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.
Release Date: Jun 29, 2022
Heat Level: Warm
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Imprint: Gallery
Price: $11.99
An ode to a timeless tale that put a smile on my face!
To Sir, With Love is a delightful reboot on You’ve Got Mail, with a twist.
We have heroine, Gracie Cooper, she runs a champagne and wine shop called Bubbles and More. It’s a family shop, passed on to her by her father. Though she’s the youngest sibling of three and somehow got roped into running this shop instead of perusing her dreams in art. We meet our heroine amid attempting to figure out how to keep her shop turning a profit and communicating with a gentleman via a dating app. Though, said gentleman, got on there by accident and isn’t looking for a date.
Gracie is also dealing with a ruthless company run by a man who is more good looking than he should be, and said man wants to buy out her family’s store lease. This is where the fun begins in a lovely downward spiral as Gracie starts to discover who she thought was her enemy might be her friend, and she’s supposed to hate him.
This book had so many fun characters from the main ones to Gracie’s best friends and even the business grump, Sebastian, who is trying to take her shop away from her. Of course, Sebastian doesn’t see things like that, he keeps telling her she’s welcome to move her shop elsewhere and then the fool won’t go away or take no for answer and keeps showing up to bother Gracie.
What did I love about this one? It had so many of those slow burn aspects I’ve come to enjoy in a good enemies to lovers romance. The shared interests, the slow realization the person you thought was inhuman is quite the opposite. The banter, the longing stares, the concern that maybe the hate and dislike is something else entirely. *sigh and swoon*
Sure, there is an element of cheesy and predictable to this book, but those things made me smile and my heart bubble up in joy. The same way all of us romantics sigh when we’re watching a good rom-com. You’re left with this feeling that there is still love in the world, and you might possibly find the one for you.
What I didn’t like is that I only got to live in Gracie’s head. I wanted to know what Sebastian was thinking as he stood with only a desk between him and Gracie as they talked. I wanted to get inside his head whenever he’d have the urge to go by Gracie’s shop or be around her after she soundly denied him a moment of her time before.
Overall, if you want a feel-good summer romance To Sir, With Love will deliver just that. In fact, it’s put me in the mood to go watch You’ve Got Mail. For readers who enjoyed Kerry Winfrey’s Waiting For Tom Hanks.
~ Landra
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