I highly recommend this excellent book. Aches, Pains, and Love is chock-full of candid and down-to-earth advice, all of it liberally spiced with wisdom coming from the author’s many years of experience living with chronic pain and illness. I particularly appreciated the crucial distinction she makes between a partner being educated about your condition (a necessity) and your partner being able to actually feel what life is like for you (highly unlikely). The good news is that the latter isn’t necessary in order for a relationship to thrive, so long as respect and compassion are present. I hope that everyone who is chronically ill and is either in a relationship or wishes to be in one will read this book.

—Toni Bernhard, author of How to Be Sick and How to Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness

Clear your calendar because once you start this book you will want to read it from cover to cover! At turns laugh-out-loud funny and poignant, Kira Lynne teaches you how to be your best self so you can have the relationship you deserve. She makes clear that self-improvement is a choice; choose this book, and you won’t be disappointed.

— Susan Milstrey Wells, author of A Delicate Balance: Living Successfully With Chronic Illness

Kira Lynne candidly shares her experience of what she has learned through dating and marriage while suffering from a chronic illness. Communication is key, and this book delivers insight and communication tactics to educate the reader on how to best build open, loving relationships. Kira’s witty style makes this an easy to read. This may be the most thorough book on dating and chronic illness ever written, and I wish it had been available when I was navigating the dating circles. Bravo!

— Lori Hartwell, author of Chronically Happy: Joyful Living in Spite of Chronic Illness

Brilliant and long overdue. A must-read for anyone living with pain or chronic illness and for those who love them. Bringing refreshing insights from her own personal experience, Kira Lynne guides you, step by step, on a path to meaningful, loving, happy, and healthy relationships, starting with yourself.

— Denise Stroude, RPC, MPCC, Vice President of Rhodes Wellness College

Kira Lynne invites the reader to share her journey through decades of aches, pains, and love with a degree of unvarnished frankness rarely seen in non-fiction. She utilizes her often painful experiences to formulate a practical, useful guide for any reader who lives with chronic illness and pain. The topic is sensitive, but Kira lays out a welcome mat for readers to join her and step through the door to a healthier life and better relationships. Beyond the central topic of managing relationships while ill, Kira shares a path to a fuller and more meaningful life with illness, whether one is in a romantic relationship or not.

— Joy H. Selak PhD

Kudos to Kira Lynne for her efforts to help herself and so many others in dealing with chronic, often debilitating pain and illness. With a wisdom few of us can muster, she brings hope to people living with these conditions, a genuine hope for loving and nurturing relationships.

— Paul Steinberg, MD, author of A Salamander’s Tale

Kira has written an accessible, humorous, moving, and honest account of the very real impact chronic health conditions can have on romantic life. Packed full of useful tips learned through her own experience, as well as wise counsel, this book is a valuable resource for anyone seeking a relationship whilst living with a chronic health condition of any kind. I could have saved myself a lot of heartache if this book had been available many years ago, when I was a young woman first living with a spinal injury—daunted and shy about how to find intimacy and love through a sexual relationship. Intimacy and chronic health conditions is an area that is rarely discussed or written about, which makes this book all the more important.

— Vidyalama Burch, author of Living Well with Pain and Illness: The Mindful Way to Free Yourself from Suffering

A comforting and helpful guide to navigating relationships while dealing with chronic pain. Kira Lynne walks you through a healing and hope-filled process to create safe and loving relationships!

— Abigail Steidley, Mind-Body Coach