thischarmingreader's Reviews (1.46k)

Promise Me Sunshine

Cara Bastone

5.0

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

✨ARC Review✨

I am deeply, completely in love with Promise Me Sunshine.

Does @carabastone know how to write the most deliciously perfect MMCs? She does. But does she also know how to write the most relatable and interesting FMCs? Hell yes, she does.

Lenny is in the depths of soul-destroying grief after her best friend and almost-sister, Lou, has died. She’s taking temporary nanny jobs because she doesn’t have the emotional strength to commit to more than a couple of days at a time. She begins a weekend job caring for seven-year-old Ainsley (who is flippin’ adorable) where Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, is constantly hanging around.

They have bit of a rough start, but after he saves Lenny from a street side confrontation, they start to develop a friendship. He has experience with deep grief and thinks he can help Lenny navigate hers. He’s right.

Through the next days, weeks, and months, he helps Lenny check items off the list she and Lou had created for how to start living again.

These quests allow Lenny and Miles to connect in such a core-deep way. Watching these two fall in love is an absolute pleasure. I cannot tell you how much I love Lenny and Miles and all the wonderful side characters.

I give this book all the stars. I’m going to be thinking about this forever. I have no doubt.

I received this eARC via #netgalley and @randomhouse and @thedialpress. All thoughts are my own.

#booksbooksbooks #romancebooks #contemporaryromance #bookreview #bookrecs #bookstagram #promisemesunshine #carabastone

The Frozen River

Ariel Lawhon

5.0

dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Book Group Read📚

Our first book group read for 2025 was Frozen River and we all gave it 4-5 stars.

Set in 1789, our MC is a midwife whose medical experience is called upon for other things when needed; such is the case when a man’s lifeless body is pulled from the frozen river.

When she arrives she quickly identifies him as a local man recently accused of rape as well as identifying that the man was hanged before he was tossed in the river.

We then proceed to learn the story of the midwife, her family, and her community as it all pertains to the murder, the rape, and their subsequent trials.

I love the research that went into being able to write this story. I LOVED the MC, Matha Ballard. She’s a badass and her husband, Ephraim, is a real one.

I listened to this one and it was riveting. I didn’t want to stop even to sleep. I did, of course, because I’m old and need my rest.

#books #literaryfiction #historicalfiction #thefrozenriver #ariellawhon #bookrecs #bookreview #bookstagram