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

I fell in love with Lenny on the first page and Miles followed soon after. I love a book when the main characters meet right away. This one swept me up and never let me go.

This is my second book by Cara and I am now convince she writes the absolute best men. Miles is absolute perfection, I made so many highlights in this book it’s almost embarrassing.

But it’s Lenny that tugged at my heart the most. With her realness, her grief, how amazing she was with Ainsley, the fantasy she created with every guy she encountered. I adored her.

This is a tender, raw & beautiful slow burn friends to romance. I was in it every step of the way and this book will stay with me for a long time.

“Do some people slowly fall in love and not realize it?”

“Let’s just call me passably adequate—mmmf.” He pinches my lips closed. “Lenny, when I look at your face, I feel like I’m finally home after a really long day at work.” ♥️

Thank you to NetGalley and the author Cara Bastone for the advanced copy, all my opinions are my own.

Such a beautiful story about loss and the adventure of picking yourself up and finding meaning in life again after a great loss. This was my first book by Cara Bastone but I’ll definitely be going back and reading her others after this one.

Easy 5 stars but I had to sit with this one for a bit before I could gather my thoughts. Promise Me Sunshine is intense and raw and heartbreaking but somehow puts you back together in the end. Working through grief is a such an individual process but Cara portrayed it beautifully in this book. I lost count of how many times I cried or had to put the book down just to sit in my feelings. I just want to give Lenny a hug. Watching Lenny’s journey through grief and how she grows throughout the book was emotional for me. Miles seems like the best guy there is. Dependable and selfless and trying his absolute best. He also has experience with grief and it’s interesting to see the differences between what he went through and what Lenny is going through. Miles and Lenny’s relationship builds and grows slowly, which makes complete sense for this book. I’ve never felt so content with a slow burn as I did with this one. I was also so happy to see the little Ready or Not mention in this book. I will read anything Cara writes and I highly recommend you do the same.

This book does an amazing job of illustrating someone going through depression and the amazing ways two people can show up for each other and help one another through truly hard times. I love their friendship and their evolution into a relationship.

"Promise Me Sunshine" hooked me from page one! It's such a breath of fresh air compared to other romance novels out there. I really loved how it tackles the tough question of continuing life after losing someone you love.

The love story itself? Absolutely beautiful. I don't want to spoil anything, but it develops in this wonderfully natural way without falling into those toxic patterns we see way too often in romance books.

I've already started telling my friends they need to read this one ASAP. Trust me, this book is something special!

This is a beautiful, beautiful book. I’ve rarely read a book that deals so fully and tenderly with grief. I loved it, and I found it so endearing that my love and appreciation for Miles grew with the story. Lenny was someone I was rooting for from the beginning, and I loved the little drop of her being a Gemini. As a Gemini, it made me smile. :) LOVED.

Promise me Sunshine is a rom-com centered around Lenny who is mourning the death of her life long best friend Lou. She takes a nanny job for Ainsley whose uncle Miles won't do hanging around to make sure Lenny is doing a good job. Eventually, Miles and Lenny realize they can help each other. He will help her conquer a to do list of things Lou made her to still live her life. Lenny will help Miles connect with his niece.

This was such a sweet and funny book. I loved Lenny's personality and her funny quips. Miles was a grump but showed how caring he could be with his understanding of what Lenny needed. I enjoyed the appearance of a Ready or Not character as well. Overall, this was a good read and I couldn't wait to see what happened.

Thank you to Random House Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Great story about healing from loss, finding happiness again.
Miles and Lenny are very complex characters that grow together throughout this story about love and friendship.
This ones gives you all the feels! Wonderfully written.

Thanks to Netgalley for this eArc!.

THANK YOU DELL PUBLISHING AND NETGALLEY FOR THE E-ARC OF THIS 6⭐️ BOOK.

This book…I cried my eyes out for one. Cara Bastone’s writing just itches a scratch in my brain that not many authors have done for me. I read “ready or not” last year and immediately loved it and fell in love with the writing. This book took those feelings and heightened them ten fold.

Miles and Lenny…I simply love them with my entire being, not just as a couple, but as individuals. The way they complimented each other while simultaneously learned from each other and grew together was what sold me. The casual intimacy they had as friends, and how they simply became best friends who were also in love with one another??? STAWP RIGHT NOW.

The side characters, the plot points, along with the other arching theme all amounted to this beautiful and raw book that I will be purchasing the second it hits shelves and will carry in my heart and quote from my brain for what I think will be a very long time. It solidified Cara as a favorite author and an auto buy one.

READ THIS BOOK ASAP PLEASE

Just when I thought Cara Bastone couldn't possibly top herself, she proves me wrong yet again. I've been reading her books since she first started publishing and she just keeps getting better.

The book is a beautiful, slow-burn love story, but it's also a heartfelt exploration of the stages of grief and how to pick yourself up and finally open yourself up to feelings again after it feels like your world has shattered. At the beginning of the book, Lenny is completely undone and barely functioning. She's cut herself off from everyone who would love and support her and she's fallen into a grief so deep that she cannot see the way out. By the end of the book, thanks to Miles helping her find her way, she's reached the stage of acceptance and is finally ready to start living again.

As for Miles, he's able to help Lenny because he's already gone through his own grief journey, but he badly needs help in learning how to connect to Reece and Ainsley and Lenny is the perfect person to show him the way. Although she's initially put off by his stoic and grouchy exterior, she quickly comes to see the tender heart beating beneath it. They are opposites in many ways, but at their cores, they are alike - genuinely kind caretakers who will give everything to the people they love.

Although the subject matter was heavy, it was balanced out by a fair amount of humor so it never felt overwhelming. The romance was a very slow burn but the pace felt just right, given how messed up Lenny was at the start of the book. I loved this book and it will definitely be one of my top reads this year. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

This is a beautiful and melancholy story about two lovers who experience what it means to love, lose someone, grieve, and live.

The main F character, Lenny doesn't believe in life after their best friend passed away from cancer. And the main M character Miles is going through many stages of grief after losing several people in his life.

Together, these two enemies and lovers find each other in the most uncommon places. Something special starts to brew in their relationship, from the State Island Ferry to a bar to a bedroom that isn't there. Every page of this book is filled with rich detail and descriptions of each stage of grieving. I enjoyed this story alot and could relate to each character's story arc. As someone who has lost many people in my life, I feel like this story needs to be told. It gives readers hope for the future.

Tropes/themes:
-Enemies to lovers
-strangers to lovers
-grumpy sunshine
-there's a child involved (nannying)
-slow burn
-one-bed trope?
-grief, cancer, divorce
-slight smut

Some books don’t just tell a story—they wrap around you, settle into your heart, and stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page. Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone is one of those rare, special books that feels like a quiet revelation—a story of love, healing, and the unexpected ways life can surprise us when we least expect it.

From the very first page, I was completely captivated by the sheer humanity of these characters. They aren’t perfect, and that’s exactly what makes them so beautiful. Bastone has this incredible ability to create characters who feel real, like people you might know—or maybe even like parts of yourself that you hadn’t put into words yet. Their emotions, their struggles, their quiet, unspoken hopes—it all resonated so deeply that at times I had to pause just to feel everything properly before reading on.

The love story here isn’t just about romance—it’s about second chances, self-discovery, and the courage it takes to step out of the shadows of the past. It’s about learning to trust again, not just in another person, but in the possibility of happiness itself. The relationship that unfolds is tender and slow-burning, filled with moments that feel both achingly vulnerable and breathtakingly hopeful.

This isn’t just a story—it’s an experience. It’s for anyone who has ever been afraid to hope again, who has felt the weight of loss or the hesitation of a new beginning. It’s for the romantics who believe in love even when it’s messy, even when it’s complicated. It’s for those who need a reminder that even in life’s darkest moments, there’s always a glimmer of sunshine waiting on the other side.

I cried and I cried some more — I felt every single page of this book in my bones. It’s a story that reminds us that love—real, true, healing love—is always worth the risk. Promise Me Sunshine is, without a doubt, one of the most beautifully heartfelt books I’ve read in a long time. I’ll be thinking about it for weeks, if not forever.

If you’re looking for a book that will touch your heart in the best possible way, this is it. Promise Me Sunshine is an absolute must-read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I don't think there are enough stars in the world to explain how much I loved this book, and how much I love Caras writing. Promise Me Sunshine made me laugh uncontrollably, giggle, kick my feet, and sob all throughout the book. The level of emotions she was able to pull while I read this is astonishing. I can't get over how beautiful of a job she did writing about grief, the levels of grief, and the different types of grief. This book is a busy read for anyone that love romance, but that also wants a book that is healing in many ways. The romance in this is so pure, and sweet, and built straight from the heart. (It's a MASSIVE slow burn too, so just know that) You can't help but fall in love the Lenny and Miles, and each of the supporting characters. This is truly a work of art that ill be suggesting to everyone.

I was IN from the moment Lenny explained she fantasized a whole love story with every man she meets. While it feels weird to describe a book about grief as an absolute joy, this was a gem of a book. I simply could not put this down. I wept.

The way I contentedly sighed when I finished this book. It's a story about love and friendship and the way people find ways to survive and live again after a life-altering loss. The story follows Lenny who is drifting through life, barely holding on as she grieves an impossible loss. She takes on a temporary nanny position where she encounters the child's overbearing uncle, Miles. After a few run-ins, Miles offers to help Lenny as she learns how to live again. Miles and Lenny's tentative friendship slowly turns into something more.

It was an emotional, sweet, endearing and at times, challenging read, but it was so worth it. I took breaks as I read to care for my own very different grief journey, and by doing so, I found myself savoring the story.

💜 Standalone
📒 Slow Burn
💜 Friend-to-lovers
📒 Hurt x Comfort
💜 Grumpy x Sunshine
📒 Grief and loss

Thank you Cara Bastone, NetGalley and The Dial Press for the e-ARC. I loved this book and I'm excited for its release on 3/4/25.

DNF 15%-ish. I'm so disappointed. Ready or Not was one of my favourite books last year. The beginning was messy and the characters were unlikeable. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC in exchange for my review.

I didn’t expect this to be sooooo good. Honestly the plot was like a “meh” for me and I requested for an ARC because I loved “Ready or Not” so I was like oh yay a new book by the same author. But yeah, this book was so good. It talks about healing, grief, and of course love. I saw myself a lot in Lenny even though I couldn’t even imagine what she was going through in the book. And that’s what makes this book so good for me, in my opinion. She’s so lucky to have met Miles, and vice versa. They really belong to each other. Not gonna lie, I didn’t like Miles at first. Which made me worry because I wanted to enjoy this book so I was like how the heck am I going to enjoy a book when the MMC is a jerk? Like not even the brooding type jerk. But now I love him. Miles and Lenny were both written so well. Their character development was well done. This book was heart wrenching in a way I didn’t expect. Miles and Lenny were SLOOOOWWW burn. I love a good slow burn and even if it’s this slow, it just made everything well worth it. I wish I could read this for the first time again.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What an absolute gem of a novel. This is a story of redefining life after loss and discovering love along the way. The characters are messy and real. It was a perfect mix of humor and romance while never glossing over the reality of losing someone. Seriously, this novel had no right to be this funny.

The romance itself was devastatingly gorgeous. They were allowed to grow together in a way that never felt forced or trite.

I ignored phone calls to finish this book. I failed to get anything done today because I could not put it down. It has been a long time since I’ve been left staring at a wall after finishing a novel and here I am.

Just beautiful.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rabdom House Publishing for the arc in exchange for an honest review. Now to go buy a physical copy.

I think this book is a perfect complement book to Ready or Not; it has the grief, the humor, and a writing style that I loved! Cara’s writing is some of my favorite just because of her tone and casual language, I will eat everything she publishes up!!!

Lenny and Miles are some of my favorite main characters I’ve had the honor of reading, and I loved how Miles never pressured Lenny into anything or kept his first judgement in mind after learning more about her.

The subject matter of the book was heavy, and I think if I was in any more unsteady of a state of mind, this book would have destroyed me, but I am grateful I read it when I did so I could absorb all emotions—grief felt with Lenny over losing her person, humor once Miles started to hang out with Lenny and Ainsley more, and love towards the latter quarter.

I definitely felt this book was more of a lit fic than a romance book, and the path of Lenny’s healing was the main focus with romance on the side, but I loved it nonetheless!

Thank you to The Dial Press, Random House, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book absolutely broke me and that is the highest compliment. The care with which grief is handled and discussed, the swoony love story, and the healing journey of both characters was just absolute perfection. Cara Bastone is a master of the genre.