To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne -dual review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date June 29, 2021

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.

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Sandy’s REVIEW:

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.

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Barb’s REVIEW

To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne is another one of her wonderful sweet romantic novels.  Gracie Cooper, our heroine, runs the family Champagne shop, after the death of her father; putting aside her passion for painting. She is determined to find ways to increase the low profits for the shop.   Gracie is sweet, smart, loyal and liked by everyone.  A big corporation has been trying to buy her out, which she continually refuses, and now meets the man behind the proposal, who immediately comes across as arrogant, as well as extremely handsome.

Sebastian Andrews is determined to convince Gracie to sell to his company, though they both get off on the wrong foot.  Despite his showing her that she cannot survive in the long term, and could lose the business; he also tries to propose that she can move to a different location with success.  As stubborn as they both are, Gracie fights off her attraction to Sebastian; and he knows that he is beginning to have feelings for her.  In a short time, their relationship heats up, but Gracie also has someone else she is falling for.

Gracie meets ‘Sir’ on a faceless dating app, as they have fun texting to each other; the banter between them was cute.  Though she is enjoying her texting, Gracie spends more time with Sebastian, and their chemistry is off the wall. Who will Gracie choose the handsome sexy Sebastian or the fun unknown ‘Sir”?

As time went on, I loved Sebastian and Gracie together, especially when he praised and pushed her to go back to her love of art, which he thought were the signs of a great painter. I really loved all the secondary characters that were great; as Lauren Layne always creates wonderful and likeable characters. To Sir, With Love was a sweet, heartwarming, romantic and uplifting story.  I have enjoyed everything I have read by Layne, as she writes such wonderful fun pure romances.  If you like heartwarming romances, great couple, sexy and fun, look no further than anything by Lauren Layne.

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Lauren Layne is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen romantic comedies.

A former e-commerce and web marketing manager from Seattle, Lauren relocated to New York City in 2011 to pursue a full-time writing career.

She lives in midtown Manhattan with her high-school sweetheart, where she writes smart romantic comedies with just enough sexy-times to make your mother blush. In LL’s ideal world, every stiletto-wearing, Kate Spade wielding woman would carry a Kindle stocked with Lauren Layne books.