That, My Dear Sir, Is What You Call Life

~To Sir, With Love~
By Lauren Layne
Amazon ~ Powell's

Perpetually cheerful and eager to please, Gracie Cooper strives to make the best out of every situation. So when her father dies just five 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 to turn the store into a parking garage. 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.


I actually have no idea how I found this book. I want to say it was someone's blog post, but I can't, for the life of me, find where I found it. Regardless, I was immediately drawn to this book by its promised combination of You've Got Mail setup with the enemies-to-lovers trope. Plus I figured it would be a cute, quick book that I could read along with my mom. At least, I hoped it would be.

Thankfully, I was right. Fast, flirty, and fun, this story was a great way to pass a rainy afternoon. And when discussing it with my mother, it was also thankfully without any intimate scenes to skirt around. I think it'd be a good fit for The Hallmark Channel, in terms of spice. In fact, I'd even put it at a YA-level, if they didn't mind reading about 30-something-aged characters.

But I don't want to spoil too much, since honestly there's not too much there to begin with. So I'll just stick to the broad strokes.

I liked Gracie, and related to her hard. Possibly not the best admission, considering her current situation... But as a single 30-something woman who's never been in a serious relationship, idealizes fairytale romance, and is ultimately scared of jumping into the unknown (both in terms of career and love), I'd say we're pretty closely matched. If there was an anonymous text-based dating app like MysteryMate, I'd definitely give it a serious look. Though I'd hope I wasn't as clueless as Gracie when it came to piecing together clues.

Though that's not really fair, as her romantic rival/interest was less than helpful in that regard. Sebastian definitely had the upper hand when it came to most things in the book, both professional and romantic. Which made it all the better whenever he got flustered by something. I will admit that I wasn't thrilled by how much he seemed to play with Gracie at the end, even if he did explain that he was only 99% sure. But for the super satisfyingly romantic scene that it brought about, I guess I can forgive him.

The side characters were both fun and not nearly enough. I honestly would have loved to see more of Keva and Robyn, since I was picking up a ton of bi energy from them, or even some more sibling interaction from Lily or Caleb. But then I also understand the size of Gracie's story doesn't really support ongoing side-character stories butting in all the time. Still, I definitely wouldn't mind a spin-off of Keva's or Robyn's romantic adventures (even if they don't intersect) alongside each of their careers (culinary & sommelier, respectively).

The last thing I want to mention is how much I appreciated the themes and message of this book. It's really not often that I read anything with characters my age, let alone in similar situations to myself, and so I found it a welcome surprise and gift to be able to take a little of this book to heart. Obviously it won't hit everyone the same way, but it was nice to have a 30+ woman in a romance book be excited for romance and fairytale magic.

Overall, this was just the perfect kind of fluff for me, and one I'd definitely recommend to romance-lovers in general. To Sir, With Love is a cute and quick enemies-to-lovers rom-com, with lots of fun, relatable characters and not a lot of spice. I found it offered some good advice as a kindred spirit, and it definitely brightened my gloomy day. So if you're in the mood for a bit of bubbly, or yearning to cozy up with something feel-good, definitely give this one a try.

Read by Rachanee Lumayno & Shaun Taylor-Corbett
Unabridged Length: 6.6 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed

Picking up the audiobook without glancing at the text, I thought we were in for another 50/50 split for POV between the two romantic leads. Boy, was I surprised to learn that about 95% of the book was all Gracie, with only text messages appearing in Sir & Sebastian's voices. With that being said, Ms. Lumayno certainly provided a great performance, doing a great job juggling everything from internal monologues, playful one-on-one banter, and even a 5-person girl's night with ease.

With all the book's narration only coming from Gracie's POV, Mr. Taylor-Corbett's voice only appeared during text conversations, but with what little I heard, I too fell in love. I know, sexiness is super subjective, but dang he was perfect for my Prince Charming. Maybe a little younger-than-30 sounding, not too deep, not too gruff, and with just the right amount of playful smirk entering at all the right moments.

Overall, not much to critique on this one. A solid production with good pacing, clear enunciation, and strict adherence to the book. I do wish they had deviated slightly during one of the text conversations, where the voice switching made it obvious who was 'speaking' to whom and could have done without the "Gracie to Sebastian" and "Sebastian to Gracie" before each exchange, but otherwise I had no complaints. A fine, fast, flirty rom-com fit for a rainy afternoon or a relaxing evening, this audiobook is a great experience.