Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

Anyone paying close attention here (lolz) might notice there hasn't been a book review in a long time. That is because I am in a book rut. I was reading meh books and feeling bad about it. You know how you're in a book rut and you start to question your identity as a reader? Is this just me? I don't know. Anyway, Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone was available as an audiobook immediately and Stephany and Kim had written about it gushingly, so I threw my actual TBR to the wind and dove in. 

Lenny is struggling. Her best friend died and her grief is overwhelming everything. She's not going home to the apartment she shared with her friend, she's avoiding her parents, and she's only taking short-term babysitting gigs. One of those short-terms gigs is watching Ainsley when her single mother Reese is working out of town. The only problem is that Ainsley's Uncle Miles is always around. He's grumpy, he's mean, and he's not helping Lenny (or Ainsley, for that matter). Well, he's not helping until he realizes that she's in a state of distress and then he has this crazy idea to make her come back to life.

This novel is crazy. It's grumpy/sunshine and friends to lovers romance, but it's also a novel about grief. In my head, I'm over here saying that Lenny should not get involved romantically until she sorts herself out, but I think these two kids are going to make it. I thought this book was so delicately written and plotted and I loved every second of it. I loved the secondary characters from Lenny's parents to the little girl Ainsley (and you know I normally think precocious kids are NOT good) to the doorman of the building. I loved the scenes on the Staten Island ferry. I loved feeling all the feelings. 

Also? You guys. I am Lenny and my husband is Miles. It's just how it is. 5/5 stars

Lines of note: 

What am I supposed to do? Wear a sign? Not strung out, just having a debilitating mental health crisis while navigating the most excruciating chapter of my life. (Chapter Two)

I mean, maybe a sign would be good?

Producing a book from nowhere, he reclines and is immediately the picture of someone who can entertain themself with nothing but their own intellect. It's irritating in an attractive way. (Chapter Twenty-Two)

YES!! Sometimes I just want him to pay attention to me, but he'd rather entertain himself. It's quite attractive, but I still want attention. 

I throw my arms out to the sides. "Let's be oil paintings, you beautiful bitch!"
He lowers his book and eyes me over top of it. "It must be truly exhausting to live in your brain." 
"You have no idea." (Chapter Twenty-Two)

Actual conversation we have in our house about once a week!

"I felt joy...real joy, and I didn't know I was capable of that feeling anymore, but there it was." (Chapter Twenty-Eight)

I hope someday I feel the lightness and happiness I once felt. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

"I want one of those little Jackie O hats where the lace comes down over your eyes." (Two Best Friends Sit Facing One Another On a Twin Bed)

...opted for a top hat and a waistcoat...(Chapter Three)

"Are you fantasizing about the one in the hat or the one in the glasses?" (Chapter Six)

...Glasses was going to propose to me on a Jumbotron. I decline, most likely, and Hat doesn't believe in marriage, but would eventually agree to a courthouse ceremony after he accidentally read a page from my dairy and realized how important it was to me. (Chapter Six)

She's got a big fleece hat on and an Aladdin blanket over her lap. (Part Three: Forever After: I Am Laughing With My Hands Over My Face)

And it will look cute under a winter hat. (Chapter Thirty-One)

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If you're in a reading rut, what do you read to get you out of it?