Perfect no notes!

The story follows Lenny, who’s reeling from the loss of her best friend Lou. She’s barely holding it together until she starts babysitting for Reese and her adorable daughter, Ainsley. Ainsley’s got a grumpy uncle Miles who’s got an eye on Leny and her ways.

The way Cara Bastone captures grief and healing is both touching and authentic. Lenny’s journey from barely surviving to slowly rediscovering herself was beautifully paced.

The slow-burn romance felt so natural and real, with just the right amount of angst and sweetness.

Miles and Lenny’s interactions are filled with banter, tension, and eventually, tenderness. Watching them help each other grow was incredibly satisfying. Plus, Ainsley is such a charming addition—I loved every scene she was in!

This is my second book from Cara, and I’m officially a fan. She has this amazing way of finding romance in the small, everyday moments, making her stories feel grounded and deeply relatable. I’m definitely diving into her back catalog next!

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc! Highly recommend it to everyone. On my way to purchase a physical copy (trophy) !

From the start, I was rooting for Lenny—and then for her and Miles together. Having lost a family member myself, I really appreciated how this book captured the way grief sneaks up on you when you least expect it. But it wasn’t all heavy—the humor balanced it out perfectly! I laughed, I cried, and I cheered them on the whole way. Cara Bastone is quickly becoming a must-read author for me!

Grieving the loss of her best friend, Lenny is completely lost—avoiding her parents, her old apartment, and the “live again” list she promised her best friend that she’d complete. Taking a temporary babysitting job seems like a safe distraction, until she meets Miles, the grumpy uncle who sees right through her facade. Miles, no stranger to grief himself, proposes Lenny a deal: he’ll help her tackle her list if she helps him connect with his niece. Between late-night ferry rides, matching tattoos, and unexpected moments of support, Lenny begins to realize that sometimes, the end of one chapter is just the beginning of another.

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Cara Bastone for granting me access to this book. All opinions are my own.

Promise Me Sunshine is a beautiful book by Cara Bastone. Lenny’s a mess after the death of her best friend and is hopping from one place to another, refusing to to back to her shared apartment as she tries to figure out what to do with her life now that her rock is gone. She is taking temporary babysitting gigs and lands one helping an overworked single mom named Reese with an awesome daughter named Ainsley. Ainsley’s uncle Miles lives in the same apartment complex and is overbearing, but when Lenny connects with him, he makes an offer to help her deal with her grief and complete everything on her “live again” list. As they work through the list, can Lenny find herself and the ability to love again?

I loved this book. The characters were so well developed. I couldn’t put it down! The plot captured my attention right away and I was completely invested in the story. I would definitely recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for access to an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved Cara Bastone’s book, Ready or Not, so I knew this one was going to be good! I underestimated.

After losing her best friend to cancer, Lenny doesn’t know how to move on. She can’t go back to their shared apartment and she avoids her concerned parents, so Lenny takes temporary babysitting gigs to get by. Her most recent job leads her to the doorstep of a single-mother, Reese, and her daughter, Ainsley. This setup seems perfect. However, it’s not. Ainsley has a grumpy uncle, Miles, who always seems to be around. Lenny tries to portray herself as being put together, but Miles sees right through her. He makes Lenny an offer that benefits the both of them- Lenny gets to fulfill her “live again” list and Miles works to connect better with his niece and Reese.

Cara is so poetic in the way she describes scenes. I was laughing when they were laughing, sad when they were sad, and I thought my heart broke in chapter 14 but it really did in chapter 26. I love Lenny’s quirk of making up stories about people in public. She’s also so good at dealing with kids, although she doesn’t have any herself. The lucky cupcake idea might be one I tweak and try with my own children. I also respect a woman who will turn the toilet paper to how it’s supposed to be (over, not under )

I cannot wait to read Cara’s next book!

Thank you NetGalley and Dial Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Promise Me Sunshine breaks your heart to only put it back together again.
Lenny is deeply grieving the loss of her best friend. She is actively avoiding her family and barely holding on by working as a temporary babysitter. Her latest gig has her looking after a young girl. The only problem? Her grumpy uncle, Miles, keeps showing up, and he can see right through her facade. Together they make a deal. Miles will help her with her grief if she helps him to connect with his niece. What ensues is a beautiful story of someone learning to live again amidst the pain of losing your Person.

4.5 rounded up.

Thank you to Random House Publishing/Dial and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cara Bastone's latest novel is a beautiful story of love in the face of grief. This slow burn romance is about Lenny, who recently lost her best friend to cancer. Her reaction to this loss is so realistic and raw. When Lenny meets Miles through the family she babysits for, she learns that he knows what it is like to lose someone close to you. The way they navigate their relationship as they grieve was so touching.

Lenny is such a weirdo in the best possible way. Bastone posted a clip from the movie "Garden State" to describe the vibe of this book. It was so spot-on. I love how Lenny never pretended to be polished, even as she got her life together.

This is a 4.5 rounded up. This won't be the last Cara Bastone book I read!

To say I loved Promise Me Sunshine would be an understatement. I laughed, I cried and I was completely swooned by the romance.
I read Ready or Not last year and, after reading the synopsis of Cara Bastone's new work, I couldn't wait to read it. I'm glad to say it was everything I expected and better. I'm definitely adding it to my top romance books.
Promise Me Sunshine follows Lenny as she navigates grief and learns to live in a world without her best friend and Miles, as he tries to connect with his family. They make a pact to help each other and...the rest is history.
It's a beautiful, heart-braking and utterly hopeful story. Miles is simply wonderful, even though he seems like a complete idiot at first.
Cara Bastone has really perfected the technique of golden retrievers male main characters.
I read the book in two sittings in less than 24 hours and as soon as I finished it I texted my friends to recommend it.
So take my word for it, read it, you won't regret it!

I don’t know if I have words to describe just how much I loved reading this book. I can already tell it’s going to become a comfort read for me. Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone follows Lenny as she struggles with overwhelming grief after losing the most important person in her life. During this time she meets Miles, the uncle of a young girl she babysits, who has also experienced intense loss in his life and offers to help Lenny in exchange for her helping him develop a closer relationship with his niece. The story is a slow-burn romance (no insta love here), but it heavily explores grief and the importance of platonic relationships and the support of friends and family as well. This book balances these deeper themes with a cast of lovable characters, a sweet romance, and lots of humor.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of this new novel from Cara Bastone! I really enjoyed Ready or Not last year and was thrilled to get a chance to read Promise Me Sunshine early.

This book follows Lenny, who has recently had a significant loss when her best friend passes away. When we meet her, Lenny is starting off at a new babysitting job, while still overwhelmed by the grief of this loss. Although she is full of humor and fun, Lenny is obviously still overwhelmingly struggling with what it means to exist in the world without her best friend. One of the only people who sees this clearly is Miles, the uncle of the girl Lenny is taking care of. This book is a candid exploration of how grief can impact us and how disorienting it can be to try and move on. It also demonstrates the importance of transparently being yourself and asking for help when you need to, even when it might be hard to do so.

Bastone uses humor well but also isn't afraid to shy away from hard conversations around grief and loss. Overall, I found this to be really enjoyable and relatable. I wish we had learned a bit more about Lenny's relationship with her best friend (I think it would have made the grief hit a little harder), but otherwise I really did find this to be very heartwarming.

Second book I’ve read by Cara Bastone that I’ve absolutely loved. I’m not sure if it’s how she writes her characters and their dialogue but whatever it is, it’s working. Also, the fact that this was not only a cute love story but also about how to come back from grief made it so much better.

Cara Bastone does it again. Promise Me Sunshine is a thought provoking and realistic outlook on grief. Sending thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

Beyond obsessed with this book. Heartbreaking and hilarious, somehow CB tears our hearts out only to mend them back together by the end. As much as this story is about love in many forms, it’s also about embracing our pain and living life despite it. I found myself invested in Lenny’s healing and rooting for Miles unapologetically. I think it’s a true testament when an author can make a reader giggle and blush one page then sob the next. I came away satisfied, a little enlightened and beyond eager for more of CB’s stories. Brb ... going to tell my best friend I love her.

Thank you so much Random House Publishing/Dial Press Paperback for the ARC!!!

Grief is universal. We don’t just get to say, “No thanks, I’ll pass on this one.” Everyone will experience it at some point and while we won’t all experience it the same way, someone will know what were going through and be there to guide us in the hard parts.

For Lenny, losing her best friend was something she didn’t think she could recover from. Moving from one short term nannying job to another, like a frazzled, sad Marry Poppins, she was literally surviving moment by moment. Unable to move forward, being held down, in a state of sorrow by her grief. Luckily, her new little girl has a uncle that is well acquainted with grief. Miles recognized Lenny’s sorrow, meets her in it, and then guides her along the way. Its not always fun or easy but together they fight for the light.
I found Cara in 2023 through her Audible Original books and they were all a delight to read, but this, this beauty is beyond. It is a raw and honest look at grief and how it consumes you. And while the grief is heavy, I found myself laughing at how sassy Lenny could be, or at how deadpan Miles was. Smiling at Miles stepping into his uncle shoes and being great at it and Lenny’s categorizing of exercise as “corporal punishment”, and also crying in sympathy and in joy. Following them on this journey from despair to seeing the world again “in miraculous light” was a real treat!

This was incredibly profound and moving - absolutely loved every second, will stick with me for a long time.

Here is what I've come to learn about Cara Bastone novels. First and foremost, they are funny. Relatable funny that genuinely make you laugh out loud while exploring a topic that isn't funny at all. I am fortunate enough that I haven't lost someone in my life like Lenny has nor have I had an unplanned pregnancy like Eve had (Ready or Not - so good), for that matter. However I feel as though I went through the roller coaster of emotions with both written in such a careful way. Maybe I couldn't necessarily empathize, but Lenny feels so real and the grace that I want to give her in the story feels genuine. She deserved grace even when she wasn't at her best. I think there's probably a lesson in there somewhere.

Sidenote: If someone can write a green flag man, it's her. She hands them out like Oprah. Every MMC gets a green flag, even if he is a little grumpy at first.

PS: Shep is still my favorite.

I said in another review recently that grief is inescapable. It seems to be a prevalent theme in nearly every book I read and movie/TV show I watch. Grief has always been part of my life, but it’s an all-encompassing one since my mum died, so instead of shying away from it like a normal person might do, I’ve embraced it. Reading books like Promise Me Sunshine makes me glad for my slightly masochistic tendencies.

On a very personal note, this book made me feel seen in a way I haven’t before. The way Lenny felt about Lou touched me deeply. For the most part, when people talk about soulmates and the love of their life, they’re referring to a romantic partner, but Lou was Lenny’s soulmate and the love of her life, and that’s exactly how I felt about my mum. She was my best friend and my whole world and losing her changed me to my very core. I understood the depths of Lenny’s grief, how all-encompassing it was. How part of you can die with someone. I highlighted dozens of passages as I read because they resonated so deeply. It was a beautiful, gutwrenching, heartfelt exploration of grief and what it means to lose your person and have to continue living. I ran the gamut from tearing up to sobbing until I felt sick, but it was ultimately cathartic and also comforting to feel so seen and understood, to see my own grief and love reflected back to me in these pages.

Promise Me Sunshine was a love story in every sense of the word. It was a love story between Lenny and Lou, between Lenny and Miles, between Lenny and her new friends/found family, and a love story between Lenny and herself as she learned to live and love again. I loved every moment of watching Lenny and Miles fall in love. Lenny was so quirky and chaotic and then there was her grief, which was like a separate personality in itself. Miles was serious, gruff, and steady with so many hidden layers. Caretaking was his love language and all the little things he did for Lenny, Reese, and Ainsley warmed my heart (and made me swoon). I’d give anything to have someone like Miles in my life to help me navigate grief and the healing process.

I’m blown away by Cara Bastone’s storytelling abilities and how these characters could have me laughing myself silly one minute and then sobbing the next. There was a whole lot of swooning mixed in with the laughing and crying too. I already know Promise Me Sunshine is going to be one of my top 2025 favourite reads.

Promise Me Sunshine
Cara Bastone
3.5/4

Lenny is grieving the death of her best friend, Lou. Part of her grieving includes taking short-term nannying jobs. When she is hired by Reese to take care of her daughter, Ainsley, she meets Ainsley's uncle, Miles - the grumpy man who lives upstairs. Little does she know that Miles is also suffering his own grief. Together they form an unlikely friendship to help one another through their grieving process.

Bastone did a fantastic job of the grief aspect of this book. There were several times throughout the book when I wanted to squeeze both Lenny and Miles so tightly. I absolutely adored the slow, slow burn of these two characters and loved that they developed a friendship first before a relationship. I do wish we got to see more of Lenny and Lou's friendship in flashbacks but other than that, I think many readers will really resonate with this book.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the arc of this in exchange for my honest review!

*Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing and Dial Press Trade Paperback for the ARC!*

“Every time I fall in love with you there’s lightning.” He closes his eyes, opens them and there’s his brilliant love. “There’s only you, Lenny. Every time … it’s just you,” he says, muffled as he kisses me. “And you.” He kisses me again. “And you.”

God this book, this novel of a love story. This was not a romance, this book was pure unadulterated love. This book has easily become my favorite book of the year so far and I cannot wait to tell anyone and everyone about this book.

Lenny, oh sweet sweet Lenny. I felt for her on such a deep level. She lost her best friend, comrade, soulmate, all rolled into one and Miles just comes in, like the grumpy little golden retriever he is and breathed life back into Lenny. Lou was 100% watching over Lenny and threw Miles at her and told her to “Suck it up, here is someone you can fantasize about forever, and he isn’t even a firefighter!”

1000000/10

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read, "Promise Me Sunshine", by Cara Bastone. Unfortunately due to some reviews I do not think this book will work for me and I will be moving on to something else.

Honestly this book was so amazing, and I foresee a lot of people loving it.

The way that grief is touched on is very raw and watching Lenny learn to work through this grief with Miles as her guiding light was fantastic. Speaking of Miles — what a man!! Love him. He was such a solid character and I loved getting to know him more throughout the story.

I do feel like Lenny was pretty infantalized throughout the story, even outside of being handled with little kid gloves as she grieved, which is the only thing that kept me from giving this 5 stars.

Also, I loved all of the interactions with the other characters in this book - Ainsley, Reese, Jericho, Jeffy, Rica, Lenny’s parents, all the way down to the doorman and hairdresser.

Overall I think this is a really solid book that I hope people take the chance to read.