[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Promise Me Sunshine releases March 4, 2025

5+!!

This is me screaming from the rooftops, telling you how much I loved Cara Bastone’s upcoming release.

Promise Me Sunshine is the perfect depiction of what it’s like to meet someone when you’re least expecting it and needing it the most — what it’s like to find your person.

Bastone writes such a beautiful and honest exploration of grief, allowing her characters to be raw, messy, and vulnerable.
Yet despite all the despair they go through, there is so much life and personality soaked into the pages.
It’s sorrowful, tender, joyful, and humorous all at once, and if you’re an emotionally driven reader, you’ll be sure to love the journey this book takes you on.

While this is a romance novel, the romance isn’t in your face, which is something I quite liked. This allowed for the characters to have the necessary time to grow individually, while leaving room for something more to develop organically in the background.
Similarly to how I felt while reading You, Again (another Dial Press favourite), was this realization that the reason why the characters work so well together is because they don’t put this pressure on themselves to be perfect or to have this constant need to impress the other person they’re with — they can simply be themselves, wholly, knowing they’ll be accepted, knowing that the other person will stick around even after seeing the messy parts that are tucked into the greatest depths of their soul.

Miles was the perfect blend of being pensive and broody with a tough and often misunderstood exterior, while secretly being a softie who just means well in all aspects, and his niece Ainsley was the sweetest bundle tying them all together.

Through an agonizingly perfect slow burn, Lenny and Miles successfully achieved a friends to lovers relationship by building a structurally sound foundation in which their compatibility didn’t hinge on sex being the focal point, and that was honestly so rewarding and refreshing.

Discovering a new all-time favourite comfort read (these really only appear for me once every couple hundred of books if I’m lucky) and realizing you’ll never be able to experience it for the first time ever again is truly so devastating.

I never wanted this to end and I’m counting down the days until it officially releases so I can clutch them in my hands.

4 ⭐️

I really really enjoyed this one; the plot, the characters, the emotional backstory, and everything in between.

Honestly, I couldn’t relate to either of the main characters in any way, but their situations seemed to be portrayed so realistically which I appreciated. Just be sure to check trigger warnings before going into it! Lenny deals with the grief of her best friend and can’t seem to figure out life without her. Miles patiently attempts to help Lenny get through the pain that she is experiencing all while dealing with hardships of his own.

Lenny and Miles were the epitome of what it feels like to be in a friendship/relationship and feel comfortable enough to fully embrace yourself. I loved them together, and I could feel their chemistry and love for each other through the pages.

I will say it was a little slow at points, but don’t let that deter you from finishing this book!!! It was all worth it in the end as we got to see both Lenny and Miles mentally grow despite the hardships they faced.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for an arc of Promise Me Sunshine!!

Last month I read 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐭 and absolutely fell in love. When I saw 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐌𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 on NetGalley, it was a no brainer that I had to request. Somehow, I managed to get my hands on it and I couldn't be more grateful. ⁣
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Lenny lost her best friend, soulmate, other half and now it's time for her to try and live again. Getting to watch her grow throughout the story was so good to see. She shut down when she lost Lou but she still managed to wake up everyday. ⁣
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To lose someone who means that much to you, that you don't know how to go on, everyone needs a Lou in their life. To have someone be in your corner and be there for you 100% and help you learn to get back on your feet, everyone needs a Miles their life. To meet a random stranger on the street and have them become one of your first friends after Lou, everyone needs a Jericho. Speaking of Jericho, can we please get a story for him???⁣
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This book brought out so many emotions. Happy tears and sad tears. The way that Cara writes keeps you craving more. I already can't wait for her next book and this one isn't even out yet.

Promise Me Sunshine, by Cara Bastone, is a lovely story about learning to live again after losing the love of your life. Lenny lost her best friend & is floundering in life with all her grief when she takes a temp position & meets Miles. Miles unfortunately has plenty of experience with grief & and together, they help each other along the pass to being happy & learning to live again.
The characters are hilarious & the storyline keeps you turning each page to see where they'll go from there. I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book on #NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own, but overall, Promise Me Sunshine has a sprinkling of passion, plenty of self reflection, & romance that all makes it a wonderful story to read.

Wow. What a beautiful book about loss, grief and learning to live in spite of it.

Lenny is struggling, like REALLY struggling after the death of her best friend, her soulmate when she meets Miles. He seems grumpy and aloof, but also very interested in helping her through this grief.

Together they learn to be okay, to even be happy, and not simply because of each other.

This book handles the raw feelings of grief in such a real but sensitive way. I could feel what Lenny was feeling as I read through her pain. It is a story of hope and love, but not without the struggle and conflict that comes with living life with part of your soul missing.

Easily one of the most moving books I have read this year!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

Beautiful story about love and loss. This book was funny yet pulled on your heartstrings. The writing got even better as you read. Showed the nice and ugly of what grief can look like. We all need a Miles!

This might be my new favorite book of 2024. It's a shame I've already done a lot of my wrap-ups. Can I preemptively say that this is my favorite of 2025?

I don't have the words to describe just how perfect and poignant of a book this was. This book is the solution to every issue I've had with romance as a whole: the characters struggle in wholly messy and not-quirky ways, they aren't both classically attractive yet they are still beyond attracted to each other, it's the trope of "friends to lovers" without shoving it down your throat. This is one of the finest examples of how love cannot solve your mental health problems, but it can help you weather a crisis. Len is a perfectly imperfect narrator, with her way of having little romances with everyone she meets and the way she flits from thought to thought. I feel like I know her; I feel like she is me.

It's been a while since I've highlighted so many quotes from a book. All of them are perfect.
"'You want to be having sex in the morning and after work from now until you're dead? ... That sounds like hell on your joints.'"
"I'm telling you, this smile is a heart-starter."
"And this journey through grief...it's what we do for the great loves of our lives."

Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest review. I am so grateful for this book.

How do you put into words the perfect romance? I don't know how Bastone did it again, but my goodness she did. This book was everything I wanted and I don't think I'll ever stop raving about its perfection. This book is HEAVY and does not shy away from depicting how accurate the grief process is.

Lenny and Miles start off on the wrong foot and strongly dislike each other until they have the chance to understand why the other acts the way they do. They slowly become friends, helping each other through their respective hardships. Ever have a complaint about romance feeling underdeveloped? That will NOT be the case here. The way that Bastone wrote these two characters, I felt like I could physically feel their friendship develop and grow. Both characters were EXTREMELY well written and were so believable. They each had their distinct personalities and quirks, and it didn't feel like one was there just as a love interest for the other. The side characters were also strong, and I wish we could have seen more of them!

This novel is full of complex emotions and topics, but Bastone tackles them all beautifully. It was a healing experience for me. I laughed, I cried, and I had the best time reading this book about how to live again while grieving.

While it is on the longer side for a romance, I wouldn't have taken away anything. Each scene had its distinct purpose and only helped add to my love for Lenny and Miles.

I'm shouting from the rooftops and begging everyone to pick this one up! I already can't wait to have a physical copy in my hand to read it again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. I couldn’t put this book down. Powerful story about grieving the loss of a best friend and finding a way to live without them when you feel like you can’t carry on. Lenny the FMC was experiencing it all and found a counterpart in the uncle of the family she Nanny’s for. Miles, the MMC is awkward, patient and trying to find his own place in the world after he’s healing from the loss of his mother, cousins and father. This is such a heartbreaking and heartwarming novel. Keep the tissue box nearby.

I first discovered Cara Bastone from Ready or Not and i was so impressed with that story that i knew Promise Me Sunshine was a must read and it did NOT disappoint. Miles was a very swoon-worthy book boyfriend. The relationship between Lenny and Miles. I find that this book delicately delivered what grief looks like for a lot of people. While some topics were a little heavy i think Cara did an excellent job of balancing. I loved this book so much and i will be buying a physical copy release day. Thank you so much for the chance to read this as an arc. Now to go shout it from the rooftops that everyone needs to read!!

Cara Bastien never disappoints! I laughed, got mad and felt all the emotions the characters were feeling. Full review to come!

I NEVER KNEW I NEEDED A BOOK UNTIL I READ THIS BOOK! 🫶🏻

I would like to thank Random House for this ARC.

This book hits hard in the feels! I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and I got to read this book at a point where I have been on my own grief journey. It was a pleasure to explore Lenny’s journey and connect to her story.

For someone who knows the depths of grief and grieving, this book is a breath of fresh air with a little bit of romance and spice! And anyone who has yet to experience the peaks and valleys of grief, Cara does an excellent job of conveying what it means to lose someone close to you, the time that follows, and how coping is individualized.

Although, “it’s probably never going to not hurt”, this book, Lenny and Miles, touched my heart. Thank you Cara! 😭💕

Expected release date: 03/04/25
*All thoughts are my own*

When I say I want a romance that's "more than just a romance", I mean this. Just exactly this.

The way that this book managed to depict and hold space for truly devastating grief while still remaining light enough to call a romcom and have me smiling through tears was absolutely masterful.

plot:
Lenny is not doing well. It's 6 months after she lost her soulmate and best friend since kindergarten to a long battle with ovarian cancer, and she can't figure out how she's supposed to just keep going with this kind of pain. She can barely set foot in the apartment they shared, so she's functionally homeless, living out of a backpack and riding public transport all night in the city that never sleeps. She hardly remembers to eat and has frequent, public breakdowns. She's surviving off of short-term babysitting gigs because she loves kids and she's able to hold it together for a few hours at a time for them.

She meets Miles while watching his niece, Ainsley, and he's immediately distrustful of her (in his defense, she's basically quit showering cold turkey at this point and sleeps like an hour a night sitting upright, so she really does look like a drug addict). He watches her like a hawk, and it only takes a couple of days for him to realize that A) she's really, really going through it, and, B) she connects with Ainsley in a way he's never been able to. His relationship with his half-sister, Reese, is complicated and him being around is hard for her. So he makes Lenny an offer: he'll be her grief buddy if she'll help him become a real part of his sister and niece's life.



Miles Honey is so 🥹

He's stoic and awkward and usually says the wrong thing in the wrong tone. He comes across like a bit of an ass, but all he wants in the whole world is to help. someone. anyone. ideally his family, but really, seriously, anyone will do at this point. He's lonely, and tired of feeling useless. He lost his mom and younger cousin in a car accident in his early 20s, so he's no stranger to re-learning how to live again after feeling like your whole world has ended.

The way that he takes care of Lenny is unmatched. He's just there with her for everything. He knows when to push her and when to back off, when to remind her she's strong and when to let her be weak. It's. I don't even have words for it. This is friends to lovers in such a natural, honest way.

The only reason this fell short of 5 stars for me was because I felt like there was depth lacking in Miles', Reese's, and Ainsley's own journeys with grief. The focus was almost entirely on Lenny and what she was going through. I felt like this could've especially been a very natural connection point for Lenny and Reese. And while we see Miles' relationships with Reese and Ainsley starting to improve and feel more natural, it still feels very early stages to me by the end of the story. I think Reese in general was underdeveloped as a character and there were a lot of missed opportunities for her to be included, which would have helped to balance the scales between Lenny and Miles as well as add more depth to all the relationships involved.

This book was so SO beautifully written. I’ve never read a book I felt encapsulated grief and the recovery process as well as this one did.

This story follows Lenny, who recently lost her lifelong best friend and is struggling (to say the least). She usually nanny’s for long period of time, but due to her lack of attachment she decides it’s best for the kids and families she works for to only agree to temporary arrangements.

This leads to a job where she is introduced to a family and a man named Miles who helps heal her. He is in no way responsible for her recovery back into the world of the living, but gives her support and a safe space to come back to herself.

At first I wasn’t totally sure what to think of Lenny. She’s very quirky and erratic. But by the end of the story, it’s very clear that manu of her behaviors stem from not being able to cope with the world around her. One of my favorite quotes from this book stems from one of Lenny’s quirks where she sees a man she’s attracted to and instantly “falls in love” and creates a whole narrative around their love story. Once she starts really recovering, Miles tells her the below -

"I think that even in all your worst moments of grief, you've wished for companionship. I think you're always, secretly, hoping for happy endings, even when they don't seem possible. You say compulsive but I think they're actually kind of just ... tenacious. Like daisies popping up out of the snow. Grief has been sort of, I don't know, it sounds sappy, but like winter for you. And I think that the part of you that can't help but manufacture happiness, because that's who you are, it's been sending up these little flowers to pop up and keep you company."

Miles and Lenny do end up falling in love. I think it would be easy to have that take away from the rest of the book, but Cara Bastone did an incredible job at having that storyline compliment and even enhance the rest of the book’s purpose.

wow.. this book might have taken me out of my romance reading slump… i laughed, i cried, i got the heart flutters. and it was perfect

lenny was just so relatable. i loved her story so much and i really really appreciated how real her character felt. and miles was just so precious. he was such a good friend. he surprised me so much. and reese and ainsley also were so good. i would love to know more about them and their story. ainsley reminded me of eloise a lot and i loved that dynamic

the plot was just so good. it explored grief and love and did it all in such a way that felt so ~real~. it reminded me of my favorite parts of other books, but was obviously a unique and interesting story! the slow burn was absolutely perfect as well. and i loved so many aspects of the story. especially the second half of this book. like omg swoon? lol

anywho i would absolutely recommend this book and i am so so so happy i got the chance to read and review this book for netgalley and random house publishing group! thank you so much for the opportunity! will absolutely be buying a trophy for my shelf :) and i would love to read this again some day!

This is a book about grief masquerading as a romance. It was so powerful to watch these characters move through their grief together, with many steps back along the way.

Cara’s first book sucked me in from page one, so getting the chance to ARC read this one was a dream come true.
The FMC is dealing with heartbreaking loss and needing a reason/s to live again, to be whole. She finds it in people and places she never expected. A beautiful story of try, try again and endurance and living in the moment, but not having to be a-okay all day every day. You can still grieve.
—Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC copy.

Quite possibly one of the most gorgeous, most heartwarming books to produce the blueprint for what layers and layers of character building and storytelling can achieve to somehow leave the reader breathless with understanding and grateful for the miracle of words on paper.

Every page was lush and humorous, heartbreaking and sexy, and everything you want to hold up to the sun and feel like the world will one day right itself and be okay.

Lenny and Miles felt like what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. And we see the results in all its raw forms of misery and patience, love and acceptance. Hope and every emotional roadblock and saving grace that makes us endearingly human.

Lenny is such a fun, whiz snappy character to follow along with, and her journey through grief was a transformation of both the heart and mind that nothing is ever easy. Cara imbued such a careful touch to what it means to lose a soulmate and a best friend. That witnessing Lenny unfiltered, Lenny in nanny mode, Lenny trying to fight a man twice her size was the gift that kept on giving. And Miles— oh Miles… you are picture perfect! Not because you can check every box of book boyfriend material, but because kindness is where you’ll always meet the people you especially love.

It’s so life affirming to read how loving someone amidst the darkest chapter of their life starts with the humanness to want to see them smile. To see them laugh and stuff their face full with food, and get them to exercise just so they can hopefully one day finally live for themselves again.

I love Lenny and Miles, and this book and the person I am in the aftermath of it’s post reading glow. Thank you thank you Cara for writing and sharing and giving us an insight into you crazy talented mind!

I very much enjoyed this book, but only after a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief. While the two MCs felt very real, and their individual emotional journeys were believable, I initially did not like the way the male MC immediately became so invested in the female MCs journey to complete her deceased friends list. Once I got over that, and decided to read for the joy of two flawed people falling in love, it was much more enjoyable.
I loved the interactions of Lenny and Ainsley, they felt honest and were super cute. I also really liked how Lenny and Miles became so close while both experiencing very realistic grief.
I think what stood out most brilliantly for me, and what kept me moving through the book, was the subject of grief. Pairing such an intense emotion with the other intense emotions of love and trust was so deftly handled.