This book is a written version of his lectures/workshops and is not an astrology cookbook, although there are Venus/Mars in Signs and transit Saturn/Jupiter in Houses.
I greatly enjoyed the book since it gives a lot of insights related to relationships, life cycles based on astrological patterns (as the title says), surprised there was a big chunk of it on transits.
I purchased this book hoping to learn more about Synastry, but I was a bit disappointed that it was not a cookbook on synastry however he does point out the important aspects of synastry and I have learned quite a lot on what to look for in synastry/relationships.