To Sir With Love by Lauren Layne: Book Review

To Sir, With Love

By Lauren Layne

Rating: 4/5 
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Steam: Sweet/No Sex Scenes
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pub Date: June 29, 2021
Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for my Advanced Copy! You're the best!
Available: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop

To Sir, With Love Synopsis: Gracie Cooper may not be living the life that she thought she would, but that’s what she’s the best at: making the most of what she’s got. When her father dies of cancer and her two siblings are living their lives, she gives up art school to run the family champagne store. When she finds out that her landlord wants her out of her space to make way for new development, she can’t give up the family business that quickly. Pulling together her group of people she tries to make the store profitable again. Too bad she’s up against Sebastian Andrews who is way too attractive and flirty for her. But she’s in communication she’s never met online, Sir, on an anonymous dating app. Family legacy and Gracie’s heart are on the line with each move she makes.

To Sir, With Love Review

This is a cute book. I know that it’s basically a retelling of You’ve Got Mail, but I’ve never seen the movie so idk. Overall it’s a quick read that doesn’t take a lot of energy and has a compelling story. I liked it and would definitely recommend picking it up if you need something fluffy.

The Great

I adore Gracie’s community in this book. She’s accepted her role in up keeping the family business, one of the few things left from their parents as they have both died. I found that Gracie’s relationship with both her sister and brother to be one of the strongest parts of this book. They picked on each other, but also helped lift each other and complimented like actual siblings do. I really enjoyed the parts that they were in it. Between her siblings, her coworkers, her neighbors, and even Sebastian, there was a lot of movement. This book is only 288 pages, but it moves quickly because of the characters and they’re all well developed. I thought that they added a lot and really allowed Gracie to shine through making her multi-layered.

I do enjoy when there is a variety of mediums in a book so the added element of the messaging on the dating website at the beginning of every chapter was nice. It also helped build the characters more fully and showed more sides to Gracie than what she put on in front of everyone.

The plot was fun. It wasn’t very twisty or suspenseful. You know what’s going to happen and you know who all of the characters are. It’s a guaranteed HEA with a lot of sweetness.

The Meh

One thing that was an issue for me was that there were characters that were brought up once or twice, given an important role, and then never seen again. I don’t like when that happens. If you’re going to bring a character into the story and give them a background I want them to stick around.

Another issue for me was how small the city felt. Gracie knew everyone she met in the book. I get that Layne was trying to make a point that Gracie was a small business owner and apart of the community, but knowing everyone? It just felt insincere and not like NYC. It was basically like flowers grew out of the concrete and the pigeons sung. Um, NYC in the late summer is sweltering and kinda stinks… I don’t know, it just bothered me.

Long Story Short

Do I recommend this book? Yes. I thought that it was a good, quick read. For the month I’ve been having it felt nice to be able to dive into the book and read it all the way through in one sitting. It would be absolutely perfect to bring poolside or to the beach. I don’t think that I’m personally going to buy this book, but I would definitely recommend picking it up from the library or if you like fluffy, sweet reads. I think you’d really enjoy it! Definitely felt like a rom-com movie!

If You Liked This One…

I would highly recommend checking out Love Scenes by Bridget Morrissey. Both have great supporting characters and a nice, clean romance to them. Read my full review here.