To Dance with a Duke - Gabrielle Meyer - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Gabrielle Meyer

SERIES: Dollar Princess, #2

GENRE: Historical Romance

PUBLICATION DATE: June 9, 2026

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A historical romance that is not just a historical romance. Retelling of the classic Hollywood musical ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’. Interesting characters, great historical feel, wonderful setting. Christian fiction. Slightly slow and repetitive in the second half. A nice option for fans of the genre and of the movie. The second book in the Dollar Princess series but can be read as a standalone.

Plot Preview:

1884, England. Twenty-year-old American heiress Lily Parker is taken by surprise when the reclusive Duke of Severton, Ames Welby, proposes to her almost as soon as they meet. She knows that he is in desperate need of money to repair his ancestral home, and as she has wealth as well as an interest in leaving the crazy chaos of London, she accepts. What she doesn’t know is that life at Pickering Castle will be just as chaotic. Ames’ four brothers, though charming, don’t know how to behave in upper-class society. Practical-minded Lily soon hatches a plan to train them in the necessary etiquette and then invite four wealthy American girls and their chaperones to Pickering Castle, hoping for suitable matches. But the constant clash of love vs. money makes Lily’s task tougher than she anticipated. Adding to her troubles are the howls of the “Wailing Duchess” that make locals suspect Pickering Castle is haunted.

The story comes to us in Lily’s first-person perspective.

By now, my friends surely know of my fondness for this author’s writing. I don’t read many romances these days, but when they are from the pen of Gabrielle Meyer, I sign up before even reading the blurb.

The Dollar Princess series is a planned set of five books, each a Gilded Age retelling of a Hollywood musical. Each book shares the theme and some characters. There is also a continuity in the timeline though not in the plot. Hence this book can be read as a standalone.

This second novel is based on the excellent romantic + comic musical, ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’. (There is a Bollywood copy of this movie as well titled ‘Satte Pe Satta’, starring then-superstar Amitabh Bachchan as the Indian “Adam”. It is also fairly entertaining for its time and has some hummable songs, but the original is the original for a reason.) If you enjoyed the movie, you will love this book version of it!

Bookish Yays:

💰 The novelisation of the musical – wow! This book takes some essentials from the movie but as always, the author gives it her own twist. I love that she eliminates the more problematic elements from the source material. In this case, that infamous kidnapping scene has been chucked out in favour of something more traditional and acceptable. No Sobbin’ Ladies in this one! I also appreciated the reduction in the number of brothers. Seven would have been too many to remember! 😅

💰 The novelty of the plot despite being a retelling. There are several new elements added to make the story more well-rounded. The Gothic mystery angle was unexpected! 👀

💰 The historical research. As always, mindblowing! Many authors would have been content to wing the historical elements as the romance should get greater focus in a romance novel. But Meyer’s books always contain a strong element of history that actually transports us to the era.

💰 Lily as the lead character. Loved her strength of character and her conviction to follow her duties as the duchess without compromising on her faith as well as personal goals. As she has the advantage of wealth that Jane in the movie didn’t, her approach towards training the Welby boys is quite different: not so comical, but equally endearing. (It helps to hum “Goin’ Courtin’” during this scene! 😁)

💰 Molly, Lily’s maid and a strong character despite her relatively small role.

💰 The four younger Welby brothers. (‘Younger’ being a relative word because they are all older than Lily!) Though each had a relatively limited page space because of the numerous characters, their complexities and emotions came out well. I didn’t like all of them equally but did like how they made their presence felt and how each had a different personality.

💰 The romance. As Lily and Ames start with a marriage of convenience, their love story takes a more slowburn and subtle route. Those looking for a more passionate romance story might not enjoy this, but I found it more realistic than an insta-attraction.

💰 The use of the Dollar Princess concept, which I didn’t realise so much in Book One but comes out strongly in this second novel. The detailing of the mentality of the Gilded Age rich ladies feels spot on.

💰 The setting. Not the USA nor the richer areas of London. The majestic Pickering Castle is set on the coastal moors by the North Sea, and this remote location is explored very well in several scenes.

💰 The depiction of the contrast between the American and British attitudes towards certain topics. The book is obviously a bit biased towards the USA, but I appreciate that there are a few lines in favour of a few UK tendencies too.

💰 The Christian content. Slightly diluted in this one, but still as meaningful. No needless preachiness; just a depiction of trusting in God’s plan and working towards your marriage in harmony with His plan.

💰 The cover art – so pretty! 😍

Bookish Okays:

💵 Ames. He is modelled on Adam from the movie (who is not exactly a woman’s dream man with his obnoxious misogyny towards Jane.) To be fair, Ames is a much better version of Adam. But in some scenes, I could see glimpses of the same closemindedness as Adam. This made me quite annoyed with the Duke. This is more a shortcoming of the original material than of the book, and a part of it can be excused by his title privilege.

💵 The numerous characters: five couples and their chaperones, phew! 😅 At one point, I was muddling all the pairs, but things soon became easier. Just go with the flow.

💵 There is a fair amount of secret-keeping between Ames and Lily, just as in the movie. Some secrets are justified; some just feel like needless miscommunication.

Bookish Nays:

💸 The repetitive conflict-and-instant-resolution scenes between Ames and Lily in the second half. The cyclical arguments and quick settlement got a teeny bit boring.

Overall, this turned out to be a lovely story, going much deeper than the movie and covering several more themes. I loved Book One: ‘To Love a Lady’ more because of adorable leads and stronger storyline, but I still had a lot of fun reading this novel and enjoyed making comparisons between it and the movie.

The lead pair of the next book has already been introduced in this story. Unless you've been living under a rock, you too will easily guess the movie inspiring the next adaptation as soon as you read that scene. I'm so excited for it! It's one of my all-time favourite musicals, even though it butchered reality despite claiming to be based on real events. (Is this much information sufficient for you to take a guess at what musical is next?)

Definitely recommended to anyone who likes historical fiction with slowburn romance and Christian values. You don’t need to know the movie to enjoy the book, but you will certainly appreciate the Easter Eggs better if you are familiar with it.

My thanks to author Gabrielle Meyer for providing me with a complimentary copy of “To Dance With a Duke” at my request. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The digital version of this book is currently available on Kindle Unlimited.