Book Review: THE FALL OF LORD DRAYSON

Title: The Fall of Lord Drayson

Author: Rachael Anderson
Publisher: HEA Publishing
Pages: 296

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

Lucy Beresford is not a woman who fits in in her time. She does not act according to the notions of propriety and decorum. Despite being a vicar’s only child, there is nothing remotely saintly about her. Her greatest weakness is her tendency towards creative truth-telling.

After the death of her father, Vicar Beresford, Lucy and her mother have been very kindly permitted by Lord Drayson to continue to reside in the dower house as long as they wish to. But now that Lord Drayson is dead, his son, the new Lord Drayson, Colin Cavendish, wants to oust the tenants and sell the property.

Landing up on their doorstep, he informs Lucy that she and her mother have two months to make alternate arrangements. Lucy has no idea what to do. They have no relatives, and no money. Who should she turn to for help?

She is also upset that he could so easily seek to break a promise given by his father to her mother.

When the young earl falls off his horse and loses his memory. Lucy and the maid, Georgina, rescue him and Lucy thinks that this is a good opportunity to teach him a lesson. She tells him that he is her servant, Collins.

The book is written in the third person past tense PoVs of Lucy and Drayson, as Collins.

I don’t generally read romances, but I started reading this one because of Lucy. She was so feisty, so completely uncaring of social mores that it was a pleasure to see how she ruffled feathers.

I stayed on for the banter and the quick repartee that constituted the conversation between Lucy and Collins. I also liked the fact that Lucy was her mother’s main confidante, that her mother actually sought her daughter’s advice.

There isn’t as much heartburn as such novels generally include, and the earl behaves far nicer than the limits of the genre permit. In fact, the earl even consults his wife when making decisions.

It’s only when Lucy moves to the earl’s home that the story becomes dull. I was surprised to see Colin’s mother take so easily to Lucy, as though the differences in station didn’t matter at all to her. Even if Lucy was gentry, surely she didn’t belong to a titled family. Nor did she have any wealth to her name.

Also, Lucy has no real rival for Colin’s affections, which was quite strange. Considering the wealth he had, there should have been another woman to spice things up, or at least some opposition that Lucy faced.

Amnesia to the extent that Colin faces is a favourite contrivance of novelists, though quite unlikely.

The fact that Lucy’s mother gets a second chance at love was nice.

All in all, much ado about nothing. Nothing really solid by way of plot.