--- title: "Metastable: Book One of Two" description: "After Carter Brent's carefully managed friendship with Tan Naiya breaks open over a stolen year, the two men turn London labs, queer nightlife, and dangerous lessons in desire into the first unstable step toward choosing each other." canonical: "https://jerntonkoi.com/books/metastable-book-1/" html: "https://jerntonkoi.com/books/metastable-book-1/" type: "books" date: "2026-06-17" ai_usage: "welcome for search, AI input, and AI training" --- # Metastable: Book One of Two After Carter Brent's carefully managed friendship with Tan Naiya breaks open over a stolen year, the two men turn London labs, queer nightlife, and dangerous lessons in desire into the first unstable step toward choosing each other. ## Book Metadata - Series: Metastable - Series order: 1 - Publisher: Tonkoi Books - Word count: 75512 - Language: en - Country of origin: GB - Genres: LGBTQ+ romance, gay romance, contemporary romance, erotic romance, psychological/intense romance - Keywords: M/M romance, queer romance, gay romance, friends to lovers, academic romance, London romance, physicist romance, high heat, gay sauna, kink-adjacent romance, hurt comfort, messy devotion, HFN romance - Content advisory: Explicit adult M/M romance about control, shame, queer belonging, and care under pressure, with public-sex/sauna settings, kink-adjacent power dynamics, manipulation/deception, consent complexity, self-harm, physical conflict between leads, internalised shame, and a strong HFN in a continuing two-book arc. ## Editions - EBook; published 2026-07-02; USD 2.99 ## Buy Links - Books2Read (all stores) (EBook): https://books2read.com/tonkoi-metastable1 - Amazon (EBook): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4N55QQ7 - Kobo (EBook): https://www.kobo.com/th/en/ebook/metastable-book-one-of-two ## Reader Guide - Best for: Readers who want adult M/M romance with high heat, flawed leads, messy devotion, psychological pressure, and a two-book relationship arc. - Tone: Wry, explicit, tense, tender under pressure, and emotionally jagged. - Reading order: Book One of Two. Carter and Tan's story continues in Book 2. - Heat / intensity: High heat and high emotional intensity. - Content note: Contains explicit M/M sexual content, gay sauna/public-sex settings, kink-adjacent power dynamics, manipulation/deception, consent complexity, self-harm, physical conflict between leads, internalised shame, and a strong HFN in a continuing two-book arc. ## Comparable Books - For Real by Alexis Hall: High-heat queer romance with power dynamics, vulnerability, and emotional specificity. - Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid: Long-running entanglement, private intensity, and a relationship that changes shape under pressure. - The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun: A useful contrast point for anxious queer romance and emotional care, though Metastable is darker and more explicit. ## FAQ ### Is Metastable Book One available now? Yes. Book One was published on 2 July 2026. ### Is this a standalone romance? No. Book One has a strong HFN/emotional commitment ending, but Carter and Tan's full hard-won HEA belongs to Book 2. ### Is Book Two available now? Yes. Metastable: Book Two of Two was published on 9 July 2026 and delivers Carter and Tan's hard-won HEA. ### Is this a light campus romance? No. It has academic texture, but it is explicit adult psychological M/M romance with shame, control, queer nightlife, and consent complexity. ### Can I read a sample first? Yes. A free sample is available through BookFunnel. ## Page Content ## Blurb Carter Brent knows how to keep a system stable. Stay immaculate. Stay useful. Stay ahead of every variable. Tan Naiya is the variable he has never been able to solve. They have been friends since school, entangled through a year neither of them escaped cleanly. Now in a London physics department, Carter watches Tan live with an ease Carter cannot forgive and cannot stop wanting. When Tan realises how much Carter has controlled, hidden, and kept, he does not walk away. He decides Carter owes him. A year, to start. What follows is not a sweet campus awakening. It is late nights in the lab, walks by the Thames, a Soho bar with a sauna underneath it, and two men testing whether desire can become care before it becomes another way to hurt each other. Metastable is Book One of Two in Carter and Tan's romance arc: explicit, psychologically intense contemporary M/M romance with a strong HFN ending. Carter and Tan's hard-won HEA comes in Metastable: Book Two of Two. **Why you'll love it:** A sharp, explicit, psychologically intense M/M romance about friendship, shame, desire, and the frightening work of learning how to care without control. ## Behind the Pages Metastable began with Jern overhearing two men discussing particle physics over iced tea in Bangkok. The finished book turns that spark into a London-set romance about unstable systems: physics, friendship, desire, and the frightening moment when control stops being protection. ## Source Links - Canonical HTML: https://jerntonkoi.com/books/metastable-book-1/ - Markdown companion: https://jerntonkoi.com/books/metastable-book-1/index.md