Pas de Deux

by Dani Meier

It's the summer of 1946, and in a matter of seconds, everything Charlotte "Charlie" Miller has ever dreamed of is dashed to pieces.

Her temporary spot with the Pittsburgh Orchestra? Gone. Her chance to win a tenured position? Systematically dismantled by the pretentious pig leading the audition committee. Her happily-ever-after as a professional violist? Blown to smithereens… until Charlie comes home and finds her twin brother in crisis. A pair of scissors and a sports coat later, Charlie's on stage, auditioning as Theo in the charade of a lifetime.

But not everything can be as easy as an impulsive haircut. The Millers have a new downstairs neighbor - Frederik Cartwright: bassist, school friend, and World War II veteran. He returns to Pittsburgh desperately craving normalcy and sure of the two great loves of his life: Charlotte Miller and the orchestra. He may be too late for the former, but he can at least sink into the routine of leading one of the country's finest low-string sections.

Except… Charlotte can't pull off this ruse alone.

And if there's one thing Frederik knows above all else… he can't stand to see Charlotte Miller in need.

616 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication October 16, 2026

About the author

Dani Meier is a debut author masquerading as an orchestra musician and administrator in the Midwest. Her two degrees in music performance have been unexpectedly helpful in deep-diving the history of the orchestra for purposes of fiction.

Originally from the East coast, Dani has studied with a collection of badasses and legends that never once intimated she couldn't do the job. She began playing some of the music mentioned in her writing with a local community orchestra at age twelve, surrounded by the best kind of encouraging people. She thinks that there's nothing more magical than your first orchestral experience, especially if that experience is Beethoven or Stravinsky.

Outside of music and drafting the next foray into 20th century orchestral history, Dani enjoys herding her and her husband's cats, podcasting, and lifting heavy things that aren't her own instrument.

Reviews

[Garrett Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don’t know you need Pittsburgh Symphony historical romance drag fan fiction in your life until you read this and realize you needed it all along! I say fan fiction as a joke, this is a really beautiful, fun, and engaging novel. The premise of this book is so fun it makes me surprised I haven’t already read a book about this scenario. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with an old grumpy viola player….Am I biased because my husband is in the Pittsburgh symphony? No! Am I biased because I’m friends with the author and I love her cats more than I love lots of people’s human babies? Maybe! She is a thoughtful, funny, shining gem of a human and all of that and more is poured into this fun book, I highly recommend it to anyone but orchestral musician friends especially I think will have a blast with this.

[mari · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

I received this as an ARC (thank you Dani!) and I absolutely loved it! First of all, this cover is absolutely stunning. The plot was extremely fun to follow and Charlie was such a lovable character. I really enjoyed all the relationship dynamics in the book and how clear their care for one another is! The book is decently long but the pages really flew by, I found myself not wanting to put it down. I don’t know too much about orchestra but the author was able to write about it in such a simple but proper way, that I never found myself super confused. I also really loved the setting and the atmosphere. Overall it was a lovely debut and I’m so excited for this one to come out!

Happy reading! 🥹

[Alice · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Thank you so much to the author Dani Meier for this ARC, my first in quite a while, I very much loved this book!!
It was truly a lovely historical romance, sweet and classic. The whole story was really interesting, I wasn’t sure at the beginning as there was a lot of musical jargon that had me a bit like 😳 but the characters and the story itself really sold it to me, Meier’s writing is witty and funny, it’s genuinely hard to believe this is a debut novel. There were just so many background stories I loved it, Nancy’s orchestra, Theo and Anthony and Martin. My favourite character besides Charlie of course had to be the ancient and venerable John Elliot who reminded me so much of my late Grandad

[Second Chapter Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

She cuts her hair, puts on her brother's clothes, walks into an audition as a man... and suddenly she's good enough.

Yep. That made me mad.

Pas de Deux takes us to 1946, where Charlie has the talent to earn her place in a professional orchestra, but unfortunately she also has the audacity to be a woman. After watching her future get ripped away by men who have already decided she doesn't belong, she does something completely impulsive: she becomes "Theo."

And I was HERE for it.

What I loved was how angry this book could make me one minute and how completely invested in Charlie's ridiculous plan I could be the next. Watching her finally be judged on her talent while knowing she couldn't receive that same respect as herself was both incredibly satisfying and absolutely infuriating.

And then there's Frederick.

A WWII veteran, an old friend, fellow musician, and a man who has loved Charlotte for a very long time. Their history gave this so much more emotional weight than I expected. This wasn't simply a romance dropped into a historical setting. These were two people carrying their own disappointments, dreams, and scars while trying to figure out where they fit in a world that had changed around them.

I also LOVED the orchestra setting. I've read plenty of post-WWII historical fiction, and this felt completely different. No spies. No secret resistance missions. Instead, we get music, ambition, identity, romance, and a woman basically saying, "Fine. If you won't give Charlotte a seat, let's see what you think of Theo."

Apparently I have a weakness for women finding creative ways around men who tell them no.

Charlie had me rooting for her from the beginning, Frederick completely won me over, and by the end I realized just how attached I'd become to both of them.

5 stars. This one surprised me, and those are sometimes my favorite five-star reads.