To Sir, with Love

Lauren Layne

Jun 2021 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

Love Is Blind meets You’ve Got Mail in this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy following two thirty-somethings who meet on a blind dating app—only to realize that their online chemistry is nothing compared to their offline rivalry.

Perpetually cheerful and eager to please, Gracie Cooper strives to make the best out of every situation. So when her father dies just months after a lung cancer diagnosis, she sets aside her dreams of pursuing her passion for art to take over his Midtown Manhattan champagne shop. She soon finds out that the store’s profit margins are being squeezed perilously tight, and complicating matters further, a giant corporation headed by the impossibly handsome, but irritatingly arrogant Sebastian Andrews is proposing a buyout. But Gracie can’t bear the thought of throwing away her father’s dream like she did her own.

Overwhelmed and not wanting to admit to her friends or family that she’s having second thoughts about the shop, Gracie seeks advice and solace from someone she’s never met—the faceless “Sir”, with whom she connected on a blind dating app where matches get to know each other through messages and common interests before exchanging real names or photos.

But although Gracie finds herself slowly falling for Sir online, she has no idea she’s already met him in real life…and they can’t stand each other.

Ratings and reviews

To Sir, with Love is a wonderful book, I really loved it, and will read it again soon. I’ve you’re a fan of the movie, You’ve Got Mail, then you’ll enjoy this book too. Gracie Cooper runs the family Champagne store in Manhattan, a legacy left to her and her siblings after her father passed away a few years back. Her brother and sister are not interested in the store, so all the management and day to day of running the store is up to Gracie. Gracie has a secret, faceless, nameless “friend” that she met on a dating app named Sir. The app allows matches people up without using names or photos, so potential mates can get to know each other through words and conversations before they see each other in real life. Sir, is the one person who seems to understand Gracie, and she finds herself looking forward to their messages, instead of concentrating on her real life. Sebastian Anderson needs Gracie to break her lease so he can use her store to build another office building, but she’s not going to budge on leaving her family’s legacy to some corporate takeover. This is such a fun, romantic book, similar to the movie, You’ve Got Mail, but updated and modern. I naturally had a young Meg Ryan in my head as Gracie, and a young Tom hanks as Sebastian! It is such a sweet, lovable story, and I couldn’t put this book down. I just loved it. I liked the little shout-out to the old 1940 movie, Shop Around the Corner, with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, which is the precursor to You’ve Got Mail, and a movie I watch almost every holiday season. Falling in love with someone, through words and faceless communications is so romantic, either through letters, email, or a dating app, being able to fall for someone’s thoughts and ideas before you even see what they look like is the ultimate in romance, in my opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more from this author. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

Made my heart happy. This is a wonderful romance using that great spin of a couple meeting in two ways but they don’t know it. Lady and Sir meet on a dating app that uses conversation to get to know each other without images. Lady is looking for a relationship but Sir was signed up by a friend yet they find a wonderful connection and enjoy chatting with each other. Gracie is working very hard to keep her parent’s dream alive for their champagne shop. She bumps into Sebastian one day only to learn that he is from the company that wants to buy and close her shop. Even though she feels an amazing connection to him on that first meeting, she works hard to hate him as she fights to make the store profitable. I had fun with all the coincidences and unexpected moments as we as the reader know what is going on while the characters don’t. For Gracie, she has put her dreams on hold so this journey allows her to reevaluate what she wants as she reconnects with her siblings to save the store. Sebastian becomes a great confidant and listener, someone outside her normal circle that is able to be objective and supportive in a way she never expected. Truly, it just made me smile. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.

3.75 stars--TO SIR, WITH LOVE by Lauren Layne, is a contemporary, adult, stand alone romance story focusing on businessman Sebastian Andrews, and Gracie Cooper. Told from first person perspective (Gracie Cooper) TO SIR, WITH LOVE follows the enemies to lovers relationship between businessman Sebastian Andrews, and Gracie Cooper. Four years earlier Gracie Cooper, along with her brother Caleb, and sister Lily lost their only surviving parent to cancer. When neither of her siblings was willing to take over the family owned wine and champagne shop, Gracie gave up her dream of becoming a professional artist to run the struggling shop in Midtown Manhattan but an offer to buy out the business in preparation for a Midtown highrise found our heroine battling between head and heart knowing that to give in means to give up her father’s dream, a dream that she no longer shared. Enter businessman Sebastian Andrews. What ensues is the acrimonious relationship between Gracie and Sebastian, and the potential fall-out when an on-line relationship reveals the truth about the mystery man she refers to as ‘sir’. Gracie Cooper met a man on-line who accidentally signed up for a blind dating app but our heroine is struggling with the reality of the ‘imaginary’ relationship to a man with whom she is falling in love, a man she has never met and most likely will not. Meanwhile our hero, Sebastian Andrews has had no luck convincing Gracie to sell her shop, a shop that is currently standing in the way of Manhattan renewal but Sebastian is slowly falling for the determined thirty-three year old woman, a woman who had found herself falling for a man who may not be real. The relationship between Gracie and Sebastian is tempestuous at best. Sebastian’s company wants to buy the family owned store, inevitably putting Gracie out of business but a Gracie struggles to keep the business afloat, Sebastian begins to work behind the scenes in an effort to protect the woman with whom he is falling in love. There are no $ex scenes or physical interactions between our leading couple. We are introduced to Gracie’s brother Caleb, and their sister Lily, and her husband Alex; Gracie’s friends Rachel,and Keva; employees Josh and May, as well as Sebastian’s friend Genevieve, and his parents Vanessa and Gary Andrews. TO SIR, WITH LOVE is an updated reimagining of ‘You’ve Got Mail™’. Neither Gracie nor Sebastian is aware that they have fallen for one another through an anonymous dating app but the reality is their situation begins to slowly blend into their everyday life. The premise is heart warming and pleasant; the romance is sweet but limited to their growing attraction to one another; the characters are stubborn, realistic and inspiring.

About the author

Lauren Layne is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than three dozen romantic comedies. Her books have sold over a million copies worldwide. Lauren’s work has been featured in Publishers Weekly, Glamour, The Wall Street Journal, and Inside Edition. She is based in New York City.