One of the best romance books. It is a love story between two people who are strange by themselve but together they make sense or do they ?

DNFed at only 5% into this book. I think Olivie Blake is just not for me. I didn't really care about anything that was happening or the way the characters were portrayed. Maybe I didn't give it much of a chance, but I just couldn't with the writing.

I am conflicted on how I felt about this book.
There was lot to like about it. The writing was beautiful. The characters were well written and had depth and had their own kinds of beauty.

But I also feel like it romanticized their issues, making Regan's disregard for her own mental health and the effect on those around her as something enviable and beautiful instead of something causing harm (especially in regards to her family). Also and Regan just felt like a tragedy waiting to happen, and while they found their way together... was is healthy?

I’m in so much love and awe of this book. Olivie blake has such a sheer talent of using simple words but making them stand out via her art of writing raw, complex and starkly authentic characters.

Regan has a criminal record and bipolar disorder. Aldo is a mathematician with self-destructive tendencies, so he hides from those thoughts by repeatedly going over time travel calculations. The two meet and agree to have six conversations, but it turns into something more.

This book will probably fall on the love-it-or-hate-it side for many readers. It had a slow start, and I had to reread it to figure out what was going on, but once I hit the 10% point, I was invested. I love a good story with flawed lead characters, and Alone With You in the Ether fills that role nicely. I can't speak to how well Olivie Blake portrayed Regan's bipolar disorder, but the author's past experiences inspire it with the mood disorder.

Alone With You in the Ether is excellent for people who want romance books with deep conversations and flowery prose. I can't wait to see what Olivie Blake does next.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an absolutely gorgeous love story between 2 people with deep issues. Regan, a bi-polar socialite with a criminal record, and Aldo, a genius mathematician who has zero social skills and manages his destructive thoughts w/ compulsive calculations regarding time travel. And sometimes bees. A chance meeting in the art museum brings these two people together and six conversations later, they cannot be apart. But can it work?
I have not read anything else by Olivie Blake, but I will now. This was absolutely wonderful and I finished it in a day.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for this e-arc.*

I really had no idea what I was getting into when I began this book. Regan and Aldo are both such human characters that, if you're expecting a typical romance, makes them seem unlikable. But the further we travel into Regan's life with bipolar disorder and the more we understand about both Aldo and Regan, the more this book began to feel like something real.

It has taken me a couple days to find the right words to write this review. This book (and its author's note/acknowledgements, please read that at the end) touched me so personally that I was crying in my car after I finished it. Regan is unhappy in her current relationship when she meets Aldo, and they agree to six conversations. It becomes apparent that Regan's string of unfulfilling relationships is a product of her believing herself to be hard to love, so she either sabotages relationships so she won't be the one to get hurt, or she stays in relationships that aren't loving. Regan is a messy character. She's a real character. I won't go so far as to assume that this is everyone's experience with bipolar disorder, but it is so strikingly similar to mine that it hurt sometimes.

I still don't think I have given this book the review it deserves, but this is a top 5 book for me in 2022. It is raw, heartbreaking, and sometimes even wholesome. People with any level of mental ill-health deserve to be loved and understood. I hope everyone finds a partner(s) who are willing to work together to feel loved.

As soon as I see Olivie Blake I know I'll be reading it. I'll read her take on the phone book, directions to the grocery store, an explanation on how to fold a towel. Sometimes the writing feels like it's wound in on itself and gotten a little too cerebral, but at the end of the day I'll find myself thinking about it. It sticks with you, even if you get a little mired down in the details of the prose.

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

3.5, stars, rounded up.

If you asked me what this book was about, I would be hard pressed to tell you the answer. Mental illness, probably. Love, possibly. Art, maybe But it's hard to sum it up in so many words. It felt a little pretentious, a little self-serious, but also very, very readable. I probably would have finished it in a day if I didn't have to do silly little things like work. It felt a little like Sally Rooney's Normal People in places, but also nothing like that at all. If that makes any sense. Which it doesn't. But in a way, it does.

If you asked me if I liked this book, I would say similar things. I think so? But also... maybe not? What I do know is that I will probably continue to read more of this author's works, if only because they tend to linger with me.

Everyday is the same until one day it isn’t.

Charlotte Regan lives the same day everyday: wake up late with Marc, go to work at the museum, disappoint her parents. Then one day, there is someone new in the musuem.

Rinaldo Damiani spends his days teaching at the university, talking to his father, and maybe going to the gym. He fixates on things to keep his mind busy: bees, hexagons, time travel, and later, Regan.

When the two meet, two lonely people try to puzzle out the mystery of the other. They agree to meet and have six conversions. If Aldo happens to join one of Regan’s tours at the museum it doesn’t count as a conversation. And if Regan happens to sit in on one of Aldo’s lectures it doesn’t count either. The more they learn about each other, the longer they want to draw the conversations out. The more they don't want the conversations to end.

It is difficult to describe Alone With You In The Ether. At times it is heartwarming, other times heart wrenching, joyful and tearful, convoluted but perfectly clear. A moving book that will be on my mind for ages to come.

Like other Olivie Blake books I've read, I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this... Did I like the story? Yes. Were the characters memorable? Yes. Did I enjoy the experience? Maybe? I was fascinated the entire time I read, though I couldn't really give you definitive plot points. This felt like art in a way. Experimental art. But I was riveted from the start and was transported to another world as I read.
If you enjoyed the Atlas Six series, then you will enjoy this. (very different, but with similar vibes.)

This was a HIGHLY ANTICIPATED book for me so I will say that I’m a tiny bit disappointed. When I first started seeing TikTok’s about this book, people were crying. I saw videos of people sobbing over this book! And, knowing myself, I’m a sucker for a book that will break my heart. However, I think this book fell a little flat for me because I didn’t fully understand it. I definitely tried to though and I enjoyed the parts I did understand.

The writing is amazing. Olivie Blake’s writing always intrigues me so much because I find it to be so different from the way other authors write. It’s a wee bit confusing but captivating all at once. The way she discussed the topics about mental health in this book were eloquently displayed and it was super interesting to read about.

A little sad that this fell a bit flat for me but it was definitely not a waste of time. I think being in a reading slump didn’t help and I might have to give it another go when I’m out of this slump.

Olivie Blake’s is writing is crack for my soul. Her ability to weave intricate personal thoughts and philosophies into gripping monologues, gives us insight into characters I have rarely seen. That is what makes her books special. It’s not for everyone, but it sure is for me.
Her Atlas series captured me from the first chapter, and after reading this she has become an auto buy author for me.

I rarely enjoy romance books. I find them cheesy, boring, and unrealistic. This story has the heart and deep truth of love and partnership that I crave for written romance. It portrays the true doubts and past traumas that reflect how we act around our loved ones, and how we can overcome those difficulties. Nothing is perfect, but it is still love.

I related to Raegan probably a little too much in some aspects, that my heart hurt to read her psychological war with herself when things were hard. The assurance her mind gave her that she was the problem, that she was not enough. That she would ruin a beautiful thing, simply because she was born that way. It’s heartbreaking, but handled with care that only Olivie’s hands have. Her arc delves into mental health, how it can be handled, whether through medication or therapy, and the ups and down associated with it. It is a part of life rarely written about in this detail, especially within romance, and I deeply appreciated it.

If you’re a bit of a romance nihilist, then this is the romance book you want to read. It will soften your soul, like other romance books haven’t been able to. I loved it!

This book deserves more than 5 stars. It is truly a masterpiece. It makes you feel everything, allllll of the emotions. It has fucked me up and I am so grateful that it exists.

Have you ever picked a book based solely on it's title? Because I love this title SO much. I would have picked this book up regardless of if it was by Olivie Blake or not. That it's by an author I really like is just a bonus. The only thing that would have made it better is if ether was spelled æther (although apparently grammerist is telling me that æther is an obsolete spelling, but it's still my spelling of choice).

This book was very good. It's also very weird and very nerdy and I loved that. I don't know if I would call it a romance? It is romantic and there is a main couple whose relationship develops over the course of the book. I would actually say that it had the same sort of feel as You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, in terms of it's relationship to romance. Not as litficcy as Fool, but the same sort of is-this-a-romance-isn't-this-a-romance feel.

As I said, this is a deeply weird and nerdy book, as one of the MCs, Aldo, is a theoretical mathematician who is obsessed with hexagons, bees, time travel, and the multiverse. There is a lot of discussions on different mathematical theories, and as an armchair physicist, I had not problem following along with what was being said. Obviously, YMMV, depending on how familiar/comfortable you are with theories from quantum physics. There is a great reference to the theory of Schrödinger's Cat and I nearly died a nerdy death.

The other MC, Regan, is an artist who can't art anymore, so instead she is a art museum docent, which is where she meets Aldo. At the time Regan is living with another guy, Marc, who seems like a douche, and so she and Aldo become friends over the course of six conversations. It is clear right from the start that they both really get each other. Regan understands Aldo's mathematical obsessions and Aldo understands Regan's need to hide herself and lie. Regan also has bipolar disorder, though it is never actually named in the book (I think it is in the synopsis). The author also has bipolar disorder (there is an excellent note at the end of the book from the author about this), so I feel like it is probably written authentically.

Other than what I have already said, I don't really know what else to say about book. I really loved it, but I also feel like it's probably not a book that everyone will click with. Also, it is quite different from the Atlas books, so don't go in with those sorts of expectations.

When I want to read a good romance book, I expect it to be fun, light, and something I can relax into reading. Having read the author's previous works, I was already familiar with how they write fantasy and was curious to see them try and write a pure romance novel. The premise sounded intriguing and I thoroughly enjoyed the Atlas Six series. I find the ideas of the story intriguing and could be really fun to read if anyone is very into a romance read with a serious tone with broody characters. Unfortunately, this book isn't for me. The writing style was too clunky with the film direction style, making it harder to read and the style was too pretentious for the romance genre. It works for the Atlas Six series since it is a dark academia but because this leans too heavy into the same writing style despite it being different genres, it's really hard to get into due to my own preferences and expectations for what I look for in a romance read. The fourth wall breaks with the narrator being noted in the novel due to the film script style just further cements my disinterest in reading it.

If a customer asked me to reccomend a dark academia romance novel (or at least something with similar vibes) I would probably recommend this since I don't see a lot of novels in this particular style.

The prose in this book is beautiful. I wish I'd had a physical copy to read because there were so many sentences I wanted to highlight. Unfortunately, the story itself didn't do much for me. I just felt like the story went on for too long and it was like I was reading a 500 page book, not a less than 300 page story. The relationship itself was also just not healthy in the slightest though that didn't bother me very much since I read a plethora of dark romance. I finished this less than 24 hours ago and I'm already having a hard time remembering everything that happened. Ultimately this was forgettable and not a new favorite like I'd hoped it would be.

A romance for the tortured bookish types, who like angst (me. I’m talking about me). Aldo is a doctoral student in theoretical mathematics, while Regan is a former forger in court-mandated therapy for her bipolar disorder, and volunteering as a docent at the art museum. They meet one morning at the museum and Aldo is fascinated by Regan. Challenging her to six conversations, Regan agrees, if only to add some spontaneity to her currently dull existence.

Blake is writing about mental illness as person with lives experience of the mental illness. I like how Frank this book was, with no excuses for Regan’s behaviour, but also letting you root for her in a complicated way. Their six conversations lead to a relationship, intense and loving, and Regan trying to find a way to cope with her mind that makes her feel like herself. It was a solid read, though I think Blake is at her best when world-building versus just being in our boring world.

One thing about me is if Olivie Blake writes a book, I am going to read it. Does that make me bias? Maybe, but also I know this was an incredible read. Alone with You in the Ether is a beautiful look into the lives of two people and the way they can intersect in the most quiet ways. I loved the formatting of this book, I thought it was unique and very much reminded me of a script. It makes reading the book feel all the more cinematic. I highly recommend this book to any contemporary romance lovers and those who love a good Olivie Blake novel!

I was so close to giving up this book. Aldo and Regan are unlikeable and selfish, and I felt sorry for all the side characters who had to deal with them. Then they meet. It was interesting to watch two horrible people slowly fall in love, and I like how their love didn’t make them better people. They were just as horrific in the end as in the beginning.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.