Promise Me Sunshine (A Hearts of New York Novel #2) by Cara Bastone

A tender, heart-squeezing slow burn about learning how to live after devastating loss—and letting someone new show up for you when you’re sure you’re beyond saving. Promise Me Sunshine blends real, messy grief with quiet humor and warmth, building a love story out of small moments, steady care, and the courage to try again.

Lenny is barely holding it together. Since cancer took her best friend, she’s been avoiding everything that reminds her of the life she lost: her worried parents, the apartment they shared, and the laminated “live again” list she promised she’d follow to survive her grief. She’s trying to look functional, but she’s falling apart in private.

The only work she can handle is temporary babysitting, and she lands a great gig helping Reese, an overworked single mom, and her precocious daughter Ainsley. The catch? Ainsley’s uncle Miles is always around—and he’s basically the human embodiment of a grumpy cat meme. Worse, he can see right through Lenny’s “I’m fine” act.

Miles knows grief, too, and he offers Lenny a deal: he’ll help her complete her “live again” list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and navigate his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doesn’t believe anything can fill the hole her best friend left behind… but Miles keeps showing up anyway—through late-night ferry rides, midnight ramen, and the kind of support that doesn’t demand she be okay first. Sometimes your life has to end to find your new beginning.