I’ve never met the man. I’ve never seen him before. And yet I know him. My Heart knows him. This is my Prince Charming, my love at first sight.

To Sir, With Love

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.

If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know I love Lauren Layne’s writing. When I was getting back into reading two years ago, I discovered her Stiletto series (reviewed here) and proceeded to go on a binge of half her catalog. Her books solidified my love of the romance genre, so when I saw that she was coming out with a new book this year, I just had to read it.

To Sir, With Love is what you get if you mixed blind dating with You’ve Got Mail. Gracie is on a desperate quest to save her family’s champagne shop. She is also a die-hard romantic who still believes in things like love at first sight, which she feels when she meets Sebastian for the first time. But there are two problems: 1) he’s the same man who’s trying to buy her failing family business and turn the whole building a parking garage, and 2) she’s also falling for a man called Sir she’s never seen and has only talked to via a blind dating app. But as she gets to know Sebastian, she starts to see that he has a soft side underneath the harsh, business-man exterior and starts to fall for him, too. Can she have feelings for two people at once? And what if they weren’t actually two different people after all?

This is entirely charming and sweet, with fairytale vibes with some enemies to lovers thrown in. I especially loved the enemies to lovers in this situation because Gracie and Sebastian’s “enemies” relationship is a complete misunderstanding seeing as they’re falling for each other as Sir and Lady (what can I say, I love misunderstood enemies to lovers). Gracie’s romantic nature is endearing, and I loved watching her struggle between her dedication to the family business and her dream to be an artist. And Sebastian is a swoon-worthy lead, especially as he starts to loosen up and let Gracie in.

The plot is a little predictable since it’s heavily inspired by You’ve Got Mail, but that didn’t take away from how much I enjoyed it. Like every Manhattan-set novel of Lauren Layne’s that I’ve read, it feels like a love letter to the city, from its mentions of local flower carts to amazing hole-in-the-wall restaurants. I was a little surprised that this book was clean, especially since everything I’ve read from Lauren Layne was pretty steamy, but I think it worked for the story. If you’re looking for a light, enjoyable, and quick read, definitely check out To Sir, With Love.