⭐⭐
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
416 pages | Published by Dial Press Pub Date: March 4, 2025
The Set Up: Lenny is struggling after her best friend died from cancer. She lands a temporary nanny job for Reese and her daughter Ainsley, but Ainsley’s uncle Miles is always hovering close by. Miles can tell Lenny is in a rough place, and offers to help her through her grief if she helps him bond with his niece.
I’ve seen a lot of rave reviews of this book already, but unfortunately this one and I did not click.
There were definitely aspects I liked: Miles being an absolute sweetheart, the slow-burn friends-to-lovers arc, and Miles’ journey to connect with his family, but there were also parts that didn’t work for me at all.
Lenny was SO qUiRkY which never lands for me. But the biggest problem of this whole story to me was the lack of, like, actual therapy? There’s a growing trend in romance (I feel) of the MCs healing each other, and this was a pretty egregious example. Lenny was quite literally suicidal. It just felt icky to me.
Pacing-wise, the book dragged in some places but skimmed over moments I wanted more depth in, making it feel both too long and incomplete. Unfortunately, for me, it missed the mark.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced ebook!
Comments