After reading Ready or Not, I knew Cara Bastone would be an author added to my autoread/buy list. So of course, I had to read her newest release, No Matter What. Keep on reading to find out what the book is all about and what I thought!
A big thank you to Netgalley and Dial Press for providing me with an eARC to read and review. This doesn’t affect my opinion in any way.
Sometimes love sends you back to the drawing board.
After a traumatic accident threatens the foundations of their happy marriage, a couple tries to rebuild and find their way back to each other—and themselves—in this tender, slow-burn romance.
Roz and Vin can’t look each other in the eyes anymore, let alone share a bed. It’s been a year since they survived a life-altering accident, and their marriage hasn’t been the same. But Roz has held out hope that they can fix things, until she discovers Vin has signed a new lease. So she does what any soon-to-be-divorced Manhattanite would do: sign up for a figure-drawing class.
Between Roz’s determined attempts to improve her artistic skills and her adventures with her best friend, Raffi, she can almost ignore Vin’s impending move-out date and his footsteps in their previously unoccupied guest room. But it would all be a lot easier if Vin wasn’t Raffi’s older brother, and if she didn’t still find him incredibly, debilitatingly attractive and kind.
So kind, in fact, that Vin offers to let Roz draw him. What is she supposed to say? It’s probably better than her original plan of finding some random male model online, and she needs all the practice she can get. Plus, that’s sure to make a separation easier, right? Focus on every detail of your estranged spouse’s body while drawing him in the nude? But after the year they’ve spent avoiding each other, it feels good to see and be seen by one another again.
As Roz works to capture the wholeness of the person she fell in love with, will they both be able to draw upon the feelings they buried deep inside to finally heal together?
Review
Cara Bastone has quickly become one of my favorite authors and No Matter What was one of my most anticipated releases of 2026. So I was very excited to have an eARC of this book and it didn’t disappoint. While I understand this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, I feel like everything in this story felt realistic and took me on an emotional journey.
I honestly just wanted to hug Roz and Vin while reading this whole entire book. This couple is struggling after a tragic accident and the impact it left on them as a person, but also as a couple. While I think a lot of the struggles between these two could’ve been solved if they just sat down and talked or finished a conversation, I can also really understand why that didn’t happened.
Even though both were struggling, I appreciated the small gestures here and there. I think that’s what gave Roz hope that maybe her marriage wasn’t as doomed as she first thought. When she discovers this art class, it opens whole new world and way of thinking. So when Vin offers to pose to give her extra practice she’s quite surprised. I really appreciated these small, intimate moments between them that really made her think. Both realized something was wrong and that what they experienced was horrific.
The side characters were hilarious and heart warming and family played such an interesting part of the story. I really think that you need to experience this story yourself without knowing many details. Both of our characters realize that therapy may not be a bad idea and that communicating is important but even more so after a tragic event. It was also interesting that we don’t get the full extent of everything at the beginning of the book.
I really feel like No Matter What would’ve been a five star read if we had a few chapters from Vin’s POV. During certain scenes I really would’ve loved to have a look inside his mind. What was he experiencing or feeling? The little glimpses we get in this story just weren’t enough for me. All in all, this was such an amazing book that had me tearing up while reading. I will really read anything this author writes.
Cara Bastone proved to me again why she’s become one of my favorite authors. Have you added any authors to your favorites list recently? Let us know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
