Thank you Dial for the ARC! Pub date is 3/4

This one is for anyone grieving but also trying to claw their way to healing. This book feels like tear stained cheeks and the beginning of a smile. You brush away the snot and tears and can feel something else bubbling up. When you finally laugh again you can feel your joy and grief mingling together and that maybe a part of your heart is starting to heal. And as much as this book is a love story, it’s also one about grieving and growing.

For those familiar with grief you know that grief becomes a reference point, once you’ve experienced it. Your mind starts sorting things into The Before and The After. However, if you’re open to it, love can be that too. And you see both are true for Miles and Lenny.

Miles and Lenny are strangers that strike up a deal. Lenny is grieving after the death of her best friend. Miles is trying to connect to his sister and niece but doesn’t quite know how. Maybe, they can help each other out.

The goal of this deal: live again. Love again. Connect again.

What starts off as a way to get through a Live Again List unfolds in a beautiful friendship and a tender romance.

Miles is fiercely protective. A bit rough around the edges. Desperate for connection. Grumpy. Gentle and patient. Steady and sure. A comforting presence. He says things like…
“Well I can’t promise the sunshine but I can do everything else”

Lenny is dark hallow spaces carved out by grief but still brimming with life. She’s charming, funny, and direct. She knows how to love big and care for others. She’s a bit out of practice in caring for herself. And at the a start of the book she’s simply a worn out pair of jeans and a ruddy back pack riding back and forth on the Staten Island Ferry, desperately trying to live again.

These two come along side one another in friendship. But the romance is slooow and languid and beautiful. They bring each other back to life.


“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”

Cara Bastone handles grief in an unflinching, raw, yet gentle way. She reminds us that love lasts even after death. As someone who has done a lot of grieving in my life, I found great solace in the pages of this book. Hopefully, you can as well.

I just love Cara Bastone’s writing! Ready or Not was one of my favorite romances in 2024 so I have been dying to get my hands on her newest release. Promise me Sunshine focuses on grief and learning to live again after the loss of a loved one. I didn’t find the subject matter quite as captivating as her previous book but I still really loved the message, the quirky characters, and the friends to lovers romance.

“Hey, Lou. Miles says when you left, you took my heart with you. He says it was like a heart transplant. Only …” I lean forward and thump my chest. My hair falls in a tent around me, blocking out the light. “I don’t know what this new heart is supposed to be living for.”

“Well, you know, lone wolf howling at the moon? Pretty lonely. I thought you’d make me go for something happier.” He frowns. “They’re not lonely.” He gestures between our two bandages. “There’s two of them.”

"Producing a book from nowhere, he reclines and is immediately the picture of someone who can entertain themself with nothing but their own intellect. It’s irritating. In an attractive way."

"And surely I will disintegrate when tasked with sorting Lou’s belongings. But maybe it won’t bring everyone down with me. Maybe instead it’ll be the other way around. Maybe they’ll bring me up, where the light is."

The most I've cried over a book in months, maybe even a year. I knew this was gonna be a tough one but holy shit this was so bad. In the best way. But it made me think about how it would feel to lose the most important person in my life and frankly, I did not need those particular thoughts in an already depressing, we're-so-cooked world.

I cried so hard my heart hurt. I laughed so hard my throat hurt. And I felt so hard I want to keep feeling, which is dangerous for someone so quick to tears as it is.

Cara, thank you for writing this book. I feel forever changed by the feelings this book left me with. Thank you.

MVP: Ainsley; what a kid that one. (But also Miles because what the fuck.)

(Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!)

Synopsis: Since the death of her best friend, Lenny has been feeling lost and struggling with grief. When she takes on a temporary nanny position, she forms an unexpected friendship with the child’s grumpy uncle, Miles.

Thoughts: Oh my goodness what a beautiful story! I went into this one with zero expectations having never read this author before, and I adored every minute. Lenny and Miles are such well-written, complex characters with a lot of depth and quirky humor. I fell in love with them and their friendship, and the romance aspect is honestly just a bonus. Promise Me Sunshine is a beautiful, tender, heartfelt story of grief and healing, and it will definitely be on my list of favorite books this year. A note on the audio: Alex Finke is now a favorite narrator! She did an absolutely amazing job at bringing Lenny to life. I can’t recommend this audio production enough!

Read this if you like:
🛟 slow burn romance
🛟 friends to lovers
🛟 emotional stories
🛟 grief and healing
🛟 grumpy/sunshine
🛟 family/found family

- 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝑩𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝟒𝒕𝒉

𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘴:
✰ 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 & 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨
✰ 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴
✰ 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯
✰ 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺
✰ 𝘨𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘺 𝘹 𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦

This book made a liar out of me because I guess it took me out of my slump, hopefully, maybe.
All I know is that I picked it up on a whim and ended up staying up all night to finish it.
It's raw, it's sad, it's funny, it's sweet and romantic.
It's one of those books that resonates with you especially if you've experienced loss. It's an interesting book but hard to explain because while it dealt with grief in such a realistic and, again, raw way but it also made laugh and grin like an idiot in certain scenes. And that shows how great the author is.

The plot follows Lenny who recently lost her best friend to cancer and is dealing with the aftermath of such life channging event and Miles aka the guy she starts a friendship with and who helps her navigate grief. It's truly a book to read and experience.
And I highly recommend you to pick this up when it releases.

*arc kindly provided in exchange of an honest review

Promise Me Sunshine - Cara Bastone 💔🌞
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

What a beautifully written book. To me, this is a book of grief and healing after a tragic death of a loved one. It is a character study of Lenny, someone who has just lost her best friend and soulmate to a terrible disease and is adrift in life, fighting to stay alive. This may be one of the best books about grief that I have read!!

Promise Me Sunshine follows Lenny and Miles. Lenny is grieving the death of her best friend and meets Miles when she starts babysitting Miles niece. Miles is a very grumpy, closed off man, who decides to become Lenny’s “grief counselor” and hold her hand while she goes through the stages of grief and healing. Both Lenny and Miles have suffered from the death of loved ones after really tragic events and Miles instantly recognizes that Lenny is going through it and needs someone to show her that life can go on despite the pain.

I cried throughout this entire book. I felt every inch of Lenny’s pain. Her desperation to remain close to her best friend, her refusal to let go of the pain, the depression and isolation she slipped into. I loved the little scenes of Lenny and Lou throughout the book that showed just how important their friendship was. I loved how Miles saw a person suffering and in need of a friend and decided to be the person he needed when he was fresh in his grief. All the little moments of this book were so perfect and it really authentically showed the rollercoaster that grief is.

The romance was definitely a slow burn friends to lovers and honestly I could have used a bit more tension between Lenny and Miles throughout the book. However, I think the romance slowly building in the background showed how Lenny was so consumed by her grief that she didn’t even realize the love she was developing for Miles, who felt like a lifeline. I will be thinking about the quotes in this book for a very long time.

Thanks to the Dial Press for the free book!! 🤍 Promise Me Sunshine releases next Tuesday, March 4th!!

QOTD: Are you planning to read Promise Me Sunshine??

I devoured this book and couldn’t sleep until I finished it. Cara Bastone conveys all of the emotions in a way that makes you truly feel what her characters are feeling. Grief is complicated and even finding joy in those moments can feel like betrayal and this book captures it all.

I love a slow burn and friends to lovers trope, but this felt so organic and not tropey at all.

The side characters also make this book really special. I can’t wait to read this again!

Cara Bastone wields a knife with her words. Equally capable of carving your heart out, and stitching you back together again. She takes great care with her words and her stories. This story of grief and love is so beautiful. They say the only way out, is through. I have personally never lost someone so dear to me to experience this kind of grief but I am so grateful that this story exists to help others through.

I hope that when I experience grief that brings me to my lowest, there is a Miles there to help me through- to walk into hell and pull me out.

Thank you NetGalley, Cara Bastone, and Dial Delights for this ARC
Available 3/4/25

Cara Bastone is a new author to me and to be honest I don’t know why I requested an ARC on Netgalley, and while it wasn’t a 5 star read for me, I still enjoyed it, and would recommend others to check this book out.

Promise Me Sunshine follows Lenny, an extrovert who pretty much says things without thinking twice about it, who is not worried about making a fool of herself, but she is also trying to find a way to live again after losing her best friend Lou to cancer. While doing a nannying job, she meets Miles, a grumpy individual who tends to come off judgemental and harsh, who unfortunately knows a thing or two about losing a loved one. Lenny thinks she can navigate grief on her own, and refuses to bring anyone down with her, unbeknownst to her, Miles sees right through it and offers to be her “grief wingman”, all he wants in exchange is for Lenny to help him get closer to his sister Reese and niece Ainsley.

This was completely different to my usual light, fluffy romance reads, and while I could not relate too much in this book, it did pull on my heartstrings. Reading how Lenny learns to live a life without her best friend got me in my feels at times. And while romance was not the main focus of this book, the slow progression of friends to lovers between Lenny and Miles made me swoon. Miles was the anchor that Lenny didn’t know she needed. I loved how Miles was there for her. And even though it wasn't part of the initial agreement, Lenny was there for Miles when he needed it most.

I am so glad I requested this on a whim. Cara Bastone is definitely an author who I would love to read more of. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Wow. Promise Me Sunshine is a beautiful story that effortlessly swept me off my feet. From the very first page, I was captivated by the imperfect, yet deeply relatable main characters, Miles and Lenny. Their love story is subtle and incredibly moving, showcasing a love that feels so real, raw, and beautifully imperfect. It’s not the kind of love that’s overly dramatic or rushed; instead, it’s a quiet, gentle unfolding of emotions and understanding that touched me deeply. For me, this book will live in my soul for a long time, and I can confidently say that it’s one I’ll revisit time and time again. Highly recommended!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5, romance)

Thank you for this E-ARC!
Pub day: March 4th

Lenny, the FMC was a little bit too immature for my liking. This was more of a book dealing about grief than romance. The romance doesn’t even come into play until you’re 3/4 of the way through. I did love the main character’s friendship with each other. I felt like it was really solid. They really leaned on each other to help each other through their grief of losing loved ones. The MMC, Miles was really sweet and protective. I think anyone would want someone like him in their lives. The main female character Lenny was goofy and would talk to anybody so I thought that was cool about her. I loved watching Miles and Lenny’s relationship with Ainsley (the girl that Lenny nannies)


Lenny has just lost her best friend and is in the thick of her grief. She’s working as a nanny for warpaths families on the upper side of New York. When she is referred to a single mom she meets eight-year-old Ainsley they instantly form a bond. Miles, their grumpy upstairs neighbor seems to always be around. Overtime, Lenny & Miles form a strong friendship over helping each other deal with their grief and might even find love along the way.

It was a beautiful book of grief and mending broken relationships, and learning how to fall in love with life after heartbreak.

“And this journey through grief … It’s what we do for the great loves of our lives.”
When Lenny takes a short-term gig as a NYC nanny for precocious Ainsley, she’s trying to claw her way through a dark time. Her lifelong best friend and roommate Lou recently died of cancer, and Lenny’s grief is so thick that she can’t bear to even go home. She lives out of a backpack and sleeps in bursts: at an all-night dance party, on the bench of the Staten Island Ferry, letting the waves lull her to fitful rest.
Ainsley’s standoffish uncle Miles is working through his own issues when he meets Lenny. The two strike up a friendship borne of an unlikely deal: Miles will serve as a “grief coach” helping Lenny put one foot in front of the other in exchange for Lenny teaching him how to bond with his niece and become more comfortable with kids. What follows is a tender, meaningful connection between two people who innately understand what each person stands to lose - and gain - in this life.
Cara Bastone can write relatable, empathetic characters who inspire readers to want the very best for them. Lenny is quirky but not as a novelty; it feels genuine and endearing, like you’d want to grab coffee with her and make inside jokes together. Miles is flawed but likable, a golden retriever wrapped in a costume that is not so much brooding but contemplating, assessing…hoping.
Don’t miss this FIVE STAR read, set to publish March 4.

3.5 rounded up to 4

Promise Me Sunshine is the latest book from a favorite author, Cara Bastone- her Forever Yours series is amazing, trust me. In Promise Me Sunshine, the writing is beautiful, Bastone crafts wonderfully complex, deeply emotional characters in Lenny and Miles.

Lenny is floundering after the death of her best friend, sleeping on the Staten Island Ferry, not going home and taking small babysitting gigs. When she starts babysitting, Ainsley, her Uncle Miles is looming in the background. After a rough first meeting, Miles convinces Lenny to let him help her through her grief and their friendship becomes so much more.

Promise Me Sunshine is emotional, the grief both Lenny and Miles have been dealing with is heartbreaking but it’s how they overcome it that really hit me. Lenny is a cookie cutter Bastone FMC- super quirky, slightly neurotic, Disney princess with baggage qualities. Miles is the most amazing grief counselor thrust into an awkward relationship with his half sister and niece, coaxing Lenny back into the world. I would have liked Lenny to have more sympathy to the grief that Miles has been through. Their relationship is built on trust, honesty and actual communication. I do wish they had a more romance building throughout the book instead of just at the end. Also, it ends a bit abruptly, there is something that I thought Lenny would do and never did that I thought would bring even more closure. My closure loving heart wanted an epilogue too.

Promise Me Sunshine deals with grief, depression, cancer but it’s the banter, the ability to laugh at ourselves that stands out in this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced digital copy, all thoughts are my own.

Cara Bastone’s “Promise Me Sunshine” is a women's fiction novel that explores a poignant question: How do you find yourself after losing the one you loved most?

Twenty-eight-year-old Helen “Lenny” Bellamy met her best friend and soulmate, Lou Merritt, in kindergarten, and the two were inseparable. After Lou battles cancer twice, she passes away, and the novel begins six months later, with Lenny barely living. Instead of returning to the empty apartment she shared with Lou, Lenny spends her nights on the Staten Island Ferry, unable to face her grief.

An experienced nanny, Lenny takes short-term jobs, never knowing when her grief will overwhelm her. She is hired by Reese Hollis, who needs a nanny for her daughter Ainsley, a seven-year-old girl, while Reese is away on a work trip. When Lenny arrives, she meets Reese’s half-brother, Miles Honey, who lives upstairs in the same building. Miles and Reese have a strained relationship, with Miles being the product of an affair between Reese’s father and another woman while he was on tour. When their musician father passes away a year earlier, Miles inherits the upstairs apartment, and Reese inherits the much larger one downstairs.

Miles doesn’t trust Lenny at first. When she turns on the television and allows Ainsley to make cupcakes and eat them, Miles is convinced that Lenny isn’t equipped to care for his niece—despite having no experience with children himself. However, when Miles discovers that Lenny is consumed by grief and has been sleeping on the ferry, he begins to understand her pain. Having lost his own mother and cousin in a fatal car accident, Miles recognizes the depth of Lenny’s sorrow. Lenny shows Miles her “Live Again” list—a list she created when Lou was sick. It contains several items, some of which are not mentioned in the novel, but Miles agrees to help her with the list in exchange for her help in learning how to connect with Ainsley and Reese.
Some of the list’s items include:
1. Have sex with a fireman or something
2. Go to the Met as often as possible
3. Go see 5Night
4. Go camping
5. Watch The Godfather and finally understand what everyone is talking about
6. Eat something famous you can only get in New York
7. Find a big boat and do the Titanic thing

Bastone’s contemporary romance is much more than just a love story. The way she portrays Lenny’s grief is both expert and beautiful. The tender, slow-blooming romance between Lenny and Miles is delicately crafted with tenderness and empathy. Miles is patient and genuinely wants Lenny to live again—not for a romantic relationship, but because he understands the challenge of navigating love and grief. The love he shows Lenny is deeply impactful.

I’ve never wanted a romance to continue or wished for an epilogue as much as I did with this novel. It’s my only complaint: I wasn’t ready to let go of these two characters.

This was such a beautiful story of love, friendship, and overcoming grief. Lenny has just lost her best friend and is struggling with existing in a world where she doesn’t exist. She meets Miles when she picks up a baby sitting gig for his sister. The two strike up a deal - Miles will help Lenny through her grief and Lenny will teach Miles how to be a better support to Ainsley, his niece. I loved seeing Lenny and Miles friendship (and eventually more) unfold on page. Miles is super awkward at first but it becomes kind of endearing and I loved seeing him come out of his shell. The scenes with Lou (Lenny’s friend) were so sweet and heartbreaking it made me mourn her loss as well. The spice for me was okay but the story was better. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a heart-felt novel that has romance but tackles more serious themes.

I was 5 chapters in and knew this would be a favorite. 🥹 Lenny and Miles’ friendship was so beautiful. Sleeping on the ferry, the matching tattoos. No Lenny ant go live on a boat because “he gets seasick.” He wouldnt leave her side for anything in the world. He just showed up over and over. I honestly don’t have th words to say how much i love this book. 🥹

This is a super sweet grumpy-sunshine slow-burn romance between two people going through their grief of lost loved ones. It's a very amusing adventure that they go on. Did I cry? Almost, at many points. This was a very emotional journey.

*Provided a DRC (digital review copy) from the publisher for review. All opinions are my own.

This book was utterly amazing. I loved every single minute of it. The heartbreak, the love, refinding yourself… this was truly what grief is. I knew I would love Cara Bastone’s writing from reading her other books. This one easily just became my favorite.

What to expect:
-The slowest of slow burns (BUT OMG IT IS WORTH IT)
-Unconditional love
-The cutest 7 year old
-Grumpy x sunshine
-Growth beyond belief


This book had me laughing uncontrollably, shedding so many tears, feeling so much joy, and so much heartbreak. It is beautiful.

I discovered Cara Bastone in ‘23, before I joined booksta, when I read her Forever Yours series, and remember thinking, why am I not hearing more about her? Those were the sweetest romances!

Then 2024 BLEW us away with Ready or Not.
I’ll never be found wondering why we aren’t talking about her more after Promise Me Sunshine. We will all be talking about this one.

I truly think this will find an even larger audience because it really is so much more than romance. This is a love story of friendship. Lenny has lost her soulmate, her best friend Lou, to cancer. Lenny’s life feels shattered, and she doesn’t know where to begin again. Or, honestly, if she even wants to, moving on would mean forgetting Lou, right?

Then Lenny meets Miles while nannying for his niece Ainsley. Like calls to like, and Miles recognizes this very same grief, he had to crawl himself out of years before. A mutually beneficial friendship begins between the two as Miles helps Lenny live again while she helps Miles connect with his niece.

If you're in a tender season of grief, I caution you to tread lightly here. While Lenny’s handling of her grief may look very different than what many of us have experienced ourselves, it felt like reading on the page what I WISH I could have done after losing a loved one in 2022. This is what felt so profound to me while reading this book.

Sometimes, I want to see myself and my experience in a story.

Sometimes, I want to escape and have an entirely different experience.

And I now realize sometimes I want to see what I feel and don’t know how to articulate it.

Cara’s characters are always clever and so full of heart. No exceptions here. There are dimensions and growth given to each one. Her writing is vivid and visceral and truly seems to only get better and better.

While it is a substantial exploration of the weight and value of friendships in our lives, the romance cannot be ignored. It is very slow-burn goodness. We learn of Lenny’s awareness of her feelings first, but as we learn about what’s holding Miles back…well, let me just say we love this!

This book is contemporary fiction meets contemporary romance- it isn’t solely one or the other, and it’s done so well.

“Promise Me Sunshine” wrecked me in all the best ways.  Cathartic and healing.  Laugh out loud funny in places.  Poignant and teary in others.  It’s about learning to live again after losing your best friend/soul mate to cancer and finding connections with others in the aftermath of grief.  It’s a story about friendship and found family, putting one foot in front of the other and finding love - for yourself, for another, and living with the love of those no longer here.

“Promise Me Sunshine” is perfection.

 Cara Bastone is officially an auto buy author for me.