After absolutely loving Ready or Not, I requested this book at lightening speed. And as always, I dove in blind. Immediately I knew this was going to be a story I really resonated with. It's a romance story for sure, but I really loved the story of grief and friendship even more than the romance itself. Not only the friendship Lenny has with her best friend but the friendship she grows to have with Miles too. There is so much love here. The beautiful kind, and the painful kind. And even more, Lenny is freakin funny. She had my giggling left and right and the way Miles just folded into her sense of personality just was so good. This book was beautiful and I'm so lucky to have read it early.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for early access!

*Promise Me Sunshine* follows Lenny, who is struggling to cope with the loss of her best friend to cancer. Trying to distract herself with temporary babysitting jobs, she unexpectedly forms a connection with Miles, the uncle of the child she’s caring for. Both grieving their own losses, they agree to help each other: Miles will guide Lenny through her grief, and she’ll help him connect with his niece. This heartfelt story explores the healing power of human connection, blending raw emotion with hope. The slow-burn relationship between Lenny and Miles is tender and genuine, offering readers a touching reminder that even in the darkest times, unexpected bonds can help us heal.

I love this book. It’s incredibly beautiful and I may just cry writing this review because of how truthful her writing is and the beauty she gave the story. And watching the grief unfold and told in such an amazing understanding way. Also!!! It was sad but also SO funny. I love that about Cara’s writing. And the NYC locations and inspiring me go to the MET more and the list and could go on and on. I can’t wait for this to be released

Such a beautiful, impactful book! The writing, the emotions, everything was wonderfully portrayed. A detailed review is up on my platforms!

Lenny has been struggling since her best friend passed away from her long battle with cancer. She has been a nanny, and was recommended by a former client to Reese, and she became the nanny of Ainsley. Her Uncle Miles is there when she arrives the first day, and they get off on the wrong foot. As they get to know each other, they recognize in the other things about themselves, so they decide to help each other. Lenny he knows is drowning in grief, and he has been there, Lenny knows Miles is struggling to learn how to become part of a family. As they help each through what they have going on, it is exciting, inspirational, sometimes rough, lots of tears, lots of laughter, and it went to my brain and my soul, and even I came out of this story a little different. When Lenny finally reached out to her mother again, her mother asked her how she knew she loved Miles. She said, He came to hell and brought me back, one step at a time, to bring me home.
I received an ARC from Dial Press Trade Paperback through NetGalley, and I am going to check out the author and the publisher to discover some other finds.

This gorgeous, gorgeous book!!!!!!!!🥹 This book is exquisite. Bastone has given literature & readers such a gift with this story — the sparkling, truly hilarious banter; the tenderness; the raw emotion; the JOY; and all of it is so beautifully written!!! The line-level writing shines so brightly, nuanced and lovely and never trite. The story comes vividly to life and the emotions are FELT and seen, never told. I loved every single moment, every word. You can feel the care that went into every single phrase. I will be absolutely screaming from the rooftops about this one.

This is how you write a slow-burn romance!

Thank you to NetGalley, Cara Bastone, and Random House Publishing Group for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The Plot:
Lenny and Lou were the best of friends until Lou passed away from cancer five years ago. Now Lenny is left alone, trying to find a way to live again. She takes babysitting jobs to avoid going back to the apartment they shared. This new babysitting job came with an extra uncle, a grumpy man named Miles.
Miles has also dealt with loss and has joined Lenny's mission to live again.

My Thoughts:
There was something about this book that I cannot figure out. The slow-burn was real and complex. The emotions and fears were prevalent throughout the whole book, but in a redeeming way. Each character had a solid identity and we truly got to watch them grow and overcome their obstacles.
It was so well written and I see what all the hype was about. We had two good characters who just wanted to get better and they had to get through real-life issues to get there.
I've been through loss before and those emotions were captured perfectly in Lenny.

I would easily recommend this book to anyone. It is a lovely romance, perfectly paced, and I adored these characters!

“He reminds me of a gravel road. At night. With nothing but headlights to show you what comes next.”

This will for sure be a favorite romance of the year for me.

What I liked:

This book is the slowest burn in the best way possible. We see Lenny & Miles go from strangers to friends to lovers in the most natural way. I typically don’t love a friends to lovers where the main characters are strangers at the beginning of the book, as I don’t feel like we get enough time with them as friends. Bastone wrote this relationship perfectly in a way that I truly believed in Miles & Lenny’s relationship.

The themes of grief and mourning were amazing. How do we move on when our person is gone? This book had me sobbing my damn eyes out.

Ainsley is a fantastic character. I do love a good kid in a book, and Ainsley was perfect.

What didn’t work for me:

Absolutely nothing

Thank you Net Galley, Cara Bastone, and Dial Press Trade Paperback for an E-ARC copy of this book. Friendship, grief, love, finding yourself again, and family. This book has it all! I love Lenny and Miles and from the start of the book, you can tell they will fall in love. Through their journey and how they help each other with grief while finding themselves after tragic losses, is so beautiful and a reminder to keep living through the challenging times. The characters, right to the bellman, are so amazing and all profoundly impact each other. I LOVED this book and can’t wait for my friends to read it!

Thank you Dial Press and NetGalley for the arc. All opinions are my own.

This was such a beautiful story about grief and love, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Cara did such a wonderful job of portraying Lenny’s grief throughout the book, and I loved seeing how Miles helped her throughout this difficult journey. This is a slow-burn, which I can sometimes struggle with, but seeing their relationship progress through friendship made their connection so much stronger. Overall, this was such a heartfelt story and I highly recommend!

My review will be shared to Instagram, TikTok and Amazon closer to release.

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a while. This was an amazing exploration of grief and friendship. Although it had its sad moments, it was also funny and entertaining with a wonderful romance. Miles is one of my favorite MMCs. I loved how strong and dependable he was for Lenny.

Promise Me Sunshine is another stunning work by Cara Bastone. The degree of difficulty in the way she crafts her characters and conflict is so impressive. This is a novel about grief and joy, about putting ourselves back together when we are met with seemingly impossible loss. And it’s about the people who are there to help us along the way. I loved Miles and Lenny and seeing their journey to each other.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to #netgalley for allowing me an ARC of this novel. I really enjoyed it, it is well written and it is a believable story. It goes through the grief of the main character and how she manages through it with the help of a friend. I don't like to give anything away in my reviews because I think people should just read it.

I love the fact that Lenny always imagines her future with these random ass men that she’s never going to see again. It makes it even funnier that she’s not afraid to do it after Miles lets her know that everyone sees her looking at them weirdly. I can only imagine how expressive she is and what the hell these guys are thinking. Especially at the beginning when we know she’s grieving and her appearance is not as well thought out.
I loved the way Miles and Lenny’s romantic relationship developed and how they each had their own say about it. Friends to lovers is a great thing, but difficult when they’re both grieving. Their ending made me happy and smile. I felt as though Bastone was giving me a hug with the way she wrapped up this book.

This was another well-done romance from Cara Bastone. Funny banter and sweet chemistry interwoven with heavy themes of grief and loss which I think were handled very well.

Don’t let this beautiful, colorful, cutie cover fool you!! This is an emotionallllll book🥲 but it’s worth the pain❤️‍🩹

Lenny has just lost her best friend and she’s lost herself in the grief. She was left a “live again list” full of things to do to well…live again. But finding the courage/will to do those things? hard. enter Miles.

It’s a friends to lover and slow burn romance!🫶 but it’s also about learning to have fun again, finding new friends, how healing is never linear, the importance of taking care of yourself first but knowing when to lean on others🫂!!

I made so many highlights too!!✍️

It took me a bit to get into (~30%) but then I couldn’t put it down! At times Lenny was a bit awkward? but not in a way that made sense for her character? so it would take me out of it but I do really recommend!

Oh my goodness, Cara Bastone has done it again!! She had me crying within the first few chapters. The way she captured grief?? Perfection. I'm a sucker for a book set in NYC too. Just so lovely all around. Read this!!

I love the main characters in this book so much! I love Lenny’s witty personality, and I love how Miles loves every part of her. A beautiful story not only about romantic love, but also about family and grief.

I absolutely loved this one!

This story is filled with grief and healing that you can feel and I loved how realistic it felt. Though it’s an emotional read, there are light moments of joy and laughter. The romance feels so believable and Bastone does and amazing job building it up to make it feel real…

I don’t know, this was different, it felt good to just sit in the story and now that it’s over, i miss them.

I enjoyed Promise Me Sunshine. I liked the theme and message behind this book. I thought Bastone did an incredible job showcasing Lenny's grief. Lenny was a layered character. Her character arc was satisfying to read. Lenny was very quirky! I did find her a little hard to connect with at points. I adored Lenny's relationship with Miles. Miles was such a cinnamon roll character. I loved how sweet and vulnerable he was with Lenny. His little Nancy Drew diary was adorable. I liked how Lenny and Miles were there for each other. It was cute watching him become more comfortable with Ainsley. I liked Ainsley and Reese's characters. I liked that there was some resolution with that plot point. I was surprised by how long the slow burn was in this book. I didn't mind it! There were some funny bits in this book. My favorite was the family scene with the grappa. I wish we got to see more of Lenny's family. The only major gripe I had about this book was the ending. It felt very abrupt to me. When I turned the page on my e-arc, I was shocked to find the acknowledgements page. I wanted a few more pages at the end. Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press Trade Paperback for the ARC.