#PromiseMeSunshine

Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not.

Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Ever since cancer stole away her best friend, she has been completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with her best friend, and the ever-laminated “live again” list of things she’s promised to do to survive her grief. But maybe if she acts like she has it all together, no one will notice she’s falling apart.

The only gigs she can handle right now are temporary babysitting jobs, and she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. The only catch: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of. . . a walking version of the grumpy cat meme. Worse – he seems to be able to see right through her.

Surprisingly, Miles knows a lot about grief and he offers Lenny a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live again” list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the void her best friend has left behind, but between late night ferry rides, midnight ramen, and a well-placed shoulder whenever she needs it, Miles just won’t stop showing up for her. Turns out, sometimes your life has to end to find your new beginning.

Promise Me Sunshine has cemented Cara Bastone as an auto-buy author for me. I loved every single moment that I read this book. I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more, and then I swooned. I really appreciate that Cara Bastone is one of the few traditionally published authors not doing dual POV - I find the mystery of not knowing exactly what the mmc is thinking makes the moment the growth of the characters relationship all the better.

Cara Bastone really covered so many important topics - this is not just a typical rom-com. But if you ready her previous novel, Ready or Not, you would know that she always writes 'more' into her novels. Lenny & Miles cover grief in a unique and heart wrenching way. It was so raw and authentic. I loved that she touched topics of friendship between Lenny & Jericho, as well as the sibling relationship between Miles & his sister.

This also includes a favorite microtrope of mine - when the mmc takes care of the fmc. It really pulled at my heart.

Thank you to Dial Press & Netgalley for the e-ARC.

5/5

Trigger warnings: grief, cancer, terminal illness, death and car accident

I absolutely adored this book!! This book is a love story between Miles and Lenny but it is much more than that. It’s about hope, forgiveness, grief, acceptance, self love, friendship and peace.

Please read the content warnings before you read this book because it centers on grief. Bastone writes raw, real and authentic characters that show what life is like through grief and how it is not linear healing.

I slowly read this 419 page book. I savored the words, scenes and love between these characters. This books starts as an enemies to lovers turned friends to lovers and also shows a lot of friendship and familial love.

Some of my favorite scenes were with Miles’ niece Ainsley and how fun she is. I loved when Lenny met Jericho and how their friendship grew. Lastly, I loved the scenes of authentic healing when grief strikes and you need a friend.

There is one open door scene and it’s a bit awkward but it shows what a new relationship and figuring each other out, looks like.

I will definitely be buying this book so I can reread it and annotate it!

Bastone follows her smash hit with a deeply emotional yet also hilarious exploration of dealing with grief and falling back in love with life. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, this is a real winner.

One of my favorite read's of 2024 was Bastone's "Promise Me Sunshine," and it's not even out yet!

This novel masterfully captures the journey of Lenny and Miles, offering a heartfelt love story that begins with animosity and slowly evolves into friendship, best friendship, and ultimately love. It's an intimate look at grief, blended seamlessly with their growing relationship, set against the backdrop of her loss and his complicated family life.

The narrative is unflinching in its portrayal of grief—raw, authentic, and deeply moving. Lenny’s struggle to rebuild her life after her friend’s death is handled with care and sensitivity. Yet, amidst the heaviness, the story is infused with moments of humor and hope, creating a love story that is both poignant and uplifting. The author’s ability to intertwine these emotional threads is nothing short of remarkable.

Lenny and Miles are beautifully crafted characters, rich with depth and nuance. Once their initial friction fades, their bond becomes a testament to loyalty and devotion. Their connection feels incredibly genuine, with an interplay of sweetness, warmth, and humor. As their feelings subtly shift from friendship to something deeper, the storytelling shines, capturing their transformation in a way that feels natural and profoundly satisfying.

I highly recommend this romantic novel, it’s one of those rare books I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Incredible to start the year off with a 5-star read! This book was sooo good. The author did an incredible job sharing loss and grief and navigating those raw feelings with such compassion. I loved Lenny and Miles. I loved Ainsley. Reese even grew on me. I can't wait til this publishes so I can re-read and discuss with my book club! What a wonderful read - thanks so much for the ARC!

Lenny is grieving the loss of her best friend while trying to navigate everyday life. She goes to her new nanny job and meets a very grumpy and unfriendly Miles, the uncle of the girl she is nannying, who seems to find her completely incapable. Despite Miles’s prickly disposition, they form an unlikely friendship and he becomes her grief coach.

This is my second book from Cara Bastone and I absolutely can’t get enough of her writing! Both of her books that I’ve read have had (separate) topics that I tend to avoid in books, but she has handled them with such care and compassion. This book contains many references to death, loss, and grief (from both cancer and car accident) and is central to the plot, so it’s obviously an emotional read. However, it’s also uplifting, healing, and incredibly funny as well. Lenny is a sunshine-y character to Miles’s grumpy contrast, and she has many funny moments even through her sadness. Miles is an extremely well-written character, and is one of those fictional men that I just adore because he is so grumpy but at the same time so caring and thoughtful. He’s been through it, and he’s using his pain to help someone else. Those of us who have experienced grief and trauma will see ourselves in these characters. Their love story is slow and sweet, and one that I devoured in a day and wished for more.

Thank you to Cara Bastone and the Dial Press for the arc and opportunity to be an early reader and reviewer.

Six star read for me!!! Thank you Net galley for the arc. This book was an absolute whirlwind in the best way and I couldn't put it down. This book follows Lenny who is grieving the loss of her best friend to cancer when she meets miles who basically takes Lenny under his wing and brings her back to life again, because he knows all to well about loss of a loved one. God I can't explain how this book spoke to my soul but it was just the most beautiful love story l've read in so long, like it genuinely knocked a lot of my favorite books out of the park. The tension between Lenny is miles is so beautifully Agonizingly slow I swear I was holding my breath and screaming!! This book is forever burnt in my brain, tattooed on my heart, I'm in love. Thank you Cara for this stunner of a book.

It’s been days since I finished this and I am STILL thinking about this book. Like to the point where I’m tempted to reread it again. 🥹 this whole story was exactly what I was wanting and so much more. I just wanted to hug Lenny and tell her she was gonna be okay. Grief is different for everyone and I’m sure writing about grief is not always easy. But I think Cara did a good job representing it in this book!

Cara Bastone is officially an auto-buy author for me now! This book is one of the most beautiful books that I think I've ever read, and I will forever be recommending it.

After losing her best friend, Lou, to cancer, Lenny is feeling lost. She's avoiding her family and friends and the apartment where she lived with Lou. The only thing she can seem to do to maintain her life is pick up temporary babysitting gigs; afraid to commit to a full-time opportunity in fear that she won't be able to give her best to the kids. She gets incredibly lucky though when she's offered a weekend job helping out single mom, Reese, with her ridiculously adorable daughter, Ainsley. Ainsley's uncle, Miles, keeps hanging around though, with his judgy eyes and sour attitude. Lenny does her best to put on a good face, but Miles notices things about her, eventually offering to help her manage her grief if she'll agree to help him learn how to connect with Ainsley. As they spend time together, Lenny finds herself living again.

Cara drew a realistic picture of navigating grief and heartbreak while learning to live and love again. Miles + Lenny are goals, and I don't think a book has ever made me cry both happy + sad tears or laugh as much as I did. Absolutely unbelievable in the best way. I know it might be early in the year, but I'm calling it now... this one will be one of my favorites of 2025.

Thank you to Cara Bastone and Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read an ARC of Promise Me Sunshine.

I felt truly honored to read this book. From the first page to the last, I was completely captivated and finished it in just one day. What stood out most to me was how beautifully it portrays grief and the importance of being present for someone who is navigating that journey.

Lenny and Miles are such a wonderful example of a secure relationship built on mutual respect, understanding, and loyalty. Their story is a heartwarming reminder that love and commitment can thrive even in the hardest of times.

This book is a gift, offering not only a moving story but also valuable insights into the human experience. I cannot recommend it enough!

If there’s two things Cara Bastone is going to do, it’s write a fantastic book and make me cry. Promise Me Sunshine is an absolutely beautiful exploration into grief, the messy growth that follows, and love.

Both Lenny and Miles are two truly wonderful main characters, written with so much depth and personality that my heart aches for them. Lenny is struggling to live in a world without her best friend, and Miles is trying to find a way into the only family he has left. In Promise Me Sunshine, we are given the privilege to peel back the layers of both Lenny and Miles, follow their story into friendship and love, and watch them grow in different ways.

Lenny is such a lovely female lead, and I adored being inside her head. Getting to explore her journey with grief is heartbreaking, inspiring, and overall so beautifully done that it made my heart hurt. Her witty, goofy, kind, and caring personality is something that makes her so easy to love. I find her to be deeply relatable in a lot of ways, and I think other readers will too. I absolutely adored her, her growth, and getting to learn her character so deeply that I left the book feeling like we became best friends. She is so perfectly Lenny, I love her so much!!!

Miles is Miles, in the best way possible. He’s a little stand-offish, isn’t quite sure how to properly interact with people all the time, and he can be a little pushy, but at his core is someone who cares and cares deeply. Miles wants to be needed, he wants to lend a helping hand and to be the support beam for the people around him. We don’t get to see his journey through grief in the same way we do Lenny, but we do get insight on how grief never goes away, it just changes shape. I absolutely adored his character, getting to peel back the layers and see the sweet, vulnerable, and gentle side of him. He is so wonderful. I love him so much!!!!

While grief is the main focus of this book, the love story that comes from it is absolutely adorable. Miles and Lenny’s relationship is so intimate in every way and I absolutely loved getting to see them learn each other. Their friends to lover’s journey is so beautiful and filled with so much care, gentleness, attentiveness, and love. They would do anything for each other and understand one another so well, it makes my heart HURTTTTT. I love them so much, they are so special to me.

Cara Bastone’s exploration into grief is absolutely incredible. She does an incredible job at exposing the nitty gritty side of it all, the confusing emotions and the inexplicable pain that it can cause. Through both characters she shows the different sides of grief – the one thats all consuming and the one that both you adapt to & that adapts to you. Cara does a wonderful job at shining a light on the fact that healing from a loss is not linear, that it takes space and time to be human, that its okay to move forward and then take several steps back. So, so well done and written in a way that I think so many people can relate to.

I cannot recommend this one enough!!! I laughed, I swooned, I cried, cried and laughed some more. I adore Cara Bastone’s writing, her lovely sense of humor, and the beautiful characters & stories she creates!!!

What an amazing book! I was captured from the beginning and LOVED this book. The characters were great and it was so well-written. I will read anything by this author. I loved the fact that it was romance but also there was a lot of depth to it.

100 ⭐️ thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review. I loved every second of this book. This book was romantic, funny, heartwarming, deep, thoughtful, sad, heartbreaking, healing, it was just so many emotions & feelings in one.

The main characters both felt so real. It was heartbreaking to read about Lenny’s grief & reading the little snippets of Lenny & Lou’s relationship. The story & characters felt so real to me. The author also does an incredible job at describing grief & how it can manifest in people, also handling these deeper topics with care as we follow along with Lenny.
Miles was so so sweet. Definitely one of my favorite mmcs & i loved his caring & attentive he was. The spice was pretty mild also.

This is a great romance but it is also so much more than that! I would check trigger warnings before diving into this book blind. This is one of the first romances that has really sat with me even after finishing it. Promise me sunshine will definitely be a book that I remember for a while & it’ll be a tough read to beat for this year!! I loved how the author included the list at the end too <3

Review posted on TikTok at laurenslibrary331 on release date. Goodreads review posted.

WOW! Promise Me Sunshine is absolute perfection! The writing, the emotions and journey that Lenny takes you through is heartbreaking yet so hopeful at the same time. I loved how it was not just about a romance, but about relationships with grief, with yourself and with friendship/family. Reading about Lenny putting herself back together again and weaving together this new normal for herself felt so relatable. The writing was impeccable!!

Thank you again to NetGalley and Random House/Dial Press for a chance to read and review an advanced copy of this book!

You need to understand that i knew this was going to be a 6 star read for me within the first 10% of the story!!! I have not been that done in in SO LONG. BLESS YOU CARA BASTONE FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL BOOK,
Prior to reading this, please prepare for yourself to both laugh and cry (and vice versa) while reading a singular page - multiple times throughout this book. Yes, I cried within the first 10%of this book.

First off we have Lenny, a girl who spins elaborate fantasies about almost every man she's ever meet, and she's currently grieving someone incredibly important to her. She's quirky and I love her and her character to death.
Second, we have Miles, the uncle of the girl Lenny is nannying for, and he cares deeply for all the people in his life - literally he will always make sure you have a sweater (he will bring an extra i'm sure)

Miles can tell something is up with Lenny, to find out she's actually not crazy, only grieving - he suggests that he can help her through the grieving process and help her complete this list she has.
dear friends it was at this point that I knew I would fall in love with miles - by such a small act/gesture, I knew miles was a guy who CARES and always stays. THE MAN THAT HE IS.

As they work through Lenny's list, we are exposed to both Miles and Lenny through the most wholesome, caring, compassionate and ridiculously funny experiences. These experiences may entail: the Staten island ferry, bakeries, extra sweaters, wiping Nutella off someone's lip with their thumb, K-pop concerts, lightning, a take care scene (MY HEART), a rain scene, a titanic scene - AND THE LIKE.
*While the grieving in this book is due to someone passing from cancer, Cara (the author) handled this with care - specifically by not describing the cancer itself (because then its a book about cancer treatments). Instead, she pulled the happy memories you want to remember of your love ones - this added so much depth to the story and was a point I couldn't overlook.

This book made me laugh out loud, kick my feet, giggle and cry my eyes out multiple times. This book is a slow burn in the best possible way. The emotional journey experienced by Lenny and small admissions from Miles throughout the book is something I will NOT forget and it just melted my heart multiple times over.

“Something good for you, something bad for you, and a change of scenery. That’s the winning formula.”

Please read this book - your heart needs it I promise!!

I loved the characters in this book, and how the author showed the grief process. Very sweet, but not over the top sweet.

After Lenny's best friend passes, she lives a bit nomadically and struggles to sleep, eat, think without crying unless she's on a temporary nannying gig. She fakes a lot of joy to get the job done and leave the kid content and happy. Recommended to a new mom and daughter duo, Reese and Ainsley, Lenny works her magic and then hits the streets where she twice run's into the uncle, Miles. He's gruff and grumbling but offers to help her complete her live again checklist if she helps him in return. All she has to do is teach him how to support and befriend his sister and niece.
I think fans of The Last Love Note and Pack Up the Moon will find this book to be up their alley. Books revolving around grief hit me in the emotions and stick for days, months, years. Cara sold me on her light and fluffy Audible exclusives but this and Ready or Not have made me such a fan. I loved every moment of this novel from the quirky heroine's consistent love-at-first-sight daydreams to all of the ways that both Lenny and Miles help each other grow and get to living. The brief cameo of Ethan was definitely a bright spot and can we please get his HEA??
Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

4.5⭐️

Cara Bastone is quickly becoming one of my favorite feel good, all in my feels, book writers.

As I’ve said before I’ve listen to all her audiobooks and have enjoyed those, but there is something about her novels that’s makes you feel all gooey and mushy in the best way.

This is my second novel by her, the first being ready or not (which I absolutely loved as well!!!), and I loved it so much. Grief is never an easy thing to talk about but the way Cara did it makes you feel like you’re right there. You feel the pain and heart break of Lenny. Even the panic she’s feeling jumps of the page because Cara writes so well

I absolutely fell in love with Miles and Lenny. Highly highly recommend this book.

Yet again, Bastone has brought me to tears with such a gorgeous, honest, and incredibly moving story of humanity, friendship, love, and loss. Promise Me Sunshine is a raw, unfiltered look at one woman’s journey through life as she grapples with the loss of her best friend since childhood and navigates grief. While heart-wrenching, this story is so beautiful and powerful as it speaks to grief being an ever present reminder of the tremendous love we experience.

This is one of those stories that has imprinted on my soul and I will carry with me for a long while. Absolutely stunning and I will be recommending to everyone!