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4.5 stars

“And this journey through grief…It’s what we do for the great loves of our lives.��

This book is not just a love story; it is a deep exploration of grief, healing, and how love can find us even in the darkest moments of our lives. It is a journey of loss, the struggle to rebuild yourself after grief has turned everything upside down, and the realisation that sometimes losing everything is just the beginning of finding yourself again. It’s so much more than just a romance; it’s about resilience, about finding hope when it seems like all is lost.

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone follows Lenny, a woman still grappling with the loss of her best friend Lou to cancer. Lenny isn’t truly living—she is merely existing, trapped by the suffocating weight of grief. Every aspect of her life feels shattered, and she doesn’t know how to begin putting the pieces back together. She takes a babysitting job for a single mother named Reese and her daughter Ainsley, and it’s there that she meets Reese’s brother, Miles. Miles, who is also grieving, sees Lenny for who she truly is in a way no one else does. He makes her an offer: he will help her work through her grief and complete her “live again�� list if she helps him navigate his complicated relationship with his niece. As Lenny and Miles spend more time together, Lenny comes to understand that healing doesn’t always come through grand gestures; sometimes it is found in the smallest, quietest moments of connection.

“Maybe I’ve been trapped in a painting all along. Smeared and brilliantly applied. Every colour is from the eye of someone who knows exactly what the hell they’re doing. I’m uncontainable. I’ve just cracked the code. How to live a perfect existence: just embrace it all, every lovely/excruciating colour.��

����ԲԲ�’s grief felt incredibly real, so raw that it almost felt like my own. The loss of Lou was heartbreaking—this wasn’t just a friendship; it was a sisterhood. Lou had been there for everything, and now she was gone. The way Lenny struggles to let go, to allow herself to begin living again, was devastating to read. There’s a quiet kind of pain that comes with losing someone you love so much, and this book captures that ache in such a beautiful way. The author does not shy away from the difficult parts of grief—the guilt, the denial, the anger, and the heartache. Grief is not something you can simply “get over.�� It is something you carry with you, day by day, and ����ԲԲ�’s journey shows that so honestly.

What spoke to me the most was the way the book portrays grief as something unpredictable and messy. It doesn’t follow a clear path. It is not something you can check off a list. ����ԲԲ�’s grief does not disappear just because she starts to “live again.�� She has moments when she feels as though she is healing, but then, like a wave crashing over her, the weight of the loss hits her again. It is a constant ebb and flow. For anyone who has experienced deep loss, you will understand how grief can sneak up on you when you least expect it. You cannot prepare for it. Just when you think you are okay, you are reminded that the person you love will never come back. The guilt of continuing without them, of finding joy again when they cannot—it is a quiet, insidious pain. But ����ԲԲ�’s journey shows that even in the darkest moments, there is still hope. That is what made this story so powerful—it did not pretend healing was easy, but it demonstrated that it is possible.

I loved ����ԲԲ�’s character because she wasn’t perfect, and she didn’t have it all together. She was a mess, and she didn’t care. She wasn’t concerned with how she looked or whether her clothes matched. She was simply trying to get through each day. I related to her so much. Her sadness, confusion, and anger felt familiar. It was painful to watch her try to navigate the world without Lou, and there were moments when I wished I could reach through the pages and hug her. This book reminds us that grief is not something we can escape; it is something we can share. ����ԲԲ�’s strength came from allowing herself to be vulnerable and letting others see her pain.

“He walked into hell and dragged me back out.��

Then there is Miles. Miles, with his quiet strength, his kindness, and his ability to truly understand the world. I have never wanted a fictional character in my life more than I wanted Miles! His understanding of grief and his gentle patience with Lenny as she stumbled through her healing process made my heart swell. He wasn’t trying to fix her—he was there for her in the most needed, understated ways. He helped her navigate her grief without rushing it, without minimising it. I loved that about him. He wasn’t perfect either. He had his own struggles, his own pain but he never once made Lenny feel like a burden! He just showed up for her, quietly and steadily. In doing so, he gave her the courage to stand on her own again. His emotional intelligence was extraordinary. The way he understood ����ԲԲ�’s grief, how he supported her without pushing, and how he balanced his own pain with the need to help her—it was breathtaking.

“I’m never sleeping when I close my eyes like this with you.��
“Then what are you doing?��
He pauses and I think he might not answer. But then he says, “I’m committing the moment to memory.��

Lenny & Miles- their relationship wasn’t about one saving the other. They both helped each other, in ways that were so small yet so significant. They found each other not by looking for love, but by being there for each other through the hardest parts of life. Their love grew from friendship, from shared experiences, and from seeing each other in their rawest, most vulnerable moments. The slow burn between them felt natural and organic I love how it was just two people slowly healing, slowly finding each other amidst their grief.

The only reason I didn’t give this book a perfect five stars is because, for me, it didn’t quite make me cry the way I was hoping it would. Don’t get me wrong—I teared up a lot, but I didn’t experience that gut-wrenching, soul-deep cry that lingers after you finish a book. But even so, the emotional depth of this book was undeniable. It made me reflect on my own experiences with loss, how grief shapes us, and how love can find us even in the darkest times.

Overall, this book is a story about the messy, unpredictable journey of grief and healing. It is about finding hope again after everything seems lost, about realising that even in your most broken moments, there is still beauty to be found. If you have ever experienced loss or gone through a tough time, this book will speak to your heart. Even if you haven’t, it is a beautiful reminder of the quiet strength we all have within us.

This was my first book by Cara Bastone, and I can confidently say it won’t be my last!