This book is about grief, romance, family, life. Cara Bastone is quickly becoming an instant read author for me.

This story follows Lenny and Miles and could be seen as a slow burn, but gives the characters time to really live and grow as the story progresses. I’d hate to give away any spoilers but this is a must read!

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

5 stars!! When I say I am obsessed that doesn’t even start to explain how I feel about this book! I originally applied for this arc because of the gorgeous cover, but dang the inside turned out to be pretty good too!! The book follows Lenny on her journey through grief after the loss of her best friend, Lou. On this journey, Lenny meets Miles, who she doesn’t have the best first impression with, but soon finds out that he has his own experiences with grief, ultimately leading to a shared proposition to help both of them in their own ways. While the story obviously has a great slow burn romance, I think the love Lenny shares throughout the book is perfectly done. The characters are downright lovable and the relationship they share is so sweet. That being said, I could not put this book down and Lenny and Miles stayed in mind long after reading. This was only my second book by Cara Bastone, but after reading this one I can confidently say it will be by far my last! If you are even remotely considering reading this book, do yourself a favor and pick it up right now!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for sending me an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Getting this arc came as a surprise. I was scrolling through my email and saw one from the @penguinrandomhouse marketing team asking me if I wanted to read Cara Bastone’s new book since I enjoyed Ready or Not.

I may or may not shed a little thug tear because that has never happened before and it just made my whole day. So thank you 🥹🥹.

I really enjoyed this book, I feel like @carabastone gives me the grown energy that I look for in romances now. As we know 2024 was a year that I dealt with grief in spades so it was nice to have a FMC and MMC experiencing what I am experiencing and how they grow and start new journeys.

The romance felt honest and I definitely chuckled out loud at Miles and his energy (definitely big season 6 Adam Sackler vibes 🙂‍↔️😍). Lenny had me laughing too, but in that same breath made my emotions and thoughts seen.

I definitely recommend this to those who are trying to work through and work with their grief. Need some hope or just want to read a solid romance. Due to hit your shelves in March 2025 🙂‍↕️. 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was SO GOOD! It made me feel deep sadness and genuine joy. I can already tell I will be rereading this one many times.

After losing her best friend to cancer, Lenny is not doing well. She can't face going back to her apartment where memories of her friend are everywhere, she can't face talking to her parents, and she can't fathom feeling joy or moving on with her life.

When Lenny takes a babysitting job, she has no idea that the little girl's broody uncle will always be hanging around. When he, no stranger to grief himself, sees that Lenny has a book on grief and is clearly not doing well, he offers to help her complete her "live again" list, a list of experiences designed to help Lenny start to heal and find joy. In exchange, Lenny helps Miles connect with his niece.

This book depicts grief in such a raw and unflinching way. While it was at times heavy and hard to read, it felt necessary to walk through Lenny's grief to be able to fully experience and appreciate her healing journey.

Thank you so much to Cara Bastone, Netgalley, and Dial Press/ Random House Publishing Group for a free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Promise Me Sunshine was a great read! I was hooked from the beginning and didn't want to put the book down. I found Lenny and Miles to both be authentic characters. They were quirky and raw and real. Their journey in loss, self-discovery, and love was touching and uplifting. Five stars!

After ready or not, I fell in love with Cara’s writing style! She’s hilarious and these characters are impossible not to fall for and root for. Loved!!

Perfection!! I loved this book so so so much. Cara Bastone is officially one of my favourite authors. Thank you NetGalley & Random House for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 ⭐ 1.5 🌶️

I've fallen so hard for this world Cara is building. Lenny and Miles' story had me teeter tottering between laughing and crying for hours and days as I made my way through this book. At it's core, this is a story about grief and learning to live again after losing those closest to you. Both of these characters lost huge pieces of themselves and somehow, together, they learn to live with their grief and how to love again.

The Ethan cameo was sooo good and I have really high hopes we can round this series out by closing the triangle and having him fall for Reese. But then I wanna open it up again, cause I want Jericho's story too.

This was the slowest of burns, but frankly I couldn't have cared less. The angst between these two, especially as we reach the 3/4 mark is palpable and I loved that so much. Then spice is more bell than jalapeño, but so perfect for this story.

I loved this one to pieces and I'm already so excited for more from Cara.

Cara Bastone is quickly becoming one of my favourite romance writers. So much depth, unique story telling and chemistry in her work

This is my second Cara Bastone book and she is quickly moving into my must read category. I ton her description of grief in this book will ring true for anyone who has been there but I fear may read as overdone and overwrought to those who haven’t. Because that type of all consuming grief seems like a farce until you experience it. I thought overall the characters seemed authentic and the situations plausible. A solid 4 stars for me

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!