To Sir, with Love
-
-
4.3 • 49 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Lauren Layne’s homage to You’ve Got Mail features a heroine who’s as fun and bubbly as the champagne her family-run wine store specializes in. Gracie Cooper has always dreamed of Prince Charming—could the man she’s been messaging on a blind-dating app be the one? As she flirts with her mysterious suitor, Gracie must also shoulder the responsibilities of running the shop and deal with the arrival of a handsome but aggravating real-estate developer who keeps pressuring her to sell. We love how Layne builds up the slow-burn romance of Gracie and “Sir” through text messages. The book’s final reveal makes for a perfectly sweet and satisfying fairy-tale romance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Layne (Marriage on Madison Avenue) crafts a gleefully shameless homage to Little Shop Around the Corner and You've Got Mail that sparkles like champagne fizz. Onetime aspiring artist Gracie Cooper reluctantly took over her family's Manhattan champagne shop, Bubbles & More, after her father's death. The "more" includes an art corner where she pedals her whimsical prints of colorful cocktails and New York City scenes—which bring in the only revenue keeping the struggling business afloat. Gracie's flirtatious, text-based relationship with "Sir," an anonymous and unavailable guy she met on a dating app under her own moniker, "Lady," keeps her spirits up—so she's conflicted by the instant zing of attraction she feels upon meeting Sebastian Andrews, and even more so once she learns that he's a developer looking to buy out her lease. Rom-com fans will see the resolution of this love triangle coming from a mile away, but it's so fun that they won't mind. Layne grounds her Manhattan fairy tale by surrounding Gracie with supportive friends and family who advise her to step out of her comfort zone and take a chance on love. This is a delight.
Customer Reviews
3.75 stars-heart warming and pleasant
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.