Heavy, raw, realistic — a refreshing read. In some ways, this book reminded me of the movie Uptown Girls! I really enjoyed this story, loved the style of writing, especially the realistic/super awkward moments that are relatable!

Will definitely be reading more of Cara Bastone’s books! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Oh my GOD I loved this book. Ready or Not was an easy 6 star read for me so I had suuuper high expectations for this one and it blew them all out of the water.

I think Lenny is my favorite character ever, her personality was so fresh and fun and I loved the way she saw the world, even while in the pits of despair. The slow burn of her and Miles’ relationship was just absolutely delicious.

If I wanted to be persnickety, the only thing I’d change is that I wish there had’ve been an epilogue but that’s only because I’m a greedy guts and want more of the story.

Cara Bastone has cemented herself as one of my favorite authors with this one!!

This book was hard to read as someone that will forever be grieving. Some aspects of grief rang true in this story and I felt seen. I'm not sure the grief experience in the story was relatable though. When most people experience a loss, they don't have the choice to shut down and stop living. To sleep elsewhere so they don't have to go back to the home they shared with the person they lost. To just keep buying new clothes so they don't have to go home where there are so many memories. I loved being able to relate to what it's like to grieve, but I couldn't relate to not having to face life.

I loved this book. The depiction of grief was spot on and something that deeply resonated with me. It was a beautiful story of life after loos and clawing your way through the isolation of grief to see the sun again. On the other side of the coin, I loved Miles' journey and legitimate attempts to forge a bond with his only family. The way they supported each other was beautiful and felt like a realistic romance. Just a great book all around.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for this ARC. It is greatly appreciated! I had to DNF this book due to the main character's inner monologue and her interactions with other characters was over the top. I could not get into the banter, the character interactions or the inner monologue of the main character. Again thank you to Random house publishing group for this arc!

I really loved this book. It didnt shy away from how heavy grief can be, but balanced it with humor and a great love story.

I truly loved this book. I care deeply about the characters and the depiction of grief absolutely wrecked me. Lenny is so funny and silly and weird and perfect, and Miles’ love is steady and strong and is the actual blueprint. I love them. I will think about them forever. I wanted to read this because I loved Ready or Not so much, and this really blew me away. I wish I could read 100 more pages of banter between Lenny and Miles. And I wish I had a friend like Lenny. This book made me cry and it made me laugh out loud. When it comes out on audiobook, I will definitely be listening again,

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this early.

Holy smokes Cara. This was amazing.
Lenny’s constant struggle with grief is so raw and it’s refreshing to see a character that’s not okay. Miles is the sweetest most understanding man that deserves the world.

In a book where the material and the main characters are so deeply sad, I was constantly laughing throughout. Also, tears were definitely shed several times.

Cara Bastone's latest is a treatise on grief. I was super impressed by her ability to relay such a loving story on a complicated topic. Lenny as a character experiencing true grief could gotten really repetitive and annoying, but Miles was the perfect foil. If not for the growth between the characters this book would've lost me. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Dial Press Trade Paperback and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

Despite the lightness of the cover, this story has a ton of depth and it hits you hard in the feels with its portrayal of finding joy again after grieving a heavy loss. This book follows Lenny, who is barely getting by after losing her best friend Lou to cancer. She meets Miles on a nannying gig and, despite their rocky start, they form a connection that blossoms into friendship and then something more. Cara Bastone has a gift for writing incredible characters that are multi-dimensional yet relatable. This was a wonderful follow-up to Ready or Not (snaps for the Ethan cameo in this) and I can’t wait until she picks up the pen again.

what a lovely read! this is my first read by this author and im excited to dive into more books by them. likeable characters, interesting plot and well thought out message. i would rate this 4/5 only for the fact that it didnt capture my attention as quickly as i wouldve liked

I loved this book! Cara Bastone does it again! Lenny has just lost her whole world when her best friend Lou passes away, her grief is overwhelming.. Enter Miles. He’s the opposite of her in almost every way but knowing what deep loss is like. Throughout the book he helps to navigate a new normal that develops into more. This book was tender and sweet, and really hit home for me since I just lost my father two months ago. I highly recommend.

Absolutely fabulous and another winner from Cara Bastone. This one ripped me apart at times but was also so with, funny, and charming at the same time.

2 ⭐️

I love Cara Bastone, but this one wasn't for me. It fell flat and that's ok.

I can only imagine the pain of losing your best friend. Naturally, Lenny was going to go through it. She and Lou did everything together. It came off that Lenny used Lou as a crutch to get through life.

I don't feel that Lenny wanted or was ready to move on. I felt like she might be using Miles as a crutch, and he was enabling her to continue to do so. She had a quirky personality, but it felt like it was put on show too much.

I think Miles did what he could to help Lenny through the grief. He was there for her and did things to cheer her up or lead her to something that would cheer her up. I also think that Miles and Reese have a lot to work through.

There were times that Lenny's thought would run on for a paragraph or 2, and then we would move onto the next scene, which felt a bit off to me. I did need to reread a few parts just to understand where we were heading next or to realize that we moved into a new scene.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for providing. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Dell for providing me with the ARC to read and review!

Wow! This was my first Cara Bastone book and she did not disappoint! Promise Me Sunshine follows Lenny and Miles, who come into one another's lives very unexpectedly as Lenny is hired to be the nanny for Mile's niece. After a rocky meeting, the two of them decide to help one another, Lenny helping Mile's heal his relationship with his sister and niece and Mile's, helping Lenny to live again following the death of her best friend. What follows is really a gorgeous slow burn romance that tackles loss, family dynamics, and how to continue life after life altering change.

Let's start with every thing I loved about this, which is mostly MILES! He is the perfect socially awkward, dreamy, emotionally mature man of my dreams. He really is perfect and I cannot wait for him to become everyone's book boyfriend. Just so y'all know, he was mine first! This book had great emotional depth, a wide variety of diverse side characters, and a beautiful slow burn romance (and when I say slow, I mean SLOWWWWW). I have very few complaints about this. It really kept me interested in not only their connection with each other, but also as they grapple with their own losses.

The only real thing I would chance about this would be to just give us a little more at the end. Without spoiling, I would have loved there to be a chapter or two more to tie things up!

One thing I will note is that I have not experiences loss like Lenny has, so I cannot speak to the accuracies of the depiction of grief, but It felt honest and real to me as an outsider.

Once again, I had a great time with this and cannot wait to read more for Cara Bastone! Thanks again to Dell for this ARC y'all are the best :))

I often will take little notes as I read a book. Things I loved, found interesting, good quotes.
I didn't with this book. I just kept reading. I wanted to stay immersed in it. I wanted to keep feeling like Miles was helping ME along

This is a beautiful story about loss, grief, friendship, and loves of your life. It was wonderful.

Earlier this year I read my first Cara Bastone novel, 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘕𝘰𝘵 and absolutely loved it. I was eager to get access to her upcoming release, 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐄. I had zero chill and dove right in. It's not out until March 2025 but trust me-  you'll want to add it to your TBR now, it did not disappoint. 

I wouldn't describe this as a romance per se, but it's certainly a story with love, found-family, friendship and tenderly crafted characters.  There is a deep undercurrent of grief as our main character, Lenny, comes to terms with the loss of her best friend and platonic soul mate.  She finds herself and love along the way. Her journey feels like it does when you're watching the leaves change in the fall. Delightfully paced and anticipating every small change. 
While there are heavy themes, I found myself laughing alot. The humor and levity made the heft bearable. The found family and side characters jumped from the page. The male love interest, Miles, is near perfect aside from his 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner. :)  

More words: NYC, emotional, reflective, charming, believable, layered. I've reread passages multiple times already.

This book will have you laughing and crying! While I do think the end was a bit rushed, I loved the slow burn romance and the rich story within it. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Wow. Wowwwwwwwww.

What a masterclass in grief and what it means to live in it, through it, to come out the other side still a little broken but also healed and whole in a different new way. What it means for someone to help you, in all ways, big and small, that amount to the kindest acts ever given to you.

What a love letter to friendship. To give validation to all the different loves of our lives. Our friends shape us, they mold us, they create us. Why wouldn't we feel such a loss of life when we lose them? Lenny's grief for her friend is beautiful in its heartbreak. I'm going to treasure this story for the rest of my life for what it means to love a friend so purely.

Don't even get me started on Miles. There are no words.

I'll be thinking about this one for a long while.

Thank you to Dial Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Cara Bastone, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley for this arc of Promise Me Sunshine out March 4, 2025!

📜Quick Summary: Lenny is struggling to come back to life. After losing her best friend Lou,Lenny is not having an easy time picking up the pieces. She’s deep in the stages of grief, and life is passing her by. Lenny is quirky by nature, and while picking up a new temporary nanny gig, runs into grumpy neighbor Miles. As he is haunted by his own grief, he can tell Lenny is somewhere deep in her grief, and wants to help her live again. With the bucket list Lenny and Lou wrote before her passing, Miles is there to help her get back into the real world.

❣️Initial Feels: On so many levels, I feel like the premise of this book is going to kill me. My best friends and I have been besties for more than half of our lives, and watching Lenny grieve makes me grieve the inevitable future version of me that will experience this. Miles is your typical grouchy, sexy, unknown leading male character, that is of course hiding more than we could even imagine.

👀Trigger Warnings: deep on grief, loss of a best friend, depression

🙋🏼‍♀️Moving Character: I adored Miles. Yes, Lenny was our leading lady and although she made me laugh at times, Miles also went through some heavy stuff and somehow still was the very best friend Lenny needed. He truly went above and beyond for a stranger, simply because of his heart of gold.

📖Read if you want: romance, slow burn, overcoming deep grief

💡Final Sentiments: Overall this book was heavy on the grief and depression, and she really had to work through some demons. Lenny and Miles’s slow burn romance was built on a strong friendship, where both parties worked on healing themselves before submitting to one another. I enjoyed this book a lot, even though a majority of it is truly the journey of grieving someone extremely important in your life. If you are someone who is dealing or has dealt with losing someone special, this book may be difficult for you to read. It makes you look at how you would dig yourself out of an incomprehensible situation, but it’s heavy on the heart.

🌟Overall Rating: 4 stars

This novel was provided by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.