Author Spotlight: Cara Bastone

Ready or Not

Accidental pregnancy tropes aren’t high on my list when it comes to my Romance interests, but after reading Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young followed by Ready or Not, I’ve realised when done right, they can provide the perfect plot point for a complicated, but beautifully timed slow-burn romance.

Not only do we get to follow Eve throughout her pregnancy, figuring out what life will look like with her first child and baby daddy, but we get to shadow her best friend Willa who has her own complicated feelings towards Eve’s newfound maternal status. Alongside Willa, her brother Shep comes into the picture - golden retriever in human form, and possibly my new number one book boyfriend of all time. My first Cara Bastone read, and certainly won’t be my last.

Promise Me Sunshine

I’d heard a lot of chatter on Booktok about this title; a few content creators citing it as a top read of 2025. I went into it with high expectations, which were met, exceeded, and thrown out the window. Promise Me Sunshine is a heartbreaking novel following Lenny as she navigates a world without her best friend. In the throes of grief, sleeping on a ferry and getting by with odd nannying gigs, she stumbles across Miles - our grumpy male main character, who understands grieving in ways Lenny could never imagine.

Their quirks, banter, and the friendship that blossoms takes the stage above anything else and was a beautiful way to write a love story between two people merely trying to survive in their new normal. I finished the book wishing I could spend more time with them, and rooting for them to find happiness in all the unexpected places. More of the slow burn romance, please!

No Matter What

I was lucky enough to get an Advanced copy of No Matter What thanks to Hachette, and was super excited for another Cara Bastone read to get into. Marriage in distress, PTSD, figure drawing to cope with trauma, what could go wrong? Well, a huge pile of miscommunication and a near death car accident, apparently. 

We’re left with fewer details of the accident than we’d like, and less of the innermost internal thoughts of our characters, something Bastone has done intentionally to bring a new layer of empathy to the reader - bringing them into the relationship, the frustration and the emotional blockers that come from experiencing something so traumatic. Like Bastone’s other books, we have fiction with a slow burn romantic subplot that leaves you yearning for the happy ending you know our main characters deserve. A heartbreaking take on what it takes to repair a love that seems so broken.