Another wildly charming read from Bastone, with incredible writing that feels breezy in its pace but is packed with sharp humour, endless warmth, insight, vulnerability, complexity, and deep emotional resonance. As with Ready or Not, we get a woman in crisis (there an unexpected pregnancy, here the profound grief of losing one’s best friend to cancer) and a man who cares for her with every fibre of his being, picking up the pieces she can’t pick up for herself as she gradually finds ways to move through the hardest stages of what life's thrown at her, also with the help of loving friends and family members. While so many romances focus on physical desire, I love that Bastone builds her romantic relationships around consistent, tenacious care. She sets the bar high for her love interests, but they meet the bar, every time. Ultimately, this is as much a portrait of grief as it is a love story, but it’s both, and so beautifully written, the joys and sorrows meet, melt together, and transform one another the way they do in real life, never as simple or as pure as we’d like them. I wish I could live in Bastone’s imagined worlds, where friends are easy to make, families are always there when you need them, and relentlessly supportive lovers are only ever a text away, never doing or saying anything selfish or hurtful. It’s a nice way to balance out the challenges Bastone throws her heroines, and it makes for a warm, joyful read, even when the story dives deep into the throes of impossible loss.

the premise of the book really caught my attention and i was so happy to have the opportunity to read the arc! there were so many moments that tugged my heart, especially when talking about Lou and just the process of grief. i loved the idea of miles helping her to live again and feel alive. unfortunately this book was not for me. it was entirely too slow and it wasn’t clicking for me. it was dragging on far too much. it missed the mark for me.

again thank you netgalley for the arc!

3.5⭐️

Promise Me Sunshine had some really touching moments, especially when it came to portraying grief in a raw and realistic way. Although I enjoyed the nonlinear grief process, I had a hard time connecting with the characters. The romance was super slow, and I didn’t really feel any chemistry between Lenny and Miles.

The writing style was super casual, almost like reading someone’s inner monologue, which made it tough to stay engaged. That said, the ending was sweet. I just wish I’d connected with the story sooner!

No one is more surprised than me that this book ended up being 5 stars.
If I could perfectly put into words what this book made me feel, I would. But unfortunately I really don’t think I’ll do it justice, and that’s why I’m not the writer.

This book is sad, not just a little, but a lot. This book is full of grief, extremely dark, real, and raw grief. So please do not read this if you are not ready for something with those topics.
I really didn’t know how I felt about this book, in fact I was upset with it for half the book because it was so sad. Then somehow I get to this moment and I’m not exactly sure when it happened when I realized, wow, I think I actually will end up 5 starring this book. Because it’s beautiful.
Is it sad, yes? At times too much? Yes. That’s probably the point isn’t it though? That’s probably how it would feel in real life. I’ve been blessed thus far in my life to not have lost someone close, but I imagine this would be a pretty good depiction of what it could feel like for some.
Miles and Lenny’s relationship is nothing short of real, raw, beautiful, and inspirational.
So thank you for surprising me Cara Bastone. You made me question my own self at being able to judge a book after 40%. Hats off to you. Well done.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for my honest review.

4.5⭐️
Promise Me Sunshine is a beautifully written love story between Lenny and Miles. Lenny is struggling after the death of her best friend and must learn how to love life again. In the midst of her grief she meets Miles who turns out to be her lifeline and helps her navigate her grief and learn that life is worth living.

𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝗼𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 | I really loved this book! Miles and Lenny built this friendship that was easy and genuine and it shown through in the writing. I loved the witty banter that Bastone is known for and there were quite a few laugh out loud moments. While the topic of loss and grief is tied throughout the book, it is handled with care and hope and explores what life is like after losing someone and the milestones to finding oneself again. This is a slow-burn romance but the pay-off is worth it in the end.

4.5 stars (rounded up)

Promise Me Sunshine follows the story of Lenny, a young woman who recently lost her best friend (aka the light of her life, platonic soulmate, anything and everything, etc). Unable to handle anything more than she can give, Lenny takes up a part-time nannying gig for single mother Reese and her precocious, pop-culture history icon seven-year-old daughter, Ainsley.

Her first day on the job, Lenny meets Miles. He is Ainsley’s overprotective uncle, who immediately calls Lenny out on her bullshit (after insulting her first, obviously). Desperate to form a bond with his niece, he strikes a deal with Lenny: he’ll teach her how to live again and complete the list Lou left behind if Lenny helps bridge the chasm between Miles and the only family he has left.

A beautiful friendship and exploration of grief ensues. She is bright, bubbly, scattered, warm, and working her way through the greatest loss of her life. He is quiet, stoic, and as loyal as bricks are stable (that is to say, very. Immovable, even). And the romance? The slow-burn development? So well interwoven throughout the plot. Miles' relationship with Ainsley? What I would give to have seen their dance routine.

Lenny’s grief was palpable and reminded me so much of myself over the past year. It felt REAL. Sometimes, writers miss the mark on their portrayal of grief. Let me tell you, Bastone absolutely did not.

Healing does not mean forgetting. Crying is not the only way to honor or remember someone you’ve lost. Every day is an anniversary until it’s not, every task on Lenny’s list is a reminder of loss until it becomes a pursuit of life.

My one comment is the pacing felt a little off at times, particularly during the second half. (That is literally the only critique I have, hence the 4.5 stars.)

Thank you so so much to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

This was the second book I've read from Cara Bastone and I have to say, I'm a fan! I loved both Ready or Not and Promise Me Sunshine. This author just has a way of writing internal and external dialogue almost like it's being taken directly from my brain. I love the characters she develops and how well the story flows.
This story was a beautiful guide on grief - how to help someone through it when you don't know what to do, and what to do for yourself when you're going through it. It was so nice to see the growth for both main characters throughout the book. It was also nice to see the "relapses" in the grieving process - it truly showed that healing isn't linear and there will be times when you feel like you've moved past it almost and times when you feel like you are stuck in the mud. The story was easy to read and follow along with and had me lol'ing at a few points and almost crying at others. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone!

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinions.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book! I couldn't wait to read it!
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone is a heartwarming and emotional contemporary romance that explores themes of grief, healing, and second chances. This story is a beautifully written and emotionally resonant novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading it. It's a story about love, loss, and the power of human connection, and it's sure to leave you feeling hopeful and uplifted. I'd totally recommend this for someone who wants to read another incredible contemporary romance. This was my first book of Bastone's and definitely won't be my last.
Thanks to Random House and the author again for this opportunity!

In Promise Me Sunshine, we follow Lenny. Lenny is having a hard time dealing with the death of her best friend Lou, who has passed away from cancer. Lenny’s having a hard time functioning in day to day life. She can’t go back to her apartment and she bides her days by taking short term babysitting jobs…and avoiding her list of things she’s supposed to do to start living again. She’s booked a wonderful job watching Ainsley, the daughter of an overworked single mother. With Reese and Ainsley comes Miles, Ainsley’s uncle who is always around, hovering, and he’s a jerk. It seems he knows a thing or two about grief, so he makes a proposal: Lenny helps him connect with Ainsley and he’ll help her complete the items on her list. Lenny is reluctant at first, but the more time she spends with Miles, the more she realizes that maybe you need to lose something to learn how to rediscover yourself.

I really loved Cara Bastone’s Ready or Not and was eager to dig into this one. Bastone does a great job developing these characters and I really loved Lenny’s dynamics with the characters around her, especially Ainsley. She was adorable. This story is a fantastic way of telling a love story with a bit more heft to it. This isn’t always a light hearted story and I appreciated where it went. I don’t know if it fully hit for me in the way that her previous novel did, but overall I enjoyed myself.

When Lenny loses the love of her life, her soulmate & very best friend, she is absolutely devastated. She meets Miles, who she finds to be a little gruff and rough around the edges, and he vows to help her get through her grief, as he himself has also experienced great loss and knows what she is going through. They end up actually helping each other out along the way. While the book felt a little long at times, I did enjoy the main characters, as well as the supporting cast. I could definitely feel all the mess of emotions that Lenny was going through trying to live her life without her best friend.

Thank you to NetGalley & Random House for the opportunity to read an early eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

I wanted to take my time reading this book because I never wanted it to be done but it was hard because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I laughed and I cried. This book was so beautifully written and the way the characters experience grief is so real and raw. I think authors tend to jazz it up, you know the character isn’t doing well or they’re grieving but you don’t truly see the entire ugly part. This book shows it, the not showering, constant crying, not eating, inability to properly function but so beautifully captures the reality of learning how to live with grief. Lenny is a real girl who is living one of my personal worst fears. I loved her character, her growth in the book and how honest and real of a person she felt. I obviously loved absolutely everything about Miles and will be adding him to my ever growing list of perfect book boyfriends.
I highly, highly recommend this book and have no notes. 5 stars, Cara Bastone has done it again.

After reading Ready or Not, I just had to dive into Promise Me Sunshine right away. This is only the 2nd book I’ve read by Cara Bastone, but I’ve fallen madly in love with her writing already & she’s definitely going to be on my favorite new-to-me authors list this year.

Before you read this one, you should know this book is more about grief, friendship, family dynamics, & finding one’s self plus a side of romance, so if you’re looking for a romance, especially a spicy one, this might not be for you. With that said, this is still a beautifully written book with some top tier tropes & witty banter. It will have you laughing, swooning, & emotional for sure. If you love a super slow burn, I highly recommend this.

What to expect:
•grumpy x sunshine
•friends to lovers
•slow burn
•cinnamon roll MMC
•grief journey
•single POV

Thank you, NetGalley & Dial Press for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars. Oh Cara Bastone, you do know how to write a romance that is so much more than a happily-ever-after. This is my second book by Bastone, and even though I might have like Ready or Not a bit more, this one was still a big win and one of two books that pulled me out of a reading slump this last week. The character development was strong, and I will definitely remember them for a long time to come. The depictions of grief and healing from grief were powerful, and you may have a cold dead heart if you do not cry :). I loved all the different relationships featured (Miles and Lenny, Lenny and Ainsley, Ainsley and Lenny), and there were so many moments that made my heart smile despite the heavy topics. Highly recommend!

This book is primarily a book about grief, friendship, and learning to live when everything feels impossible. There is a LOT of heaviness and this is not a light book at all - I think I was a bit unprepared for the deep seriousness of Lenny’s sadness. I think it was a very honest and real portrayal, especially at the beginning and showing how Lenny could get it together for a work day, but then fall apart immediately after. That felt like such a common experience if you’ve gone through a dark time. Miles was intriguing, but by the end I wish I had gotten to know him better other than his dedication to his niece and sister and to Lenny. Overall a sweet, heartfelt book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

Promise Me Sunshine is the second book by Cara Bastone I've read and I have loved both. The main character in lost in the sea of grief after losing her best friend. She is nannying to get through the days when she meets a gruff family member of one of her clients. Through the book, they become close as he helps her work through her "live again" list.

This book was an easy read from the start, and I just wanted to keep reading. Even though the topic was grief, it didn't feel overwhelmingly sad because I was invested in the characters, and their moving forward.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advance reader copy. #PromiseMeSunshine #NetGalley

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Grief and loss manifest differently for everyone—there’s no set path to healing.

We meet Lenny as she begins a short-term nannying job for Ainsley, a young girl whose single mother has a demanding career. What Lenny doesn’t anticipate is the presence of Ainsley’s hulking, brooding uncle, Miles, who seems to lurk in the background. While Lenny quickly bonds with Ainsley—being a natural caregiver—beneath her warm exterior lies a heart weighed down by sorrow. She is still reeling from the loss of her childhood best friend, Lou, to cancer. Unable to face the emptiness of her apartment each night, Lenny instead rides the ferry until morning, lost in grief.

One evening, Miles follows her, slowly piecing together her story. Having experienced his own devastating losses—his mother and cousin—he recognizes Lenny’s pain. Determined to help her find her way back to a sense of normalcy, he offers to be her “wingman” in healing. Lou left Lenny a sort of bucket list, and Miles vows to push her through each item, guiding her toward rediscovering joy.

As they work through the list together, Lenny begins looking forward to her time with Miles, and before long, feelings emerge—feelings that terrify her even more than her grief. The thought of embracing happiness feels like a betrayal of Lou’s memory. Overwhelmed, she finally reaches out to her mother, whom she had pushed away in her sorrow. At a breaking point after visiting Lou’s grave, she accepts her mother’s invitation to a traditional Italian family dinner—one that also includes Miles. There, Lenny realizes the depth of her family’s love and how much they, too, have been grieving their estrangement.

This visit only amplifies her growing feelings for Miles, leaving her conflicted. When she finally confesses her emotions, Miles tells her to wait—an answer that mystifies and confounds her.

After finally finding her way to Miles, Lenny reaches the last item on Lou’s list. In true Lou fashion, she left behind one final, hidden task—one that leads Lenny to a profound realization about love, loss, and moving forward.

A truly beautiful novel about navigating grief and rediscovering happiness, this story is both heartfelt and deeply resonant. I absolutely loved reading it!

Oh my god? Oh my GOD? This was so amazing. I felt every single emotion I think was possible in the duration of this book. It could have gone on for 1,000 more pages and I would have read every single one with no hesitation. This is absolutely beautiful.

The way grief is handled is beautifully done. It was so realistic and absolutely gut-wrenching at time. Lenny and Miles are such a well put together pair. The way their friendship developed before there was even any hint of actual romance at all?? So good.

I also really liked how as Lenny became more herself again through her grief, her nannying became less and less the center of her world. She wasn’t doing things to pass the time until she had to go back, she was actively living her life in the time she wasn’t there, which was a beautiful transformation to watch.

In summary, I will happily read anything Cara Bastone writes because this is easily one of my favorites reads so far this year.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dial Press for the advanced copy!

God this book was so beautiful and I should’ve known after reading her book ready or not. I feel like this is going to be an auto by author for me now. This was beautiful as much as it was sad and heartfelt. And I absolutely loved it.

Heartfelt, Hopeful, and Deeply Moving

Cara Bastone’s Promise Me Sunshine is a tender, emotional journey through grief, love, and rediscovering joy after loss. This book explores what it means to keep living when the person you loved most is gone.

Lenny, a nanny still reeling from the loss of her best friend and soulmate, finds herself unexpectedly befriending the uncle, Miles, of the child she’s caring for. He’s determined to help her complete the list her best friend left behind and push her to step outside her grief and embrace life again. In exchange, Lenny helps Miles connect and become closer to his niece and sister.

Bastone beautifully captures the complexities of loss and love, blending sorrow with warmth, hope, and laughter. The chemistry between the characters feels authentic, and their journey together is both heart-wrenching and uplifting. Promise Me Sunshine reminds us that while grief may never fully disappear, friendship, love, and connection have the power to pull us back into the light.

I loved this so much. It was *heavy* but also so heartwarming and sweet and hopeful. Fighting your way back from the depths of grief is hard but when you lose your person, your greatest love… I can only imagine how impossible the idea living again can seem. Lenny, although she pushed everyone away, she was doing everything she could to survive. Little did she know, this broody and blunt man would take her hand and pull her to the surface again. The evolution of their relationship was so warm and hopeful when everything in Lenny’s life felt like she was just in the pits of despair.

The romance and the falling for each other felt so natural and not rushed and not forced. Of course, it’s a romance, you figure it’s gonna end up that way. But when we finally got there, whew, I felt it all. I felt her realization and her panic. And then her acceptance and her resolve. This was so beautifully written.

I was curious how it would feel physically reading one of Cara’s books since I’ve only ever listened to the ones on Audible Plus (and loved majority of them). It didn’t disappoint in the least. It felt very different from those books. Way more depth and meaning. I was very happy with how this book ended up.