This book was so beautiful and emotional. I loved both Lenny and Miles, their characters felt fleshed out and welcoming! I really enjoyed Lenny’s humor she had me laughing out loud at some points but I also appreciated the more emotional moments where we saw her let it all out. Overall, this was a wonderful representation of grief and how valuable it is to have someone there to pull you through the worst of it.

What a warm hug of a book. No one does found family as well as Bastone, and watching the characters encourage each other to grow was just such a lovely way to spend time with them. I've loved every book of hers I've read and this one is no exception.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

5 stars!

This was my second Cara Bastone book and reading this book really made me want to read every single one of her other books.
This book was emotional and really tugged at all of my heartstrings. I really admired how honest, vulnerable and real each of the characters felt.
I really enjoyed the message of this book that basically says that no matter how dark things get in life, eventually the sunshine will come back.
I recommend this book to all readers everywhere!

Cara Bastone has solidified herself as one of my favorites!

I’ve said this about one of her previous books and it rings true to this one as well… Her writing is so incredibly human and raw! 🥹

The characters are flawed and beautiful, and unique in their own right. The dialogue flows in such a natural manner, the pacing in this one was perfectly fitting for the slow burn ❤️‍🔥

💌The message here is so powerful! That there’s light in your darkest hours, there are new things and people to find when you feel like you’ve lost everything, there’s love to be experienced in the wake of every painful thing you could ever go through!

It feels like a huge privilege to have read these words and these characters. Thank you, Cara! ❤️

5.00 stars
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TW: Grief, Death, Cancer, Death of parent, Car accident, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Abandonment
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This was beautifully written, I hadn't prepared myself to sob uncontrollably while simultaneously laughing out loud. Lenny is a mess, she's trying to figure out how to live after the death of her best friend Lou-her entire rock and world. She nannies for families to make ends meet so she doesn't have to go "home" to their shared apartment. Lenny's latest family single-mother Reese, and daughter Ainsley are exactly what she needs to keep herself functioning throughout the day. The only downfall? Aisnley's uncle Miles keeps hanging around and maybe isn't the biggest fan of Lenny.

The pair don't realize they're exactly what they need for each other. Like Lenny, Miles has also experienced grief after the tragic loss of his mom and cousin. Miles is a green flag character, he takes Lenny in, feeds her, comforts her, has open lines of communication (at all hours of the day), and even washes her hair. His only downfall is that he uses 2-in-1 shampoo. I loved the dynamic between these two, we had an amazing strangers-to-friends situation, and although there were a few almost-kiss moments, you got to watch their relationship slowly blossom into something more.

After finding out about her friend, Miles makes it his goal to help her accomplish a list of things she had hoped to do with Lou. It pushes her out of her comfort zone and helps her see a different point of view while grieving. During this entire process I couldn't help but root for Lenny, I loved watching her expand her social circle and try new things! Some of my favourite moments in the book were when she was around Jericho and his new friends.

Although we do get a happy ending between these two, it takes us a while to get there. It's a slow-burn romance, with little spice. I'm not typically a fan of slow-burn romances, but I think it was perfect for this book as the focus was more on Lenny's grief and I don't think I would have felt the same had they hooked up midway through the book.
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I want to thank Random House Publishing Group—Random House | Dial Press Trade Paperback, Cara Barstone, and NetGalley for a copy of Promise Me Sunshine in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Promise Me Sunshine is scheduled to publish on March 4th, 2025—preorder your copy today.

Promise Me Sunshine is not just a love story, but a love story of, for, and through grief. For those of us who knows how earth shattering, mind bending, and life changing losing someone you love feels like, this book is for us. It’s not often I find myself feeling as if I’m living inside a book, through multiple characters. Lenny and Miles are just two lost souls who find their home within each other. It felt comforting and healing to learn my own grief through them. I appreciated how real this love story unfolded. It wasn’t epic, or intense, or overly dramatized. It was a slow burn of becoming friends, confidants, safety nets, and embracing each other for all they are. It reminded me of my own experiences with my partner. This book has been a great reminder that the most important part of life is about the people you surround yourself with and the ones who will walk through hell for you. I feel fortunate to have gotten to know these characters and their stories.

Shoutout Netgalley for the advanced copy 🙌 I adore Cara Bastone’s writing style and this is was excellent. Promise Me Sunshine is beautifully written, and equal parts heartbreaking, funny, witty, tender, and lovely. The chemistry is top notch but this puts the slow in slow burn, but I promise it’s worth it! The pacing of this is spot on, and the ending feels so right.

I first read this author in May with ‘Ready or Not’ and I immediately fell in love with her writing style, so to be able to read an advanced copy of her 2025 release, I was over the moon.

A story about the love for and grief of losing a best friend had my heart in my throat. Lenny is incredibly authentic in pushing herself through the motions of being alive without actually living. I wanted to hug her the entirety of the novel and take her pain away.

Miles has been searching for somewhere to belong to and upon discovering that Lenny is in pain, he’s insistent to help her grow in exchange for lessons on how to bond with his niece.

This had all the charm of ‘Uptown Girls’ with a heartwarming slow burn and the opposite of a bucket list.

Some of my favorite moments include when Lenny, Miles, and Ainsley were together, especially the hijinks Lenny would get Ainsley involved with. And without spoiling, there’s a scene between Miles and Ainsley towards the end that had me squealing and I could just envision it in my head.

Cara Bastone has solidified herself as an auto buy author moving forward, and I’m so excited for everything she releases in her career.

Fans of Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez will LOVE Bastone’s writing.

5 ☆

well hello promise me sunshine to the hall of fame of books i will recommend to everyone and their mothers!

i debated for a whole of 5 seconds whether to rate it something lower than five full stars because of the whiplash the abrupt change in miles's behavior at the beginning—from very grumpy to suddenly... not—kinda gave me but absolutely not! this book is worth five stars and more! honestly i think cara bastone might have ruined me for romance books. first there was ready or not, now this... phew, this book! i can't settle for anything less than this now. it was so funny, which i should've expected knowing the author but it also surprised me because i didn't think that a book that made grief such a central part of its story could be genuinely so hilarious, yet it was. it pulled at my heartstrings and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. it reminded me of why i love love. it made me crave a connection like lenny and miles's. it made me yearn for someone like miles. it just set the bar so high! for romance books AND for men! but more than anything this book is such a beautiful portrayal of humanhood, both the good and the ugly. oh how wondrous it is to have someone care for you through your worst. oh how marvelous it is to be able to love again after an insurmountable loss. cara bastone knows and has penned it magnificently.

cara if you're reading this i am in love with your mind please let me read everything and anything you ever decide to write.

thank you to madison at dial press for the arc! all opinions are my own!

4.5. I love Cara Bastone's writing, and this book made me cry multiple times.

This book tackles grief beautifully and Miles was the definition of "if he wanted to, he would."
I read this at a time that I really need to and it resonated HARD!

this was a sweet story about overcoming grief. i liked how miles was there for lenny & wanted to support her. the fmc did tend to get on my nerves and i found myself getting bored throughout. overall this one was just okay, it wasn't my favorite.

thank you random house & netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

First, thank you to Random House and Net Galley for the arc of this book for my review.

Lenny is an absolute mess since the loss of her best friend. She is honestly barely surviving until she meets a stranger that promises to help her begin her life again. The way the author speaks on grief and the difficulty of moving on is so accurate and beautiful. This book honestly healed a sad part of me I didn't even know was grieving in some way. A great read and lovely author I look forward to reading more from.

I am a big fan of Cara Bastone's other novels, so I had high expectations for this book and it did not disappoint! I seriously love her writing style. It was incredibly easy as a reader to feel like I was inside Lenny's head and experiencing these emotions with her.

Lenny is having an extremely difficult time after losing her best friend. When she starts working as a nanny for a new family, the child's uncle Miles starts hanging around which creates some tension for Lenny. Her grief is all consuming, and she is resistant to this new person who starts to feel like a shadow. Miles sees right through her attempts to hide her grief and wants to help her learn how to live again after suffering this deep loss.

This story was extremely well written and didn't gloss over the difficult topic. I felt like I was on the roller coaster that grief can be, and I think Cara Bastone did a wonderful job writing about experiences after a loss that can be both happy and sad. I loved the relationship between Lenny and Miles and how realistic their journey was. I really loved this book and I highly recommend it!

An emotional rollercoaster of grief and learning to navigate your life after such a loss is hard. Add in a grumpy man into the mix who wanted to help and get help in return makes for a good story.

What a sweet and moving story. I loved how Miles started out as a grump, but was revealed to be so much more. I also appreciated how the theme of grief was woven in throughout. There aren’t many books about grieving the loss of a best friend, and I felt this was unique. Some of the writing was a bit too joke-y for my personal sense of humor, but otherwise, sweet romcom.

Hard way or bust, Lenny. The only way out is through.


I’m too emotionally devastated to write a review right now. This one is going to destroy me for awhile. Just read this ok?

My heart is still humming from how much this whirlwind of a book made me feel!!! What’s funny is that it started off, to me, a bit out of pocket at times with certain characters’ actions and/or thoughts….but once I got to know both Lenny and Miles and understand them? Yeah, I fell in love with their story!! At around the halfway mark, this story shifted from just vibes to me being deeply rooted to and rooting FOR them!! Miles is the softest cinnamon roll— he is one of the GOOD ONES! The ease of Lenny and Miles’s interactions and the way they see each other was beautiful to read. I truly loved the writing in this book also because I was dying laughing throughout the whole thing! It was effortlessly funny and all the conversations felt so natural and real, as if I was there with them experiencing everything!! It’s one of those books where I want to read it again with all the knowledge I know now!

What a beautiful book.
Lenny is so delightful, even full of grief. I loved Miles from the first grumpy get go.

I was hooked from the start but melted at Lenny’s thought: ““My heart seems to be running up a hill inside my chest. I wonder what’s at the top” 🥹
You just have to love her and her heart.

This story is full of hope, humor and the love story just squeezes your heart. Loved this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book absolutely tore my heart into a million pieces and put it back together again!

If you have ever experienced grief, this book will give you all the feels (and even if you have not). The main character, Lenny, is truly in the deep deep whole of sadness after losing her lifelong best friend to cancer. She meets an unexpected companion, Miles, who agrees to be her "grief guru" and help her get through the dark times. What comes next is beautiful and will make you laugh and cry, sometimes in tandem. I absolutely loved Lenny. She hides her depression with a cheerful facade, but deep down, she’s struggling to keep living, to keep taking care of herself. Her journey toward healing felt real—it wasn’t straightforward, it wasn't glossed over, we were IN IT with her. Then there is Miles. Sigh. He was such a green flag MMC, like black lab (darker than a golden retriever, but still so so pure.) His deep longing to care for others was evident—he just needed to be shown how and he had a great example with the loyalty that Lenny shows.

As for the romance, it was definitely a slow burn. It takes over half of the book for the feelings to come and then a bit longer for there to be action behind those feelings. The wait is SO worth it though, in my opinion! This wait, it felt needed, and it felt like it meant something more to the characters and to the readers. This book has a lot of emotional depth for a romance, it has that invisible string, soulmates, fated to be together kind of love story that will stick with you for a long time after you read it.

Cara Bastone has sealed the deal with this book and now is on my auto-buy/auto-read list.

This was such a unique book and I love it dearly. It was hard to read at times. You really feel Lenny’s pain when she’s navigating through grief and I can totally understand giving up on yourself and shutting people out. Bastone’s writing 🫶🏼 new favorite right there! I love her. She just slowly, slowly builds a story and you really get to know these characters. Living in Lenny’s head is hard but you just empathize and love her. When she comes back to life 🥹🧚🏼

Miles, oh Miles 🥺 comes off as grumpy but is loyal, feels like a warm hug and he’ll always always be there for you. I’m almost at a loss for words for how much I love Miles. He’s the kind of person you would truly treasure and want to defend and protect at all costs if you had him in your life. He loves quietly and is so so gentle, while never expecting anything in return. He comes off as gruff but really he can read you like an open book. Swoon 🥰🫠

Bastone makes these characters so down-to-earth and relatable. They’re not all “she had perfect hair and to die for curves and he had rock-hard abs and a chiseled jawline” and I love that. You get to build these characters in your head and love them for their personalities and it’s refreshing 👏🏼

So excited for March 4, 2025 🤠

Thank you so much Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for this ARC!