• lenny, a young woman in nyc grieving the sudden loss of her best friend, takes a job as a part-time nanny for a very overworked, single mom. while she hopes the job fills the time & will help her avoid the apartment she & lou used to share, she doesn’t anticipate meeting miles, reese’s half brother who lives upstairs, who is dealing with his own grief. the two strike up a friendship, and maybe meeting miles is the best way for lenny to find herself again.
• this was very much not the romcom i was expecting, but this book provided so much more depth of emotion, particularly in the way lenny & miles dealt with their own respective grief, both alone & together.
• the friends-to-lovers trope worked so well, especially since miles & lenny are new friends. the ending was so satisfying!

Promise Me Sunshine, is not just a love story. It is the story of losing a part of your soul and learning to live again despite the gaping wound. It offers a true and authentic depiction of grief and the rollercoaster of emotions one feels when having to face the unthinkable.

After losing her best friend and soulmate to cancer, Lenny is entirely lost. Lenny spends her time barely going through the motions. She can’t face her concerned parents and she spends her nights riding the ferry to avoid returning to the apartment she shared with Lou. When she agrees to take on a babysitting gig for a single mom she meets the child’s grumpy, judgmental and ever-present uncle Miles.

Miles desperately wants to connect with both his sister and niece but cannot seem to get it right. Despite his pure intentions, everything he does comes across as abrasive. When Lenny begins to babysit for Ainsley, he grows frustrated by how easily the two get along. Being an expert in grief himself, Miles quicky sees straight through Lenny’s facade and comes up with a proposition. He will help her complete everything on her “live again” list as long as she teaches him how to connect with his niece and sister. While Lenny does not think anything can help her overcome losing Lou, she reluctantly agrees to the deal and slowly begins to find herself again.

Bastone manages to make you feel like you are experiencing Lenny and Miles’ grief yourself or at the very least alongside them. One minute might be lighthearted with a feeling akin to happiness followed by the crushing guilt that comes with feeling like you are moving past the person who at one time was your entire world.

While this book is a true slow-burn, the pacing is utter perfection. At no point did it feel like the story was being unnecessarily drawn out, nor did it feel like the grief in the story was being ignored or rushed in favor of romance. Bastone gives Lenny and Miles enough time to develop a solid foundation that when their relationship evolves past friends, it feels completely realistic.

As a big fan of Ready or Not, I truly was not anticipating how deeply emotional this book would be. Part of why I loved Ready or Not was Bastone’s ability to write characters that felt real and acted like real people. However, at times I felt that Eve was a bit too quirky for me and would be cringing at some of the things she thought or said. As my only other Cara Bastone book, I was anticipating Lenny to be similar to Eve and was prepared to cringe at some of the inner monologue and dialogue in Promise Me Sunshine. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Bastone’s ability to develop realistic characters remained but that the sometimes(!) cringey writing was missing.

If you are a fan of romance books that confront deeply emotional themes with well-written and authentic characters you will love Promise Me Sunshine!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group, Dial Press Trade Paperback and NetGalley for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was such a sweet story about a young woman learning to do life after a huge loss. Grief is so hard and the author did a great job at capturing how hard it is. This is not a rom-com so I was a little confused at first. I also thought Lenny was around 20yo the entire book, because of the way she acted and talked, so I didn't like the small amount of spice at the end of the book. Overall I loved Lenny and her journey and also Miles and his journey. Great book!

Cara Bastone you got me again.

I really, really loved this book. To tackle such a difficult topic such as death and grieving in honestly a way I don’t think we discuss all that often, and to do it so beautifully was wonderful to witness. We talk a lot about the death of a family member - parent, spouse, grandparent, children, but I don’t know that we tell stories about the death of our best friends. As I sat and read the book I couldn’t help but think of my best friend and what I would do were I Linny. I can honestly say, I would probably handle it similarly if not worse. To document a friendship so beautifully and candidly to refer to Lou as the love of Linny’s life was - I honestly can’t even find the words for how it made me feel.


Miles, Miles, Miles. You perfect, sweet, loving, caring boy. You have my heart, my soul, and everything in between.

I don’t know why this wasn’t a 5 star book because I loved it so much but it just didn’t quite reach 5 stars for me. Maybe I’ll come back to adjust in a few weeks or months if I spend a lot of time thinking about it but for now it stands at a 4

PROMISE ME SUNSHINE - CARA BASTONE

5⭐

PLOT
Lenny is a message and in grief over her best friend Lou's death due to Cancer. She is avoiding everything and is taking up temporary baby sitting jobs where she meets Reese a single mom and her daughter Ainsley. But whenever she is with Ainsley her uncle Miles is always around and he notices that everything is not ok with Lenny and it's he who proposes her to help deal with her grief having his own experience with the same in the past.
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This but oo is a must read for anyone going through grief whose life has been turned upside down. There is a raw portrayal of all the emotions whether it's recent grief of Lenny or past grief of Miles and Kudos to the author for bringing them out so well. It's such a well written book with so much depth to each characters. It was heartbreaking to read and slowly our hearts are patched up. I hope everyone has a 'Miles' in their life.
This book is a 'journey' at healing and re living your life esp when you are in the dumps!!
Can't recommend this one enough!!
Must read!!

This is a beautiful exploration of grief and a lovely slow burn romance. The complexity of the characters, especially Miles, is so well developed. The ending for me, felt less thoughtful than the rest of the story so that kept it from being a 5 star, but still a great read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the eARC!

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone combines two of my favorite things: grief and romance. At its heart this book is about grief and dealing with the impacts as the main character, Lenny, is simply trying to survive (and failing to do so) after the death of her best friend. When she stumbles into a nanny job, her client's uncle is FINE and she swoons over him before realizing he's a total stone cold jerk. As their path's cross, Miles realizes the depths of Lenny's grief and due to his own experience with grief, helps her crawl out from the cloud. This is such a wonderful depiction of heavy grief and not being okay. The romance happens towards the last 1/3 of the book and while you know this is where it's headed, I appreciated the author's choice in waiting until the last possible moment to make this feel real. The characters deserved the romance after the work they put in and it was refreshing to see a happy ending that felt extremely realistic. If you want romance with nuance and depth, Bastone is the author for you and I'm excited to read more of her work!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc!

Cara Bastone is officially an auto-buy author for me!! I read Ready or Not last year and it was a five star read for me, so I was very excited about this one!! I loved it!

This book made me smile like a goofball, ache with empathy, and cry. Lenny has recently lost her best friend in the entire world, her soulmate, her person, and she’s truly lost without her. Lenny is trying to continue life but is really struggling. She has a bucket list of things she should be doing to keep living, including going to her best friend, Lou’s, favorite museum as much as possible, seeing a band they love in concert, and other items. However, it’s been too hard to Lenny to even approach the list- until she meets Miles. Miles is a self proclaimed grief expert, as he’s lost both of his parents and his younger cousin, who was pretty much a brother to him. Lenny and Miles meet through her newest babysitting gig, where she’s watching Ainsley, Miles’s niece. Miles is impressed with the way Lenny connects with Ainsley, so he makes a deal with her: he will help her navigate her grieving if she helps him learn to be better with Ainsley.

I loved Lenny and Miles as a team and also as individual characters. They really brought out the best in each other and I loved seeing their friendship grow. As someone who has experienced a few deaths and is no stranger to grief, I really thought this book was so inspiring and beautiful. Cara Bastone also writes the most interesting, funny, quirky, genuine female characters.. they are imperfect but also everything I wanna be

I recommend this to anyone who likes to read romance, or wants to read something on grief, or just wants a book that will make them feel all the

I loved Ready or Not but I LOVED Promise Me Sunshine!!! Made me feel all the feels, while still making me laugh. Lenny and Miles were so sweet and tenderhearted. I’m so happy for them 🥹

Cara Bastone has made me a fan of her book. I had high hopes for this book, and they were all met! Miles and Lenny mean everything to me. Cara is such an excellent storyteller that I felt I was experiencing all of Lenny's sadness and emotions alongside her. Miles is a man. This deserves to be in the Hall of Fame as one of the best friends-to-lovers products available. 10/10, no notes; I can't wait to see what Cara does next!

Bastone has a great skill for writing gut wrenching romance that feels real and believable, this novel is no exception.

Cara Bastone has solicited a fan out of me with his book. I had very expectations going into this book and every single was was met! Miles and Lenny are everything to me. Cara is such a good storyteller, I felt like I was experiencing all of Lenny's grief and emotions with her. And Miles, the man that he is. This deserves to be in the Hall of Fame as one of the best friends to lovers on the market. 10/10, no notes, I cannot wait to see what Cara does next!

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!