“Have you seen the new fairy tales coming out? There are still princesses and princes, but the princess isn’t sitting around waiting for a dude to shove her foot into a glass slipper. The new princesses are badass. They go after what they want—”
To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne is an enchanting story that will warm the heart of any true romantic.
Cheerful Gracie Cooper tries to make the best of any situation that comes her way. When her father passes away, she sets aside her dream of becoming an artist to run her family’s champagne shop. The problem is the profit margins for the shop are small, and no matter what Gracie tries to do, they don’t seem to grow. Things become even more complicated when handsome and arrogant Sebastian Andrews walks into her world wanting to buy the shop with plans to turn the space into a parking garage. The thought of giving up her family’s business and letting her father down is unbearable for Gracie. With all this turmoil happening in her life, Gracie has taken to writing to “Sir,” a mysterious man she met on a dating app. They have never seen each other, but that doesn’t stop a strong connection from growing between them. The more Gracie writes to Sir, the more she finds that she is falling in love with the man, but she questions whether his feelings are as strong as hers. What Gracie and Sir don’t know is they have met, and they can’t stand each other.
I really needed a fun, light read after reading a few heavy and emotionally draining books. I decided to pick up To Sir, With Love, hoping that it would be my pick-me-up that I so dearly needed, and readers it definitely was. This book has this fairy-tale romance feel to it; it reminded me of the movie Enchanted at times. Gracie loves fairy tales, and she dreams of meeting her true prince charming, a man who is “average-height, musically inclined Sagittarian, with long brown hair, brown eyes, and a dad bod.” Because she has built up this ideal “prince” in her mind, it becomes hard to find a guy to measure up to her fantasy. Gracie is sweet, endearing, and a true romantic. I love her as a main rom-com heroine; she is just so darn charming. I really admired the fact that when life gave her lemons, she didn’t sit around and become jaded or blame others; she stayed positive, did what needed to be done, and still showed kindness to others.
I love the relationship between Gracie, Sebastian, and Sir. Gracie cannot believe she is attracted to Sebastian because he is the polar opposite of her imagined prince charming. This book has an enemy to lovers love triangle trope. It worked really well with the story and kept things entertaining. I loved reading the messages between Sir and Gracie; it was a wonderful bonus at the end of most chapters in the book.
Ok, so I have a confession one of the things that I adore most about this book was all the Frank Sinatra song references. It was an incredible detail to add to the book. It made me so happy that Gracie would connect parts of her life to Frank Sinatra songs. I ended up playing his music in the background while I was reading this book, and I am listening to his music now as I write this review. The itch to travel has been growing stronger and stronger for me every day. Reading this book made me fall in love with New York (New York, New York, I want to wake up in a city That doesn’t sleep). I now want to hop on a plane and sit in Central Park and eat gelatos on a park bench while watching the great city of New York.
Be ready to be charmed with this delightful rom-com.
Thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
