Absolutely loved this book, my favorite of Cara Bastone. This is a book about grief and those that carry us through it. The complicated emotions that it inhabits.

Lenny is a great babysitter to Ainsley; she takes the job and is able to get there appropriately and be a good caregiver. But she can’t bring herself to go home and instead just rides the Staten Island Ferry. Her best friend Lou has died of cancer, and a bit of Lenny has died also. It’s a period of grief she can’t get through. Ainsley’s uncle Miles becomes her grief doula, helping her to learn how to live again. Lenny and Miles help each other heal and become themselves.

I absolutely loved this book, if you like romance and can handle one that revolved around grief (in the funniest possible way) then this is the book for you. Ainsley has absolutely the best lines- it’s so hard for authors to get kids right—- but she nails it. This is endearing, funny, and real.

Thanks to @netgalley and @dialpress for the ARC. Book to be published March 4, 2025.

4.5 rounded up to 5.

Promise Me Sunshine is such a sweet, heartbreaking, joyful read. Our FMC Lenny, a nanny by trade, is living her life in a fog after losing her best friend to a painful five year battle with cancer. She has avoided anything reminding her of her friend, not returning texts from her concerned parents, and has not even gone back to her apartment because it is too painful. She only takes temporary nanny obs as to not get close to anyone. But then she gets a job to watch Ainsley for single mom Reese for a night. And Ainsley's grumpy uncle Miles shows up an is very doubtful of her ability to take care of herself, let alone a kid. To be fair, Lenny hasn't really invested in any me time in awhile so she may look a bit of a fright.

But Lenny is the kid-whisperer and Ainsley loves her, and Miles begs her to take the job. They gradually become friends and he is determined to help her work through her grief to get to the other side.

The slow burn of the enemies to friends to lovers was super swoony and they had chemistry. But I also loved secondary characters and seeing Lenny come back to life and open her heart for love. It just hit all the feels.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC for my honest review.

I adored this book! I fell in love with all the characters and could not put it down. It did a beautiful job with the topics presented and a great reminder that grief is different for everyone.

oh, i loved this novel. i found it beautifully written, they way it dealt with grief, with how lenny tries to go on after losing her best friend, her soulmate lou. i felt like lenny was a very interesting a relatable character, i loved how she was with ainsley, i really enjoyed her romantic storyline with miles, which didn't distract from her process in navigating and dealing with grief. the books was equally touching and at times so hilarious i found myself laughing out loud. i also loved the moment when i realised what is depicted on the cover! i definitely recommend this!

Thank you Penguin Random House for sending me the Advance e-book

"Grief is a relationship,"..."It's the way we figure out how to keep loving them even though they've gone. And in order to do that we have to keep on going. And going and going." - (This quote is from ARC, the final publishes book may differ.)

Beautifully written with sensitivity to the subject, I highly recommend this book and this author to any fans of Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez. Personally, from the books I've read from Cara Bastone, this is the best.

A story about grieving and learning to live again and finding love in the process. Yes, it's a romance book, but it is much more, it's a healing book. It's not all dark and gloom, there are spots of lights and delight which I greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure if it was intentional that the male character's last name is Honey. Even though it is not pronounce like our natural sweetener, I want to believe that it's intentional of the author, because honey is also known for its healing property and I think our male character, Miles Honey is exactly that for our Lenny.

I am not joking when I say I am feel DEEPLY in love with this book. So moving, so emotional yet it didn’t feel depressing. Even with the heavy subject material. Highly highly recommend!

this book was a perfect representation of grief, the importance of different relationships in life, and finding oneself again in a new reality. i loved absolutely every second of it and am so glad i got to experience it at this time of my life.

Cara Bastone has officially become one of my favorite authors. she makes the reader fall in love with her characters alongside them (and i am not only talking about the two main characters). through her skillful setting creation, she makes you fall in love with New York, even if you have never been there. Lenny and Miles will hold a special place in my heart probably forever; the way their relationship evolved throughout this book was i hope every book relationship does.

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This blew me away. It was heart wrenching but also so beautiful and uplifting. The pain of grief and all other emotions that come with it were done respectfully and accurately which I enjoyed and think is very important.

Loved it! Even better than her last one, that took the book world by storm. This is full of honesty and rawness, unique personalities, entertaining dialogue, and joy amidst difficulty. I think Bastone also got better at the intimacy scenes.

My one issue is that the last quarter of the book seemed rushed, paced much faster than the rest. And it was full of what we’d been waiting for the whole time! I wanted more! I think the pacing could have been slower in the end, more detail given, drawn out more. Maybe an epilogue too.

Thank you to Net Galley, and the publisher, for the arc.

“You walked into hell and dragged me back out.” I mean COME ON.

How can a book where the characters don’t even kiss until the 90% mark have me swooning this hard? I absolutely devoured every single word of this book and already know I’ll read it again soon. The poignancy with which Bastone explores grief and life after lost is incredible. The chemistry and the relationship that builds between Miles and Lenny was beautiful — I could not put it down.

I voluntarily read a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book was a very emotional read. It was about a grief stricken Lenny learning to move on after a death of a loved one while also relearning how to love someone in the aftermath of such tragedy. I really enjoyed this one, the main relationship was so cute and it didn’t even start as that. The writing in this novel was very emotion evoking, I felt like I could feel what Lenny was feeling and it was extremely immersive. One of my favorite ARCs so far

i could not stop thinking about these character! lenny was so relatable and spunky, and miles was her perfect counterpart. their love story is one of true knowing and understanding of each other. this is not a book where i wonder if the couple will last I KNOW they will. the dark place that lenny starts from is so well developed and you can feel the pain she is going through but because of that the transformation she undergoes is truly miraculous!

This is the book. I loved this book SO MUCH. It was absolutely wonderful and oh so heartbreaking all at the same time. It is so heavy on grief, and it’s not always pretty, truthfully it’s not pretty a lot of the time. But watching Lenny trying how to figure out how to live without her best friend was written SO beautifully. And don’t get me wrong it was ALSO such a good time. It was fun and silly and sad and full of so much love it made my heart ache in THE BEST WAY.

The SLOWEST burn was so good, and absolutely necessary and absolutely perfect. The fact that Lenny was somehow still the sunshine in hers and Miles’ grumpy/sunshine pair was perfection. The fact that Miles needed Lenny’s help with Reese and Ainsley. Everything about this book was perfect.

Miles and Lenny were such a chaotic pair and they needed each other in such a big way and the fact that they found each other made me so happy. I loved how complex and complicated they both were. Neither of their journeys were easy, and even by the end, nothing was perfect but they were better. The romance was also very much on the back burner for a long time. They both had way bigger things to deal with first, and the way it played out was so good.

I love this book so much and I already cannot wait to read it again.

ALSO a little Ethan and Miriam cameo 🥹

Thank you SO MUCH to Dial Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Promise Me Sunshine is a story navigating the harsh reality of grief. After losing the closest person to her, Lenny is struggling to live again in her everyday life. During one of her babysitting gigs, she meets Miles who is the uncle to Ainsley the girl she is watching. Seeing through her, Miles realizes that Lenny is dealing with more than she is letting on and makes her an offer: Help him connect with Ainsley and her mother Reece and he will help Lenny navigate through her grief and live again.

This story was so beautiful and touching. Lenny is so consumed by her grief that she will not even go to her apartment unless absolutely necessary. Meeting Miles, they do not get off on the right foot. However Miles quickly realizes that Lenny is in grief. I just adored Miles. He was there for Lenny every step of the way through her grief while dealing with his own struggles with his family. Seeing him there for here over and over again was so touching. I really enjoyed watching Lenny slowly start to move on after losing her best friend.

While I had a hard time fully connecting to this story considering I have not experience the same emotions Miles and Lenny have through loss, I can see how this book could really touch someone that has been through this grief. Overall, I really enjoyed this story and look forward to a reread when this book comes out!

the rom com genre is so lucky to have cara bastone. i really enjoyed this story and think it balances grief, growth and romance very well. her characters are distinct and i loved being in lenny's head. it definitely has heavy moments, but everything was handled with so much care. this book is a hug. looking forward to listening when the audio comes out!

3.25 stars
Thank you Net Gallery and Cara Bastone for an ARC of this book. This book dealt with a lot of grief. I enjoyed parts of this book, and didn’t enjoy other parts of it. Overall, I would say this was an entertaining read.

This book is so heartfelt. For me I feel like loss would be something to write about. I love how Cara Bastone made this into something to smile about. Thank you so much for the ARC.

Cara Bastone, you have to stop making me cry like this. This is now the second Cara Bastone book that has wrecked me this year, and it’s safe to say that she’s officially an auto buy author for me. I truly couldn’t wait until closer to pub date to read this once I got approved for the ARC on Netgalley, and I’m so glad I didn’t wait. This was such a beautiful story about grief and love. These characters have my whole heart, and I’ll probably need a while to recover before I can really coherently write out everything I want to say about this.

Cara Bastone is quickly becoming one of my favorite fiction writers! I had high expectations as “Ready or Not” might be my favorite book I’ve read this year, and Ms. Bastone did not disappoint. Her heartwarming and heart wrenching story about Lenny and Miles is going to stick with me for quite a while. The author’s ability to create vivid characters is one of her greatest strengths as a writer, and as a person with anxiety, I appreciate that her books don’t contain any of the typical tropes that tend to stress me out (think misunderstandings, hiding big secrets/true identities from others, etc.). I will be waiting with great anticipation for her next book!

Heartfelt romance that explores love after a loss. Cara does a wonderful job showcasing the struggles of grief, and just how dark life after the loss of a loved one can be.

Miles helps Lenny overcome grief after losing her best friend, Lou. In the process of this, Lenny falls deeply in love with Miles and his charming characteristics.

This was a beautiful story and slow-burn romance. I plan to check out more of Cara’s work soon!