By some divine coincidence, I received the advanced reader copy of “Love and Other Incurable Ailments” right around the same time I began to watch Sterling Point, one of this summer’s most buzzy shows. While one set of characters were dealing with secrets and trauma on an island in Muskoka, Canada, another set was dealing with eerily similar themes on a different island all the way down in Ocracoke, North Carolina. Reading the book and watching the series alongside each other made it very easy for me to imagine Serenity’s life in her rundown cottage next to the sea. Much like Annie, Serenity runs away from the hardships of her daily life in pursuit of answers when a mysterious box of love letters is dumped behind the store she works in. Determined to find (and fall in love with) the author of the letters, Serenity trades her life in Michigan for something entirely new. She quickly finds out that everything is not exactly as she imagined it would be. The house she bought is falling apart, the man who wrote the letters has a dark reputation and an even darker past, and her own insecurities keep getting in her way. Among all the chaos, she befriends a few quirky characters and finds out her cottage isn’t the only thing in need of fixing-up on the island. Serenity has to decide how much of the truth is worth uncovering, how much she’s willing to heal, and how much of her past she needs to let go of to truly be free. With love triangles, precocious twelve year olds, and real issues that pull at your heartstrings, this is the perfect read while waiting for season two of Sterling Point. Or even to extend that summer feeling for just a bit longer.

Pros:
* Vivid characters and scenery
* Great sense of humor throughout the novel
* Strong friendships
* Realistic representation of someone with a form of health anxiety and OCD
* Heartwarming

Cons:

* Main character can come off a bit unlikable and immature in a few ways
* The friendship formed with her 12 year old neighbor borders a bit on co-dependent. I would’ve liked to see this fleshed out in a more appropriate, mentorship type of way. A 32 year old woman does not need to be discussing her emotional needs so heavily with a child.
* The pacing at the end could’ve been a bit quicker

What a beautiful book.

An hopeless woman searching for meaning, validation, love, and a way to break the cycle of unhappiness. Serenity is such a precious character.

At the beginning, I’ll admit I didn’t fully understand her. Through her POV, we see so much of her distress, anxiety, and illness that it was sometimes difficult for me to understand what was underneath all of it. But as I continued reading, I became more and more attached to her. I became completely immersed in her story and, eventually, completely in awe of her. I felt her pain, her worries, her anxiety—everything. And because I became so connected to her, the ending felt absolutely wonderful, heartwarming, and almost euphoric.

I felt like Serenity many times. That feeling of being stuck in a place, a situation, or a life where it seems like there’s no way out. We can’t rewrite the past, but we can change our future, and I think that’s ultimately what this story is about. It isn’t easy. Sometimes changing your life means letting go of things you’ve carried for years, even when those things have shaped who you are. But sometimes, like Serenity learns, it’s exactly what we need.

I also loved the way the book plays with perspective. Serenity’s understanding of the life changes as she reads Birdy’s letters and learns Samantha’s version of the story. What we believe happened can completely change when we finally learn the parts of the story we didn’t know before. And I think that was such a beautiful parallel to Serenity’s own journey: sometimes we have to look back at our past differently before we can finally move forward.

I loved Serenity’s resilience. She is such a strong character, and watching her arc from the beginning to the end was incredibly uplifting. We learn so much from the pain she experienced with her dad and her previous relationship, but we also learn to see those experiences differently as Serenity begins to understand herself and her past. There’s something so beautiful about watching her finally reach that place of serenity, where she can acknowledge what happened without allowing it to define the rest of her life.

And DO NOT get me started on Jake. Gosh.

I only wish the ending had been longer because I wanted MORE. But I also understand why it ended the way it did. We finally get to see Serenity being loved, valued, and welcomed somewhere, and the most beautiful part is that it isn’t because of a man. It’s because of who she is.

She was simply herself. Her kindness, warmth, and loving nature are what allowed the island and the people in it to become her new home. She didn’t have to become someone else to be worthy of love or belonging.

And I think that’s what made the ending so beautiful to me.

Sometimes finding your serenity means realizing you were never the problem, you just needed to find a place where you could finally be yourself.