The Fall of Lord Drayson (Tanglewood, Book 1) by Rachael Anderson #review

Pages -  295 

Publisher -  HEA Publishing

Published - August 29, 2016

Sold by -  Amazon Digital Services LLC

Genre - Clean/Wholesome Regency Romance

Series -  Tanglewood, Book 1 of 3

Sexual Content -  0/5

Language -  0/5

Narrative -  Third Person (Heroine's Story)

When Colin Cavendish, the new earl of Drayson, informs Lucy Beresford that she and her mother need to vacate the house they've called home for the past two years, Lucy is fit to be tied. They have no money, no relations they can turn to for help, and nowhere to go. How dare the earl break the promise his father had made to the Beresfords without so much as a twinge of conscience?
Fate plays her hand when Lucy discovers the earl unconscious and injured in the middle of the road. When he awakens with no recollection of who he is, Lucy seizes the opportunity to teach the earl a much-needed lesson in humility and tells him that he is nothing more than a mere servant. Her servant, in fact.
And thus begins the charming tale of a pompous lord and an impetuous young woman, caught together in a web so tangled that it begs the question: Will they ever get out?

Yep, that's a 5-Heart rating!

Also, my first Rachael Anderson novel.

It won't be my last, and if all goes well, she may just become my newest Favorite Author.

After finishing The Fall of Lord Drayson, I became overly curious to find out how the author does at Contemporary, which, if I understand correctly, is what she is most-known for?

And, I definitely want to read the other two novels in the Tanglewood series...

I'm not trying to be fan-girly here.

This isn't spectacular writing, but it is at its 21st Century finest as far as I'm concerned.

SOMEone knows how to write, edit, and string words together to make proper and complete sentences.

Although...

• Lucy’s mother once told Lucy that she (11%)
• only been two days since her mother had gone, and it were as though (15%)
• Lucy met the gaze of her maid with a cringe. (15%)
• besides themselves with worry, wondering (42%)
• like to be together with. (84%)

And only one instance of modern slip appeared (as far as I could tell)

• but I can only assume it has to do with justice and perhaps closure. (69%)

There are over 1,300 ratings at Goodreads, and of those, 351 reviewed the novel there, with a majority of them being positive and constructive.

At Amazon, there are close to 500 reviews and 32 are in the average to lower category, with such complaints as boring, far-fetched, and slow.

One reviewer, however, did hit on a topic that I had a wee bit of trouble with as well: the lip-twitching thing went on too many times, so the author might have noticed this sooner and reworded things for a more intelligent read.

I adored Lord Grayson as much as I did Miss Lucy, I felt the connection right away, sympathized with Lucy's predicament, and was most anxious for these two to reach their HEA.

This is Lucy's story, with a majority of it centered around her and her life as a poor daughter of a deceased Vicar (once titled) and her mother (once a seamstress), and their only helper, Georgina (Georgy).

Colin (Lord Grayson) greets the reader as an impatient, upset Earl anxious to sell the Tanglewood Estate, which he deems as unprofitable, but his solicitor refuses to help because he knows that the Beresford women reside there and will be on the street otherwise.

Lucy greets the reader as a bored young lady wanting to be content with her lot in life while continuing to recall a few of the lessons her late father had tried to instill in her... one being not to lie or deceive others.

A majority of the story then centers on Lucy and Colin residing together with Geogry while awaiting the return of Mrs. Beresford AND the Earl's memory.

While these two are together, they get to know one another better, teach each other a few things that upgrade their personalities, and then the inevitable occurs twice in a few days of each other.

The last half of the story works to tie up loose ends, give us a greater understanding of how Colin's mind actually works, and about how determined Lucy really is to gain something for herself as opposed to always thinking about others instead.

So, despite the few flaws I mentioned earlier, I still believe this novel deserves all five hearts for a rating, and I still look forward to reading more of Rachael Anderson's work... especially at least one of her Contemporary novels.

As always, though, I will have to keep my fingers crossed that one novel doesn't overlap the other, and so-on, and so-on, like reading the same story but with different characters involved... which is how a majority of these Series romance novels tend to pan out.

Highly Recommend this if you haven't, yet read The Fall of Lord Drayson.

It Just Works