Perfection ✨ I love Lauren Layne. The spin she put on the classic movies/play to write this book is so good, and very modern yet timeless.

I love all of Lauren Layne's books, and when I saw To Sir, with Love dubbed as Love Is Blind meets You've Got Mail (one of the best romantic comedies of all time - watch it and deny it), I knew I had to have it in my hands.

This is a perfect summer romp that is perfectly paired with the bubbly drink of your choice, as we meet Gracie Cooper running her family's champagne shop when that business is being threatened by charming to everyone else Sebastian Andrews. The chemistry between these two is great, and it's fun to get to know the supporting characters who work in the shop and who are in Gracie's family.

Anywho who is a fellow YGM stan has a decent idea of how this one goes, but I won't give anything away. I'll just say that I enjoyed the winks at the movie while Layne carves out an original story.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

This was the first book that I have read by this author, that being said this was a cute, fast, swoon worthy story between Gracie and Sebastian. Grace has such a funny personality I had nonstop laughs. Sebastian Is the perfect match for her and her sense of humor. I loved watching these two build their relationship and having there HEA.
I’m looking forward to seeing what other books this author has.

A charming, light, and adorable Rom Com centered around champagne? Yes please!!
I loved this story so much and the homage it is to You’ve Got Mail.
Definitely read this To Sir, With Love!!
FYI- it’s a clean read.

To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne is a super cute, super fun romantic story. It is the story of Gracie, a 33-year old that is running her family's NYC champagne shop after her father passes away. The book is a charming and contemporary retelling of You've Got Mail with Gracie and Sebastian as the main characters. The book kept me engaged and coming back for more. It is perfect for a weekend getaway or just cuddling up on the sofa and losing yourself in the story.

I so enjoyed reading how Sebastian and Gracie fell in love twice with each other. Even in writing, you can feel the emotions both were felling for the other. The epilogue was too cute. I had a smile on my face long after I closed the book out in my kindle.

Thank you to Gallery Books for my copy of To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne in exchange for my honest review. And thank you to Simon & Schuster Audio for a copy of the Audiobook for it, too!

I have read several books from Lauren Layne, and this one may just be my favorite so far! I am a sucker for love/hate and enemies to lovers tropes, add in the pen pal style romance and it's got good odds at being a hit for me. To Sir, With Love totally has that 'feel good' romance thing going on that made me happy while I was reading it. 

Grace abandons her own dreams to take over her family's Champagne shop, when neither of her two siblings have any desire to do so (even though they are all now equal partners in it after their father's death). She has worked so hard to turn it around financially from the dire situation that they were in when Grace took over. Sebastian is gorgeous and charming and has 'fairytale ending' potential, if only he didn't become Enemy #1 to Grace when he tries to buy the property from her family. But the more time they spend together, the more he becomes an irresistible enemy. AND on top of that the two of them have matched on a dating app but don't realize they are catching feelings for eachother! 

Here's a few of the things that made it great for me:
-Grace's journey from her struggle with her grief and feelings of responsibility, to figuring out what SHE really wanted. 
- It was not an easy happily ever after, but it felt so realistic and honest and I was rooting for all the characters in the story.
- I enjoyed the side story lines of each of the other siblings. It added some substance to the story that wasn't just fluff, and enriched the overall story for me.

I ended up listening to the Audiobook for most of it and it was TOTALLY bingeworthy and I finished it in one day... I loved the narration for this one! It is narrated by Rachanee Lumayno and Shaun Taylor-Corbett. And it was done with equal parts sincerity and playfulness!

A cute romance! This one was on the cleaner side, which I don’t usually go for, but I still found it enjoyable! A sweet story that kept my attention and lovable characters. :)

Compulsively readable, this is a story sure to entertain. With the enemies to lovers plot, it is sure to entertain.
Many thanks to Gallery Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

To Sir, with Love is an incredibly sweet, light-hearted, fluffy romance. The book can easily be described as a retelling of You’ve Got Mail, and Lauren Layne did such an amazing job with it. The story left me feeling warm and gooey and fully believing in love!

I loved all of the nods to You’ve Got Mail and yet the story remained unique on its own. When Gracie first meets Sebastian, it’s animosity at first sight (at least on her part). However, the more time she spends with him, the more she begins to see him in a different light and begins to fall for him. I really loved how their relationship developed throughout the story and how perfectly matched they were for each other. The final “reveal” at the end of the novel and how Sebastian handled it was absolutely perfect and honestly gave me butterflies.

To Sir, with Love is the perfect romance book for anyone looking for something light, heartwarming, and adorable. The loose You’ve Got Mail retelling made the story extra fun and the book will leave you feeling giddy.

This is such a fun quick read and perfect for a fun summer choice! This gave me all of the “You’ve got mail vibes”!

This romance is set in Manhattan and Gracie Cooper owns and runs a champagne shop that is barely breaking a profit. Sebastian Andrews is a handsome real estate businessman who wants to buy her lease out. Which begins the dance of attraction and conflicted feelings. He's supposed to be a villain but he has a kindness that I love.

Meanwhile, Gracie is carrying on a texting relationship with a dating app friend known only as Sir and Gracie is known to Sir only as Lady and she is developing feelings for! Can she like both men at the same time!

I couldn’t put this down and you won’t be able to either! I definitely want a physical copy of this too!

Thank you NetGalley for my eARC!

This was a cute story with a slow burn romance in which neither really sees the other coming and there is a very strange “meet cute” moment early in the story. The big issue addressed in this one is the ability to realize you are living someone else’s dream and how to extricate yourself to pursue your own dreams. She discusses the “middle child syndrome,” which I find interesting as I have a friend who claims this personality trait. Finally we have Mr. fix-it who simply can’t just do corporate takeovers unless the people he buys out are taken care of. This is how he builds his found family and significant relationships.

They are truly two misfits who find themselves in the big city and somehow keep coming back to one another when all else fails. As each little discovery Gracie makes about herself happens, Sebastian seems to be there somewhere in the mix whether it’s his offer making her realize running a champagne store wasn’t her dream. He’s also there in the contact that comes to check out her artwork. All the little times he’s inserted himself into her life is what makes her see how her life could be if she just lets go.

Sebastian on the other hand, must find his ability to stand up for himself and go after something he wants…Gracie, rather than letting life happen around him. He is constantly taking care of everyone else but himself. His relationships with women are lack luster and there because it’s expected, not because he wants it. When he finally finds his own courage he gets swept up in the romantic idea of being someone’s one and only. He starts to feel unsure of whether Gracie will accept him the way he is.

Again, two misfits who happen upon each other on a windy day in NYC and somehow keep getting blown together until they finally stick together. This is a story about discovery and personal evolution that at points breaks your heart and then puts it back together. She give us our HEA in “meet cute” fashion so it starts and ends similarly. I’m giving this a 4.5 of 5 because it’s a cute story, some laughable moments, some emotional points, and of course our HEA. Pick this one up, grab a glass of champagne and have a good read.

To Sir, With Love is the story of a young woman trying to save her family’s business, and trying not to have chemistry with the man who will most benefit from its demise. Little does she know, they already have a connection. They have met online, on a dating app with no pictures, where they communicate under the screennames “Lady” and “Sir.”

Gracie Cooper manages her family’s boutique wine shop, Bubbles & More, selling to her loyal customers and going for the high-end look her father always expected of the business. With both of her parents gone and her siblings busy with their lives, Gracie is left to try to keep the store afloat. This job is made harder when she gets a generous offer to buy her out from Sebastian Andrews’ company, which holds the shop's lease. But the Coopers are a proud people, and Gracie shreds the offer. Sebastian is infuriating; he thinks he knows what’s best, and that there’s no way to keep the doors open, despite Gracie’s creativity. When the two clash, Gracie knows he is going to be a pain in the ass, and calls in the big guns to try to prove that Bubbles & More can survive.

I loved Gracie’s development from someone trying to keep her father’s dreams alive to following her own dream. She doesn’t lose her romantic sensibilities, though she realizes she needs to take action to make her life what she wants it to be. Sebastian is great - kind of a Mr. Darcy type, and you can tell he sees right through Gracie in a lot of ways. She tries to keep her guard up around him, but they can’t really help opening up and talking candidly when they interact. Still, outside of their chemistry when they do interact, we don’t get a lot of characterization for Sebastian.

The secondary characters are all pretty great; they have their own personalities and don’t just feel like faceless mannequins to move the plot along. The only issue I had was with the sister-with-marriage-trouble subplot - it seemed to be coming to a good conclusion before it totally went the cliché route, which disappointed me. I did love that Gracie has a varied, well-balanced village who love her and challenge her when she needs it.

Between chapters, the reader sees Gracie and Sebastian’s messages on the app where they first connected, under their pseudonyms. Despite their verbal sparring in real life, they couldn’t get along better online. The “Lady” and “Sir” interludes are fun enough to read, but we enter the novel with their rapport established off-page, and that doesn’t work. Aside from Gracie telling us that she loves “Sir” and how much they have in common, the reader doesn’t get to see him be her prince charming. Sebastian is the real presence in the novel, and the reader can see clearly why Gracie would fall for him; he’s handsome, successful, generous, and witty. We don’t know a lot about Sir, or Lady, for that matter. The details they reveal about themselves are pretty surface-level, so while the reader is familiar with Gracie and “Lady” as our point-of-view-character, Sir really doesn’t make too much of an impact for the reader. Because the online relationship isn’t well-developed, it’s hard to suspend your disbelief that Gracie is in love with Sir and Sebastian at the same time. Really, the end is just too melodramatic, given the novel’s trajectory. The reader knows what is coming, so dragging it out just weakens the conclusion.

While I have found Lauren Layne to be inconsistent from book to book, To Sir, With Love was surprisingly enjoyable and fun to read. It doesn’t hit the high I would need for a DIK, but it’s still worth reading.

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Absolutely loved this rom com by Lauren Layne. It was the perfect beach read for fans of Kerry Winfrey and Beth O’Leary.

Gracie is the owner/operator or her family champagne shop in New York City. Left to her and her two siblings after their parents passed, Gracie was the one to step up and attempt to keep the family legacy alive even though she’s not sure that running Bubbles & More is exactly what she wants to do. Feeling a little lost in many aspects of her life, the one thing putting a smile on Gracie’s face is the chat she’s started with a random stranger on a dating app using antiquated salutations.

To Sir, With Love is the story of champagne shop owner Gracie and Sebastian, the owner of the property on which her shop stands.

Synopsis:
Gracie Cooper runs her father’s champagne shop in Manhattan, which is being threatened by Sebastian Andrews, the person who owns the space. What follows is a loop-de-loop of their personal and professional lives, which takes a very interesting “You’ve Got Mail” turn in the end!

Review:
The story kicks off with a sorbet vs. ice cream banter between a certain lady and a sir, giving us a glimpse of what will follow in the story.

This is my first read by Layne and my, my, ain’t it hilarious. From calling pigeons to sky rats to the drunk dials.

Narrated in the first person from Gracie’s point of view, To Sir, With Love starts with thirty-three-year-old Gracie who’s in love with a man she’s never met (and who’s taken). And then she happens to fall in love at first sight, but that guy is also already taken. Huh, what a bummer.

Not at all, sir! Because our sunshine middle-child Gracie won’t allow it to be, since now starts the journey of this cute pair who are so adorable behind the scenes but all fire (nope, not the passionate kind, rather the exchanging funny barbs and sarcasm kind) when they confront each other.

The story progresses in such a perfect way and when it nears the end, you know how it will end but still want to savour every moment of it! And of course, there is always the laugh-out-loud hilarity of Layne’s writing.

It has a sweet one year after epilogue as well, true to the character of the story. This timeless tale will never get old, and as the author says, it is a story of hope, and also of love and longing and all things sweet in this world.

P.S. What a beautiful coincidence! The author mentions her “earliest Stiletto days” in the Author’s Note at the end of the book. And recently, I got the opportunity to judge three romances in the Contemporary Short category for Stiletto (I just hope that we are talking about the same Stiletto here!).

To Sir With Love By Lauren Layne
Rating 3.5/5 Stars
Published by Gallery Books
Published On 29th June 2021

**A big thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books, and of course, Lauren Layne, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Love Is Blind meets You’ve Got Mail - I’m sold!

Gracie Cooper is dealing with multiple dilemmas - for one, she wants to keep her father’s spirit alive at the family business, when in reality she has no real connection to the business and wants to go to art school. Second, she is searching for her Prince Charming in a world where it is becoming increasingly harder to find such a match. Except, maybe it isn’t so hard? Gracie has found a connection with an anonymous man named “SIR” through an online dating app where personality is the only thing at the forefront. The only problem? SIR was put on the app as a joke and just wants to be friends since he has a girlfriend…until suddenly, he doesn’t. But at that moment, Gracie meets Sebastian Andrews - a man who she believes is out to ruin her life, but she can’t help herself from constantly thinking about those aqua eyes of his.

This is far from spicy rom-com and in fact, I really liked it for that specific reason. I do feel though that it shouldn’t be categorized as a Rom-Com as I think the field has been taken over so much by the spice. I think others might be disappointed in the lack of spice. However, To Sir is still a beautiful story where the highest part of steam is a simple kiss and it is rare to find books like that these days. While I love the spice, I also love when the story concept takes the forefront. I’m reading so many romcoms at the moment, and finding a beautifully written slow burn was such a delight!

I expected Gracie and Sebastian to figure out their connection much sooner in the book, but as it went on, I really enjoyed knowing without them knowing. I would say I figured it out as a reader (beyond the blurb) very early on and seeing these two interact having no idea that they were SIR/LADY was fun. However, while I loved this, I also really wanted more at the end. Once they knew the truth, I wanted to get at least a few more chapters detailing their relationship —> wedding —> subsequent child on the way.

This is a beautifully written rom-com. I truly loved it so much and highly recommend it for a fresh change to the normal (and still awesome) steamy rom coms we have these days.

Note - Originally my score was a 3.75 but I have knocked it down to a 3.5 due to errors in the text which seem to have made publication (name changes (Caleb’s girlfriend) and confusion over the gender of Gracie’s cat). Normally, I can overlook these things when I read them in an ARC. It is normal, but it seems these errors have made it past publication and into the hands of readers based on the reviews I am seeing post-publication.

QOTD: fave romcom movies?

My favorites are mostly faves out of nostalgia (and not because they’re just great movies or romances even lol) but Pretty Women (Julia Roberts is a QUEEN IDC) and Say Anything 😍😍😍

To Sir with Love by Lauren Layne is basically a retelling of You’ve Got Mail. Gracie was cute and quirky. We shared the retail management and watercolor interest. I really wanted to root for her, but I just didn’t buy into the whole enemies to lovers thing between her and Sebastian. Also, the “twist,” in this story was so obvious from the very beginning that I just sort of wanted to get there already by the halfway point.

This makes for a super quick, breezy romance for anyone who just loves sarcastic banter and wants a short book to toss into their beach bag.

Thank you @netgalley and @gallerybooks for this digital copy! Published June 29, 2021

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This was an adorable, incredibly sweet, witty rom-com! Reminiscent of all my favorite rom-com movies, this book just felt like a big warm hug. The banter is witty, the characters incredibly likable, and the champagne shop setting fun. This was feel good, cheerful, and so incredibly delightful. My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

Lauren Layne never disappoints me. This book, like all of her other books, was immaculate. The development, the tension, all of it. There's never a day when I'm not up for a book by Lauren and this is proof of it. I read this book in two days (which is extremely rare for a slow reader like me) and I wish I had prolonged it because now all I have is the memory of these two who have captured my heart entirely

Reading To Sir, with Love was like watching an 80s romantic comedy with a bowl of popcorn and a cup of hot chocolate. Totally heartwarming and adorable, with a great sense of humor and an incredibly entertaining path to a happily ever after. I’ve always been a fan of the “You’ve Got Mail” storyline and it was so fun to see how Layne updated it for the modern era.

If you’re a fan of romantic comedies, you probably already know the basics of the plot for this one. But Layne manages to make this story feel fresh and new (and there are some excellent additions. Including all of the food descriptions). Definitely recommend this one for a feel-good, pick-me-up read!