Gracie Cooper is a fierce businesswoman. She is running the family champagne store, Bubbles and More, and she’s been the one to move the Manhattan store into a new, modern era. She adds extras like cute cocktail napkins and the fancier bags that customers can carry home, signifying that they’re transporting something extraordinary. And she added the art corner, filled with watercolors of champagnes, wines, and cocktails in bright colors that draw your eye.
Gracie spends her days at the store with her fiery stepmother May and prickly wine expert Robyn, trying to find ways to increase sales. Her brother and sister are co-owners but not as involved in the day-to-day work of running the store. When their father died, it was expected that Gracie would be the one to take it over, and she would do anything for her family.
But she also needs something for herself.
While she doesn’t have a relationship of her own, she does have a Mystery Man, a man she met on a dating app where there are no photos. The idea is that couples get to know each other without knowing what the other looks like, and Gracie has struck up a friendship with a man calling himself Sir. Well, maybe it’s more than a friendship. But it’s still less than a relationship, because he told her right off that he was dating someone. But they kept talking anyway, and Gracie finds herself reaching for her phone often to see what he has to say.
The other thing she does for herself? The art corner. She has loved painting since she was a kid, and she took this opportunity to put her own paintings in the store.
And while they have a lease that will guarantee their location for many more years, the landlord is still trying to buy her out. Sebastian Andrews, with his ice blue eyes and cold heart, is trying to put them out of business just so he can build yet another high-rise in Manhattan. But Gracie isn’t having it. She promised herself that she would keep the store going when her father died, and she is doing everything she can to keep them moving forward.
Except that it’s not working. And Gracie is faced with a choice: to stay open, barely keeping their heads above water, or sell out to Sebastian. And then he actually shows up in her store, to talk to her face to face. And she realizes that maybe he’s not so cold-hearted. And those blue eyes can maybe melt her. And while Sir is great to talk to text with on her phone, Sebastian isn’t too bad to talk to in person.
Gracie has spent her whole life dreaming about her fairy tale ending, but she’s going to have to deal with her real-life problems before she can hope to find her happily ever after.
Lauren Layne’s To Sir, with Love is a modern retelling of the friends-to-enemy love story that was told with love letters in Shop Around the Corner or through dial-up internet AOL in You’ve Got Mail. Using the dating app is a fresh telling of this charming story, but it’s Layne’s characters that really add the flavor and texture to this bubbly love story.
In her author’s note, Layne says that she wanted to tell this story for a long time but it took her some time to figure out how to do it. I’m glad she waited with this one, because the story she’s brought us is almost perfect. It’s smart and funny, perfectly balanced, utterly charming, and nothing but fun. If you’re missing those great Nora Ephron rom coms in the theaters, then just pop some popcorn, pour some wine (or something bubbly), and curl up with To Sir, with Love. You’ll be transported back to the first time you saw You’ve Got Mail, and you’ll find yourself falling in love with falling in love all over again.
Egalleys for To Sir, with Love were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
