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Leblanc/Rivard #1
Bayou
Where the temptation to sin is as overpowering as the heat. Where four generations of the Leblanc dynasty bear the curse of unbridled power over the bodies and souls of the slaves... Where the Leblanc men and women pursue their forbidden lusts in exotic octaroon balls, opulent New Orleans salons and sweltering marshlands... Where Carita Lablanc, the ravishing new plantation mistress, uncovers the secret world of mixed blood and deep-seeded guilt and is driven to an act of unspeakable violence -- hurling this once proud family into scandal, ruin and murder.
414 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
75 people want to read
About the author
Saliee O'Brien
23 books9 followersPseudonym of Frances Leroy "Frankie-Lee" Griggs Weed Zelley Janas..
She wrote hundreds of novels and short stories, publishing under pseudonyms including Marie Eyre, Francesca Greer, and Stuart Jason.
She was born 19 November 1908 in Appleton City, Missouri, the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Griggs and Lillian Maud Bremer. She later moved to Austin, Texas where she met and married Thurlow B. Weed, Jr. They were later divorced, and she and her son Thurlow B. Weed III moved to Hollywood, Florida. There she remarried to Leroy Zelley, whom she outlived, and later married newspaper editor Eugene Janas. Frankie-Lee (Griggs) Janas died 15 February 2002, and was buried next to her husband in Hollywood Memorial Gardens.
Her first publication was a short ghost story that was printed in her hometown newspaper when she was 12 years old. Her final book was "Cayo", a historical fiction set in Key West, Florida, and published in 1983.
Her son having predeceased her, her grandson Thurlow B. Weed IV became her literary heir. There were a number of manuscripts (MSS) that were never published. Of particular interest is a collection of short stories written in the 1950s. They are historical fiction as well as biographical fiction. They are being transcribed, edited,and published as Kindle editions. Other previously unpublished works are being reviewed for possible publication.
She wrote hundreds of novels and short stories, publishing under pseudonyms including Marie Eyre, Francesca Greer, and Stuart Jason.
She was born 19 November 1908 in Appleton City, Missouri, the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Griggs and Lillian Maud Bremer. She later moved to Austin, Texas where she met and married Thurlow B. Weed, Jr. They were later divorced, and she and her son Thurlow B. Weed III moved to Hollywood, Florida. There she remarried to Leroy Zelley, whom she outlived, and later married newspaper editor Eugene Janas. Frankie-Lee (Griggs) Janas died 15 February 2002, and was buried next to her husband in Hollywood Memorial Gardens.
Her first publication was a short ghost story that was printed in her hometown newspaper when she was 12 years old. Her final book was "Cayo", a historical fiction set in Key West, Florida, and published in 1983.
Her son having predeceased her, her grandson Thurlow B. Weed IV became her literary heir. There were a number of manuscripts (MSS) that were never published. Of particular interest is a collection of short stories written in the 1950s. They are historical fiction as well as biographical fiction. They are being transcribed, edited,and published as Kindle editions. Other previously unpublished works are being reviewed for possible publication.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 15, 2015
Visual representation of my Bayou reading experience:
I fucking LOVED this book. I couldn't stop reading it. It sucked my attention into a black hole that consisted solely of the Leblanc family bullshit...and I couldn't get enough of their whackadoodle crazies.
Put that in your pipe & smoke it, all ye pretentious literary doorstoppers. :D
(This review is offically spoiler-free. See how nice I am? ;))
Bayou is a deceptive little paperback. There's not much romance, but there's a lot of sex. There's not much linear plot; it goes from Point E (1850s, Rene & Carita) to Point D & back to Point E, then to Points A, B, & C before returning to Point E. And while it's plantation-related, there's not much about the plantation itself -- no Mandingo WTFery here (point of fact, the L'Acadie slaves have a comparatively nice life).
So what's it about? Well, simply put, Bayou is wrapped around a family tree whose men have a perpetual itch for sex with the wrong women. In other sagas this might not be such an issue -- certainly rich white dudes of this era weren't shy about mistresses of any color -- but the Leblancs have a unique problem. Unbeknownst to their wives, the patriarch Gabriel's son was born of a pale-skinned slave, & any further intermingling of black & white might produce the dreaded throwback child, not to mention tear the family's wealth away. Oh noes!
Naturally, Gabriel's descendants prefer women of mixed blood. :D The family journals have hitherto been enough to steer them away, despite resulting heartbreaks -- until fourth generation Gabriel Rene, who just can't quit his beloved Olive. Things go from bad to worse when Rene's wife, Carita, becomes the first Leblanc woman to discover their dirty little secret. Carita is...well...a raging racist nutball an overly-emotional Creole elitist. No good can come of her discovery; indeed, the last page was a trainwreck of epic proportions, complete with a certain action that set my eyelid twitching & a cryptic ZOMG update flying onto Goodreads. I placed the book on my lap, gave it a side-eye, & chuckled with sheer joy at the audacity of the final paragraph's parting shot. Yeah, I thought. These people are all loonies.
I ask you. What's not to love? :D
Okay, okay. Let's end on a semi-serious note.
Though I'd prepared myself for an onslaught of hackwork, it turns out that Bayou is a well-written novel. There's plenty of LOLzy sex-related purple prose (not to mention a succession of raging boners -- those Leblanc men have Needs(tm) from puberty until they're dead in the dirt), but the general descriptive sections are well done & the characters have a good bit of depth. There are no true villains; all the major players are painted with shades of gray, & even Carita has moments where you couldn't help feeling sorry for her. It's the type of book I love -- demure WTFery, where crazy costume melodramas unfold on a vivid historical backdrop with splashes of bloodspray.
Any complaints? Not really. The only thing I'd change is Octavie's section; she's an interesting gal who doesn't get enough facetime. But that's a very minor gripe & doesn't tarnish the Leblancs' blue-ribbon five star status.
- Squick List -
-graphic sex
-adultery
-un-PC slavery discussions
-no allowance for 21st-century pearl-clutchers
-brief periods of extreme violence
-no HEAs for anyone
I fucking LOVED this book. I couldn't stop reading it. It sucked my attention into a black hole that consisted solely of the Leblanc family bullshit...and I couldn't get enough of their whackadoodle crazies.
Put that in your pipe & smoke it, all ye pretentious literary doorstoppers. :D
(This review is offically spoiler-free. See how nice I am? ;))
Bayou is a deceptive little paperback. There's not much romance, but there's a lot of sex. There's not much linear plot; it goes from Point E (1850s, Rene & Carita) to Point D & back to Point E, then to Points A, B, & C before returning to Point E. And while it's plantation-related, there's not much about the plantation itself -- no Mandingo WTFery here (point of fact, the L'Acadie slaves have a comparatively nice life).
So what's it about? Well, simply put, Bayou is wrapped around a family tree whose men have a perpetual itch for sex with the wrong women. In other sagas this might not be such an issue -- certainly rich white dudes of this era weren't shy about mistresses of any color -- but the Leblancs have a unique problem. Unbeknownst to their wives, the patriarch Gabriel's son was born of a pale-skinned slave, & any further intermingling of black & white might produce the dreaded throwback child, not to mention tear the family's wealth away. Oh noes!
Naturally, Gabriel's descendants prefer women of mixed blood. :D The family journals have hitherto been enough to steer them away, despite resulting heartbreaks -- until fourth generation Gabriel Rene, who just can't quit his beloved Olive. Things go from bad to worse when Rene's wife, Carita, becomes the first Leblanc woman to discover their dirty little secret. Carita is...well...
I ask you. What's not to love? :D
Okay, okay. Let's end on a semi-serious note.
Though I'd prepared myself for an onslaught of hackwork, it turns out that Bayou is a well-written novel. There's plenty of LOLzy sex-related purple prose (not to mention a succession of raging boners -- those Leblanc men have Needs(tm) from puberty until they're dead in the dirt), but the general descriptive sections are well done & the characters have a good bit of depth. There are no true villains; all the major players are painted with shades of gray, & even Carita has moments where you couldn't help feeling sorry for her. It's the type of book I love -- demure WTFery, where crazy costume melodramas unfold on a vivid historical backdrop with splashes of bloodspray.
Any complaints? Not really. The only thing I'd change is Octavie's section; she's an interesting gal who doesn't get enough facetime. But that's a very minor gripe & doesn't tarnish the Leblancs' blue-ribbon five star status.
- Squick List -
-graphic sex
-adultery
-un-PC slavery discussions
-no allowance for 21st-century pearl-clutchers
-brief periods of extreme violence
-no HEAs for anyone
June 5, 2017
To sum up my thoughts/feelings:
This book was crazy and did not draaaag at all. I pretty much finished this book in one sitting. There is no HEA in thissucker one. I can never read "sucker" in the same way again. lol
Trigger Warnings:
-Slavery (it's the south pre-civil war)
-Rape (really graphic and it was icky- be warned)
-Suicide attempt
-Your Cheatin' Heart
-Racism
-Graphic Violence
-Murder
This book was crazy and did not draaaag at all. I pretty much finished this book in one sitting. There is no HEA in this
Trigger Warnings:
-Slavery (it's the south pre-civil war)
-Rape (really graphic and it was icky- be warned)
-Suicide attempt
-Your Cheatin' Heart
-Racism
-Graphic Violence
-Murder
October 23, 2018
Pros; The book didn't drag at all.
Cons; It was fast-paced, but it evoked no emotions in me. I could care less about any of the characters or events.
it was a DNF book. Couldn't figure out who the hell the heroine was supposed to be for this book...
Cons; It was fast-paced, but it evoked no emotions in me. I could care less about any of the characters or events.
it was a DNF book. Couldn't figure out who the hell the heroine was supposed to be for this book...
Read
November 15, 2018This book just totally lost me. I don't like to give negative reviews, but I just didn't see any good reason to finish reading entire book. The first part was filled with sex, then more sex. I felt like the author was just trying to get the reader heated up, foreplay, in a sense. There was just enough of a storyline to try and take the focus off of it being labeled a steamy sex book. About the time I started to get used to the storyline, then BOOM! It goes into the second part of the book, which is about an entire new generation. I was totally confused about who was who and what they had to do with anything. It seemed to focus more on history, except for the one rape scene. I just couldn't seem to concentrate on the storyline at this point . I just gave it up. Maybe it was just me, for whatever reason, this book did nothing for me, not even for educational purposes. My main reason for reading is for enjoyment and relaxation.
May 6, 2021
From one generation to the next as nutty Carita reads the journals of past Leblanc heirs and their male parts. abrupt end.
April 14, 2013
Well.. Very informative about how people viewed races back then. It's interesting but a little much sometimes.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews