If you love the musical/movie Grease, you're gonna love this.

You're the Duke that I Want (fun title btw) is a recreation of Grease as if it were set in the 1800s. The characters are cardboard copies of the famous movie characters and the plot doesn't veer far from the original. While a cool story idea, it made the story very predictable and, in turn, boring. I did find the side characters entertaining and there were some funny & charming moments.

The cover is beautiful & I could stare at it all day.

Overall, I think if this was more "inspired by" instead of recreation I would have liked it more.

I really liked this book. I have never read anything by this author before but the female protagonist was such fun and it was amazing to see her come into her own. Her relationship with the Duke while started off rough seemed believable and significant character development happened for both parties. I am very interested to see if this author will continue this series with some of the other characters we met in this book.

I'm giving three stars because I can see the premise and the potential with the right audience. That audience is just not me.

While I have seen Grease and do, to a certain extent, have fond memories of it, when I look for a retelling, I certainly look for some originality or unique spin to the tropes of the original. This just wasn't the case for You're the Duke That I Want, which was at times almost a beat by beat reproduction of Grease but in a historical setting.

I will say that this was a charming enough read that I didn't find it difficult to finish.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

After escaping her mother's clutches for the day, Sandrine Oliver finds herself in the arms of a handsome stranger, hell bent on 'rescuing' her from drowning. She doesn't know much about Danny Smith, but she can't stop spending time with him, until he disappears from Squalton-on-Sea. Trying to forget him, Sandrine throws herself into her effort to convince the Duke of Rydell to renovate the rundown manor house. Arriving in London, Sandrine is more than shocked to discover that Danny Smith is there, and is in fact Lord Dane Walker, heir apparent to the Duke of Rydell. Furious at him for lying, she makes friends with the 'Pink Ladies', who convince her to seduce Dane, and rebuff him once he's in love. But can she guard her own heart at the same time.

Well, when I saw that this book was Grease-inspired, I knew I needed to read it! I will say that it wasn't only Grease-inspired, but was rather the historical version of the musical, just without the songs. All of the main characters have Grease names, and even some of the dialogue and plot line seemed to be taken straight from the film. That being said, I did really enjoy it. There were aspects to the story which were new, and the mystery element was enjoyable to read too. I did guess at who the 'villain' was, but I liked seeing how Lenora tied it all together. If book two is not Mamma Mia-inspired, I will eat my hat. A grandmother called Ruby, with daughter Dawn, and granddaughter Sophia, who live on a small Greek island - it's obvious. Hopefully Dane and Sandrine will be in that book, because I need to see them as a happy couple now.

Librarian Review: I would absolutely recommend this in reader's advisory. I think it is a great book for folks who may be interested in getting into reading who love movies, or who want something familiar to them when the venture into the genre.

Reader review:

TL;DR: Great for fans of Grease, not so great for originality.

You're the Duke that I Want has plenty of opportunity to charm the reader with allusions to the familiar storylines of Grease. The story is well-written with cute moments that can be fun to catch if you have seen the film, and its inspiration could segue Grease lovers into the regency romance genre. However, I was often drawn out of the story by what was felt like copy-and-pasting of the film rather than mere inspiration.

Creating an adaptation of a story like Grease with a regency setting actually makes a lot of sense the more I think about it. We see the same gender roles and expectations of behavior impacting characters as they navigate coming into true adulthood. Still, I think the book would have been improved if Bell was willing to stray a bit from her source material. Or at all.

Entire scenes were lifted from Grease into the story (the dance contest scene really bothered me), some lines copied verbatim, and even the character names wouldn't deviate from the original film--sometimes using not only the character names but the actors' names as well (See: Dodie and Stockard).

If you adore Grease and historical romance, or are new to the genre, I would highly encourage you to read this. If you are more indifferent to the film or want to see something that doesn't rest on Grease's laurels, this may not be the best option for you.

Pros:
-Charming
-Unique tropes, if not for the romance genre, than at least for the setting

Cons:
-Copy and pasted the script to Grease, then edited the setting
-Fetishization of the FMC's innocence
-Some cringey scenes
-[The Madam Avalon reveal felt too out of left field and took me out of the story (hide spoiler)]

I was excited to see how the author would retell Grease in a regency setting. Unfortunately, I felt like this fell a bit flat. I think it was the characters, I didn't really connect with either Sandrine or Dane. For me, the best part about Grease was the music and the overall storyline was a bit problematic. So, if you're into Grease for the storyline and don't need the music, this book is for you.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this. If you really love the movie Grease, you’ll like this. It’s like literally watching the movie, but in a historical setting. Even though I like the movie, the book just didn’t work for me. Mainly because I didn’t like the characters. The only ones I liked were the two elderly ladies.

I am not a huge fan of grease but I soon realized that this was Retelling of the movie and I quite loved it. I found myself smiling and enjoying this book so much. There was some additional plot outside of what we know from the movie but it was sooo fun watching it be translated to historical romance. I do hope we still get a separate book for Kenwick and Roslyn. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC for my honest opinion

It is a cute story that drew me in, unfortunately what fell short for me was how unbelievable The main character goes from being an innocent, who obeys every command from her mother to a all of a sudden daring young woman while in London. To me there was no real build up from that to doing the things she did while in London. Nevertheless, it was a cute story.

This book had me grinning from start to finish. It is based off the very familiar musical Grease, so if you know that story you can easily follow and guess the plot of this book.

Even though the plot is predictable, the main characters are charming and their love story is worth rooting for.

We have a good girl/bad boy, a one bed trope, and a blackmailer on the loose! If I had to criticize this book I thought the Grease connections were a bit too much at sometimes. Mostly the names of the characters were a bit too much. But the author committed and I respect her for it.

And I’m pretty sure I know what musical she’s gonna do next thanks to a few hints that were dropped. Cant wait for more!

Thank you NetGalley and Avon for the ARC!

"Grease" Regency fanfiction. That’s what this feels like; it’s not merely inspired by the movie, but is a recreation of it. The book is fun and modern. The spicy scenes seem realistic, with the inclusion of some awkward moments, not the over-the-top depictions seen in some historical romances.

I did find the writing to have a lot of dialogue with choppy transitions. I would have liked further descriptions of the character’s mindsets or mannerisms during conversation. It could have been smoother, and I wanted more meat on the bones, per se.

This book was the most fun I’ve had reading an HR in a good while. It was witty, adorable, and steamy—an all-around great time. I loved the Grease theme! It would have been easy for this book to veer into way too corny territory, but instead it was very well done. It was funny and captivating and the story still felt original. I loved all of the side characters and am really hoping to read their stories in the future! I also really love when an MC stands up to their awful parent instead of being a doormat the whole book, so that’s another huge plus.

A big thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

The new book from Lenora Bell does not disappoint. I love the concept of the use of “Grease” for her inspiration.
Dane and Sandrine are both learning to break out of their preconceived notions that others have make them believe about themselves. The come together and are able to truly be their best selves with reach other. The story was funny and the best part is that it had realistic emotions from people that were both positive and negative. I truly enjoyed the characters and how the interacted with each other. It was also very spicy which added to the story. We even get to glimpse at characters from her other book. I loved it!

How much you will enjoy this novel is probably directly proportional to how much of a fan of the musical Grease you are. If you 'ship Danny and Sandy and your go-to karaoke song is "Summer Lovin'" or "Hopelessly Devoted," you are going to love this book.

I'm a moderate Grease fan, so I found that the clear homage to the musical took me out of the romance between Lord Dane, heir apparent to the Duke of Rydell, and Sadrine Oliver. (Yup, the names of most of the characters are versions of the Grease characters' names and the actors who played them in the movie.) At times, the adherence to the musical's recognizable moments felt like it caused the plot to drag on and create somewhat outlandish or improbable story elements--but hey, you can't skip the iconic final scene from the movie, right?

I'm not going to talk about the plot in this review because in many ways, you already know it if you're familiar with the musical. And part of the fun of this book is seeing how Lenora Bell translates the original story into Victorian times. There are Pink Ladies and a Thunderbolt Club of rakes who like to race curricles--it's all there. The secondary mystery is a bit underdeveloped because it's competing with an already robust plot, and it probably is unnecessary in the end. Still, it added a lively bit of adventure at times.

You have to give it to Lenora Bell here: her affection for Grease is on full display, and readers who love that story will be delighted by this one as well.