Patterns of Us by S J Gathercole

Description

Paperback. ISBN: 1807386619

Some relationships don’t end cleanly. They unravel in quiet fractures, unfinished conversations, and years spent pretending the other person no longer matters.

In Patterns of Us, S. J. Gathercole crafts an emotional LGBTQ+ romance filled with longing, heartbreak, grief, and the fragile possibility of rebuilding love after everything falls apart.

Back in university, Russell and Loukas were inseparable. They were the couple everyone noticed: always together, always certain, always seemingly moving toward a shared future. Their lives intertwined so completely that imagining one without the other felt impossible.

Until suddenly, it wasn’t.

Five years after their relationship collapsed, Russell and Loukas have perfected the art of avoidance. Separate lives, separate routines, separate futures. But life has a cruel sense of timing, and circumstances force them back into each other’s orbit for the one challenge neither of them can escape: co-parenting.

As old wounds reopen, unresolved feelings simmer beneath every strained conversation and reluctant compromise. Shared responsibilities become shared memories. Familiar habits resurface. So do the regrets, misunderstandings, and quiet grief that drove them apart in the first place.

Told across past and present timelines, Patterns of Us carefully pieces together the history of a relationship shaped by love, mistakes, loss, and the painful reality that caring for someone deeply does not always guarantee happiness. Yet amid the ache and emotional tension lies the possibility that some broken things can be rebuilt differently, stronger and more honestly than before.

Tender, angsty, and emotionally immersive, this queer second-chance romance explores healing, communication, family, and the difficult work of growing into the people we once hoped to become.

Perfect for readers who love emotionally layered MM romance, slow-burn reconciliation stories, dual timelines, and romances where yearning practically becomes its own supporting character.

Some love stories end.

Others wait quietly for a second draft.