and do that. The characters see their flaws, and also see the flaws in their relationship; but they also put effort into it.

It's a rollercoaster, this one. It will have you feeling a constant and changing river of emotions, from happiness to sadness to utter madness. It feels very real.