This book is a love letter to all those grieving. To those who have lost someone. To those who are just barely getting through the day.

WHATEVER CARA WRITES, I’LL READ IT.

I’m not sure how Cara made a book about someone grieving and it happened to be cathartic and a healing balm to my soul? I know she didn’t write it for me… but did she write it for me???

Lenny is the love of my life I’m pretty sure. How can a woman who is so deep in grief, show up so incredibly for a child? And be so full of humor? And every witty thing that came out of her mouth I laughed out loud at. Cara wrote soul shaking grief in such a way that it wasn’t hard to read because it was also full of so much humor and love that it’s almost like you can’t look away. What a talent that is. IM STILL CRYING.

I have no words for our man Miles. Is there any greater love than standing by someone in their deepest and darkest hour? To go to hell and pull them back? I MEAN, COME ON.

This was a love story, but it wasn’t a love story. It was about finding yourself after there’s a hole in your universe. It’s about finding your new self after grief is now a constant in your life. It’s about finding your people in new chapters of life. And if you’re lucky enough to find the love of your life through all that, well then you’re Lenny.

Please, with every atom on my body, read this dang book.

4 Stars – A Heartfelt Journey of Healing and Love
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone was an unexpected gem that really pulled at my heartstrings. The romance between Lenny and Miles is so tender and real, and the way they bond over their shared grief of losing loved ones made their connection feel raw and deeply meaningful.

Lenny’s loss left her feeling lost in a way that’s both relatable and gut-wrenching. Enter Miles—his own grief is still fresh, and watching him slowly open up to Lenny about his pain is both beautiful and heart-breaking. There’s this quiet understanding between them, and the way their bond develops is so organic. You can tell they aren’t just finding love; they’re finding solace in each other’s presence.

I loved how Bastone didn’t rush the healing process. It felt like a slow burn, and I really appreciated that. The author lets the characters take their time, and the chemistry between Lenny and Miles builds in such a subtle way. Their shared moments of vulnerability and support are powerful, and you can’t help but root for them as they work through their grief together.

There’s an emotional depth to this book that goes beyond typical romance—it’s a story about healing, moving forward, and learning to live again after loss. The pacing is perfect, although I would’ve loved a bit more back-and-forth between the characters earlier on, but by the end, their emotional journey felt so worth it.
If you’re looking for a romance that isn’t just about love, but also about understanding, healing, friendship, and finding hope after loss, I highly recommend this one. It’s a touching read that stays with you long after you’ve finished it.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Random House for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I was SO excited to get my hands on an early copy of this book. I had read "Ready or Not" by this author last year and LOVED it so I had very high expectations. This book had a heavier undertone to it, but I loved it all the same. In this book you meet Lenny who is in deep grief over the death of her best friend from cancer. She is struggling to get through each day and takes on temporary nanny jobs so as to not get too attached. You also meet Miles, the grumpy uncle to the girl Lenny is currently nannying. Miles himself is all too familiar with grief and he becomes the guy who ultimately agrees to be Lenny's grieving support partner and help her complete her "Live Again" list. It was not love at first sight for these two. I loved the banter between the two MCs and I loved the slow burn progression of their romance. It was raw and emotional, yet funny at times. Cara Bastone has a wonderful way of making you feel ALL the emotions. This book was a solid 4.5 stars.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group, NetGalley, and the author for allowing me access to an e-ARC of this book. Cara Bastone has become an auto-read for me and I look forward to future books. Please do yourself a favor and add this to your TBR as soon as it comes out!

4.5 ⭐️

This book was the mother of all slow burns and it was absolutely worth it.

Promise Me Sunshine was such a beautiful and emotional story that perfectly captures the ever changing feelings and emotions that accompany grief and learning to live again after a significant loss.

I am in love with Cara Bastone’s writing and the magical way she is able to create multilayered characters that are so easy to adore. Lenny and Miles are two characters that I will carry in my heart for the rest of my days.

Despite this book dealing with the heavy topic of grief and overwhelming sadness, I was laughing out loud almost the entire book which is a rare thing for me.
Being inside Lenny’s head felt like I was reading my own thoughts and ideas. I wish she was real so I could make her my best friend.

I loved this book so much and I am heartbroken that it’s over.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Wow. I will read anything Cara Bastone puts out. Miles????? Would put my life on the line for that man. Such a beautiful story of grief and love and soulmates (platonic and otherwise). I loved this journey.

wow wow wow. this book!!!! (check tw) i cried. i smiled. i giggled. (had to get tissues as well) but i loved this book so much. miles helping lenny “live again” with her list made me so happy. he’s very reserved and being with lenny we saw a side of him that he doesn’t show people. lenny and miles needed each other to heal through their personal struggles with grief. ainsley (miles’s niece) was such a delight, i loved her. this was a slowburn friends to lovers with an important plot of how to overcome grief. this entire book played out in my head like a movie and i felt like i was there with lenny and miles going through their journeys. i cannot wait to have a physical copy in my hands to display on my shelf!!! i’m so grateful i got to read an early copy!

This book took my breath away in the best possible way. It so beautifully honors and depicts grief that I was brought to tears so many times. We joined Lenny as she battles through the static of just trying to keep taking her next breath to the clarity of realizing that she's accomplished seemingly mundane tasks that she previously couldn't and feeling victorious. But wait, there's more! There's Miles - who is traversing his own traumas and plot twists and figuring out who he is. And then Lenny and Miles being support superheroes for EACH OTHER. And ALLLLL the wonderful side characters who played an important role. And then, AND THEN, on top of all that, it's a love story. But not like a regular love story--a leave you heart-eyed and sobbing love story. I just can't with this book. I can't accurately describe how beautiful it was. I can't write a good enough review. I can't imagine not recommending this to anyone who ever asks.

“This is a love story, I swear. This is what happens when you’ve promised someone you’ll live again.”

This book is perfection. Cara Bastone’s writing is once again a masterclass in telling a story that is beautiful and brutal all at once. Promise Me Sunshine takes the reader through the ebbs & flows of grief all while developing a romance rooted in friendship.

“You are not betraying her by healing. 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.”

The characters in this book are *chef’s kiss*. Lenny’s character arc was done so beautifully. Her journey through grief and “coming back to life” was one of the most accurate portrayals that I’ve seen. We got to see Lenny in the depths of Hell, her brief flashes of happiness, and her rise from the drowning depths. It was brutal and beautiful. Miles was also perfectly done. He was grumpy and imposing, but that was just on the surface. In actuality, he’s been exactly where Lenny is and he refuses to let her drown. The slow burn between them was done so perfectly. From being unsure about each other to developing a tenuous friendship to becoming each other’s “person”, their journey is not all sunshine & rainbows. It is real though.

“Every time I fall in love with you there’s lightning.”

Cara Bastone has become an auto read author for me and this book is a prime example of why. If you like books that will take you on an emotional journey, this one is perfect for you.

“I’ve been gifted with this day. Frozen in time. A day where everyone moves slowly and carefully. Where the world is cast in diamond. Where the sunshine, never promised, is achingly bright and cold and there’s nowhere to hide.”

*Strangers to friends to lovers. Grumpy / sunshine. Hurt / comfort. Grief. Found family. Slow burn. Perfection.*

Oh my goodness this book. Gut wrenching and gorgeous.
I could have read these characters for such a long time.

To avoid spoilers… rather than details, here are some reasons I love and will be carrying this book in my heart for a long time/ perhaps forever:
-The banter and chemistry.
-The moments of clarity and honesty.
-The depth of emotion.
-The tenderness.
-The exploration of grief.
-The way I was dying for them to KISS ALREADY.
-But also how the kiss was perfectly timed.

Thank you to netgalley and The publishers and the author for the chance to read an advance copy. Cara Bastone fan for life.

📚ARC REVIEW 📚

Promise Me Sunshine⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


When Lenny’s best friend, Lou, passes away from cancer, Lenny feels like she lost her soulmate. She’s deep in grief and doesn’t know how to live life anymore. When she takes a temporary nanny job for a single mom and her daughter, she acts like she has it all together. However, Ainsley’s Uncle, Miles, sees right through it. Having recently gone through the loss of loved ones, Miles becomes Lenny’s grieving support partner and she helps him build a better relationship with his niece.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It was such a good story about loss, friendship, grief and happiness. I liked how the romance was a slow burn and truly a friends to lovers trope. I loved Miles’s cinnamon roll character and how he took care of Lenny and helped her heal. This was a great story with a raw description of grief and how it affects people differently, while also giving us a heart-warming romance. I think the author did an amazing job at writing this story that way.

This book will publish on March 4, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for my advanced readers copy. This is my honest and voluntary opinion.

THIS. BOOK. This book was everything! How can a book have tears streaming down my face one minute and then have me kicking my feet in giddiness the next minute!? I absolutely loved everything about this book, and it has quickly become one of my favorites.

Lenny’s best friend, Lou, recently passed away from cancer, and Lenny is deep in grief. She’s ignoring her parents’ calls, sleeping on a ferry to avoid her (their) apartment, and taking temporary nanny jobs to avoid committing to anything. She takes a weekend nannying job for single mom Reese and her daughter, Ainsley. Lenny is trying to seem like she has it all together, but Ainsley’s Uncle Miles sees right through her act.

The way that Cara Bastone writes about grief is devastating. It was such an honest portrayal of the rollercoaster grief can take you on. As soon as Lenny would start to see some light, something would pull her back down again. Miles was there for her every time, never wavering in his willingness to sit with her in her grief. The romance is a slow burn, and for that I am so glad! Lenny desperately needed a friend and someone to help her remember how to live again before she could fall in love. Miles was that person time and time again, and it was the most beautiful thing to watch.

Thank you to Cara Bastone, Dial Press, and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Read if you like:
💕 Grumpy x sunshine (but the sunshine is so wracked with grief that she has lost her sun)
💕 Grief and healing
💕 Thrifting
💕 Bucket lists
💕 Slow burn

Only 5 chapters in and I could already see this book becoming a movie.

Didn’t want to put this book down, but I had to work and sleep. Didn’t want Miles and Lenny’s story to end.

A story about, love, soulmates, grief and learning to and that you can live after loss.

This is my first book by Cara Bastone and she can surely make you feel the emotions of the characters through her words. I wanted to hug Lenny and be her friend. I wanted to tell Miles that he is one of the best guys as he is truly selfless and someone you could count on. Parts of this book were beautiful and heartbreaking, but also taught me what it’s like to go through heartbreaking grief. I fortunately haven’t loss anyone in my life in that way, but through this book I could feel what Lenny was feeling and it was unimaginable.

Thank you Cara for writing this beautiful book. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Dial Press Trade for this eARC in return for my honest review. I honestly didn’t want this book to end.

5 🌟, so good! I absolutely loved this book! I laughed so much, I smiled and I cried like an excessive amount. But it was such a beautiful story of how grief affects us and how we need people around us to help get through it. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it even when I had to try to read it through tears. There were truly funny, happy and sweet moments with the heartbreaking ones too. I think we all need a Miles sometimes.

I was so excited to receive this as an ARC! Even though I have not read Ready or Not, the rave reviews about it were enough to let me know I had to get my hands on this one. I absolutely loved this book.

"But the thing about losing the person you love most on earth is somehow you still have to do mundane things like tie your shoes and make enough money to continue to exist in this punishing world."

Who knew a book about grief could be so beautiful? The banter in this book was bantering! All the dialogue between the MCs had me laughing, smiling, crying.

The title is perfect! I loved the scene where the title was explained. We cannot promise each other good weather; we can't promise each other the world; but we can promise some things, enough things, that make life worth continuing. I just have to say it--"Get over it already, loser". Such a great way to close out!!

So I am normally not a friends to lovers girl but I was FERAL for this. I was an absolute puddle.

This review will be shared on my booksta, toomanyfivestarreads, on pub day.

A tear jerking, realistic friends to lovers.

Lenny is just going through the motions after the death of her best friend Lou. Stuck in the trenches of grief induced depression she picks up short term nanny gigs to get by. Looming over her latest job is grumpy upstairs neighbor/uncle Miles. First impressions aren’t great for either of them and I definitely thought this was leaning towards enemies..however these sweet misunderstood babies come around to each other fairly quickly and Miles becomes Lenny’s grieving support partner while she helps him build a better relationship with his niece.

I found this to be a spectacular view on grief, and very real take on friends to lovers. The transition was nervous, awkward, and even weird at times! But they persevered. Well done, Cara Bastone!!!!

In many ways, I felt incredibly nervous about reading this book. Why? Well, the hype had been hyped! And I just read Ready or Not a couple months ago and truly loved the book. It felt like Cara had a really high bar to jump over.

Well, congratulations because this book is a triumph. This book is an incredible slow burn (which will have you screaming and patiently waiting for a moment to occur) and also a love letter to grief. Lenny and Miles have had their hearts and their lives shattered through loss and he knows, he believes so fully, that he can guide her their vast forest of her pain in return for some guidance on how to connect with others.

I understood Lenny. I understood Miles. I understood Reese and Ainsley. And key to the book, I understood Lou. And if you've ever loved and lost, you may recognize yourself here. I think Cara does an incredible job of making Lenny live her grief so out loud with Miles and how that is contrast with other she lives her grief with others.

I am charmed. I am moved. I will reread this book and think about this book and gift this book. I genuinely want everyone to read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for a copy of this digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. AND GET THIS BOOK ON MARCH 4TH!

4.25 Stars

This book had me soooo emotional. There’s always something about a romance book with two broken people clinging to each other and helping each other heal, that always gets me in my feels and touches my soul. Miles and Lenny were so cute! Loved this!

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. This book was incredible. In “Promise Me Sunshine,” Lenny just lost her best friend (nay, her soulmate) to cancer. She is doing her best to stay afloat but understandably things are tough. She can’t go back to her apartment because it reminds her too much of the space she shared with her best friend. She isn’t answering her parent’s calls. The only thing she is focused on is her babysitting gig for the weekend with an adorable girl named Ainsley and her mom, Reese. It is going great except that Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, senses that something is off. When she finally tells him about her loss, he makes her an offer. He will be her grief sherpa (his mom and cousin died a decade ago) and help her check items off of her “live again” list if she helps him connect with Ainsley and Reese.

I truly loved this book. It took a little bit for me to get invested with these characters and see how much depth they had but once I did, I was in fully, 110%, full stop. I loved getting to see Lenny and Miles’ friendship and relationship develop in an authentic and heart-growing way. I loved getting to read flashbacks of Lenny and her best friend – it was a real treasure. But I think most of all, this book altered my brain chemistry in an amazing way. Cara Bastone has an amazing gift for writing descriptions and some of them, I will never be able to unthink. Like the next time I see a wobbly drunk person, I will only be able to think about them “having the structural integrity of a bag of hot soup.” This will always be in my life now. And her portrayal of grief is something I think I will be coming back to when I need it most and that is a true gift.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group / Dial Press and NetGalley for providing this eARC! All opinions are my own.

with promise me sunshine, cara bastone cements herself as one of the premier romance authors in my mind. though the year is still young, this is easily one of my favorite reads of 2025. because I adore ready or not so incredibly much, I worried another one of her titles wouldn't compare, but cara's captivating and distinct style sparkled again and wrecked me, in the best way.

4.5 ★

still in the thick of grieving her very best friend, lenny crosses paths with miles, the uncle of the latest child she is nannying. and though neither could have anticipated how impactful their meeting would be, the pair is soon swept up into an agreement that would help heal and save them, a fateful connection that would lay the bricks (iykyk) for the rest of their lives.

the only way out is through.

in equal measures, this book honored all of the ways love can manifest in our lives. friendship or romance, they nurture us the same. lenny's lasting love for her friend, for lou, brought miles into her orbit and gosh, what a gift he became. in fact, they were a gift to each other, knowing and recognizing the other's needs with without effort or discussion.

when the weight grew too heavy and lenny couldn't care for herself, miles was the steady and stable force she needed. he always knew just the things to say, and not because he thought it was what she wanted to hear, but because they words were true to him and would mirror his actions every time. his commitment to her unwavering and honorable. having experienced loss himself, miles steered her through the rough waters, becoming her friend, her champion, a shoulder to lean on, one to cry on, and everything in between.

their journey to love was a slow build, but wouldn't have wanted it to happen any other way, because damn does cara really know how to stick the landing. once she decides it it full steam ahead to the end, good luck putting the book down.

it's one thing for an author to have the premise and the characters and all the hopes and dreams of how to bring it to life, it's another to execute all of that to near perfection, crafting a third act that has a reader eating out of the palm of your hand, desperate for the next page, the next chapter. in the final moments of promise me sunshine, all of the investment is paid off with final scene that is so moving and transcendent, spiritual even, bridging the gap between lou's friend and miles's girl seamlessly.

it occurs to me that he does love lou. because he loves me.

it is this little tidbit from the acknowledgments — reading a book is intensely personal. you are allowing my words into your brain. I have just had a 100k-word conversation with myself inside your head. reading a book is a precious, precious gift to that author and I do not take it lightly. — that so perfectly conveys what a gift cara herself is to us readers. to exist at the same time as her words, to be let into those conversations, is a privilege. twice over now, her stories have highlighted all of favorite things about the romance genre. in me, she has a fan for life.

thanks to cara bastone and dial press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

What an absolutely perfect romance. This book was flawless.

Lennie is grieving her best friend when she meets Miles at her new job as a nanny. Miles is new to the city and knows too well the grief of family tragedy. Miles becomes the person to walk with Lennie through her grief without letting her fall into it.

Reminding me of other favourites like P.S. I Love You and The Flatshare this story had my ideal mix of heart and humour.

I just loved Miles and Lennie so much, I’m not sure when I last found two characters so loveable and charming.

Although I adored the main characters, I think it was the little moments that truly won me over. When Lennie finally calls her mom, the way Miles describes Lou as Lennie’s soul mate and when Jericho shows up at the concert. Also, bonus points for Ainsley - I am very picky and easily annoyed by kids in books, but she was delightful.

The writing was fantastic and always surprising. I loved how everything played out and how the humour was exactly where it needed to be. I cried, laughed and loved every page.

Thank you to @thedialpress for my advanced copy, I will definitely be buying a copy to keep on my forever shelf. This one is out on March 4th.