I’m going to confess, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen You’ve Got Mail all the way through, but of course, I know the romcom’s iconic premise! So when Lauren Layne announced a retelling with a starting an ultra-romantic champagne shop owning heroine, I knew TO SIR, WITH LOVE was going to be a winner. And let me tell you, it absolutely was. I have a serious weakness for epistolary romances (love through writing!)

Our heroine, Gracie, put aside her own dreams to take the reins of her family champagne shop after the death of her father. While she has done her best, the shop is still floundering, but she is determined to save it. So when a hot yet arrogant businessman offers to buy out her shop, she doesn’t exactly welcome him with open arms.

To complicate matters, Gracie has been talking to a mysterious man on an online dating app for months. She has no idea who he is or what he looks like, but he is quickly becoming her confidante.

This book is like a glass of champagne, easy to sip, bubbly, with just the right amount of depth. Gracie, Sebastian, the mysterious Sir, a vibrant cast of secondary characters, and the NYC backdrop create the perfect escape read. I found all the characters easy to root for and had an absolutely delightful time devouring this book.

My only complaint was the fact that the slow burn was SO slow it might as well have been molasses. I wanted to shake both main characters and say, “just figure it out!!” more than once. A little more steam and a little quicker pace would have made this book perfect.

If you haven’t read Lauren Layne yet, this is a great place to start! It’s a complete standalone, sweet romance with the slowest burn! I’ve been a huge LL fan for years, and I’m so delighted to add another one of her fabulous books to my shelf!

**I received a free copy of this book in order to provide an honest review**

To Sir, With Love is just what I expected from a retelling of the Shop Around the Corner (a la You’ve Got Mail) modernized for a millennial audience. The exchange of letters and emails has been updated to messages in a dating app, but the heart of the story (and indeed, many of the plot points) remain the same.

As much as I love The Shop Around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail, one thing that stuck out to me was the power dynamics between the female leads and their male counterparts—it's always the love interest who discovers the protagonist's identity first, and the second half of the movie then devolves into one-sided secret identity shenanigans that often felt at the protagonist's expense. Imagine my surprise to discover To Sir, With Love didn't suffer from the same fate (or at least, not to the same extent)! How refreshing!

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this new take on an old favorite. My only warning is that some readers may take issue with the sudden and inexplicable solution to Lily’s struggles with infertility.

I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from Lauren Layne!

This was a fun new Lauren Layne contemporary romance. I can always rely on this authors romances to be fun, sexy, and sophisticated.

Lauren layne never fails to write amazing books! I loved to sir, with love, and it was exactly what I wanted to read from Lauren layne! Highly recommend!

Cute and fun. Perfect for a rainy day to cheer you up. Thank you netgalley and publisher for this arc in exchange of an honest review..

This was such a light hearted fun retelling of you've got mail! If you need something a little enemies to lovers but without the full heavy steam this is perfect for you! Gives all those angry to love feels. Plus the cat named cannoli so adorable I can't!

I loved this book! It was so sweet and adorable and I loved the characters and the romance so much! If you're looking for a great enemies to lovers romance filled with art, great main characters, fantastic side characters, and sweet little cat named Cannoli, you'll love this book! I loved how much of a romantic Gracie was! I loved reading about her wanting her dream guy and really being hesitant to let that go. I also liked that she was able to stick up for herself with her siblings, and that despite that, they all got along and loved each other! I loved reading about her relationship with her family, and even though there were times things all fell on her to handle, she was able to push past it and really reconnect with her family and have an amazing bond. I also loved the idea of her meeting someone online and falling for her Sir online. I loved their online commentary, it was so cute and sweet. It felt like I was reading love letters between them, it gave me a swoon worthy feeling! I highly suggest reading this book! It's so fun and you'll fall in love with Gracie and Sebastian and everyone in this book!

I have very mixed feelings about To Sir, With Love. On the one hand, it was a super sweet (clean) romance, a retelling of You've Got Mail and it's predecessors. Gracie has a wonderful character arc as she realizes that she's not getting what she wants out of life. And I love the supportive family that are the Coopers.

But I didn't really get what I wanted out of this book... the chemistry between Sebastian and Gracie always seemed like it was just right there, on the verge of something great. But it never really crossed over into the "Wow" territory. And the characters, other than Gracie, all seemed a little too one-dimensional. Again, the potential was there and it felt as though the next time you turn the page there's going to be that satisfaction of getting more... more character development, more chemistry, just... more of everything.

I'm not even upset that it's a clean romance, but there are plenty of other clean romances that make you feel that chemistry and charged energy between the love interests without taking it all the way. But this one just left me feeling like they were 15 years old on opposite sides of the gym at a school dance.

If you're looking for a quick and easy, clean romance to read at the beach, I would highly recommend this one. There is nothing heavy about this book - it's short, sweet, and almost exactly what you expect out of a Hallmark Christmas movie (minus the Christmas setting).

This book was like comfort food. This You've Got Mail retelling was delightful and I loved the characters. Set in New York in a champagne shop and full of romance.

I am a HUGE Nora Ephron fan so anytime I see a book influenced by one of her films it is automatically on my TBR list, and this book was no exception! Such a fun, sweet, and just overall charming read! Gracie is a wonderful main character and the daydreamer in me related to her so much. Her personality shines and her interactions with every other character are just so fun and intentional. The chemistry between Gracie and Sebastian was also just such a delight, their banter and connection is just precious!
Overall, This is an adorable fluffy fast read that will leave you smiling, laughing, and wanting your own happily ever after asap!
I’ve read Lauren Layne books in the past … and I keep coming back for more!!! Her books always deliver on giving you the full rom com experience! I'm such a huge fan and cannot wait to see what she comes up with next!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books For Sharing this reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions!

To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I wasn’t a huge fan of You’ve Got Mail so I didn’t know if I would click with this book but y’all, this book is so sweet, it was impossible not to like it. It is a classic romantic daydream of a book; my only wish was that there was more of Gracie and Sebastian together – more of them bantering, more of them smoldering, more of them falling in love. I read this after a much heavier book and it was a pure breath of fresh air, very much like Gracie and her endless optimism for a fairy tale ending. I recommend it if you’re looking for a light, easy, breezy read.

Quote: Because I’m a selfish ass, and I wanted you to love both sides of me, as much as I love both sides of you. And because of what I said before – you deserve the fairy-tale ending, and I can only hope you’ll give me a chance to be yours.

Song for Gracie and Sebastian: I Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Michael Bublé: “I might have to wait, I’ll never give up, I guess it’s half timing and the other half’s luck. Wherever you are, whenever it’s right, you’ll come out of nowhere and into my life.”

Alex, Approximately and You've Got Mail get smushed together in this warm, bubbly (no pun intended) story. Does it almost exactly follow the plot of the two stories I've already mentioned? Yes. But is it so delightful and fun to read that it doesn't even matter? Absolutely. Gracie and Sebastian are two of my favorite characters and I loved hearing about their lives and loved the side characters as well.

I loved this book so much! It was such a great story and and a swoony romance. It was such a breath of fresh air to have the entire story only in the POV of the heroine. I also liked that the romance was not the only important part of the plot. The importance of family, friendships, the struggles of growing up, fertility issues, working through marital issues and so much more made this story so relatable and easy to get sucked into!

Everything about this book was charming - the you've got mail vibes, the champagne store, Gracie and her family... I loved it. I certainly wish there was a neighborhood package store in my area with the atmosphere and staff that Gracie's had!

This is similar to You've Got Mail but I enjoyed it so much more. Gabby was a much more endearing character to me than the Meg Ryan character. This was a delight of a read I blazed through because I was enjoying it so much. Gracie is relatable and Sebastian sounds like a dream boat. Not just a romance, this book is also about living for yourself and following your dreams. Very low steam (which I like) and you are rooting for every character!

Content Warning: Grief, Death of a parent, Infertility

Loved this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance e-copy. Will be happy to recommend widely to readers at the public library.

To Sir, With Love 💌

Favorite Quotes:
•”I think the best parts of my life so far have been in my day dreams”
•”We decided that families come in all shapes and sizes, and if ours stayed a family of two until the end, we’ll count ourselves blessed to have each other”

Thank you to @gallerybooks for an advanced copy of To Sir, With Love #partner

This adorable enemies to lovers romance was a quick read and it was just what I needed to continue my romance kick!
Between the modern day fairytale, the family dynamics, and the meet cute love at first site scene, I was hooked!

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.

To Sir With Love
By Lauren Layne

Such a super sweet read that is very similar to the plot lines of one of my favorite movies, You've Got Mail - an enemies to love theme that is super sweet and adorable read.

Gracie and Sebastian are just the best characters to read about. I simply adored them and the wonderful situations they are in - such a charming and fell good romance that I need.

Set in New York, and a champagne shop - this book is simply a delight to read. I enjoyed this one.

The description of an “updated You’ve Got Mail” is totally accurate. Lovely characters and the perfect Manhattan setting. Fun read.