Book Description 

She’s a secret sensation.
Miss Lily Hartley is the anonymous mastermind behind the ton’s latest obsession: The Debutante’s Revenge, a tell-all advice column for young ladies. To keep her identity hidden, Lily delivers her columns disguised as a boy—which is well and good, until she lands in the middle of tavern brawl. As luck would have it, a devastatingly handsome duke sweeps in to rescue her.

He has no idea who she is.
Eric Nash, Duke of Stonebridge, discovers there’s a beautiful woman hiding beneath a lad’s cap, and, before long, he’s falling for the delightfully clever stranger recuperating in his house. He vows to help her find her home, even though he’s reluctant to part with her. There’s only one problem…

Neither does she.
Lily has no idea who she is. She could be a duchess or maid. Betrothed or married. There’s only one thing she does know—that her attraction to Nash is more than skin-deep, and it grows stronger every day. While Lily and Nash search to find her true identity, they just might lose their hearts to each other…

My Review 

Lily and Nash have the most charming meet cute: he’s at a seedy tavern, cosplaying as a Normal Guy and she’s also at the tavern dressed as a delivery boy because she delivers her advice column to the newspaper herself. When Nash steps in to help her from being robbed, Lily gets knocked unconscious. So Nash takes her home. 

When Lily wakes up, she can’t remember anything, so everyone decides to call her Caroline and thereafter she is referred to as Caroline. As Lily/Caroline recovers, she and Nash fall in love. 

I love a good amnesia plot, but there are some tricky plot points here. First of all, it’s important to note that Lily’s family members are all traveling to various places, so there’s no one to notice that she’s gone. However, there’s much discussion as to WHO Lily might be, and her possible station in society. Despite being dressed like an urchin, one would think that her accent and hygiene (teeth, soft hands) would place her as a gently bred young lady. 

Second of all, Nash and Lily start up a physical relationship, despite not knowing whether or not she’s married. And then Nash doesn’t offer to marry her afterwards, despite the fact that the secondary plot is devoted to Nash being upset that an utter cad is courting his sister Deliliah. Apparently the fellow is part of a bet to be the first to deflower a gently bred virgin. 

But wait! That’s EXACTLY what Nash did! Granted, he was acting on a genuine attraction and not duplicity, but still. More to the point, Nash refuses to tell his sister the unsavory details of the bet and expects her to just trust him. One would think that if he truly wanted to keep his sister away from the fellow that he would tell her, but then we wouldn’t have much of a secondary plot, would we? 

This sounds like a lot of complaining, but I assure you that I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience. The narrative kept me engaged throughout and I would love to read a book from Deliliah’s point of view!  

I would recommend The Duke is But a Dream if you are looking for a rollicking banana pants read. This is apparently the second book in a series, but I was able to pick it up without having the benefit of reading the first book. It does help, perhaps, that Lily’s family is absent from much of the narrative. I will definitely look for more of Bennett’s books in the future.  

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.