Women's Fiction
![Olivie Blake - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_olivie_blake.jpg)
Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story
From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone with You in the Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.
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.
For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.
To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.
For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability―until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?
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.
For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.
To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.
For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability―until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?
Editorial Reviews
"Alone With You in the Ether plays with narrative structure and linear time to weave a story of two broken people crashing together like comets, and we, as audience, are witness to their glorious destruction." ― Tor.com
"This is a book to savor." ― Publishers Weekly
"The pages fly by in this character-driven novel that is intimate, complicated, and utterly romantic." ― Booklist
"A wonder of a novel." ― B&N Reads
Praise for The Atlas Six:
"If you're looking for a book you will want to talk about for a long time (and have plenty of people to talk to about it), The Atlas Six is it." ― Buzzfeed
"Blake introduces six of the most devious, talented, and flawed characters to ever find themselves in a magical library, and then sets them against one another in a series of stunning betrayals and reversals." ― Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Night
"Lethally smart. Filled with a cast of brilliantly realized characters, each entangled with one another in torturously delicious ways, The Atlas Six will grip you by the throat and refuse to let go. Olivie Blake is a mind-blowing talent." ― Chloe Gong, author of New York Times bestselling These Violent Delights
"Compelling, entertaining, and addictive." ― T. L. Huchu, author of The Library of The Dead
"This chilling story of ambition and magic will make you question your own morals as you grow to love (and hate) its fascinating, ruthless cast of characters. I utterly devoured this book." ― Amanda Foody, New York Times bestselling author of All of Us Villains
"This is a book to savor." ― Publishers Weekly
"The pages fly by in this character-driven novel that is intimate, complicated, and utterly romantic." ― Booklist
"A wonder of a novel." ― B&N Reads
Praise for The Atlas Six:
"If you're looking for a book you will want to talk about for a long time (and have plenty of people to talk to about it), The Atlas Six is it." ― Buzzfeed
"Blake introduces six of the most devious, talented, and flawed characters to ever find themselves in a magical library, and then sets them against one another in a series of stunning betrayals and reversals." ― Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Night
"Lethally smart. Filled with a cast of brilliantly realized characters, each entangled with one another in torturously delicious ways, The Atlas Six will grip you by the throat and refuse to let go. Olivie Blake is a mind-blowing talent." ― Chloe Gong, author of New York Times bestselling These Violent Delights
"Compelling, entertaining, and addictive." ― T. L. Huchu, author of The Library of The Dead
"This chilling story of ambition and magic will make you question your own morals as you grow to love (and hate) its fascinating, ruthless cast of characters. I utterly devoured this book." ― Amanda Foody, New York Times bestselling author of All of Us Villains
Readers Top Reviews
FAlexia Zainab
Tears are rolling down my face because it was so easy to find a fracture of myself in both Regan and Aldo. A few things you will find carved on my tombstone when I meet my inevitable end: (spoiler warning) - That I could study you for a lifetime, carrying all of your peculiarities and discretions in the webs of my spidery palms, and still feel empty-handed. - “You can’t fix me,” she whispered to him, her mouth tracing his neck. Do you understand, do you know what you hold in your hands, do you know how readily it breaks? “I don’t see anything to fix,” he said. - “She does burn me, she ignites me, you’re right. But it’s different, they’re different things.” He was thinking more than he was saying, unsure what was even coming out of his mouth. Science without faith is crippled, Masso, and life without it is soulless. She is my hope and for that she is dangerous, unequivocally, but she is also alive, unreservedly. It took this long for me to finally understand. I wish I could say more and do more than regurgitate Olivie’s words to you, but something about experiencing this book is profoundly personal and intimate. My brain has rooted this book and implanted it so deep in my subconscious. Needless to say, I will carry Aldo and Regan and perfect imperfections through my time on earth.
Sara Machado Silv
"It isn’t constancy that keeps us alive, it’s the progression we use to move us. Because everything is always the same until, very suddenly, it isn’t." This is a character driven novel, with troubled characters that struggle with mental health issues, who have found each other and built something better. It reminded me a bit of Sally Rooney until it didn’t. I loved the writing, the different voices and the geometry of the prose. I had one major problem/ concern with the book regarding how medication was depicted and how therapy was used by Regan. However, the last chapter and the acknowledgments allowed the author’s redemption (in my opinion). I absolutely recommend the reading.
KRC Sara Machad
This is a love story and a work of art. Not in any way conventional, I found it challenging and delightful. The writing style was short conversational, or like a screenplay, for me very cinematic. I came to it after the first Atlas book, which was a very fun read, a more commercial book in a genre that is popular and can easily find readers. I hope the popular Atlas books breathes life into this first book.flawed, but, unique and lovely. Congratulations Olivia Blake. Your writing is a joy.
MichaellaKRC Sa
This love story is not for all romance fans. Be wary. Your heart will ache from how beautiful and vivid their love is for one another. Tears might be shed (mine did). I closed the book with sadness that this loves exists because the author was able to describe it, drew it for her readers to feel. Good luck.
