The Landry series
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In the heart of the bayou, Ruby Landry lives a simple, happy life. But innocence can't last forever.... The only family Ruby Landry has ever known are her loving guardian, Grandmere Catherine, a Cajum spiritual healer, and her drunken, outcast Grandpere Jack. Although thinking about her dead mother and mysterious father sometimes makes her feel as mournful as the wind sighing through the Spanish moss, Ruby is grateful for all she has. Her life is filled with hope and promise...especially when her attraction for handsome Paul tate blossoms into a mysterious, wonerful love. but Paul's wealthy parents forbid him to associate with a poor Landry, and Grandmere urges her to follow her dream of becoming a great painter, foreseeing a time when Ruby will be surrounded with riches in the dazzling citly of New Orleans! Yet she cannot know how close that uncertain future looms... In a faded photograph, Ruby glimpses for the first time the image of her father-and learns of a shameful deception and a shocking scheme of blackmail that now must come to light. Stunned by these revelations, she is decastated when Grandmere dies, leaving her to seek out her father in his vast New Orleans mansion. There, in a house of lies, madness, and cruel tormen, Ruby clings to her memories of Paul to keep her heart alive. For only their love can save her now.... |
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Fate whisked Ruby from a simple life in the Louisiana Bayou. But her new riches bring more treachery than happiness.... Even after a year as a Dumas, Ruby still wonders of the splendor of the family's New Orleans mansion, and rejoices in the love of the father she had never known. But true happiness in her new home is as elusive as a swamp mist. Ruby must carfully avoid a venomous enemy; her stepmother, Daphne, who cringes and sneers at her backwater upbringing. And Ruby's every effort to befriend her twin sister, Gisselle-especially since Gisselle's crippling accident-is answered with bitterness and vicious backstabbing. So idyllic Greenwood-the exclusive girl's boarding school that her father has chosen for his daughters' senior year-seems to pormise some peace from the conniving Daphne, and maybe even a fresh start with Gisselle. But Ruby's kind isn't wecome at Greewood, and the legendarily strict headmistress, Mrs. Greenwood, plots with her stepmother to make her life miserable. Mean while, Gisselle is on a mission to break every school rule, leaving Ruby to suffer the humiliating punishments. But Ruby doesn't lose hope-until a terrible tragedy leaves her alone in a world that never really wanted her. Ruby will have to summon every last ounce of her Cajun strength to reclaim her home, her future, and the happiness she once knew.... |
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Driven from the Dumas mansion back to her beloved Bayou, Ruby's only hope is that fate will let her begin anew... Living again in a humble, shack, Ruby is determined to make a secure and happy home for her precious infant daughter, Pearl. Paul Tate-her first love, whom she was forced to abandon-is at her side once more, now a man of dazzling wealth. When he whisks her into his grand house, it seems their future is assured. As mistress of Cypress Woods, Ruby can forget even the shocking reason she and Paul must wed in a secret ceremony and reamain husband and wife in name alone. But the thick, expensive walls of Cypress Woods cannot shut out the terrible memories that have woven their fabric over her destiny, or the cold eyes of Paul's mother, Gladys, reminding Ruby of the secret she must keep to give Pearl a loving father. Then her venomous twin sister, Gisselle, arrives to taunt her with news of Beau Andreas, the true father Pearl has never met, and the only man Ruby will ever long for with all her body and soul. Desperate to find the complete, fulfilling life she craves, Ruby builds a precarious new existence, a flimsy shanty of hope that the first flood washes away. Only when the storm exposes the very blackest evils of the past will she glimpse the rainbow's fagile promise, a morning of sunshine and laughter with a family of her own.... |
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Gabriel Landry is as beautiful as her beloved Bayou Her high school graduation just days away, Gabriel is blissfully happy, despite the ever-widending rift between her Mama and her connicing, whiskey-drinking daddy. Then rich cannery owner Octavious Tate surprises her near a secluded pond and shatters her sweet innocence, forever.... Pregnant and desolate, Gabriel agrees to let Octavious's frigid wife Gladys pretend she's the one who's expecting and claim the baby as her own. Hiding in a tiny room in the Tate mansion, Gabriel is miserable, awaiting visits from her Mama, whose reputation as a Cajun healer gives her an excuse to treat Gladys Tate's "pregnancy." But nothing is more wrenching than the moment when Gladys takes baby Paul away forever. |