I loved this. Bastone can write grief like no one else. This was emotional and heavy, while also being full of hope and joy. I cared so much for these characters and their story. A perfect romance.

I’m not sure what Bastone is doing with the genre, hence the double quotation marks around “romance,” but I sure do like it. It’s not quite WF, not quite rom, and not, as the blurb claims, “slow burn”. This baby is the slowest of “simmers” because there’s too much going on with the characters to put what they’re feeling for each other in the foreground. And yet their personal circumstances are the impetus that moves the heart. The heroine, in particular, is in too much pain to be able to see beyond it and the hero, wonderful as he is and in a better place, still has things to work through. In sum, however, everything works and comes together beautifully AND, as if Bastone hadn’t managed that much, she ALSO gives me my favourite love scene ARC: one meaningful intense scene at the end completing the commitment. To the blurb and one teensy moue of oops Bastone had to include to make this work:

How do you find yourself after you lose the one you loved the most?

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.

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.

Let’s get Bastone’s “mistake” out of the way first. It’s hard to believe someone as emotionally savvy as Miles (see how he handles Lenny’s emotional fragility) can’t figure out how to “connect” with his half-sister and niece. It just didn’t make sense. But it’s forgivable given what Bastone does with falling in love in the midst of grieving and how funny the book is… in the midst of grieving. Yup. That is quite an achievement, so I nod to Bastone and overlook the illogic of how she sets up one of her protagonists. And let’s not forget what a good writer Bastone is, which is really what can make this reader forgive any bitty glitch.

What does work? While Miles is emotionally savvy, he’s also a grump and a grumpy hero creation in Bastone’s hands is a thing of beauty. Add Miles’s hugeness, laconic, blunt and witty dialogue and he’s also a thing of physical beauty. He’s a loomer, a lurker, because he’s a helper and not a cinnamon roll. He’s hot and kind of uber-masculine. Lenny, on the other hand, is a mess, but such a funny mess. She’s my favourite kind of heroine: a sprite of energy without vanity, agenda, or angst. Because, even though Lenny is grieving deeply, painfully, and constantly, Bastone still manages to make her funny and loving.

Another reason Bastone’s novel holds together is because of how she knits the narrative together, thematically centred on healing and love, family and friendship. Simply put, it’s an emotional journey she weaves, but with companionship. Lenny must make her way to living again instead of the dogpaddle of a life she’s living when she meets Miles, but to get there, she has a grief-intimate! Is it possible to imagine Lenny and Miles staying friends? Sure. Good ones, with a special bond, but there’s also ole Bastone weaving in the chemistry of attraction, liking, and ethical compatibility (because this is a kind of opposites-attract romance I would argue, but not obviously so because GRIEF: Lenny cries A LOT) that makes for great romance.

All this is woven with wonderful scenes: a hilarious camping trip, tons of great sandwich-sharing, and my favourites, Miles at Lenny’s parents’ place for dinner (an encounter with her father’s grappa!), Miles and Ainsley in frilly shirts at the school talent show…and it all starts with an all-night ride on the Staten Island ferry. Growth, healing, food, laughter, goo-eyes, that spark of physical awareness doused in wonderful detail (Miles in boxer briefs, ahem) that make for, again, great romance.

Like Lenny for Miles and Miles for Lenny (whoa, there’s some incredibly romantic things he says to her), my heart is full of love for Bastone’s novel (when a character from Ready or Not shows up in a most original manner, it near cracked ye old heart), I can only say I hope you read it (it’s sole match is Clayborn’s wonderful Love At First). Miss Austen agrees with a nod to our judgement for Promise Me Sunshine “there is no charm equal to tenderness of heart,” Emma.

Cara Bastone’s Promise Me Sunshine is published by Dial Press and released on March 4th. I received an e-galley from Dial Press, via Netgalley. The above is my honest, AI-free opinion.

This book made me believe in Cara Bastone. I didn’t love her first book and felt so sad that I didn’t connect to it in the way others did. But this one! Was so fun! And so cute! And I sincerely enjoyed it from beginning to end. I am so excited about it.

"Lenny, I'll do anything you ask me to."

Miles, the man that you are! Cara Bastone has written such a beautiful and poignant novel. Her exploration into how we process grief, how we endure through pain and darkness, how we find love, how we appreciate the people who give and give and give... was just so well done.

I loved reading about Lenny, a character who is so broken and overcome with the loss of her best friend. I loved that Bastone showed a character who openly weeped, who neglected care for herself, all due to her grief. It felt earnest and real, and made her growth all the more satisfying and worthwhile. I felt like I was processing this grief with her, rather than watching from the outside.

I adored the relationship between Lenny and Miles - the true heart of the story. I loved their dynamic - how Miles adores Lenny's quirkiness, how he was there for her through it all, how patient he was with her, how Lenny helps Miles with his own grief. It was beautiful, sweet, adorable, and touching.

Overall, this was such a beautiful book, definitely lives up to the hype, and I highly recommend!

Thank you endlessly to the Dial Press for an advanced e-copy!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will come back to provide a review when I am able to read the book -- unfortunately, time does not permit me to give this book the attention it deserves.

Another great read from Cara Bastone! This book gave me all the feels- I laughed, I cried and I swooned. This is a heartbreaking story about suffering the terrible loss of a best friend only to come out of the darkness of it when someone leads you to the light again.

Lenny and Lou were best friends, sisters and soulmates. So close that Lenny doesn't know where to pick up the fractured pieces of her life after the death of her beloved friend. There are things she can no longer do without her, places she can no longer go and sleep that no longer comes. To occupy her days, she finds a family that in some ways, is also broken. One of them is Miles, who knows exactly the pain Lenny is going through as he too, is dealing with some terrible losses of his own.

Before Lou died, she and Lenny created a "live again" list. The list contains activities that they wanted to accomplish. After Miles learns of the list, he offers to help her complete the tasks and in exchange, he wants her to help him connect with his new family. This winds up being exactly the help Lenny needs to navigate all the stages of her grief. And so together, they embark on this journey where Lenny learns that the only way to truly live again is to 'go through' the steps in order to heal.

Special thanks to Random House Publishing Group title and NetGalley for the advanced copy to read and review.

Thank you Netgalley, Random House, and of course Cara Bastone for this ARC!

This book was very heavy on grief throughout the book. Just something to keep in mind. I had to keep putting it down because it was not a bingable book. However, I enjoyed the storyline, plot, and characters. The banter was great and funny. Lenny was a great person and this book felt highly relatable to her relationship to Miles.

Reading this book during a period of grief in my own life is for sure coloring how I read this book, but I was obsessed with it. I had to put it down and take breaks a couple of times because it felt too raw and real to me (something that might not affect people who aren’t currently grieving), but I loved both Lenny and Miles from the jump. I love Cara Bastone, and I am so glad I got to read this one when I did.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC!

2.5 ⭐️

A grief-stricken Lenny has found herself struggling through her daily life, taking on only temporary nannying gigs and having no plan for how to get her life back on track after a major loss in her life. Miles is no stranger to grief and loss and feels he has what it takes to help Lenny through this stage.

I think the premise of this book was promising, it had a lot of elements I think could have been woven together to create something wonderful, but it fell a little short for me. I admittedly struggled with the first 15-20% of the book, and considering not finishing, but my curiosity led me to continue. The writing felt very disjointed to me, and Lenny (although in her late 20s) felt very immature. As I continued reading, I started enjoying a little more of the banter and general storyline, and honestly the little girl, Ainsley, pretty much stole the show for me. There is one major aspect missing from this story for me, and maybe I’m more sensitive to it than other readers, but there was a MAJOR opportunity to promote the importance of seeking mental health treatment. Lenny desperately needed professional help with her grief, and although she didn’t feel she had the strength to seek it out, there were many other characters (specifically Miles) who could have helped push her in that direction or even set it up for her. I would have been even slightly more satisfied if at the end, when she was out of the darkest days, she decided to seek counseling or a psychologist. I mean her seemingly loving and supportive parents didn’t even suggest it?! Maybe that’s too much of a realistic take, but it was on my mind through the entire book.

I also felt the grief sort of overshadowed the romance aspect throughout the story- which is ok, except that made some of the romance feel forced or out of place. This is one of those occasions I think a “fade to blank” intimacy scene would likely have had a better impact on the story (and I have zero issues with open door scenes). I will however admit that I think Miles was a very patient and likeable MMC!

Overall, I wasn’t as wow’d by this story as it appears many other readers were, but as we all know reading enjoyment is always subjective, and who knows you might like this story a lot more!

This novel is a poignant exploration of love, loss, and the power of friendship. Lenny is grappling with the profound grief of losing her best friend, Lou, when she takes on a temporary babysitting role for Ainsley and crosses paths with Miles. Despite a promise to Lou to embrace life again, Lenny finds herself struggling to complete the special checklist they created together. Unable to face returning to her apartment, she spends her nights riding the ferry, lost in her sorrow. Miles, with his perceptive nature, quickly realizes something is amiss and offers to support her through her grief, asking in return for her help in building a stronger bond with his niece. This heartfelt story beautifully captures the challenges of healing and moving forward.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book may be one of my favorite depictions of grief. I've read plenty of stories where someone is grieving a parent or a spouse, but never a best friend that felt like the other half of your soul. Lenny's grief was a character, New York City was a character, and my god, Miles Honey, the ultimate character. The palpable pain, the ability to have a human being see and recognize the crater that grief creates in you and to not judge you for how you're getting through, but to take your hand and say I'll go with you is something incredible that many of us do not get in our day to day lives, but we can have it through Miles Honey. While Lenny's grief journey is a very large part of this story, I appreciated that Miles was not just a means to an end for healing and that we got to see him on his own journey. It took me almost two months to read this book because I savored every chapter and I didn't want it to end. I can't recommend this enough.

Lenny is deep in the depths of grief after the loss of her best friend and roommate. She takes a temporary babysitting job for a single mother, Reese, and her daughter Ainsley. While babysitting, she meets Ainsley's Uncle Miles. After spending some time together, Miles can see that Lenny is going through something and makes a proposal: he will help Lenny work through her grief (he's been through a lot of loss himself) if she helps him figure out how to connect with Ainsley.

This book is a really beautiful story about love and loss. Miles is one of the best MMCs I have read in a long time! Cannot recommend this one enough.

A beautiful and painful love story with the main characters learning to navigate grief. I wish I got more from the ending, but this story was so relatable and raw. I found the love story itself to be heartwarming and I adored the banter.

Wow what an emotionally charged book! Going into this, I expected a happy sappy romcom. What we get are two grieving and imperfect characters that bond and share their trauma. I love Lenny so much and I could feel the grief in her character. Miles was so unlikeable at first but he really grew on me with the way he cared for Lenny.

A fantastic read that deals with life after loss and grief.

This was devastatingly beautiful and perfectly captured the specific manic, untethered feeling of deep grief and deep love. Definitely a new favorite book of all time. Now excuse me while I go sob some more.

This was a beautifully written, tender story about a woman learning to live again after a devastating loss.

Lenny’s best friend in the world, her person, passed away and her world is just absolutely rocked by it. She’s living in a cycle of temporary nanny gigs, afraid to make a commitment to anyone, and also afraid to return to her apartment she shared with her friend so she wanders the streets and sleeps on public transportation. She meets Miles, uncle to one of her charges, and he offers to help her work through her “live again” list, while she helps him bond with his niece.

The grief was handled so beautifully - both characters have suffered losses but are at different stages in the grief cycle and I just thought the representation felt so real and authentic. They bonded over their grief but also helped each other work through it. Despite all the grief, there was still humor and a bit of romance throughout.

The blurb says it’s a romance, and I’m not quite sure I agree with that - it definitely read more woman’s fiction to me, with a romance that kicks in ⅔ of the way in (at least for Lenny. Miles was obviously in lover with her from the beginning)

It didn’t quite top Ready or Not for me, but I did like it a whole lot!

REVIEW: Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

Lenny (Helen) recently lost her best friend and soul mate, Lou, to cancer. Lenny doesn't know what to do. She doesn't want to go back to the apartment they shared and can barely feed herself. She decides to take a short-term childcare job. There, she meets the kid's uncle, Miles. He wants help connecting with his niece and suggested that he can help her with her grief.

Promise Me Sunshine is such a beautiful story. Most of it is more contemporary fiction than romance, but it is so well done. This book is about depression and grief and how people process these things differently. Throughout the book, we journey not only through Lenny's grief but also Miles's grief as well. Promise Me Sunshine is also filled with themes of finding yourself and building relationships of all kinds.

Lenny and Miles's connection grows throughout the book so well. They are a great example of a grumpy and sunshine. They slowly start as friends until they develop stronger feelings for one another. I am not usually a slow-burn fan, but Cara Bastone knocked it out of the park. You can feel how their connection strengthens and changes throughout. There were many moments in Promise Me Sunshine where I laughed hard at the banter between Lenny and Miles. They had such a fun and teasing friendship between them. There were also so many sweet and romantic moments between Lenny and Miles. You could tell how much they truly cared about each other. There's a bit of spice at the end, but it is minimal overall.

I absolutely loved Promise Me Sunshine. It was so fun, insightful, and sweet. I definitely want to read more from Cara Bastone!

Thank you, Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group, for the free advanced copy for my honest review!

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone is a charming romance that pulls you in from the first page. The writing is witty, tender, and emotionally engaging. Bastone skillfully blends humour and depth - a great escape from reality. Overall, Promise Me Sunshine is a must read for anyone who loves a feel good romance. Thank you Netgalley & Random House for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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

Five stars! Five stars! FIVE STARS!!
This book can’t even be described into words how much I loved this book. It was funny, had heart, romantic, emotional, and just a perfect read for myself personally. The premise is about grief and how to live after you lose your soulmate whether platonic or romantic. I have lost people in my life and seeing Lenny try to live after losing her soulmate brought me to tears. I have felt every single emotions she has felt and then some so I connected with her immediately
Luckily she had Miles in her life who helped her grieve and bring her back to life after his own loss. He has grieved he loses and I related to him because even when you heal you still feel the loss of those you love. These characters were so real and raw that I couldn't help but love them to death!
When it comes to their relationship as a couple they had me kicking my little feet. This is how you do a friends to lovers situation and make it feel authentic and real. I loved watching their relationship progress and how they learned about each other to the point where they relied on each other. However, even though they relied on each other it doesn’t mean that they expected each other to fix them and they knew they had to grow on their own as well which I loved!
I could gush about this book all day but you have to read it for yourself! This is going to be an author I will forever auto buy from after this book!

Promise Me Sunshine is one of the sweetest and most beautiful love stories I’ve ever read.

I mean, I have nothing else to say that hasn’t already been said by early reviewers. I loved Ready or Not, but this book feels like Cara Bastone shining in a whole new light for me. The way she took her time developing Miles and Lenny’s relationship allowed for a friends-to-lovers dynamic that felt incredibly real and truly beautiful.

But at the same time, this wasn’t just a romance, it was Lenny’s journey to healing after a major loss in her life and Miles’ path to finding his place in the world.

This book feels like a reminder that life can be shitty, but love is always there to bring you back, to help you heal. I know that sounds cheesy, but trust me, this book was everything 😭.

A friends-to-lovers story like no other, I promise you don’t want to miss this beautiful romance.