History Literature / LandrySeries

* ReallyGetsAround: For the first few books, it's assumed that Gabrielle was this, what with her getting pregnant by not one but two married men. [[spoiler: In ''Tarnished Gold,'' we find out one of those pregnancies was the result of rape. This might have been retconned by the author precisely to subvert this trope, in order to make Gabrielle look more sympathetic, or in-character by Grandmere Catherine to spare Ruby and Paul; see "Retcon" below.]]

Ruby Landry is a beautiful budding artist who lives in a swampy backwater of Louisiana with her kindly Grandmere Catherine and her [[AlcoholicParent drunken, gambling Grandpere Jack]] after the [[DeathByChildbirth tragic early death]] of her mother Gabrielle. In spite of their impoverished life, Ruby loves the beauty of her Cajun world and dreams of being a famous artist in [[TheBigEasy New Orleans]]. Ruby is in love with [[BoyNextDoor Paul Tate]], a nice boy from the good side of the swamp, until Grandmere Catherine informs them both that [[SurpriseIncest Paul is actually Ruby's half-brother]], born of Gabrielle's affair with a married man. Then Grandmere Catherine dies, and Ruby's life is turned upside down when she learns that her DisappearedDad is a [[OldMoney wealthy New Orleans aristocrat]]...and that she herself is half of a pair of twins SeparatedAtBirth. Ruby travels to TheBigEasy to find her father and meet her unknown sister, only to find that AristocratsAreEvil. But Ruby is determined to make something of herself, to be seen as worthy for her own talents and merits, and to make her beloved Grandmere Catherine proud.

The final book, ''Tarnished Gold,'' a prequel told from the perspective of Gabrielle, reveals still more family secrets (as well as famously misspelling Gabrielle's name throughout). Gabrielle is a beautiful and carefree NatureLover...until the day a wealthy man finds her alone in the swamps and rapes her. Finding herself pregnant, Gabrielle is forced by her money-hungry father to go into hiding in the house of her rapist, whose wife wants to [[PillowPregnancy pass off Gabrielle's unborn child as her own]]. After this harrowing experience, Gabrielle fears she will never be able to love another man...but fate conspires to bring her both true love and heartbreaking tragedy.

In spite of some of the more outlandish aspects (the {{Sequelitis}} grows exponentially as the series goes on), the Landry Series is largely regarded as one of the best-written of the ghostwritten series and was very well-received by most fans. A TV miniseries based on the Landry books has languished in DevelopmentHell since the late 1990s but was resurrected by Lifetime Television and slated to be released in 2020, only to be waylaid by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

** In ''Pearl in the Mists,'' Pearl's younger brother dies from a copperhead bite.

In spite of some of the more outlandish aspects (the {{Sequelitis}} grows exponentially as the series goes on), the Landry Series is largely regarded as one of the best-written of the ghostwritten series and was very well-received by most fans. A TV miniseries based on the Landry books has languished in DevelopmentHell since the late 1990s but was resurrected by Lifetime Television and will be released in 2020.

Ruby Landry is a beautiful budding artist who lives in a swampy backwater of Louisiana with her kindly Grandmere Catherine and her [[AlcoholicParent drunken, gambling Grandpere Jack]] after the [[DeathByChildbirth tragic early death]] of her mother Gabrielle. In spite of their impoverished life, Ruby loves the beauty of her Cajun world and dreams of being a famous artist in [[TheBigEasy New Orleans]]. Ruby is in love with [[BoyNextDoor Paul Tate]], a nice boy from the good side of the swamp, until Grandmere Catherine informs them both that [[SurpriseIncest Paul is actually Ruby's half-brother]], born of Gabrielle's affair with a married man. Then Grandmere Catherine dies, and Ruby's life is turned upside down when she learns that her DisappearedDad is a [[OldMoney wealthy New Orleans aristocrat]]...and that she herself is half of a pair of twins SeparatedAtBirth. Ruby travels to TheBigEasy to find her father and meet her unknown sister, only to find that her upper-class relatives don't really want her. But Ruby is determined to make something of herself, to be seen as worthy for her own talents and merits, and to make her beloved Grandmere Catherine proud.

The second book, ''Pearl in the Mist'', continues Ruby's story with her spectacularly rotten New Orleans relatives. After her father Pierre dies, Ruby is left in the hands of her WickedStepmother Daphne, who would like nothing more than for Ruby to disappear. Daphne briefly sends both twins to a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors, where Giselle, now wheelchair-bound, gleefully goes about ruining Ruby's reputation. Ruby finds herself pregnant from a brief fling with Giselle's longtime boyfriend Beau, and ends up fleeing back to the swamps to save her baby, the titular Pearl.

''Hidden Jewel'' takes up the story of the now-teenage Pearl. After one of her younger siblings suffers a fatal accident, Pearl is horrified when her mother Ruby seems to go mad and flee back to the swamp, while her father Beau becomes a depressed, alcoholic wreck. Desperate to bring her family back together, Pearl goes into the swamps to search for her mother, only to find love in the arms of a poor-but-honest Cajun man.

The final book, ''Tarnished Gold,'' a prequel told from the perspective of Gabrielle, reveals still more family secrets (as well as famously misspelling Gabrielle's name throughout). Gabrielle is a beautiful and carefree NatureLover...until the day a wealthy man finds her alone in the swamps and rapes her. Finding herself pregnant, Gabrielle is forced by her money-hungry father to go into hiding in the house of her rapist, whose wife wants to [[PillowPregnancy pass off Gabrielle's unborn child as her own]].

In spite of some of the more outlandish aspects (the {{Sequelitis}} grows exponentially as the series goes on), the Landry Series is largely regarded as one of the best-written of the ghostwritten series and was very well-received by most fans. A TV miniseries based on the Landries has languished in DevelopmentHell since the late 1990s but was resurrected by Lifetime Television and will be released in 2020.

Ruby Landry is a beautiful budding artist who lives in a swampy backwater of Louisiana with her kindly Grandmere Catherine and her [[AlcoholicParent drunken, gambling Grandpere Jack]] after the [[DeathByChildbirth tragic early death]] of her mother Gabrielle. In spite of their hard life, Ruby loves the beauty of her Cajun world and dreams of being a famous artist in [[TheBigEasy New Orleans]]. Ruby is in love with [[BoyNextDoor Paul Tate]], a nice boy from the good side of the swamp, until Grandmere Catherine informs them both that [[SurpriseIncest Paul is actually Ruby's half-brother]], born of Gabrielle's affair with a married man. Then Grandmere Catherine dies, and Ruby's life is turned upside down when she learns that her real father is a [[OldMoney wealthy New Orleans aristocrat]]...and that she herself is half of a pair of twins SeparatedAtBirth. Ruby travels to TheBigEasy to find her natural father and meet her unknown sister, only to find that her upper-class relatives don't really want her. But Ruby is determined to make something of herself, to be seen as worthy for her own talents and merits, and to make her beloved Grandmere Catherine proud.

The second book, ''Pearl in the Mist'', continues Ruby's story with her spectacularly rotten New Orleans relatives. After her biological father Pierre dies, Ruby is left in the hands of her WickedStepmother Daphne, who would like nothing more than for Ruby to disappear. Daphne briefly sends both twins to a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors, where Giselle, now wheelchair-bound, gleefully goes about ruining Ruby's reputation. Ruby finds herself pregnant from a brief fling with Giselle's longtime boyfriend Beau, and ends up fleeing back to the swamps to save her baby, the titular Pearl.

* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Giselle, who conversely [[CantHoldHisLiquor can't hold her liquor]] [[spoiler: and eventually is paralyzed while [[DrunkDriver driving drunk.]] (She gets better.)]]

''Hidden Jewel'' takes up the story of the now-teenage Pearl. After one of her younger siblings suffers a fatal accident, Pearl is horrified when her mother Ruby seems to go mad and flee back to the swamp, while her father Beau becomes a depressed, bitter, alcoholic wreck, allowing his domineering mother to take over the family affairs. Desperate to bring her family back together, Pearl goes into the swamps to search for her mother, only to find love in the arms of a poor-but-honest Cajun man.

''Hidden Jewel'' takes up the story of the now-teenage Pearl. After one of her younger siblings suffers a fatal accident, Pearl is horrified when her mother Ruby seems to go mad and flee back to the swamp, while her father Paul becomes a depressed, bitter, alcoholic wreck, allowing his domineering mother Gladys to take over the family affairs. Desperate to bring her family back together, Pearl goes into the swamps to search for her mother, only to find love in the arms of a poor-but-honest Cajun man.

In spite of some of the more outlandish aspects (the {{Sequelitis}} grows exponentially as the series goes on), the Landry Series is largely regarded as one of the best-written of the ghostwritten series and was very well-received by most fans. A TV miniseries based on the Landries has languished in DevelopmentHell since the late 1990s.

* MeaningfulName: Ruby is a redhead.

* MoralDissonance: Ruby and Beau's plan in ''All That Glitters'' received lots of disapproval from fans.

* ConvenientComa: [[Giselle]] is stricken by encephalitis, allowing the rest of the cast to engage in twin-swapping shenanigans.

* AlphaBitch: Giselle.

* CoolLoser: In spite of being beautiful, honest, and wildly talented, Ruby is seen as a country bumpkin by her schoolmates.
* CountryMouse / CityMouse: Much of the plot of the first novel revolves around Ruby's Country Mouse versus Daphne and Giselle's City Mouse ways.

* EvilTwin: Heroine Ruby Landry meets her SeparatedAtBirth twin sister, Giselle Dumas. In ''All That Glitters'', Ruby very well could be more the evil twin than Giselle: she falls back in love with Beau despite him leaving her and their daughter, plots to switch lives with Giselle when the latter contracts encephalitis, abandons her half-brother/husband Paul and driving him to despair, and eventually gets away with it all save for a trial to determine Pearl's custody.

* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: In ''Ruby'', when the protagonist goes to find her father in New Orleans, she just happens to arrive on the day of Mardi Gras.

* KarmaHoudini: Save for a custody battle against the Tates to keep Pearl (which ended up being solved easily), Ruby and Beau get away scot-free with a majority of their plan to have Ruby and Giselle switch lives when the latter contracts encephalitis so that they could be together.

* ReallyGetsAround: For the first few books, it's assumed that Gabrielle was this, what with her getting pregnant by not one but two married men. [[spoiler: In ''Tarnished Gold,'' we find out one of those pregnancies was the result of rape. This might have been retconned by the author precisely to subvert this trope, or in-character by Grandmere Catherine to spare Ruby and Paul; see "Retcon" below.]]

** Grandmere Catherine's account of Gabrielle's death differs from Gabrielle's own account in ''Tarnished Gold''. Can possibly explained by Catherine altering her version of events to comfort herself, since she stated that Gabrielle's last words were to thank her.
** A major minor point of discontinuity in ''Tarnished Gold'' is that Gabrielle's name is changed to Gabriel--noteworthy because the story is narrated by Gabrielle herself (one would think that the spelling she herself used would be the correct one).

* TwinSwitch: Giselle convinces Ruby it would be funny to do this, only to turn the joke back on Ruby when she plays Ruby as a naive country bumpkin who sleeps around. [[spoiler: This scene becomes foreshadowing for the next novel, where Giselle assumes Ruby's identity without her knowledge in order to seduce a man, and again in the third book when Ruby swaps identities while she's in a coma.]]

In spite of some of the more outlandish aspects, Sequelitis particularly in the later books, the Landry Series is largely regarded as one of the best-written of the ghostwritten series and was very well-received by most fans. A TV miniseries based on the Landries has languished in DevelopmentHell since the late 1990s.

* CoolLoser: Ruby.

Ruby Landry is a beautiful budding artist who lives in a swampy backwater of Louisiana with her kindly Grandmere Catherine and her drunken, gambling Grandpere Jack after the [[DeathByChildbirth tragic early death]] of her mother Gabrielle. In spite of their hard life, Ruby loves the beauty of her Cajun world and dreams of being a famous artist in [[TheBigEasy New Orleans]]. Ruby is in love with [[BoyNextDoor Paul Tate]], a nice boy from the good side of the swamp, until Grandmere Catherine informs them both that [[SurpriseIncest Paul is actually Ruby's half-brother]], born of Gabrielle's affair with a married man. Then Grandmere Catherine dies, and Ruby's life is turned upside down when she learns that her real father is a wealthy New Orleans aristocrat...and that she herself is half of a pair of twins split apart at birth. Ruby travels to New Orleans to find her natural father and meet her unknown twin sister, only to find that her upper-class relatives don't really want her. But Ruby is determined to make something of herself, to be seen as worthy for her own talents and merits, and to make her beloved Grandmere Catherine proud.

The second book, ''Pearl in the Mist'', continues Ruby's story with her spectacularly rotten New Orleans relatives. After her biological father Pierre dies, Ruby is left in the hands of her resentful stepmother Daphne, who would like nothing more than for Ruby to disappear. Daphne briefly sends both twins to a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors, where Giselle, now wheelchair-bound, gleefully goes about ruining Ruby's reputation. Ruby finds herself pregnant from a brief fling with Giselle's longtime boyfriend Beau, and ends up fleeing back to the swamps to save her baby.

The final book, ''Tarnished Gold,'' a prequel told from the perspective of Gabrielle, reveals still more family secrets (as well as famously misspelling Gabrielle's name throughout). Gabrielle is a beautiful and carefree girl who takes refuge in the beauty of nature...until the day a wealthy man finds her alone in the swamps and rapes her. Finding herself pregnant, Gabrielle is forced by her money-hungry father to go into hiding in the house of her rapist, whose wife wants to pass off Gabrielle's unborn child as her own.

* BastardBoyfriend: Beau Andreas isn't much better than the others considering how he can easily switch back and forth from Giselle to Ruby to Giselle and back to Ruby. He also was the one who more or less orchestrated the plan to switch the twins in ''All That Glitters'' with Ruby following along so that her daughter can be with her father despite being married to Paul.

* TwinSwitch: Giselle convinces Ruby it would be funny to do this, only to turn the joke back on Ruby when she plays Ruby as a naive country bumpkin who sleeps around. [[spoiler: This scene becomes foreshadowing for the next novel, where Giselle assumes Ruby's identity without her knowledge in order to seduce a man]].

In spite of some of the more outlandish aspects, [[Sequelitis particularly in the later books]], the Landry Series is largely regarded as one of the best-written of the ghostwritten series and was very well-received by most fans. A TV miniseries based on the Landries has languished in DevelopmentHell since the late 1990s.

In addition, a TV miniseries adaptation is currently in DevelopmentHell.

* MeaningfulName: Ruby is a RedheadedHero.

* RedheadedHero: Ruby and Gabrielle.

The Landry series is a series of novels published under the name of Creator/VCAndrews, but written entirely by the ghostwriter who had previously written sequels to several of Andrews's novels.