This romance also made me cry, and it taught me a great deal about grief. The author wrote with such nuance, fully-fleshing out all her characters. I really delighted in reading this, and it wasn’t too spicy so I won’t feel guilty recommending it to students in my senior romance elective. A really thoughtful work. Recommend.

Since the loss of her best friend, Lenny’s life has been in a depressed standstill. Unfortunately, she still needs to pay her bills. Only able to emotionally handle temporary babysitting gigs, she starts to nanny a young girl, Ainsley, whose uncle always seems to be hanging around. Uncle Miles soon makes it his mission to help Lenny start living again.

I loved Cara Bastone’s just for audio works on Audible. All of them are whip smart with excellent witty banter. I haven’t had the same impression of Bastone’s books. They are less “meet cute” and more every day. They have a great sense of realism to them, especially the dialog, which I would expect. But, the every day nature of them makes the stories smaller and a bit less entertaining. Instead of a snappy pace and killer back and forth, we are gifted with the slowest of slow burns.

Had I never listened to Bastone’s Audible catalog, I probably would have been immediately charmed with the book instead of wishing it had a little more of the pizazz I know she’s capable of.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advance copy of this manuscript to review.

I loved this book!
The characters were all great. I found it very well written - Lenny’s personality was fun yet I could feel her pain and grief throughout.
This was my second book by this author and now I feel I have to read everything by her!

Cara Bastone has crafted a truly beautiful and heart achingly emotional love story. It begins with a heartbroken Lenny who is reeling from the loss of her best friend and platonic soulmate Lou. Her grief causes Lenny to spiral out of control until one day she crashes aimlessly into Miles, the uncle of a new kid she has been charged with taking care of for the weekend.

Miles and Lenny are both too familiar with grief and their deep friendship helps them figure out how to live again. A beautiful romance that really explores what love is and where it comes from. This book allows us to follow along as love blooms from the inside out.

This is a wonderful romance that will speak to anyone who has lost a loved one. Lenny has lost her best friend and is a mess floating from one nanny job to another, not able to sleep or eat, and losing touch with her family. She goes on a nanny job and ends up meeting Miles, the uncle of Ainsley, the adorable child she is watching. Miles is also very familiar with grief and the two of them strike up a deal. Miles will help her with learning how to live again and Lenny will help him get to know his niece and half sister better. What follows is a wonderful story about overcoming grief and falling in love.

I highly recommend this book. I read it in a day because I didn't want to leave the characters behind. There were laugh out loud moments as well as touching heartbreaking moments. This was a touching story that anyone will love. I especially think that people who have dealt with grief will be able to relate as well. A must read!

Thank you to Dial Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

I read Ready or Not by Cara Bastone earlier this year and I had such a fun time! I laughed and was so emotionally invested in the character's journey. This one hit so differently for me and I think it was because it involved a death of a friend. I was, again, emotionally invest but in such a different way because Cara made me feel as if I was the one suffering a great loss and it made the book that much deeper for me!

i don’t think i am the target audience for this book. it is just so…not for me. the premise sounded sweet: two people walking through the journey of grief together trying to make their way back to life. that is not what i was reading. i love me a brooding hero but Miles has the emotional maturity of a rock on the sidewalk. he had no substance to him. not like Lenny had any substance either. in fact she might have been worse than Miles. there were multiple times in which she simply LOOKS at a man and starts envisioning their life together. after the third time she did that, i had to give up on the book. i’m not sorry.

This book deserves more than 5 stars! It will definitely be one of my top favorites of the year!

Promise Me Sunshine follows Lenny and Miles as they struggle to find peace after losing loved ones. Lenny's best friend and roommate lost her life to cancer and since then she has struggled with just life. Miles is trying to bond with his half-sister and niece after their father died. The issue with this is his sister and niece did not know he even existed. When Lenny is hired to be the nanny of Miles' niece, they start to bond over their grief. Miles helps Lenny learn to want to live happily again and Lenny helps him with his relationship with his sister and niece.

This book is EVERYTHING!!! I loved the writing and the characters were so real to me. It had some silly moments that would make you laugh in between the moments of pure grief. Cara Bastone has now become an autobuy author for me after reading Ready or Not and now this book. I can't wait to own a physical copy of this book so I can reread it and annotate it!
5 million stars!

TW/CW: death/loss, grief

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

once i got this, i instantly opened up my kindle and was forever changed. this was so good!!!! the romance delivered, the plot delivered, i will be thinking of these two for forever 😭 thank you netgalley for tb arc!!

This book was a lot- and some of it in a good way.
I think it was 200 pages too long and it felt a little disjointed.
The slow-burn, emotional, heartfelt romance and interactions really hit me where I needed them to.

🌅 arc review 🌅

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️

Thank you to NetGalley and Cara Bastone for an early copy of Promise Me Sunshine. The way I screamed me I got approved?!

When I tell you I LOVE Cara bastone, I mean it with my whole chest. I could not get enough of Promise Me Sunshine.

She takes a story of grief and suffering and makes it something extremely raw and beautiful. This book is for the ones who have lost someone important to them and are looking for a way out.

Miles, the man that you are!!! Everything that he did for Lenny to see her way through the grief was out of this world. He’s absolutely taking one of the top boyfriend spots of 2024.

If you love:

Opposites attract
Complex characters
Friends to lovers
Hurt x Comfort
Slow Burn
Women’s Fiction

You absolutely need to read Promise Me Sunshine!

I first discovered Cara Bastone through her Audible originals, which I absolutely love and hope to hear more of soon! After reading two of her full-length novels, though, I think the Audible format might be where her work truly shines.

In Promise Me Sunshine, Bastone tackles the nuanced subject of grief - particularly the often-overlooked grief over a friend's death. I appreciate her attempt to explore this complex emotional landscape, which is rarely given full recognition. However, while there are things to enjoy in this book, overall, it didn't quite hit the mark for me. The pacing didn't pull me in, and the build up to the inevitable romance between the main characters felt more sluggish than filled with anticipation.

One highlight is Lenny's personal growth and journey through her grief. However, her quirk of overly fantasizing about each man she encounters was random and off-putting. That said, a strength of Bastone's work is her portrayal of genuinely good male characters - kind, respectful, thoughtful - which is always refreshing to see.

While this book wasn't my favorite, I still appreciate Bastone's talent and would be willing to give her work another try in the future. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group, Dial Press, and NetGalley for providing the e-ARC!

Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC!
“Promise Me Sunshine” by Cara Bastone is a heartwarming journey of healing and rediscovery, weaving a narrative of finding love and purpose after loss. Reminiscent of “P.S. I Love You,” this novel delicately navigates themes of grief, resilience, and the unexpected moments that can reignite hope.

At its core, this story reminds us that love can emerge from the most unlikely places and people. As the protagonist, Lenny, takes small steps forward, she encounters a new connection that shows love is still possible, even in the shadow of past sorrow. Bastone illustrates that it’s often when we’re not searching for love that we’re open enough to recognize it in its truest, most healing form.

More importantly, the book underscores a timeless truth: the most significant relationship we’ll ever have is the one with ourselves. As Lenny learns to confront her grief and embrace self-acceptance, she grows in ways that make room for both love and joy, revealing the power of resilience and self-discovery.

The pacing is gentle and slow, with moments where the plot may feel a tad meandering or disjointed. But despite this, “Promise Me Sunshine” remains a charming and worthwhile read, filled with humor and tenderness. If you’re looking for a story that acknowledges the messiness of healing and the beauty of learning to love again—both yourself and others—this book is a comforting, feel-good choice.

2.5⭐️
I wanted to love this, especially after loving Ready or Not by Cara, but I just couldn't connect to this! This book deals with grief and how it can affect our daily life. We see it in Miles as he deals with his parents & cousin's deaths and Lenny as she grieves her best friend's death. I can appreciate all the lessons and profound quotes on grief in this book but that was about it. This is a slow-burn romance (which is one of my favorite tropes) but I just couldn't get into the romance at all. I loved Lenny and Miles's friendship and them completing Lenny's list but I couldn't believe the romance. I truly thought they were better as friends. I am so conflicted because the pacing of the book just felt slow & choppy but the writing on grief was really beautiful. On the plus, the scenes with Ainsley, Miles's niece, were really cute and Lenny's flashback scenes with Lou were really heartwarming. I really wanted to push through to finish reading to see the romance finally develop but I was 60% in and nothing was happening so I sadly had to DNF.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group, Dial Press, and Netgalley for providing the e-ARC!

This was incredible!! I loved Ready Or Not and have recommended it to a lot of people, so I had high hopes for this one. Going into it, I was a little worried that it might feel a bit overwhelmingly heavy given the intense grief Lenny is dealing with at the beginning and was curious to see how that would evolve through the book. Wow. I LOVED it. Grief is such a sensitive and personal subject, and I thought it was handled beautifully. I laughed out loud and cried alongside Lenny. I felt myself healing with her from grief in my own life. I’m also now once again in love with a MMC in a romance book named Miles: SHOCKER. Highly recommend.

4.5 stars

after loving Ready or Not earlier this year, i knew i wanted to read whatever Cara Bastone wrote next. i don’t typically read review copies this far in advance, but after seeing a couple rave early reviews from people i trust and badly needing to read something that would renew my faith in humanity (🫠), i’m happy to say that this book did exactly that. Promise Me Sunshine *is* a romance— and i loved the romance in this book— but at its heart, this book is a beautiful exploration of grief, healing, friendship, community, and love in all its forms.

i think a lot of my enjoyment of this book was due to the fact that Lenny is my favorite main character i’ve read in quite a while. she had such a clear, witty, hilarious, earnest voice that jumped off the page. i loved getting to know the other characters in this book through her eyes, and i think her description of falling in love with Miles is one of the best i’ve read in a romance. all of the characters in this book were full of life and fully realized, and i think that’s in large part because we’re meeting them through Lenny.

Lenny’s journey processing the death of her best friend and figuring out how to live afterwards was so beautifully told. the way Miles (and everyone else in her life) holds her and helps her through it all was incredibly beautiful, and i loved how naturally and gradually their romance developed. i teared up multiple times while reading this one because it’s ultimately so, so hopeful.

i had a few very minor qualms with certain elements of Lenny’s grief journey feeling unresolved, but overall, i really couldn’t have enjoyed reading this more. i think if you liked Ready or Not you’ll definitely like this (there’s even a cameo from one of the characters!), and i also think that if you like Emily Henry, this book gave me distinct EH vibes and you might love it as much as i did.

i received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Promise me Sunshine
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I became a Cara Bastone fan after reading Ready or Not.
Well, Promise me Sunshine was another 5 star read.
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This is such a beautiful story of grief and the journey to healing. The romance is just an added bonus.
Lenny is drowning in grief after the death of her best friend. She meets a grumpy stranger, Miles, at one of her temporary babysitting gigs.
Miles and Lenny form an alliance, Lenny to help Miles bond with his niece, and Miles to help Lenny with her “live again” list.
When I tell you this book will rip your heart out and slowly put it back together, I am not joking. The romance is definitely a slow burn but so so sweet.
I cannot wait to read Cara’s backlist while I wait for her next book.
Don’t miss this one!
5 stars
Thank you netgalley and Dial Press for the opportunity to read this book!

This was my second book by Cara Bastone and it won’t be my last, she’s becoming one of my auto buy authors. I want to say that this was very good but if you are expecting a lot of romance this might not be the book for you. This book does have romance and it is a slow burn, the book primarily focuses on Lenny’s grief and how Miles helps her navigate this loss in her life. While I did enjoy this book at times it felt a bit long but it was easy to get through. Also I loved Miles he was kind of an asshole but he has reasons. Overall this is a perfect book if you want to a slow burn romance that deals with heavy topics. I would also check trigger warnings before reading.

Part of me wants to give it five stars. I loved Lenny and Miles and seeing Lenny start to feel alive again. I read this so quickly while on a trip and it is always something special to just be able to read and have no distractions.

But there is such an element of disbelief that you have to live in to enjoy this novel. Mainly in regards to finances! Which is not something I want to think about in a book! But, how does Lenny have health insurance? How does she have money to live in NY and rent an apartment (by herself!) by working part time (AND SHE DOESN'T EVEN LIVE IN THE APARTMENT). She mentions burning through her savings at the end of the book to keep her apartment, but I truly don't understand how she built savings when she had already been working part time for the last couple of years to take care of her friend. But if I could ignore all that I did enjoy this one.

My only other complaint is I didn't love the last 15% or so. The slow burn was so slow that it sort of fizzled out for me and I didn't find the pay off to be particularly worth it. But since this walks the line of "Is this a romance?" I was mostly okay with that.

But this book is lovely. I hope grieving people find some joy in this book and Lenny’s journey gives them hope. I loved seeing her come out of a dark place and I always love a list in a book. (Except for Miles' list, but it's fine).

I love Ainsley. Loved Lenny interacting with kids. Loving seeing Miles put in the effort to have a relationship with her. The secondary characters as a whole were just so much fun.

I feel like I'm focusing on what I didn't like, but there was so much I did love about it. The camping trip. Miles' saying "call me". How Lenny had a crush on every man she saw. The front desk guy at the apartment building. The hair cut. The Kpop fandom of it all. The ferry.

This is a special book and if I could've been slightly more delusional it would've been a near perfect read for me.

TW death of a loved one, grief,

The only way out is through."

I didn’t get that initial “five-star feeling” when I started Promise Me Sunshine. I liked it, but I wasn’t obsessed. Yet by the end, I was uncontrollably sobbing one moment and laughing out loud the next. This is one of those books that builds upon itself, taking you on a journey, and before you know it, everything slips into place. That’s when you realise just how intentional Bastone was in crafting her characters and this story.

Writing a romance novel about someone in a fragile mental state is pretty gutsy, but Cara Bastone tackles it with such grace and empathy. The book follows Lenny, who is truly going through it (and not in a romanticised manic pixie dream girl way). She’s reeling from the loss of her best friend, Lou. In the midst of her grief , she takes on a new job nannying Ainsley, the child of a wealthy Upper East Side family in NYC, where she meets Ainsley’s estranged uncle, Miles. Despite a rocky start, they strike up a deal: Miles, who’s been through his own grief, offers to guide Lenny through her “Live Again” list, while she helps him bond with his niece.

In an interview I recently listened to, Bastone described Ready or Not and Promise Me Sunshine as thematic counterparts about life and death. Ready or Not is about the transformation that comes with new life (pregnancy and motherhood), while Promise Me Sunshine explores the impact of loss.

One recourring thought I had while reading this was, “What a privilege it is to love someone like that”—platonically, to find a soulmate in a friend. Like in her previous novel, Bastone excels at showcasing different types of relationships and thoughtfully pacing them alongside the romance. The book doesn’t place one type of love above the other but lets them coexist and intertwine .

Given the unbalanced dynamic between Lenny and Miles, I was worried that their relationship might feel unhealthy, with Lenny being too dependent on him. But Bastone transitions their bond into something beautifully balanced and genuine. The shift is subtle and gradual, and by the end, it feels fully earned and satisfying.

There was one part—which I won’t spoil, but if you’ve read it, you’ll know what I’m talking about—where I felt that Lenny’s reoccurring habit of doing (x) thing when meeting people was a bit too quirky for my taste. But even that tied back into the theme of grief! so I don't have anything to bitch about . Damn you Cara Bastone for being intentional !

In all seriousness , So many lines and quotes and scenes and just things that happened wrung so many emotions from me .It’s a very vulnerable, tender, and hopeful story (it's also really funny) . Lenny's heartbreak was so palpable she's a character that I couldn't help but root for . Promise me Sunshine starts in a bleak abyss and slowly , but surely leads you out of the tunnel, bathing you in golden sunshine by the end. I know I’ll be thinking about this story for a long time.

I’m not too happy with this review because I’m still sorting through my emotions ( I saw an instagram reel that reminded me of them and my eyes swelled with tears ) I’M STILL PROCESSING MY FEELINGS but just know that this was incredible (in my humble) opinion .I'm so so sooooooo excited for the audiobook . Alex Finke killed it in Ready or Not and I just know that she'll do the same for this book.

Biggest thanks to The Dial press for this ARC!!!