Lenny has lost her best friend in her 20's to cancer. Lou was her best friend their whole lives and they did everything together and were roommates in Brooklyn. Lenny is heavy into grief and not living or taking care of herself at all. She is a professional nanny though, so when she takes on a short-term job, as she feels that is all she can handle, she meets Ainsley, her mom Reece, and her uncle Miles. Miles is always around but doesn't seem to be heavily involved in Reece and Ainsley's life. But Miles has also lost people close to him and offers to help Lenny live thru her grief.

This book is billed as a rom com (and the cover indicates this also), but this is NOT A ROM COM. This is almost literary fiction about grief. That is literally all it talks about, until the last 20% in which there is a huge sift and it's all about sex. I get what this book was trying to do, and I was interested in that, although I really feel like I was misled. I also felt like this book was as big a mess as the main character. It was terribly pieced together and just hard to want to continue. I only finished it because I wanted to see if it got better. I also did not like how it concluded, and I didn't like how she wrote the sex scenes and felt like her grief just magically dissolved because of a relationship. So... not my favorite book and I just can't recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

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.

OK, so I loved this book, but there were some things that I could have done without.
Lenny is VERY “quirky/ manic pixie dream girl/ ‘not like other girls’”. Her beginning personality traits of being a rumpled mess with her big bird hoodie, Garfield shirt/random 5k shirts from thrift stores killed me! 🫠 It was cringy. And SMALL SPOILER: Matching tattoos!! WHAT was that about?! They made it cute, but it was still a big red flag.

ANYWAY!
I thought it was beautiful to have so many perspectives on coping and living with grief.
No third-act breakup!
Their growth is so real. Miles is so sweet and patient with Lenny and her wild grief rollercoaster. His support was so heartwarming.
This book was so beautiful and inspiring. As someone who has been coping with grief over the last year, and coming up on the year anniversary, it was a much-needed story, when I didn’t know I needed it. It was emotional and yet brought levity to a tough topic.

Thank you to @randomhouse @netgalley and @carabastone for this advanced readers copy and for entrusting me with this story and these characters. 🧡

I’m sorry…this will be winded. ♾️⭐️ All of them. Every last star in the sky!

This Two for Tuesday is a little different—it isn’t about two authors, two genres, or even two books. It’s about emotions. Hilarious and heartbreaking. Joyful and gut-wrenching. Uplifting and painful. @carabastone basically wrote this book for me. Promise Me Sunshine feels like a lifeline—a guide to navigating my own grief as I face the reality of losing my best friend, my sister.

I don’t want to give away too much because I need you to experience this book for yourself. I need you to read it and absorb it. “The only way out is through.” Lenny, Miles, Reese, and Ainsley will get you through. This book is written for anyone who’s ever lost somebody. For anyone who wondered if they’d make it through the pain and out the other side. For anyone who believes in love.

But it’s not ALL doom and gloom. It’s a story of redemption. Of breaking down and rebuilding. Of grumpy & sunshine. Of violence towards waffles (trust me). Of the very best of slow burns. Of losing friends and making them. Of accepting help and giving it.

Of living.

Cara has a way of taking a typical trope and molding it into something atypical in the best way. Not perfect, but beautifully messy, lovely, different, and relatable. She has a way with words that do more than tell a story. They sink into every corner and crevice, filling even the jagged edges. Every emotion, every feeling settles in deep, and you can feel every one.

This story and these characters showed up right when I needed them most. They are stamped on my heart, mind, and soul—forever.

The main character (Lenny) is struggling with the death of her best friend. She can't seem to find her footing in the world until she meets Miles who slowly helps her get through the grief to see hope on the other side.

I have read/listened to everything Cara Bastone has published, and she just gets better and better. This… was perfection. The slowwwww burnnnnnnnnnn. Miles. Lenny. New York! THE EMOTION. The ferry.

Literally, no notes. This book is a warm comforting hug. It will make you cry, swoon and laugh. It is SO funny. It is a treat. I wanted to devour it and savor it at the same time. The new gold standard of romance.

6 STARS!!!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I flipped to the last page, gasped, then flipped back, at least 6 times convinced my kindle had glitched because no way is this book over. What do you mean I can’t continue to read this book every day for the rest of my life?????????????????

Cara Bastone has such a magical writing style I need to go back through and read everything else she’s ever written but I almost don’t even feel worthy.

Miles is the softest, most gentle man that has ever existed in anyone’s imagination and I’m so grateful he existed in Cara’s enough that she gifted him to the rest of us. Lenny is so precious and strong, I’m so incredibly proud of a person that doesn’t even actually exist.

While I’m not currently grieving the death of a loved one - I feel like if I was, reading this book would have healed me. Or at least made me feel incredibly inspired to take healing by the balls and get some shit done.

This story was just so gentle and raw and emotional. If you didn’t like/didn’t want to read Ready or Not because you’re not cool with the whole pregnancy thing, read this. Everyone knows a little bit about grief. We’ve all been there or know at some point know we will get there.

Feeling the need to go hug a big strong man for a very long time after reading this.

Also let it be known that I highlighted 77 things in this book. SEVENTY SEVEN (would’ve highlighted every sentence if it was socially acceptable)

I rate a lot of books 5 stars but this one deserves at least 15 stars

My first 5 star of 2025! What a beautiful book about living again.

I’ve dealt with my fair share of grief, especially lately, over friends (and more than once over best friends), and while not exactly like Lenny’s I was very worried this would be a triggering book for me. Somehow I found this story strike a different chord with me instead. On more occasions than I can count on two hands, I felt this story directly pulled from my life both in large and small ways. Major plots to throw away descriptors, details of the Live Again list to simply names. The more I read, the more it felt like Cara took all the major moments and plots of my lifetime and scrambled them up and rearranged them into a book of fiction. And somehow, what I expected to be triggering for me instead made me weirdly invested and by the end felt a lot more cathartic then I could have imagined.

I loved both Lenny and Miles as characters. Lenny felt like a younger (and more depressed) Lorelei Gilmore to me while Miles was a balance that was somehow both quiet, brooding, observing and also cuddly and loveable under all that early judgement. A 5 star book boyfriend!
There were a lot of lovely moments in this book, but I really enjoyed the tattoo shop, family dinner, the talent show and the way they finally get together.

Thank you to Net Galley for this advanced reader copy.

Tw-cancer, grief, loss of best friend

This was a beautiful book on grief and finding out how to live life when the best friend/soul mate leaves this physical earth too soon. A great meet cute .. not cute enemies to lovers but definitely skeptical/unsure of each other (didn't last too long). Miles was PERFECT.

I am sure if I have suffered a great loss... this would have hit harder emotionally for me. Well written, wonderful romance.

This book was beautifully heartbreaking. Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone follows Lenny as she navigates the death of her best friend Lou from cancer. Lenny starts a part time nanny job and meets the uncle of the child she is nannying for- Miles. Miles is grumpy and awkward but he connects to Lenny in terms of mourning. They make a deal- she will teach him how he can connect with his niece, and he’ll help her get through her “live again” bucket list.
I can't say enough about how Bastone realistically and beautifully portrays grief in this book. She also develops all of the relationships in this story in a way that makes the reader's heart BLEED.
I can't say enough good things about this book. It will stick with me for a long time.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I am a weepy mess trying to convey how much I adored this book. I think it’s my favorite I’ve read since spring 2024. Seriously, I wanted to read it because I enjoyed Ready or Not and the cover is beautiful so I knew I’d like it, but I wasn’t prepared to fall head over heels for this story.

The characters were so enjoyable. Funny, engaging, full of wit and heart. They felt like real people who struggled and loved. Lenny is one of my favorite main female characters of all time. She was so endearing and relatable, it was hard not to root for her and want to be her friend. I loved that even though we never really “met” Lou, we did and she was a pivotal character in this story. Ainsley and Reese? Adorable. Loved their little family and all of the fun it added to Lenny’s life.

The writing was great; easy to follow and understand with lines that were like a gut punch at how absolutely beautifully they were written. I can’t wait to get my own copy to highlight and revisit. Nothing ever felt forced or rushed, the pacing was perfect which was imperative to this story because Lenny was healing on her own timeline. Grief isn’t linear, and that was portrayed really well here.

Which leads me to my favorite thing about this book which was the depiction of grief. Lenny’s healing journey had a lot of ups and downs. It was messy. It was hard. My heart broke for her at certain points. Anyone who has dealt with grief (which I’m assuming is the overwhelming majority of people) will find her story relatable. There were little glimmers in the everyday that kept her going which is really how life works.

There was a really sweet and tender slow burn but this book was about SO MUCH more than the romance. Friends to lovers like I’ve never read before. It was almost secondary to everything else and I think that made it all the more special. The themes of friendship, family, love, and loss were all important.

This is one of those books that sticks with you. I’m not sure I’ll ever be over it. Cara Bastone has written a true masterpiece on love, friendship, grief, life. All of it. Please, please don’t skip this one!

Thank you beyond words to NetGalley and Random House- Dial Press Trade for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is so phenomenal. It was a five star read for me! Cara bastone's prose is so beautiful. I will be recommending this book to my community for sure. This book tackles grief in such a raw and real way while making sure the reader is not drowning in it. The book made me cry and also laugh. I fell in love with all of the characters. They all felt so 3D .I flew through this book and could not get enough of the characters. I love lenny and miles together. Everything about this book was just scrumptious!!!

This was a really sweet and fun read. While there is a lot of talk about grief and the grieving process the tone is kept comfortable for the reader. Easy to digest. Lenny was a great lead character. Entertaining to read about all of her quick crushes. This book has shades of Uptown Girls without the sheets of Egyptian cotton.

Honestly the title kind of ruins it though. Surely there were better options here?

Loved this. I wanted to savor every minute. Loved Miles. Felt Lenny was a bit insufferable at times, but I have never been in her shoes, so maybe that is just grief. Definitely recommend it if you like a slow burn and a sweet story.

Lenny's best friend and roommate had cancer and died and Lenny's grief is so deep that she shuts herself out from her previous life. She takes temporary work, refuses to go back to the apartment they shared and stops taking calls from her rightfully concerned mom. When Lenny takes a weekend babysitting job, she meets Miles, the grumpy neighbor/uncle. Miles has an awful first impression of Lenny, but when her bag spills and he sees a book on grief, his perspective is reframed.

He chooses to makes sure she's safe and barters with her to help him develop a solid relationship with his niece, Ainsley, in exchange for her relying on him when she's struggling in her grief. As part of her healing, she's also been stuck on the list she made with Lou, so Miles helps her start living again. The list is so significant for Lenny because it was a list she made for Lou after her first fight with cancer and Lou gave it back to her when she was close to the end of her life.

Grief is so complicated and manifests differently for everyone. Bastone didn't shy away from the uglier parts, showing how out of control Lenny was to insensitive commentary from family friends. Miles could help Lenny because has also lost loved ones, but I wish we had received some specific stories about his grief and memories with his cousin.

Overall, this isn't a joyful love story. It's complicated and challenging, but it's healing.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

I have received an ARC so things are looking up for me. This was amazing. A cute and fun romcom that's layered with grief and healing. PSA - read with tissues.

this was an absolute masterpiece. if i’m talking about pure, unadulterated love it’s this book and what these two healing people pieced back together within each other. i’m afraid no other love (or grief) story is going to compare.

Promise Me Sunshine was honestly one of the best books I have read so far. The story, characters, and premise were beautifully written and filled with so much love.

It’s in the heroine, Lenny’s POV only, which I would have loved to have had the hero, Miles’ POV as well. There are some great tropes though like, friends to lovers, grumpy-sunshine, found family, he falls first, and a slow burn romance.

The overall premise was heartbreakingly beautiful. Lenny’s journey with completing the “list” was filled with heartbreak, acceptance, hope and love. Her grief and pain were written so realistic that I teared up several times.

All the snippets of her best friend and her were funny, heartwarming and just beautiful. I loved how deep their love and friendship went.

Miles was an absolutely incredible hero. His patience, understanding, support and care for Lenny was written perfectly. He gave her the helping hand she needed but still let her fight and support herself.

I loved their agreement with helping each other out; her with her list and him connecting with his niece. There were some laugh out loud, heartfelt, and charming moments. All the side characters were great as well.

One of my favorite aspects was Lenny’s romantic fantasies of all the men she would meet. They were cheesy, ridiculous and just funny.

The romance between them was very much a slow burn, which I actually loved. They were able to form a deep and true connection before things started to changed between them. There is open door spice but it doesn’t happen until the last two chapters.

Overall, just a beautifully written story that will have you smiling, crying, and laughing throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. Just wow. I don't think anything could have prepared me for the emotional journey this book took me on, over the last what, 2-3 days??? I laughed, I cried, I smiled, I giggled like a child. I stayed up late, woke up early. I was completely engrossed in this story.

Promise Me Sunshine is a story about grief, healing, and the complex beauty of relationships—romantic, platonic, and familial.

I’ll be honest—at first, I wasn’t sure where the story was headed. This is not a light rom-com. There’s heaviness here. It's more than just romance. Once I adjusted my mindset and embraced the depth of the story, I was able to appreciate it for everything it is.

This book is a stunning portrayal of friendship, heartbreak, and healing—the weight of loss, the uncertainty of what comes after, the fear of moving on. It doesn’t just depict grief—it feels it, in all its raw, aching beauty. And at the heart of it all is friendship. Bastone writes this so beautifully.

Lenny was such a beautiful, quirky, and strong FMC. My heart broke for her and I wanted to hug her so many times. I rooted for her through every page. And Miles, MMC, is strong, loyal, funny, kind—so, so kind. The kind of person everyone deserves in their life. His grief is just as significant as Lenny’s, and I loved that the book gave space to his emotions as well. Lenny’s bond with Miles is everything. Their connection is built on honesty, understanding, and the kind of support that doesn’t demand but simply is.

The side characters were just as impactful, and while I don’t want to spoil anything, I have to mention how much I loved the inclusion of Lenny’s parents. As a mom myself, I deeply sympathized with and related to Lenny’s mom. There was a certain scene between them where I bawled my eyes out. Bastone captures the love, worry, and quiet strength of a mother watching her child in pain so incredibly well.

And the romance? A slow, slow, I mean slowwww burn— it was raw, real, and absolutely beautiful. Not very spicy, but just right.

Every character felt real, every emotion hit deep, and I know I’ll be thinking about this book for a long, long time.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author Cara Bastone for the ARC.

Firstly, thank you so much Dial Press for yet another Cara Bastone arc.🥹 I was first introduced to Bastone's writing with "Ready or Not" and loved it. I couldn't wait to see if her follow up would be just as good or better. I think this one definitely leaned more towards the women's fiction genre rather than romance. I do think Lenny and Miles' friendship/relationship was one of the most natural progressions I've ever read (the slow burn was indeed burning. by 90% was crazyyy work!). In most books I read, I tend to focus on if the characters or the plot are the main driving force of the story. For "Promise Me Sunshine", personally I think it was both. Lenny's character made me laugh so hard, her humor was so witty and charming and I loved watching her character evolve. MILES is every book boyfriend on crack. I loved his (short-lived) grumpiness but also how his friendship with Lenny was so pure. He was "you came."/"you called." personified and I loved how he met Lenny exactly where she was at. He rode the waves of grief with her and never forcibly tried to captain her ship.

Most importantly, I think Bastone's overall message about the magnitudes of grief was so profound. "Grief is a relationship, it's the way we figure out how to keep loving them even though they're gone. And in order to do that we have to keep on going. And going and going."

Wow. How to put this book into words?

Lenny takes a short term gig for Reese, nannying 7 year old Ainsley, while still navigating the loss of her lifelong best friend, Lou.
Which is where she meets Reese’s brother, Miles who is working through an odd family dynamic and how he fits into their life. Miles offers to help Lenny through a list she and Lou developed together that’s supposed to “bring her back to life” and Lenny offers to help him gain traction in his relationships with his family. They both go on an epic journey of healing together.

Miles and Lenny are giving me life!

*Queue* cathartic crying*

Cara also presents an excellent depiction of deep grief. If you’ve yet to experience it, it’s the eyes into the soul of your friend who has. It’s a guide to how to walk alongside someone else who needs you. On top of all that it’s funny- a phenomenal story of deep friendship, deliciously precious love and finding yourself again, especially after loss.