A new novel from award-winning author Linda K. Sienkiewicz
Coming October 27, 2026 from Regal House Publishing!
Preorder now:
If you’re looking for a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and leave you feeling hopeful, welcome! You’ve found it here.
In Love and Other Incurable Ailments, I created Serenity, an overthinker who’s spent years trying to suppress what she feels while convincing herself she can outrun it. She imagines the lives behind forgotten objects, abandoned places, and discarded love letters, but often those stories feel more real than the life she’s actually living.
This is a novel for readers who love protagonists who build entire worlds from tiny clues, fall in love with possibilities, and slowly discover that the story they most need to understand is often their own.
You’ll love Love and Other Incurable Ailments if you’re drawn to:
- Character-driven fiction with warmth and humor
- Contemporary romance with strong women’s fiction elements
- Quirky awkward heroines
- Found family and communities that change people
- Small-town charm and unique coastal settings
- Mysteries centered on people rather than crimes
- Stories of healing, self-discovery, and second chances
- Ordinary people navigating emotional crossroads
- Awkward conversations, dry humor, and unexpected friendships
- Introverts, overthinkers, and authentic mental health representation
- Books that linger after the final page and leave you feeling hopeful
Meet Serenity
She has spent years convincing herself that if she thinks hard enough, plans carefully enough, and worries long enough, she can keep her life from falling apart.
When she discovers a box of discarded love letters, she becomes consumed by the mystery of the stranger who wrote them. Certain that finding him will somehow restore something she’s lost in herself, she leaves Michigan for Ocracoke, a remote island off the coast of North Carolina.
Instead of finding easy answers, she discovers a community that dismantles the stories she’s been telling herself for years.
Serenity often feels out of step with the people around her. Her anxiety shapes how she interprets the world, relationships, and even love. Her journey is ultimately about learning that healing doesn’t come from solving every mystery. It comes from allowing yourself to be who you are.
If you’ve ever wondered if your instruction manual for life was missing pages, Serenity might make you feel less alone.
Praise for Love and Other Incurable Ailments:
… Funny, voice-driven, and heartbreaking, Love and Other Incurable Ailments speaks to the healing power of taking a leap of faith and finding a soft landing in the waves, sands, and salty air of true community.
–Heather Frese, author of The Baddest Girl on the Beach and The Saddest Girl on the Planet
… breezy, funny, compassionate, and deliciously sexy. The story welcomes you into an oceanside community full of characters you’ll love getting to know and spending time with. What a delightful book!
–Lisa Peers, author of Love at 350
When Serenity Tomczyk hauls a mysterious package out of a dumpster, you know things are about to get messy—in the best possible way … Equal parts ballsy and fainthearted, [she] is a character you can’t help but root for.
–Kristin Bair, author of Clementine Crane Prefers Not To
A deeply emotional novel that skillfully intertwines personal transformation and romantic mystery… a nuanced exploration of healing, vulnerability, and the surprising ways love can surface later in life. It’s a book that doesn’t just entertain—it lingers.
–Suzie Housley for Midwest Book Review
So many of us will see ourselves reflected in this beautifully written character … she shows us that it’s through accepting all the messy parts of ourselves and our lives that we find the freedom to truly live.
–Dr. Suzanne Manser, author of I Hate You (A Love Letter to My Mother)
Love and Other Incurable Ailments has it all. Romance. Travel. Quirkiness. Self-discovery. Serenity, the main character, is easy to love and cheer for as she finally accepts the imperfections that make her the unique individual she is…
–Kathie Giorgio, author of Hope Always Rises and Don’t Let Me Keep You
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