I fell in love with Cara’s writing with her book Ready or not(also phenomenal, go read it!). This book was just like coming home. She allows you to laugh, cry, and blush all in a single chapter and if you know me I LIVE for feeling all the emotions. So Miles, GOSH DANG that man is ffioonneee. He is caring, and kind, and funny, and had me laughing the whole time with his humor. But Lenny? An absolute 10/10. I love her with my whole heart. She was hilarious and quirky and I wanted to be her friend immediately. I could feel every emotion she was going through, and it’s so special when an author can make you feel so connected with a character like that. I will forever be a Cara supporter and I seriously cant thank Netgalley enough for allowing me the honor to read this beautiful book.

not ashamed to say that i cried multiple times reading this!

this was very much "right book right time" for me. going into this, i knew nothing about the premise and i was NOT expecting a deep, heartwarming story about grief, but i ended up picking this up at the right time, so i really connected with it.

our main character, lenny's best friend passed away and we see her navigate her grief through a list her friend made for her, with the help from miles. i loved their dynamic so much and how miles helped her get her back on her feet again. the character development was amazing! i loved seeing lenny grow and make new friends. and the romance was a SLOWBURN. (like they kissed for the first time at the 85% mark). the characters and their story just felt so real! it did a great job balancing the emotional parts with lighthearted moments :)

This one was a 3.5 ⭐️ read for me - it was a sweet story and I enjoyed reading about how Miles helped Lenny with her grieving process. However, something was missing for me. I found Lenny to be kind of annoying/immature and I almost preferred the dynamic of the MCs when they were just friends. It was a super slow burn and their chemistry just seemed off to me once they got together. The dialogue was also almost too quirky at certain points. Overall a solid read addressing grief and I’m glad I read it, even if it wasn’t a favorite for me.

An emotional Friends to Lovers
Slow burn
Love after loss

First of all - F Cancer.
It may seem like Miles was just there to help Lenny learn to live again and she was helping him get closer to Ains and Reese. BUT Lenny and Miles needed each other!
Their journey included laughs, hugs, lots of tears and some dancing. I did put it done for a bit, it was a little difficult to read after loosing someone to cancer but I’m happy I read it.

Loved the Ethan (Ready or Not) Easter egg.

For anyone dealing with loss as Cara Bastone’s list states “10. No one can be your Miles if you don’t call them when you need them.”
Talk, talk, and talk

What a heart squeeze of a book. The trajectory of grief is different for every human that experiences it- I thought that in this story, it was crafted with such delicate and layered emotion. This story is gentle and melancholy, but on this journey with Lenny, you uncover so many bright spots through her finding herself once more. Miles was an excellent foil to Lenny and they played so well off of each other. I love Bastone’s books because they are so vibrant with emotion and though at some points the subject manner is tough, there is always sharp humor that I so much appreciate. Lenny and Miles ooze chemistry and their relationship with each other was one that was addicting to keep discovering alongside them. I really enjoyed our secondary characters, and thought the world of this story was rounded and fleshed out well. This is a page turner and the momentum that was built never slowed for me- I could have read 100 more pages and not tired. Overall, I thought that this was a beautiful and heartwarming book. If you are looking for an emotional, satisfying romance with great character development and all the feels, I cannot recommend enough!!

This contemporary fiction with a little romance had a lot of depth on grief and some absolutely amazing character building! I just loved the storyline and the characters! It was a slow burn becuase the romance wasn’t the main focus but worked so well with the plot. I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

Lenny is barely surviving after suffering a devastating loss while Miles is struggling to make a connection to the only family he has left. While helping each other navigate their new normals, Miles and Lenny fall into swoon worthy romance in the ultimate strangers to friends to lovers goals I love to read about!

If you love the following you will enjoy Promise Me Sunshine:

☀️Strangers to friends to lovers
☀️Grumpy/Sunshine
☀️Slow Burn
☀️Exploration of Grief
☀️Healing Romance
☀️Witty Banter

I have been looking forward to this book for a while and was so excited to have received an eARC after listening to a lot of audiobooks written by Cara Bastone. She writes the most lovable and relatable characters and the banter is always just soooo good! Who knew one could smile and laugh out loud at so many moments when reading a story about a person’s journey through loss and grief? I laughed and I cried and I never wanted it to end!

If I could rate this more than 5 stars, I would give it infinite stars!

i adore this book. the conversations, the love, the companionship, the kindness, the friendship, and even the grief. all of it. so so good. the romance was everything to me, the friendships were so special and the family aspect was so true and lovely. this book was so kind in the way that it navigated through the grief that Lenny is experiencing. Miles was kind to her in it, and Cara Bastone was kind to me in it. books like this and the seven year slip, summer romance, and the dead romantics are so special to me because of the way that grief is such a central part to the story but it doesn’t feel that way while simultaneously healing my heart a bit on every page right alongside the main character as they learn to live again without those they love. books like this are special to me because they’re not just fiction. they are touching me and helping me along the pain that is such a real part of life. i highly recommend this book.


i’m so thankful to dial press, cara bastone, and netgalley for the privilege of getting to read this early in exchange for my honest review. thank you so much.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, Dial Press and Cara Bastone for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! This book approaches grief and opening yourself up to love during/after grief in such a unique way. Namely- starting out right in the trenches- we really got right into it.

I've rehashed this book with a friend and they brought up the desire to have Lenny seek more professional help with her grief. But I just feel that Cara nailed the place Lenny was in- she would not have actively sought help- nor participated. Miles' personal grief expertise (and his personal floundering where Lenny was strong), I think is the only person/type of person that could have gotten through to her at that point of her journey. I also think the slow burn of their romance was exactly right. This made their connection feel more legitimate/less trauma bond.

I could wax poetic about many details in this book (Chemistry! Doting Uncle! Lenny's meet cute fantasies! The new friend group!) But I'll just leave it at this- it's a complete 5 star for me and as my 10th Cara Bastone book- I'm a goner. All in on her writing.

Another 5 star read for me. Cara Bastone does an amazing job of grabbing the readers attention from the very beginning. Miles, Miles, Miles. Absolutely obsessed with him and Lenny together. I couldn’t put this book down. It was such a great story. I recommend to anyone looking for a beautiful story.

5 🌟

You guys!!! I think I just found a new comfort book! This story wrapped around my heart and refused to let go. I’m sitting here with my emotions all over the place, my heart aching and full at the same time, and wondering how I’m supposed to move on after finishing this book. THIS BOOK OMG. It made me feel things I didn’t even know I needed to feel.

The writing? So soft yet so raw. The plot? A journey of healing, love, and self-discovery. The characters? So real, so tender, so heartbreakingly relatable. The romance? The most beautiful slow burn, filled with care and kindness.

🍯 Miles Honey. My sweet, selfless, emotionally tender man. Who gave him the right to be this perfect?! The way he sees people, the way he holds space for them, the way he just exists with so much love in his heart even when he doesn’t know what to do with it? I adore him. He’s quiet, he’s steady, he’s the kind of man who would sit with you in silence when words feel too heavy.

💛 And Lenny. My girl. She is sunshine wrapped in layers of hurt, trying so hard to find her way back to herself. She’s messy, she’s strong, she’s real. Watching her navigate grief, disappointment, and hope felt so deeply personal. Her friendship with Miles? The way he let her take up space without demanding anything in return? The way they built something soft and unshakable before romance even entered the equation? I could cry. 🥹

💌 This book was so much more than romance. It was about healing. It was about showing up. It was about learning that love doesn’t mean perfection—it means staying, even when it’s hard.

And the slow burn?! Oh, the ache. The stolen glances, the quiet understanding, the way every touch felt like it carried a thousand unspoken words. I need a moment.

💖 Miles & Lenny. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH WITH MY WHOLE HEART. Their banter. Their tenderness. Their everything. The way he knows exactly what she needs before she even says it. The way she sees through his quiet demeanor and makes him feel like he is enough. The way they choose each other, again and again.

This book owns me. Please, please, PLEASE read it. You won’t regret it. (Releases March 4th ♡)

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this arc. ♡

Thank you Cara Bastone and Random House Publishing for an ARC copy of Promise Me Sunshine!

Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐

I thoroughly loved and related to Lenny's journey with grief after the lost of her best friend. There was such a raw aspect of it that mirrored grief that I myself have experienced. Many of the quotes I felt most drawn to were less happy and more about the reality of heavy grief that you don't often see or hear about. The ones that hit me the hardest being:

"I think when you're depressed sometimes it's easy to think that everyone is depressed"

"Nobody wants to hear about dead friends"

While I also enjoyed the romantic aspects (and Miles is a total dreamboat 😍), I found some of their relationship to be a little juvenile and cringe at times for my taste. I was also surprised by the ratio of romance to grief. This is definitely not a romance-centered plot, this is a HEAVY book that could be jarring if you didn't realize beforehand.

Overall, I still love Cara Bastone's writing, and she is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me! 💕

I loved this book so much! Promise Me Sunshine pulled at my heartstrings and made me emotional in the best way possible.

Promise Me Sunshine” by Cara Bastone is an emotional roller coaster. Main character Lenny is getting through the lost of her childhood best friend. The grief is overwhelming. She has cut herself off from her family. She is working as a nanny for a single mother, Reese, with a sweet corky but sweet daughter, Ainsley.

Reese’s overprotective stepbrother, Miles, lives upstairs. As Miles is navigating his relationship with his niece & stepsister, he finds himself protecting Lenny through her grief. This is a sweet read that at times breaks your heart. Well written with likable characters, I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press Trade for this advanced edition. Reserve yours now for the March 4th publication date.

I feel in love with Cara Bastone's writing when I read "Ready or Not" last year. That book not only pulled me out of a reading slump, but it also restored my faith in humanity. It's safe to say I had extremely high expectations for this book, and lucky for me it definitely exceeded those expectations.
This book is about Lenny, a woman whose best friend/platonic soul mate passed away from cancer six month prior to the opening of the book. We quickly learn that Lenny has not been doing well since the death of her friend. She is isolating from her loved ones and not taking good care of herself. They only area in which she is thriving is that she is very good at her job, which is nannying. She agrees to a temporary job nannying for a precocious little girl named AInsley, whose single mom Reese is also going through her own grief. AInsley's uncle Miles happens to be hanging around a lot, and through a series of revelatory conversations, he and Lenny become good friends as Miles helps Lenny pull herself out of her funk.
There are many things I love about this book. First, I suffered my own loss last year, my sister passed from Cancer as well and she and I were very close. This made me really relate to Lenny a lot. I also love that it really shows grief as not something that's linear or logical. Everyone deals with grief differently, and it can be such a gift to have a support system that gives you the space to grieve how you need while simultaneously encouraging you to not abandon yourself to it.
I hope I am not giving too much away, I just want to emphasize just how special this book is. Also, the romance is one of my favorites!!!! Many squees were had :) Five stars!

This was such a beautifully written book and I really really enjoyed it! I loved both of the main characters so much and the topic of grief was very well talked about in this book and I enjoyed following Lenny's journey to "live again."

Lenny is struggling with the loss of her best friend Lou when she takes on a new nannying gig and finds herself spending more and more time with the mysterious Miles.

I discovered Cara Bastone’s Ready or Not through BOTM and really enjoyed it so I added her follow up to my wish list as soon as I heard about it. It was everything I wanted and more! The juxtaposition between grief and love adds many layers to the romance. I loved the characters and the growth throughout the story. My only complaint may be it was a slooooooow burn but I understand the reasoning behind it. I didn’t even realize I was on the last chapter and was so sad to see it end. You won’t be disappointed with this story!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group for providing a free ARC for review via NetGalley.

An absolute masterpiece! I was so caught between wanting to see how it ended and never wanting it to end. The cover is beautiful. Each and every character has so much depth and emotion. I found myself connecting with each character, which is SO hard to do. The plot is outstanding, with a nice pace that does not lack at any point in the book. It’s a slow burn romance, but contains SO many valuable life lessons in between. This is a love letter to those who love and care for others who are struggling and I was truly moved to tears so many times. Cara Bastone has written a truly beautiful story that is sure to inspire and move you in ways that most cannot.

Oh cara bastone, TAKE MY MONEY.
All the feelings. Gosh, this book was hilarious and relatable and SO DAMN SAD but worth every single word.
Processing her new life after losing her best friend, her soulmate, basically her sister. In steps Miles - what a wonderful, darling man! Who treats her with both kid gloves and the tough love she needs to get through this part of her life.

It’s hard to put into words the journey this book took me on. I wasn’t expecting such an emotional, grief-filled story as Lenny struggles to move forward in life after losing her best friend to ovarian cancer. The love story between Lenny & Miles really takes a backseat to the journey she goes on to figure out how to live life now. Miles has walked on his own path with grief and chooses to walk with Lenny on hers. This was a powerful, heart-wrenching, emotional story as they really sought to bring out the best in each other and slowly fell in love along the way.

Having watched my own best friend struggle with and eventually lose her battle to ovarian cancer, this one hit pretty hard & had the emotions flowing, especially towards the end. I think anyone who’s walked through the grief process would relate to the hard place in life that Lenny found herself in.

I loved Miles because he was exactly what she needed, especially when she didn’t know what that was. He knew when to push and when to pull back. It was so devastatingly beautiful.

This book was honestly hard to rate because it almost feels offensive to give it anything less than 5 stars. If you’re in need of a good cry, be sure to pick this up. Be warned, it’s not a light & happy read, but you’ll find yourself rooting so hard for these two.

Thank you to Dial Press/Random House for the advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Be sure to pick this up when it releases in March!