This was such an honest portrait of grief. I loved the side by side friendship of two people who were unlikely to connect except through hard, life circumstances. The heavy weight of grief and how it injects itself into every facet of life was written so well. Bastone is also really great at finding moments of levity in her writing, which makes her writing feel so truthful.

Excellent read, I can’t recommend this one enough! I had heard such a great things, so I was hoping it wasn’t over hyped, which it totally lived up to the hype. I laughed and I cried, I enjoy books that actually make you feel things. I’ve already recommended this book to several friends and they’ve devoured it as well.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House Publishing Group, for providing me with the eARC of Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone, This book comes out March 4th, 2025.

Secondly, WOW. I don't think there are enough words in the English Language Dictionary to evoke my thoughts about this incredible story. Saying "I loved the book" is an understatement. I would give my heart to this book. I would give my mind and soul to this book. Cara Bastone has written a beautiful story about two characters who carry each other through their current life struggles. This book deals with grief, death, and loss. I felt it was handled in a beautiful and respectful way by acknowledging the ups and downs with grief and how sometimes grief feels like your last connection towards a loved one. I really felt that Lenny and Miles were peas in a pod. Lenny's unapologetic and infectious energy collaborated with Miles and his shy but full-hearted personality so well. I LOVED the slow-burn. I despise instant-love/lust and think that what happened with Lenny and Miles was so sweet and genuine and you could feel the connection coming from the pages/words. Also, I too am obsessed with Sandwiches and appreciate the sandwich representation in this book.

I absorbed every word written on these pages. I was nose-deep on my Kindle re-reading the same sentences again and thinking how lucky I am to be reading these words. I even went as far as thanking the author on Instagram for creating such a beautiful book.

I can confidentially say that Promise Me Sunshine will take this year's romance genre by storm and I will absolutely be recommending it to everyone I come in to contact with.

Thank you for the advanced copy of Promise Me Sunshine, because… wow. This was WONDERFUL. I absolutely blew through this novel and knew well before finishing that it would be a top-tier read.

The reader follows Lenny in the aftermath of losing her best friend to ovarian cancer. She masks her grief while nannying, but the little one’s uncle sees through that mask. He becomes an additional main character as he helps Lenny navigate life after such a monumental loss.

Cara Bastone does an incredible job taking a devastating experience and turning it into a genuine, humanizing, and incredibly witty story. This is a slow-burn romance but our FMC falls in love with herself again, as well.

I adored Lenny’s character and personality. The other characters are portrayed well on the page, and the reader is provided insight into the power of community and support. Bastone’s writing is personable and funny. Some of the details and lines are just… gah seamlessly perfect. I truly laughed every time Lenny saw someone attractive and immediately concocted an internal love story from beginning to end.

I absolutely recommend this book and especially to those who enjoyed Ready or Not, those who have also enjoyed the character banter we see in Tarah DeWitt’s writing and similar, and those who need a light when working through any kind of loss.

I will post this to my Goodreads

When I saw Promise Me Sunshine on @netgalley , it reminded me of the cover of Ready or Not by Cara Bastone, which I LOVED. No surprise then when I realize she's wrote this one too and I clicked request for this ARC automatically. Do I need a premise? Hell no. I just want Bastone to get me the way she did in Ready of Not.

How do you deal with the grief of losing your best friend? That's what Lenny is desperately trying to do when she meets Miles at her temporary nannying job. Lenny is going to nanny overnight for Ainsley, Miles's 7 year old niece. Miles, suspicious of this new stranger in Ainsley's life, comes on a little strong by hanging around and seemingly judging Lenny. But in reality, he doesn't know how to navigate being someone's uncle and really wants to do it right so he does what any man would - barters. He offers to help Lenny get through her grief if she can help him relate to Ainsley. With that, the unlikely pair start spending time together in what becomes a deep friendship. But when Lenny comes to the realization that her feelings for Miles run deeper than she thought, she will have to confront how to handle that on her own.

To date, I think Bastone might do friends to lovers consistently better than anyone else. Granted, I'm basing that on this and Ready or Not, but both of these relationships were so well built out and based on so much depth of feeling. These relationships are like the warmest of hugs, in the comfiest sweatpants, while drinking a perfect temperature hot beverage if choice.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

First of all, I want to deeply thank you for the opportunity to receive this ARC. This is my first time reading this author, and the entire process has been a wonderful surprise for me.

This book brought out an emotion I didn’t even know existed: the pain of physically losing a friend. Throughout my almost 31 years, I’ve had the chance to make friends, lose them, and feel how deeply they become a part of me. Reading this story made me cry, smile, and experience so many emotions that left me utterly moved.

The male protagonist brought something so special, so delicate—it reminded me of a dove… or better yet, a butterfly. He helped the female protagonist go through a metamorphosis, to grow and transform in a way that felt both magical and real. Reading this made me feel that pure, beautiful kind of love, the kind I hope to experience someday.

Even though I’m not the best at writing reviews, this book truly touched my soul. The author has an incredible ability to capture emotions and leave you with that indescribable feeling lingering in your heart long after you finish reading.

In conclusion: read this book! I wholeheartedly recommend it. I can’t wait for it to be officially released because I know so many others will feel the same way I did. Once again, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to read an advanced copy. I’m certain this won’t be the last book I read from this author.

this book was incredible. The humor/ heart wrenching moments was so well done. I cried so much the way that the author handled grief was beautiful. Everyone needs a miles he was so caring and wonderful and the slow burn was well worth it. I loved how she found herself again in the midst of so much heartbreak and loss. Miles also lost a lot and I loved what she did for him. I wish we had gotten more time with them together because I would’ve gladly read 200 more pages.

OMG, Cara Bastone does it again. How does she keep wrecking me with her amazing stories??

Short summary: Lenny lost her best friend, Lou, to cancer 6 months ago. Mentally and physically, she's not doing so well. After she takes a temporary nannying gig, she meets Miles, the little girl's uncle. While they get off on the wrong foot, Miles quickly recognizes the mess that Lenny is and decides to help her fulfill the list of things that Lou wanted Lenny to do to make sure she starts "living again." After learning that Miles knows a thing or two about grief himself, they become best friends and learn to live again--all the while, falling in love.

I have no idea how she does it, but the author can write an emotion better than any other contemporary romance author I've ever read. I mean this next statement in the best way possible: If I had to sum up this novel in one sentence, it would be "a stream-of-consciousness love letter to New York City, best friends that become family, and learning to live after loss." Bastone has a knack for showing people who are hanging on by a thread, which in turn shows how well she can write a human being with flaws and interesting characteristics. Lenny is an absolute mess, and Miles does such a good job of pulling her out of her grief. The path to that isn't always pretty, but it's poignant and realistic. Bastone is also a master of the slow burn, and buddy, is this a slow burn. You can always feel the tension between the two MCs, but they don't get together until almost the very end. I hate slow burns, but somehow the author always hooks me. She's so good at it.

Overall, if you're looking for an emotional roller-coaster of a romance novel, this is the one. Such a beautiful story and I'm so glad to have had the chance to read it.

Just perfect. I didn't know how she could improve upon her last book but she absolutely did. Lenny is such a complicated character going through an insane amount of grief. Miles is so abrupt at first but he is exactly what she needs. He gets what she's going through and knows the kind of support that she needs. He just wants to hold her hand through it all. Miles also knows that she has a few things to work through before they can be a couple. Watching Lenny try to seduce him was so funny.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Where to even begin!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (ALLL THE STARS!)

If I could give this more than 5 stars I would! That’s how good this book is. It is my 2nd Cara Bastone book and I’m gonna have to say my favorite! And that’s that I really liked Ready or not.But this one! UGHHH MY GOD had me in my feels in grief, had me in my feels in love. This was just perfect.

Miles Honey that sweet grumpy baby angel! What an amazing book human honestly. Like I don’t have enough words for him. I love him dearly! He is now one of my favorite book boys EVER!

My sweet sweet Lenny, her grief was so felt and so heartbreaking, but to see her grow and learn to go through it with help from Miles and those who nurture her was truly a beautiful thing. To see her work her way out of the grief fog and live felt like a shared victory.

The banter and humor and care that Miles and Lenny have for each other is just literal perfection. It’s the little things especially with Miles. I literally devoured this in like 2 sittings. And I tried to drag it out cause I didn’t want to leave them. I can read so many more moments with them in a heartbeat. I literally made so many faces while reading certain scenes. They were just disgustingly adorable and I love them and wish them all the happiness very much 🥰

I am a 100% gonna preorder this book cause I need it in my collection. This truly became one of my new favorite books of all time. Cara has such a way with words and the feel around a book. I cannot wait for this to be published so I could tell anyone and everyone to read it!


Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced digital copy! It’s highly appreciated ☺️

Wow….just WOW, oh my gosh this story!!!!!! I cried, I laughed, I cringed (in the best way)! I loved this story! Lenny is honestly the most well written character, you feel all her pain and grief and love on another level. I’ve never read a book that talks so openly and in depth about the emotional trauma of losing a loved one like this book did and honestly I don’t think anything will come close, Please whatever you do read this book!
(Adding Miles to top 10 book boyfriends)

Thank you NetGalley and Dial Press for this eARC!

Thank you netgalley for a ARC! This book is set to be released on March 4, 2025z

I tried really hard to love this book, but it just felt like there were some missing pieces for me. The puzzle just didn’t quite fit. I couldn’t connect with the characters, and maybe that’s a fault of my own. This was well written and the quirks of the main character were unique, and I liked getting to watch Lenny crawl out of the hole that grief placed her in alongside Miles, who quite literally “went to hell and pulled her back out.” I wouldn’t quite put this in the rom-com category as it did have some pretty deep/serious themes. Overall, the book was good, but not great. I’m still left wanting more from it, from the characters, from the story.

📚eARC Review 📖

📖: Promise Me Sunshine ☀️
✍️: Cara Bastone @carabastone
📚: Dial Press Trade Paperback @thedialpress
🗓: Pub Date: March 4, 2025
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Format: Kindle (eARC)
Pages: 416
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
same author as: Ready or Not
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"Well, I can’t promise the sunshine. But I can do everything else.”
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💭 Cara Bastone has become an auto buy author for me! I fell in love with her last novel, Ready or Not, which published last year and couldn't pass up on reading this new one.

Thank you @thedialpress and @atrandombooks
for the eARC!

First things first - the cover - so beautifully detailed. The sunshine matches the title nicely, but the ferry plays such an important part in the story.

This book felt so raw and so emotional. We follow Lenny, who is grieving her best friend. She meets Miles while doing a new babysitting gig. Shortly after meeting her, he finds out that Lenny is having a hard time dealing with her friend's death, and he offers to help her as he had dealt with grief himself. Miles, being a grumpy guy, has his own struggles and also needs her help. He quickly becomes a best friend to her and is there for all the moments in which Lenny needs help. No matter the place or time, he keeps showing up for her. The author does such a great job at explaining the moments in which Lenny feels hopeless, like she won't ever stop grieving. This book feels so real because you will find Lenny being good at covering her sadness when out with friends, and you find her being funny despite having pain in her heart. Lenny's journey to healing will have you frowning at one moment and smiling in the next one.

Grief and being distant from loved ones are hard topics to discuss, and I feel the author did a wonderful job at describing them. I loved seeing our characters grow independently while having each other. Plus, we get a slow burn romance with them. I'd say not to miss out on reading PROMISE ME SUNSHINE.

I tried, I tried my very best to love this one but it just didn’t happen. I didn’t love it, nor connect with the characters. To be honest with you I found it a bit depressing and maybe that’s the main reason it was difficult for me to get into the story.

This book was so good. I appreciated how we got right into the meat and potatoes of the Story and there was no fluff at the beginning. Cara’s portrayal of grief was portrayed so thoughtfully. Miles and Lenny’s bond was everything.
More in depth reeview to come on instagram

Cara Bastone has a knack for feelings and funny! This is no exception.

Processing grief looks different for everyone. No two journeys are the same. Lenny is struggling deeply with the loss of her best friend, until Miles. He sees her. The way he guides her through her grief is moving. I wish I had a Miles when I lost my Mom years ago.

Lenny pushes back and forth but in the end they become exactly what the other needs. I had some big feelings with this one. But in true Cara fashion I giggled too and enjoyed every minute of it!

This is not simply a love story but a story of life and love. Slow burn to that happy ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC of Promise Me Sunshine. This was a cute story and I enjoyed how the main characters supported each other through their grieving process. Overall it felt a little empty to me, like it was missing so many puzzle pieces for me to fully connect with the characters. I love Cara Bastone and I think this book will be a huge success for many readers.

Promise Me Sunshine is an absolute thunderbolt of a book, and was one of my favourite reads for the year.

When the book begins, our late-twenties heroine, Lenny, is at the lowest ebb of her life, having recently lost her best friend Lou to ovarian cancer. When a chance meeting with Miles, the estranged brother of Lenny's childcare client, reveals that Lenny and Miles may each have the skills required to help the other with their respective problems, the book takes off on an incredible journey.

The thing that stands out the most to me about Promise Me Sunshine is the incredible balancing act it pulls off in navigating both loss and romance. To be clear, this is a romance novel, and a very satisfying one at that, but Lenny’s grief over losing Lou is given the gravity and centrality in the narrative that such a nightmarish event deserves. I particularly loved that the loss here is not a romantic one (as the loss of a partner isn’t that uncommon in romance novels), but that of a best friend; this is something I see a lot less of in romance novels but which is no less devastating an event. Miles’ own experiences with grief and loss, although less recent than Lenny’s, are also given the respect and space they deserve, and the way that Miles and Lenny come together over these shared experiences is truly heartwarming.

Lastly, on a personal note, Promise Me Sunshine was a very challenging read for me; I have metastatic breast cancer and I could not help but see my and my loved ones' reactions to terminal cancer diagnoses within Lenny's experiences in the pages of this book. For anyone in a similar position who may be wondering how such emotional topics are handled in Promise Me Sunshine, for what it is worth, I can say that although I teared up *quite often* while reading this book, I found that these challenging topics were handled with the utmost care and sensitivity by Cara Bastone and I plan to wholeheartedly encourage my loved ones to read this book when it is released. Recognizing that everyone's experiences with cancer are unique, this book has so much good to say about living with loss and love, and the relationship between Lenny and Lou in particular was so true to relationships in my own life that it was honestly astonishing to be reading it.

I wrote this review based on an ARC provided by Cara Bastone's team and I am reviewing it voluntarily; that being said, I had already pre-ordered my own copy of Promise Me Sunshine before being offered the ARC.

A heart wrenching tale of grief and trying to live and love after. I was invested from the very beginning, and although it was emotionally tough to read at times, I needed to know how Lenny would survive following the loss of her best friend. Miles was such a multi-faceted character and I loved watching Lenny help peal back those layers. The snippets of imaginary insta-love meet cutes were hilarious and just the right amount of levity for the story. This was a slow burn, touching read that was a tad out of my comfort zone yet it will live in my head for quite sometime.

Wonderful read! Heartfelt romance about strangers attempting to help each other get through their respective bouts of grief. This gives you stunning insight into one's journey through grief and healing. The romance is a slow burn full of tender moments. Bastone does an amazing job of creating a male main character that is strong, vulnerable, and sweet. I do wish the last 15% of the book was longer and we got to spend more time with our couple. Also- LOVED the Ready or Not cameo! TY netgalley for this ARC!