I read Ready or Not last year and LOVED it, so was very excited for a new Cara Bastone novel. Promise Me Sunshine was just as perfect.
This was not only an amazing fiends to lovers romance, but a detailed depiction of sorrow and grief, and rebuilding after tragic loss. Lenny is in the thick of it after losing her best friend to cancer, and meets Miles, who is working through his own grief. They strike up a deal and form an unexpected connection in the execution of said deal.
Lenny is such a unique character. Despite being so hollow in her grief, she’s still so full of life under the surface and Miles was just who she needed to bring her out of it. She’s funny and eccentric and I loved every bit of her.
Miles is steady and strong, but also very introverted and Lenny brings him out of himself just as much as he brings her back to life. They’re such a great match. All the ways Miles shows up for Lenny, big or small, loud or silent, made me absolutely melt.
The side characters we meet are just as great, I really enjoyed Lenny helping bring Miles’ family closer to him, the friends they make together, and Lenny reuniting with her parents after shutting them out from her suffering for so long. I also really loved the crossover cameo Ethan made!! It was a nice little Easter egg surprise.
This was such a beautiful and well written book. Not your typical romance, but such a lovely surprise and unique love story.

Thank you so much to The Dial Press for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley.

This book was not for me! I did not finish the book. But I do know some people who enjoyed the book.

promise me sunshine? more like promise me tears.

this book was so beautiful yet heartbreaking. I’m mad at myself for taking so long to pick it up.

seeing lenny deal with her grief broke my heart. there were moments that I felt like I could relate to her. I absolutely adored her character so much. not only how she was with Ainsley but with miles omg.

& don’t get me started on miles. he deserves the world. the things he did for lenny had me in awe. literally the sweetest.

there were moments that had me cracking up and moments that had me bawling my eyes out.

I’ll be in getting a physical copy for my library.

“Mom, he walked into hell and dragged me back out.”

🧡

I felt like this was different from what I usually read, but I liked it. I have never personally experienced grief, but reading about it in this book was still pretty impactful. It was sort of amazing to me how the the matter of grief was handled because while it was very serious and heart wrenching, there was also a lot of lightness and humor. It was beautiful.

A beautifully written book. I thought this did a great job showing the complex nature of the grieving process. I cried throughout a majority of this book just imagining my best friend and I being in this situation. Thank you so much for the ARC!

Where do I even begin. I loved this book so much. I will start by saying that this isn't a typical romance book. Grief and the loss of a loved one is discussed heavily in this book. (it is the main plot of this book) And as someone who has dealt with loss and grief in my life, I deeply connected with the depictions of grief. Lenny is grieving the loss of her best friend and gets a temporary babysitting job where she meets a grumpy tall man named Miles who happens to know a lot about grief and is the uncle of the 7-year old that she is babysitting, Ainsley. Miles and Lenny strike a deal to help each other - Miles will help her with her grief and start to live again after loss and Lenny will help Miles become closer to his niece, Ainsley.

Promise Me Sunshine truly illustrates the common marriage vow "through sickness and health" by showing unconditional and undying love - through the good and bad times.. It took me apart and that put me back together. It made me feel seen in my own grief and it gave me hope. This book will stick with me forever.

Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Some favorite quotes:

“Grief is a relationship...It's the way we figure out how to keep loving them even though they're gone. And in order to do that we have to keep on going. And going and going.' His hold is tighter and tighter and mine is tighter and tighter and I've slid off the desk and into his lap. 'You are not betraying her by healing,' he whispers directly into my ear. 'You are honoring her. You are learning to love her exactly as she is. As someone who isn't here anymore...That's who she is now. And this journey through grief...It's what we do for the great loves of our lives.”

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

“Lenny, when I look at your face, I feel like I’m finally home after a really long day at work.”

“He treats you well?” “Mom, he walked into hell and dragged me back out.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine for an advanced read copy of this book!

Promise Me Sunshine, by Cara Bastone, is a beautiful story of surviving grief and finding love in the midst of heartache. Lenny has recently lost her childhood best friend, Lou, to cancer. She's drifting through one day at a time as a short term nanny and can't bring herself to even sleep in her apartment at night.

Lenny takes a short term nanny position watching a little girl and happens to bump shoulders with the child's uncle, Miles. Miles, who initially comes across as disconnected and disgruntled, is fighting his own battles and has a grief story of his own. Over time, Miles and Lenny form a friendship with Miles offering his support to help Lenny grieve in a more healthy way. As Lenny journeys through the healing process the two weave together an amazing love story built upon a friendship formed through trials and being there for one another no matter what and no matter where.

☀️💛 BOOK REVIEW 💛☀️
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

This book is the literary equivalent of sunshine through the window on a slow morning. Warm, hopeful, and quietly powerful—Promise Me Sunshine is everything I adore in a comfort read. 🫶📖

Cara Bastone delivers a heartfelt story about second chances, the messiness of healing, and finding connection in the most unexpected places. The characters feel like people you know—imperfect, funny, lovable. There’s a softness to the way this story unfolds that just soothes your soul.

There’s romance, yes, but it’s also about growth, grief, and giving yourself permission to want more from life. It's like a warm hug in book form. 🌼💬

💬 For fans of:
☀️ Quiet, emotional slow burns
📦 Found family & community
📱 Modern meet-cutes
🧡 Characters with real depth
📚 A little romance, a lot of heart

5/5 stars. I smiled. I cried. I highlighted half the book.

Big thanks to the publisher and @NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! 🌞

#PromiseMeSunshine #CaraBastone #Bookstagram #CozyReads #EmotionalRomance #ComfortBook #SlowBurnRomance #NetGalleyReviewer #ARCReview #RomanceReaders #BooksWithHeart

This book was so amazing and unputdownable. I listened to an 11 hrs audiobook at 1.25x speed in just one day. I refused to read it any faster and miss a word or put it down.

Just a simple phrase, just 2 words and I was on the floor drowning in my tears. He just said “call me” and the world imploded. We all need a Miles in our lives, able to give us a light in the dark, a rope to get out of the hole, get us back from hell or be our doctor from Frankenstein.

And Lenny, oh I love you Lenny! She was so quirky and weird and special and going through so much, but there was never a better character to be in this story. She was just perfect.

Thank you to Cara for writing this beautiful book. I can’t wait to read/listen any of her other books. I heard Ready or Not is really good.

Also, If you are planning on reading this book, may I recommend the audio, it was great. And if you haven’t planned on reading but you like Abby Jimenez and Emily Henry, I think you are going to like this one.

Thank you Net Galley and Random House Publishing for an ARC of this book 🧡

First off I want to thank NetGally for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

This is one of my favourite books I have read in a while. This was the ultimate friends to lovers trope, done in the sweetest way possible. Cara’s writing is so well done and you really feel like you’re watching the words on the paper come to life! The entire time I was reading I could picture the characters and the scenes so vividly.

Grief is a hard subject to write about, it touches every reader differently. Cara approached this topic so well. I was reading this book at a time that I was experiencing my own personal grief and this book was exactly what I needed to help me heal.

Thank you again to NetGally and to Cara for such an amazing and sweet book!

The portrayal of grief in this book is so incredibly well done. I feel like this book is so relatable. It made me feel all of the emotions intensely. Laughter, sadness, happiness, and just real. The characters and their development really shine for me in this book and made me enjoy it as much as I did. I will recommend this to anyone who is looking for a heartbreaking and heartwarming, relatable read.

Cara Bastone can do no wrong! This is beautiful book about grief and how to navigate it. We all go through some type of grief in life. If you like a slowburn you will love this! Miles and Lenny were great MCs and while the romance was the subplot (i felt like) I really enjoyed their relationship.

“Let’s be oil paintings you beautiful bitch.”

Disclaimer that I had the privilege of hearing Cara Bastone speak about this book at an event put on by one of my local indies, and her passion for Lenny and Miles' story did color my own passion for it (but that's what I love about stories and authors - all the hear they put into it!). Cara said her own experience with losing a close friend in her early 20s, and processing that grief and loss inspired this story, and that is apparent in the writing, in the characters, and in the way grief is so beautifully handled in this book. This is a story of hope and loss, it is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and I already know I'll return to it time and time again. Cara said her goal for this book was for it to feel like a companion, and I fully believe she achieved that goal.

The main theme in this story is not necessarily moving on but moving forward. Cara emphasized that it wasn't about Lenny replacing what she lost, but discovering something new and different as she rebuilt her life. When Lenny lost her best friend the entire rhythm of her life completely fell apart, and it was up to her to rebuild. The new friends Lenny meets in this story, along with her relationship with Miles, help her build a new scaffolding for her life and find a new tempo to live with. Each friend, and Miles as well, played an important role in helping Lenny move forward, and I loved the care and attention Cara paid to each character.

This is a romance, yes, but it's primarily a story about loss and love and the human experience, which is part of why I loved it so much. I cannot recommend this book enough, especially right now, when life feels so new and strange and overwhelming, and chaotic.

The one hang up I had - the ending - was mitigated by Cara's own explanation for why the ending is the way it is: "I got her [Lenny] this far and she’s got to take herself the rest of the way, and the reader needs to trust her and Miles to get there." And because I had those words, I was able to trust Lenny and Miles to get to happy ever after (NOT that it doesn't end happy, it absolutely does).

Something I will always carry with me from here on out is Cara's method for breaking through the fog of grief, depression, anxiety, etc:
"Change of scenery
Something good for you
Something bad for you "

Thank you, Cara, for this book. I absolutely cannot wait for your next!

Loved this book! Ready or Not has been super popular at our store so it's been fun having people excited for Cara's newest one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Another beautiful read from Cara Bastone. Hopeful, deep at times and lighthearted when needed, excellent narration skills and an engaging story. Definitely recommended.

It's all about perspective...

If you go into this one thinking it's a super swoony romance, you may be let down. BUT if you go into it knowing that first and foremost this book is Lenny's journey to overcome a great loss, then you will probably love it.

Summary
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.

Do you think a shift in perspective can help your enjoyment level of a book? Have you read this one?
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A beautifully done depiction of life after our FMC loses her best friend to cancer, and learning to live again and work through her grief of losing her. Her grief was so raw and even with that, she was still such a fun character. Miles was also great at helping her work through her grief and making her feel understood in a way that was just so beautiful and the way that their relationship progressed was so perfectly paced and you could just feel the connection between the two. My only complaint was that it was a pretty long book, but that is definitely just a personal opinion, because I know that the amount of detail and emotion in this story, really did require this many pages.

Thank you to Random House, Cara Bastone, and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. This is my honest review.

Grief is hard. Love is hard. Finding someone to walk through it all with you is truly the best anchor you can have. I did feel like their relationship was a bit too insta love-y at the end but I was in all the feels as they navigated their friendship together throughout the novel. Well written.

I received an advance review copy for free from the publisher via Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc.
I’m not crying! You’re crying! Oh boy, the emotions in this book were so heavy. We follow Lenny who is trying to navigate a world without her best friend, Lou, after she passes away. She is not handling her grief well when she meets Miles. Miles is trying to be there for his newly found half-sister, Reese, and his 5 year old niece, Ainsley. Lenny happens to be Ainsley’s new babysitter.
Lenny and Miles strike up a friendship and begin helping one another deal with Lenny’s grief and Miles’s newfound family.
Miles becomes Lenny’s lifeline as he helps her make new friends and cross off items on her ‘Learn To Live Again’ list. Miles is honestly the sweetest cinnamon roll on the planet!
This was a very emotional book. If you have recently lost someone close you may want to enter knowing that it will make you cry.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing an eARC of Promise Me Sunshine. If you’ve read Cara Bastone's previous works, you might have certain expectations about her books. I know I did—her earlier novels are clean romances, often light on plot but guaranteed to give you a happily-ever-after. While I didn’t connect with some of her past books, Promise Me Sunshine is a complete game-changer.

This story between Lenny and Miles completely blew me away. It’s one of those rare books that can make you laugh, cry, and leave you feeling like you’ve gone on a journey with the characters. Lenny, with her beautiful heart and sharp sense of humor, is a character you can’t help but root for. Bastone captures the weight of grief so beautifully in Lenny’s story, making her emotions feel raw, real, and incredibly relatable.

And then there’s Miles. Oh, Miles. The patient, gentle, and unwavering love interest you’ll be swooning over. His kindness and understanding are the perfect foil to Lenny’s pain, and it’s clear that their connection is about much more than just a romance—it’s about healing, support, and finding solace in each other.

What really stood out to me in Promise Me Sunshine was how Bastone balanced the emotional weight of grief with lighthearted moments that made me laugh out loud. The emotional highs and lows in this book are perfectly paced, and by the end, I found myself kicking my feet with joy and wiping away tears.

If you’re looking for a story that’s going to tug at your heartstrings, make you laugh, and leave you with a deep sense of emotional satisfaction, this is one you absolutely have to pick up. Bastone has truly outdone herself with this one, and I can’t recommend it enough.