Sneak Peek: Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

ON OUR BOOKSHELF

Promise Me Sunshine

by Cara Bastone

A friends-to-lovers story that you’ll pick up time and again throughout your life.

In loss we must continue to live life and find love. Promise Me Sunshine delivers a heartwarming, slow-burn romance that you’ll revisit through multiple milestones in life. In true Cara fashion, you’ll love the strong foundation of friendship between the main characters, and then you’ll fall for their sweet love story.

I’m grateful to have received an advanced reader’s copy of this book via NetGalley! And I’ve already pre-ordered a copy for my shelf.

The Sneak Peek

One’s journey with grief is as unique as each of us.

In Promise Me Sunshine, Miles walks alongside Lenny in her grief after the loss of her best friend and soul-mate to cancer. Lenny is understandably a mess, struggling to get back on her feet and take steps to keep moving forward despite the “live again” list that lives in her pocket — a list she drafted with her best friend to survive her grief.

When Lenny finds herself at a temporary weekend-long babysitting job, she’s able to seemingly fake it (while keeping her fingers crossed that no one will notice she’s not fully together)… But when Miles, the grumpy, overprotective uncle, starts to see through Lenny’s facade, Lenny’s plan might just crumble as quickly as she succumbs to her grief when she’s alone.

But, Miles proposes a mutually beneficial plan — he’ll help Lenny through her grief, if she can help him strengthen his relationship with Ainsley and his sister. And so, we’re blessed with a beautiful story of friendship as Miles shows up. He pulls Lenny out of her darkest places, giving her somewhere soft to land and a safe place to settle. All the while, learning how to be there for his family.

And with every turn of the page, Lenny learns to live again.

What Victoria Loved

VICTORIA’S RATING: 4/5

Cara balances humor and lightness against the darkness of loss and grief— a reminder that the two can coexist. Through Lenny and Miles, Cara reminds us that there is an after in heartbreak, that we’ll break through the fog of pain… and that it’s okay to laugh and smile in the process of grieving. In fact, I was alternating between laughing and crying with every page turn. 

Promise Me Sunshine does an incredible job in normalizing coping mechanisms, understanding how grief can manifest in a range of behaviors and feelings, and addressing the many unexpected and unanswered questions we might have about the unknowns of loss and life after. It’s so human and raw that I found myself revisiting my own grief and being gentler with past self in how I navigated that journey.

And then I’d turn the page and breathe in the fresh air and the relatability of Lenny’s meet cute HEA fantasies. I swooned and giggled at the ridiculousness of it all, but I also felt so seen. Is anyone else an absolute hopeless romantic just waiting for true love to knock you off your feet in that first moment? Well, maybe it’s just me because I had that instantaneous swooping feeling the day I met my husband. I just knew he was it. So, this little mechanism (on top of the fact that I’m obsessed with romance novels and HEAs) might reveal my bias for this romance. But I stand by this love story! 

Yes, there’s the element of instant love, but this is very much a story of friends-to-lovers. It’s very much a story of grief and life after loss, finding one’s place in a world that’s moving forward when all you want to do is stay still or go back in time. It’s about finding and embracing lightness and humor and a future when all you want is to be engulfed in darkness… Its about finding your person, someone who grounds you, who slowly builds you up, lets you feel safe, helps you find yourself in a new world. This book is so much wrapped in a romance. 

I feel like this is a book I’m going to pick up multiple times on my life — when I need quick childcare tips, when I feel down and dejected and need a breakthrough tips, when I need reminders on how to show up for friends

Pre-order your copy of Promise Me Sunshine (Amazon) and read with me!

Favorite Scene

“But with you, Len, when I met you… I sort of feel like I met myself.”

- PROMISE ME SUNSHINE by Cara Bastone

Similar Reads & Recommendations

• JOURNEY OF GRIEF: PS: I Hate You by Lauren Connolly (Amazon)

  I couldn’t put this book down from the second I started it. I finished it in a single seating and I’m already looking forward to rereading it. Lauren Connolly shows us the strength of found family and demonstrates different manifestations of grief through the loss of a sibling, a child, a best friend, a partner. But it’s the second-chance love story that will simultaneously fill your heart up and rip it to shreds with each turn of the page. 

  VICTORIA’S RATING: 4.5/5

• WHEN ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS GO BACK IN TIME: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston (Amazon)

  An HoH Book Club Pick! This is a magical romance that feels like you’re being wrapped in a warm fuzzy blanket on a cold, rainy day or a great big hug from your favorite person. You’ll be rooting for the main characters from their meet-cute and eagerly turning the next page to see how it all comes together.

  VICTORIA’S RATING: 5/5

• SHE’S A NANNY TO A GRUMPY SINGLE-DAD: Heartless (Chestnut Springs #2) by Elsie Silver (Amazon)

  I’m never one to read book 1 of a series, if I’m drawn to the plot of a book later in the series. And if I'm a fan, I’ll loop back and read from the start. This was the first book I read in the Chestnut Springs series because I was going down a nanny / single-parent rabbit hole and it certainly drew me into Wishing Well Ranch and the Eaton siblings. Broody cowboy dad, age-gap, and a hot tub… need I say more?

  VICTORIA’S RATING: 4/5

• WITNESS AND LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST: Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez (Amazon)

  Read my full pre-release Sneak Peek. This wrecked me. I wasn’t prepared for the emotional pendulum that is this love story. Or the framing of memories in the lens of witnessing and living life. Say You’ll Remember Me weaves in heart-wrenching truths about dementia, loss, and love through fresh, witty banter an incredible balance of the lightness of humor and laughter against the heaviness of grief and anxiety.

  VICTORIA’S RATING: 4/5

• BY THE AUTHOR: Ready or Not by Cara Bastone (Amazon)

  You’ll fall for everything about this book — from the characters to the setting, and obviously the romance. Cara delivers another heart-warming friends-to-lovers that will pull at your heartstrings.

  VICTORIA’S RATING: 4/5

Until the next chapter!

xo, Victoria

P.S. Craving more books featuring these sub-genres, tropes, and themes? Tap the links below.