I received an ARC of Cara Bastone’s previous book Ready Or Not, and read it hesitantly because pregnancy storylines are a sensitive subject for me. I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would, so I was thrilled to receive the ARC of Promise Me Sunshine. I typically don’t enjoy friends-to-lovers romance, but it was done very well in this book. I enjoyed Lenny’s character growth throughout the book, and was glad to see her learn to care for herself and reciprocate the support that Miles showed her. Miles was a fantastic book boyfriend, he had me kicking my feet and giggling at times due to his attentiveness and small gestures that showed how much he cared about the people in his life.

This was a cute and quick read. I though it was very cute and loved the water aspect of it. Cover is great to draw in attention as well.

Loved this sweet romance by Cara Bastone! When Lenny first meets Miles while babysitting for his niece, she is a grieving mess who can’t even go home at night for all the memories that are there. But through Miles patient and tender care, Lenny is able to work through her grief and learn to love again. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

4.5 stars! I absolutely loved this book. I have never read a book that covered grief like this one. The relationship between Lenny and Miles was so beautiful and had so much depth. I now wanna read Ready or Not by Cara!

I tried so hard not sob on the plane but damn…this one got me. Cara writes the perfect balance of grief, humor, witty banter and finding the joy of living. This book was everything and more. The companionship between Lenny and Miles is such a strong bond even though they had a rocky start. There’s this feeling like they’re known each other for much longer, but I think experiencing grief with someone who understands and has been in your shoes will come with that feeling. Miles’ tender caring and acceptance of Lenny had me gripping my aching chest and believing that we’ve all either been a Miles for someone else or had a Miles in our life.

“Miles walked into hell and dragged me back out.”

This was absolutely beautiful and had me laughing one moment and tearing up the next page. Cara Bastone is an auto buy and read author for me and I’m excited for everyone to read this one and can’t believe it comes out next year! Thank you Dial Press and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Cara Bastone for the ARC of, “Promise Me Sunshine”

⭐️3.5⭐️

This is my first book from this author (although I have Ready or Not downloaded for a while now to read) and overall I enjoyed the story.

Lenny has a best friend/sister, Lou, who dies from ovarian cancer. Navigating through this difficult and painful death, she takes a job as a Nanny, where she meets Miles, the half-brother of the child’s mom. Miles is navigating through his own losses (parental death, etc) as well as only two years meeting the sister and niece who knew nothing of him (bastard child).

The story follows Lenny & her various struggles as she tackles grief in every aspect of her life. Miles decides to make a deal, help him win his niece and sister over and he’ll show her the best route for living with grief, through the “list” Lou left her in her death. A list of things to accomplish. In the process, they fall in love, and overcome many different obstacles that are necessary in the grieving process.

I loved the relationship between Lenny & Miles. I totally felt their chemistry, and I always appreciate a good strangers->friends->lovers trope. If there’s one thing I would change, it would be how slooooooooow this book felt at times. I mean the slow burn was SLOW. I also wish that the list, at times, had more interesting and impactful moments. The only moments that were impactful, for me, is when Lenny cuts her hair & takes Miles to meet Lou. I did cry, and for that I applaud the author!

I am also sad about the ending. I wish there was a touch more “healing” as in I really wanted to experience Lenny visiting Lou’s actual grave. Like by herself. I wanted to hear her speak to her. I wanted to, so badly, have an epilogue where I see Lenny and Miles in a semi-back to normal state. Instead I felt left with questions with no answers. I felt unsatisfied, and honestly quite sad.

With that being said, I really did enjoy this book, and all of the good parts made the iffy parts worth it! I am really hoping there will be a next book with his friend, Ethan! I need that story.

You can find my review on Goodreads!

Oh wow wow wowwwww! WOW! Ready or Not is one of my favorite reads this year... and now this one is too! It will definitely fall into one of my favorite romance books of ALL TIME.

I love going into books not knowing anything, so I did the same for this and did not read the description. From the first page, I knew this was going to be a very heavy and emotional read and wow... what a ride it was. I have read a lot of books that talk about grief, but never to the extent that this one did. It didn't just brush it, take one chapter to talk about it... no it DOVE into it headfirst. Every second we are with Lenny in her pain of losing the one closest to her. You can feel her pain and just utter loss of how to go about life now through the pages.

And yet, through it all, someone reaches down and helps. In comes Miles! An angel! I know romance readers talk all the time about the "perfect boyfriend" buuuut I'm sorry to say Miles wins! Does he have flaws? Duh, but he's perfect for LENNY. He always knows exactly what the needs and knows when to push her. Their slow-burn, friends-to-lovers journey was -- and I cannot stress this enough -- perfect. Absolutely zero notes.

There are so many other small details I could talk about it, but I will end my review here before I start crying at my keyboard lol. Thank you NetGalley and Dial Press for this ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest feedback. Another beautiful book written by Cara Bastone. This book took me on a ride of emotions. It made me smile. It made me cry. We neeeeed more books like this that explore the journey of what grief does to a person. I wish everyone had their own Miles after reading this book.

I can’t believe I am so lucky I get to live in the same time period as Cara Bastone and this book. I have literally straight sobbed my way through the last 30% of this book along with 13 other parts PRIOR. Beyond just the crying my body has had literal physical reactions to this book. I’m talking BONE DEEP ACHING with love for this book, love for the people in my life (specifically my best friends), appreciation for love!!!! and the most longing for love I have literally ever felt.

I wish I could smother dial press in hugs and kisses because I had no idea when getting this arc that it would literally a(e)ffect me this way. Best friendship is beautiful, and friendship in general is so amazing and beautiful and this book was so amazing and beautiful.

An amazing representation of grief and platonic love. But also such a beautiful story about learning to fall back in love with life, accepting life after loss, and letting!!! people!!!!! be there for you!!!!! I literally can’t say enough good things about this book my heart is actually in pieces rn

It’s a story of Lenny, who is just trying to survive each day after a devastating loss. She was a full time nanny but only takes short term gigs while she is in the depth of grief. Her new gig is where she meets the grumpy Miles, uncle to the kid she is in charge of. It turns out this guy with a bad first impression and people skills has also gone through the depths of grief and may be the perfect person to show her that there is life after loss and you don’t have to do it alone.

I read this on a long flight and gosh the number of times I had to wipe my eyes was kind of embarrassing but sorry not sorry for having feelings! The tears must have started at like 30 minutes into reading. To the two ladies next to me that didn’t know they’d be getting ms water works on the plane next to them, sorry! There is so much depth about not just dealing with loss but how to deal with the unexpected, the scary, the unexpected things of life and how to let new people in. Letting people in and helping is not a weakness but a blessing and necessity in life. I truly believe we are meant to live in relationship so this just hit so close to home. I loved their relationship and how much they learn from each other. I giggled to myself softly a number of time and must have been smiling, so the ladies next to me must have thought I was crazy, or they should’ve asked me what great book I was reading!

Maybe it also hit closer to my heart because of the health issues I was dealing with in friends’ parents as well as my own family. There is hardship in life but there are also so many beautiful people and things all around us if we can just let them in. Thank you Cara for this beautiful story even if you made me cry multiple times on a plane next to strangers.

Solid 4 stars. Thank you NetGalley for the arc of this book. Despite the depressing subject matter I really enjoyed it. The author did an excellent job of adding humor to the book so it wasn't too sad of a read. I really enjoyed the story minus one weird scene. I wish there was a little more at the end as well...maybe an epilogue. Overall I really like this authors writing style and look forward to reading more of her books in the future.

Cara Bastone may be one of my new favorite authors. Romance, but with emotional complexity, and good humor. Loved every second! Just as good, if not better, than Ready or Not!

This isn’t my usual read, but I ended up really loving it. Lenny’s journey through grief and her bond with Miles were heartfelt and touching.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars from me!

I enjoyed Cara Bastone’s book Ready or Not a lot, so I was already excited to read this one.

Promise Me Sunshine follows our FMC Lenny who is trying to find her way after losing her best friend to cancer, and Miles, the gruff and handsome uncle to the sweet 7 year old girl that Lenny is babysitting. It's about how to come back to life after facing the depths of grief, showing up for others and for yourself, and rebuilding your life after tragedy.

I love how Miles and Lenny's relationship was so layered—each of them showing up as imperfect humans and works in progress, and how they were both able to help each other grow. I wish everyone going through hard times had a Miles!!

Cara Bastone writes such real characters that I feel like I would be friends with. They're mature but also have issues they're working on and ways they're trying to grow.

This is the best of the romance genre for me—love in the messy, real parts of life, exploring what it means to be human, and how we can grow and change despite the challenges of life.

Read this if you enjoy books with:
💕 Friends to lovers
🐌 Slooow burn
🗽 City vibes (NYC!)
📈 Character growth
🤍 Flawed but caring MCs
✨ Found family and the value & beauty of friendship
💔 Grief and loss
😢 Emotional read

Thanks to Penguin Random House and Cara Bastone for giving me this ARC (opinions are my own!). It releases on March 4, 2025.

Cara Bastone has a special way of reaching out to readers and making them FEEL. This book was funny, compelling, and moving. I did wish for slightly more depth in the character of Miles (he felt almost too perfect) but I really enjoyed it. 4 Stars.

I really liked this story, I love how the author address the grief aspect. She made me go to all the emotion and I loved that. I won't lie the start is very slow, the book really started to interest me at about 35-40%, but like I said it is really well written so I didn't really care. The characters are great, I would have like to have I little more detail on their life before, there were some but not enough in my opinion to really understand how much the characters were grieving. I'ts a super good book if you want to cry and then laugh in the same sentence, I don't know how she did that but she did and I loved it.

What a gorgeous book above love and grief. Absolutely loved the characters and their understanding of grief. It was a slow start but so glad I stuck with it!

2 stars ⭐

I really enjoyed the authors previous work so I thought I would enjoy this more than I did. Firstly, the pacing was all over the place. One thought from our FMC could take up 4-5 paragraphs yet when we get to the scenes where things are actually happening, things move so quickly I have to re-read paragraphs to understand. Speaking of the FMC, Lenny, is so... infantile? They have her wearing childish sweaters (which jesus christ I know she's a babysitter but c'mon man) every day and the way she acts... listen i know she's going through grief but she's so one dimensional and she's clearly trying to emulate the "omg i'm so quirky and sad and not like other women" vibe and i hate it. On that note, the MMC is so bland it's laughable. He is staler than a piece of week old toast. He can be replaced by every other romance MMC and I wouldn't even notice.

Overall, I'm disappointed,

I absolutely loved "Ready or Not" by Cara Bastone, so I was super excited to read her next book, "Promise Me Sunshine". I'll admit I went in with pretty high expectations, but overall, this one did not disappoint! Lenny is grieving the tragic loss of her best friend, when, while on a nannying gig, she meets Miles. Miles is no stranger to grief- having lived through some pretty traumatic events in his past, he takes it upon himself to look out for Lenny during this tough time. The writing was excellent with lots of witty banter and several laugh out loud moments. I loved the dynamic between Lenny and Miles, and it was interesting to read about their relationship starting off from a place of intense grief. I will say, the one knock I have on this is that the romance felt a little TOO drawn out, and I found that frustrating at times. Overall, I really enjoyed this and appreciated a fresh take on a rom-com.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the advanced copy for my honest review!

promise me sunshine

literally one of the best books i’ve read in a long time. from the start it had my FULL attention. I was so intrigued by lenny and her backstory and I wanted to know everything about her. although she is battling some serious grief, I loved her character sm bc she was infectiously funny (even tho she may not have been trying). her character always kept me wanting more. and the dynamic with her and ainsley was fo fun. they were a perfect match. seeing miles reach out to lenny and try to be a friend was so beautiful. I was hesitant about him at first but wow did that man prove he was a good guy!!! the way he was there for her and understood what she was going though was actually unreal. seeing their friendship grow and evolve was stunning. you literally can’t help but root for them. seeing lenny start to heal and grow in her grief journey was so damn beautiful it made me cry. this is absolutely a book I will be rereading potentially a million times. I was constantly cracking up while reading— the humor in this book matched my humor so well and I literally thought everything was funny 😂 cheers miss cara bc this was a mf HIT!!