You've Got Mail is one of my all-time favorite movies, and even though the technology is a little dated, the story holds up over the years. To Sir, with Love, is a similar story, with very appealing characters who meet online via a dating site that allows people to get to know each other well before they meet in person. Really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to recommending it to readers who are looking for a fresh, modern romance.

With her signature wit and humor, Lauren Layne’s To Sir, With Love, captivated me from the first message between Sir and Lady. The cleverness of the method of communication...with the short quips, lending hilarious implications...between the two, elevated what very well have been just another “dating app” rom-com, to totally different level of sophistication and writing mastery...Ms Layne took a timeless classic storyline and breathed a freshness into it that served to demonstrate her writing prowess.

As the interactions between Sebastian and Gracie progressed from contentious to caring, and the notifications between Sir and Lady grew more personal, I found myself more and more emotionally invested with their interactions, eagerly awaiting the next message to come through between Sir and Lady...I might as well have been sitting next to Gracie on the couch awaiting the next communique.

As always, when I’ve been immersed in one of this author’s stories, I’m saddened when it has ended...these are characters I will truly miss being a part of...if only through print...their lives...although I do anxiously await the next story and characters to which I can fall in love with all over again!

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

TO SIR, WITH LOVE is about living the life you were meant to live. It is a romance that grips the reader’s heart as the sparkling would-be artist Gracie fights to keep her father’s legacy safe from demolition by the reserved developer Sebastian.

I loved the heart gripping romance of this story. It builds slowly amid “complications” and insecurities. While the narrative is from Gracie’s point of view I often found myself feeling more for Sebastian’s plight because he only let glimpses of what he was feeling occasionally reach his eyes.

This is a must read if you were a You’ve Got Mail, The Shop Around the Corner, or In the Good Old Summertime fan. It is clearly inspired by these whimsical movies, but shines with its own unique plot elements and excellent writing.

I received an advance copy of this book. This is my voluntary review.

arc provided by netgalley for an honest review

Although I am usually a fan of Lauren Layne’s books, this one was just very lacking and fell flat. Instead of being able to follow her dreams, Gracie has to keep her family’s champagne shop afloat but she is able to find some comfort in a penpal that she has been writing to…and is starting to fall for. And in comes in Sebastian, heir to the Andrews Corporation, swoops in with a buyout offer…and offer that Gracie has thrown out countless times.

Now she must choose between Sebastian, the possible jerk who she is insantely attracted to, and Sir, her penpal that she repeatedly gets mixed signals from, or maybe realize that they’re one and the same.

I was looking forward to some sort of climax especially once we could see the similarities between Sebastian and Sir but it fell flat and the ending left me unsatisfied. The attraction between Sebastian and Gracie was instant but not very developed especially when they jumped from enemies to acquaintances within two chapters, which ended up being far too cheesy for me.

Lauren Layne's updated You've Got Mail retelling managed to be the anonymous-dating-app-penpal to real-world-adversaries-to-lovers romance that I wanted it to be. Cheers for that!

Any romcom lover will delight in the opportunity this story offers to fall in love twice, because fall in love twice you will. At least I did. Once, when I was thrown amid the clever messages Sir and Lady exchange on MysteryMate, a dating app where users connect through words first instead of photos. And second, when Gracie Cooper and Sebastian Andrews engage in a battle of wills over what to do with Bubbles & More, the struggling family champagne shop she's inherited, owns, and runs in honor of her late father.

The plot was rather formulaic. Nothing all that subversive or surprising in its midst, but I didn't mind. I found I liked the predictable momentum that existed between the Sir/Lady and Gracie/Sebastian storylines.

It didn't hurt that the dialogue was lively, either. Or that the side characters added to my bevy of enjoyment. I think Keva, the friend/neighbor/cook, was my favorite--she was just so infectious, so vivacious!

The rivals to lovers romance part of the story perhaps was not as developed as I wanted it to be, especially since they had an "at hello" attraction, but it worked well enough. Gracie and Sebastian's development was sweet, entertaining. I was more than happy to see my way through their meet cute to their cooking class shenanigans to their Sir/Lady reveal.

It was worth every fluffy, fizzy sip of sparkling wine!

Much like Nora Ephron's beloved romcom, this was cute, hopeful, jolly, and fizzy with champagne feelings. Like Kathleen Kelly would say, it was full of all those dating/courting nothings that, at the end of it all, "turn out to mean so many somethings."

3.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for this ARC in exchange for my review!

I absolutely adored this book! I have always enjoyed Lauren's books and this one is no different. If you haven't seen You've Got Mail, you're going to want to watch it asap after finishing this book. I loved all the characters and all the individual relationships. Reading this was like drinking champagne, pistachio gelato, and cuddling with a cat. (All book references you will love once you read it)

I loved this book! Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail is one of my favorite movies and this book adaptation (retelling?) was just what I needed. A new take on a tale as old as time. The only thing that would have made this book any better was having a glass of champagne while reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Gracie Cooper set aside her dreams of an art career to take over her dad's Manhattan champagne shop after he died, but she was unaware how much the store was struggling to stay open. Totally overwhelmed and faced with an evil corporate overlord who keeps trying to buy out her lease, Gracie turns to an anonymous pen pal on a dating app for solace and business advice. Gracie finds herself slowly falling for her online bestie, and she has no idea she actually knows (and hates) this prince charming in real life.

To Sir, with Love is the perfect modern homage to You've Got Mail. I loved every second of this sweet and totally PG romcom. It hit just the right Valentine's spot! Everything about this oozes Lauren Layne's NYC charm - the champagne shop! the funny cat name! the swoony and gorgeous leading man!

This love story isn't angsty and isn't steamy, but it is perfectly happy and I will definitely be rereading it when it comes out!

Thank you to Gallery Books, netgalley, and Lauren Layne for the eARC in exchange for my review.

Lauren Layne always delivers a fun, sweet story. Gracie is a hopeless romantic dealing with the reality of everyday life. She dreams of a career as an artist but runs the family business that her father left to her and her siblings. She has a thrilling online flirtation with a man she knows as “sir” but has to deal with a stoic businessman set on buying out the lease on her shop. Sebastian comes across as cold and formal but quickly falls for Gracie in the sweetest way. They have to find their way through the mess of life to get their grand romance and it’s so entertaining to read. The ending is easy to anticipate, as is true in most romance novels, but it’s exactly the heartwarming content we all need right now. Loved it.

Thanks to Lauren Layne, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was thrilled to receive an ARC of To Sir, with Love (thank you NetGalley). Huge fan of Lauren Layne over here!
Like all of her books, I could not put this one down. Lauren hit it out of the park with witty dialogue that keeps you engaged and entertained. She also created lovable main characters with undeniable chemistry - I was rooting for them throughout the entire book. I definitely felt the You've Got Mail vibe, but the modern twist brought that trope back to life for me. The story goes beyond falling in love and deals with heartbreaking issues such as infertility and the loss of a parent. The ending was predictable and a little, um, cheesy (?). But I still loved it.

Delightful. Another amazing story from Lauren Layne.
Gracie is the perfect storybook heroine of 2021, meaning of course that she's not perfect, just trying to figure out life like the rest of us. Her belief that fairytale love does exist is refreshing and exactly what I needed this year. Like Gracie and Sebastian it's easy to settle and follow the role laid out for you without realizing it, but what's life without a little dreaming?

Lauren Layne does it again! Everything she writes I devour! This book was the perfect balance of independent woman and hopeless romantic. It gave me definite you’ve got mail vibes!

5 out of 5 stars.

Gracie Cooper loves New York, Cinderella, and the idea of being in love. She also loves her family. So much, in fact, that when her father passed away, she stepped up and continued the family business instead of going to art school. When business mogul Sebastian Andrews starts pressuring her to allow him to buy out the lease on her shop, Gracie quickly makes him Enemy #1. Even if she can’t stop thinking about those eyes…

The other main character in all Gracie’s daydreams? Sir. A match she made on a dating website whose profile was set up by his friends as a prank. They’ve never met and he has a girlfriend. But he sure seems great via text message. 🤷🏼‍♀️

This book is adorable. Hands down, 100% adorable. I loved that we, the reader, know exactly how this book is going to turn out and we get to watch the characters cutely fumble around the inevitable outcome. Lauren Layne crafted an excellent tribute to You’ve Got Mail that will leave readers laughing, crying, and just downright feeling good.

Thanks to Lauren Layne, Gallery Books, and Netgalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

All the feels. You’ve got mail is also my favorite RomCom movies and this book brought me such joy, I could just see it perfectly
Playing out. I love both Gracie and Sebastian, I loved their banter and I love a good enemy to lovers trope. My critique would be that I could’ve used a little more of their conversations tho - maybe a bit more back and forth messaging to see that side of the relationship more, perhaps more in depth messages about their lives. I love that the book made me feel, made me feel. I feel I felt the love more between real life Sebastian than phone version.
The emotions Gracie was going through, when he was mad at her giving the icy cold stare I also felt sadness and a a ping to my heart, it’s rare when a book can do that. I enjoyed their cute meetups also, the food and wine bits added charm. Also living in nyc myself I knew exactly where the book was taking place and also love my some halal :)
I’ll for sure be reccomending this book, and was so lovely see you’ve got mail played out more in 2021 book form . Well done !

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy as well as the opportunity to read and review this lovely book.

This was a great read. Gracie allows herself to put her wants and needs aside to keep her fathers dreams alive after his death. Gracie is struggling with keeping the store open and has difficulty sharing her feelings with her siblings. She has a pen pal of sorts Sir who she she shares her thoughts with and frustrations. At the same time Sebastian is trying to take over the store lease. She's conflicted with her attraction to both men.

*******************************I received an ARC for my honest opinion from Net Galley.***********************************

Lauren Layne has done it again! She has created another beautiful couple and beautiful story. From the beginning you can’t help but completely fall in love with this story. Lauren Layne does a wonderful job of making you fall in love with her characters. I absolute adored this book. From the second I started it, I didn’t put it down. I fell in love with Sir and Lady’s story. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

This adorable story is derivative of “You’ve Got Mail,” as the author acknowledges in her Afterword. She stated that she wanted to bring that story into the 21st Century by updating the premise a bit: the two protagonists fall in love, sight unseen and anonymously, not via email but via a dating app (called “MysteryMate”), and by texting.

MysteryMate isn’t like other dating apps in that there are no photos, or even names. The app matches you with potential mates and you communicate under pseudonyms. Gracie Cooper, 33, under the name “Lady” got matched with “Sir,” and they seem to have a lot in common. As Gracie explains to her best friend: “We both live in Manhattan, we’re both highly suspicious of oatmeal, we both lost our dads to lung cancer four years ago, we both put mustard on our scrambled eggs…”

Gracie owns the champagne shop “Bubbles & More” opened by her late father, but it is struggling to survive in a world increasingly characterized by online sales. She has an offer to buy her out from her lease-holder, the disturbingly handsome Sebastian Andrews. But Gracie is resisting: it’s not about the numbers, she feels, it’s about family, her family, and her father’s dream. Gracie’s own dream was to be an artist, but then her father died and she has made his dream her own. And only resents and regrets it sometimes….

Gracie increasingly turns to “Sir” for advice and emotional support, all the while having additional encounters with Sebastian, whom she likes more and more in spite of her determination to hate him.

Of course we know how this will end, but the path to get there will keep you entertained and interested in spite of an overall arc of predictability.

Moreover, the story ends with an Epilogue that takes place one year later, and it is absolutely delightful.

Evaluation: As the author writes in the Afterward, this is a story about the folly of first impressions, about optimism, and about forgiveness and growth. But it’s also just a darn good romcom that's a lot of fun.

Although I've never actually fully watched You've Got Mail from start to finish (whenever it's showing on the TV, it's always already halfway through), the synopsis of this book had immediately captured my interest. It's also not wrong to say that I was very excited for this upon seeing the author as I've been recently bingeing Lauren Layne's addictive-in-nature books and was already on a high when I requested for an ARC. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that my request was approved!

As a romantic at heart like Gracie, there's nothing more beautiful than reading a romance where everything is cheesy and works out in favour of a Happily Ever After, and I'm really happy to say that To Sir, With Love delivers exactly that.

Just like Lauren Layne's other books, this one got me hooked from the prologue right until the end. I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from my Kindle as I devoured word after word. Right from the get go, we learn that Gracie (h) is already in contact with her Sir on an online dating app. Their messages to each other are humourous and left me yearning for more of their interactions. I also found Gracie's first meeting with Sebastian (H) equally funny and their banter in this was glorious to witness. Gracie and Sebastian are enemies during the day, and potential lovers at night. If you've read the author's previous books, it is proven that she writes witty banter well and that is something I thoroughly enjoy. If you're the kind of reader who gets on a high from seeing two characters who hate each other but are able to connect through an exchange of quips, this one is for you.

However, it wasn't only the romance that made me love this—the secondary characters were equally as charming. We have Caleb, Lily and Alec, Gracie's two siblings and brother-in-law; Keva, her neighbour; May, a funny and sweet old lady who works with Gracie; and Robyn and Josh, her employees. It was very uplifiting to see that Gracie has a strong group of people who are always ready to help and support her in any way they can. Just like witty banter, Lauren Layne also delivers this in her other books and has a track record of writing happy and healthy friendships. This, of course, was no exception. Even though these characters are just secondary, I was invested in their mini-lives especially Lily and Alec, who are happily married high school sweethearts. I was hoping we'd potentially get a book about them but their story had seemed perfectly wrapped up by the end of this book.

However, as adorable as the romance was, I also noticed that there was a bit of a cheesy instalove. Gracie starts developing an interest in Sebastian right from the moment she bumped into him on the street. Although this fits Gracie's description of being a hopeless romantic living in a fantasy world, it didn't quite help in the hate-to-love department. I found the romance moving a bit too quickly for my liking and would have loved to see a slightly slower development between Sebastian and Gracie from enemies to not-so enemies. Ergo, I would have appreciated if we had gotten more scenes of them warming up to each other as friends and then them slowly progressing toward something more.

In conclusion, albeit the instalove and attraction, I still enjoyed reading about Sebastian and Gracie. In dark times like this, a little bit of cheesy romance won't hurt anyone and if you're looking for something light and sure to put you in a whimsical mood after finishing, To Sir, with Love would be right up your alley.

Romance is just magical.

I could not put this book down once I started it! I loved the plot that you thought you knew the obvious romance but still kept you guessing in case you weren’t sure. Would recommend to all my friends! Best book of 2021 so far!

I'm a longtime fan of Lauren Layne's. I can always count on her books for a feel-good escape and some modern romance. However, I think I'm going to make the bold declaration that To Sir, With Love is officially my favorite one yet.

There's something exceedingly charming and timeless about the story. (I'm sure that's not a coincidence, given its inspiration.) It made me feel that rare combination of optimism and wistfulness that lingers long after the last pages. Admittedly, I'll pick up anything by Layne, but I'd love to see her write more books in this vein.