Different route

By Julia Kućmierczyk

Maya has a plan for university. Falling for her infuriating project partner is not on it.

At twenty-one, computer science student Maya Carter relies on good grades, careful planning and keeping unnecessary drama to a minimum. Then a semester-long assignment pairs her with Lena Moreau, a charismatic photography student whose spontaneous approach clashes with everything Maya finds reassuring.

Their task is to document the unofficial routes students take across campus. Working together means late library sessions, coffee-fuelled disagreements and discovering that first impressions don't tell the whole story. Lena is more thoughtful than Maya expected. Maya is funnier than Lena anticipated. And somewhere between shared jokes and a borrowed hoodie, being partners starts to feel dangerously like wanting more.

But Lena's recent breakup still connects her to someone in their social circle, and Maya has never seriously considered what being attracted to a woman might mean for her carefully imagined future. Neither finds vulnerability nearly as easy as teasing.

As their friendship deepens, Maya must decide whether certainty is worth holding on to when it could cost her the person she least expected to want.

Set at a university in a rainy European city, Different route is a funny, intimate, slow-burn sapphic romance about questioning your plans, learning to be honest and choosing a path you couldn't have mapped in advance.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HKH4WHKC
• ISBN13: 9798175417457
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.4" x 5.5"