Landry/Fabrizio brief history

This is the history of Landry women and the Fabrizio family!.

I’ve had a number of readers email me asking about varies books that I’ve written so this blog is my attempt to answer some of the questions and explain my reason behind them. Most of   the questions lately have been about the Landry/Fabrizio series. So I’ll begin with the Landry/Fabrizio storyline.

I’d originally planned to reveal the history of the Landry women in the near future with the three part set of the Landry sisters from Baton Rouge; Diamond, Onyx and Topaz. The three sisters discover the lost diary of their great grandmother LaLa Landry; LaRoux Lafontaine Landry.  

So here is a history lesson on the Landry women and the Fabrizio family:

            I’ll begin with the lineage of the Landry’s and their family history. It all began with their great grandfather Lloyd Landry whom many thought was just a wandering playboy. When in fact he was a secret intelligence agent working undercover for the US government. His assignments took him all over the world. However several decades ago when he was in his mid-twenties his exploits took him to Baton Rouge, Louisiana were met and he fell in love with a young Afro-Creole-American woman whom he quickly married.

That woman was LaRoux Lafontaine unfortunately being so young and sheltered she didn’t quite understand the type of work he did. He decided to take her on one of his trips for a romantic getaway when actually he was on an important mission. Lloyd left her alone in their room telling her he had very important business to attend to and he’d return in a few hours. LaLa which he so fondly called her, became bored and decided to go out for a bit. That’s when she caught him in a very compromising position with another woman. 

That night feeling hurt and disappointed she ran away disappearing from his life. The moment Lloyd realized that she’d run off he began searching for her immediately, but LaRoux was nowhere to be found. And although he was desperate to find her he had a job to do so he continued with his work as well as searching for her at every opportunity.

So for decades Lloyd Landry remained heartbroken and lonely as he moved not only around the world from place to place but also from woman to woman.  Lloyd may have loved more women than he could count and while he freely and willingly gave them his body he never gave them his heart. Because his heart would forever belong to only one woman, LaRoux Lafontaine Landry.

After having her heart shattered by the man she loved more than life LaRoux went into hiding not realizing until months later that she was carrying Lloyd Landry’s child. She was so devastated that she decided to use the knowledge passed down to her about the black arts of witchcraft.

LaRoux used this knowledge to perform a ritual casting a spell that would prevent him from ever being able to fall in love with just one woman. However she didn’t end the spell there she made it so that he would only be able to sire sons and those sons would only sire sons. So for two generations only Landry males were born under the lineage of Lloyd Landry.

And the second generation of sons his grandsons would only be able to sire daughters in sets of three. Her reason for this was so that each one would suffer at least one of the painful emotions she’d had to suffer because of Lloyd Landry.

Unfortunately, the cruel spell also affected any woman that would someday carry the Landry name. This vengeful fate would continue until this heart-wrenching spell could be some day lifted.

Many, many years later after ending his secret spy life style, Lloyd Landry returned to Baton Rouge in hopes of finding LaRoux. After months of searching he was finally able to locate her, he then begged and pleaded for her to forgive him. He claimed that she had always been the one true love of his life. And as this had not been a part of her spell she forgave him and attempted to remove the spell however it had been too long for her to remember the exact ritual.

So LaRoux decided to alter the spell the best that she could, although being much older, extremely unpracticed and just a bit senile it didn’t quite turn out as planned. She wanted his grandsons to one day die happily with the woman of their dreams their one true love.

Instead her reciting came out:

That she wanted them to die with their one true love on their happiest day.

That is why the parents of the Landry women die so earlier in life.

And the second half of her attempt to alter the spell was for the Landry women to conquer their pain, overcome every wrong that was done to her and find true love with only one man.

However, as I said because she was now very, very old and no longer practicing the dark arts of spell casting, wouldn’t you know that it didn’t come out as she’d meant.

Instead, it was recited as such:

 May the present and future generations of Landry women which are and or will be the great granddaughters of Lloyd Landry, conquer their pain, become even stronger and find true love with only one clan.

That clan just happened to be the Fabrizio family. 

A few of the questions I seem to get a lot of is why are the Landry women so harsh? Do they have to be so mean to their men? Why don’t I tone down their characters just a bit? Can’t I try to make them a little softer?

So here’s my answer to that!

Each and every one of the Landry women has gone through some type of hardship, heartbreak or struggle in their life. They all have their own insecurities, heartache and/or pain to overcome and one by one they conquer their demons. As a result of this they become stronger and more determined not to feel that pain again.

So yes they are a bit harsh at times and very much so to the men that they eventually come to fall in love with. However, their reasoning behind this is because they feel as if a man can’t deal with their strong-take- no-bullshit attitude then that man doesn't deserve to be in their life.

I hoped that my readers would see that through the course of each story the main character of the Landry women slowly but mildly becomes a bit softer and tones it down just a little. But, the Landry women will never tone it down to the point of becoming a meek, frail or soft enough that they can be manipulated, or used, or mistreated ever again.

And if I continue to write the Landry/Fabrizio series they will always have that edgy, no-bullshit playful attitude with one another, it’s what makes them the Landry women.

And although it takes a strong minded, self confident, and patient man to love a Landry woman, so far there have only been one family of men that are qualified and that’s the Fabrizio men.

Not only are they qualified, they are more than up to the task of mildly taming and completely loving this strong clan of beautiful women.

Here is a little history on the Fabrizio family;

The Fabrizio men were all raised with the guidance of Giuseppe and Serafina Fabrizio. Although their story has never been told they too had a somewhat rocky start.

Giuseppe was the third son of an Italian mobster who’d inherited the family business because he was the only one that had been smart enough to go to college. When his father realized just how ambitious he was he knew that Giuseppe would be the right one to take over the family business.

The name Fabrizio caused waves of fear throughout Italy however Giuseppe was determined to change that. He wanted his family’s name to be respected not feared.   

 Shortly after becoming the head of the family company he was informed that his wife to be had already been chosen for him. This arrangement had been made by his father to strengthen their family in power and status.

Giuseppe’s soon to be wife was Serafina Santini daughter of the well-known and very dangerous Paolo Santini from Sicily. It was said that Paolo’s wife Samira had been sold to him by her family while he was visiting the Western Sahara on business. The young woman had been considered evil and labeled an outcast due to her dark skin tone and light blue-grey eyes she was an unusual beauty.

Samira’s family had tried to get rid of her on many occasions but she’d always return, sometimes she’d return a bloody mess. However, it was always the blood of the men that would try to take her against her will. She was a real fighter and she fought to win because for her losing would mean the unthinkable.

Nevertheless, the moment that Paolo had caught sight of the young beauty he knew that he had to have her as his very own. Somehow Samira knew that Paolo would be different from any of the men she’d ever encountered and she was more than willing to go with him. 

Since Paolo had already been given the reins of his family’s business he didn’t really care what people would say about whom he chose to marry. Paolo used his money and power to make certain that his wife was respected and treated as a true Santini anyone who said otherwise usually went missing.

Several years later the Santini name became even more feared than the Fabrizio name making him a very sought after business partner. So when Giuseppe’s father approached him to make a deal Paolo agreed with the stipulation that whichever of his sons that would gain control of the family company would wed his daughter, Serafina.

Giuseppe knew the rumors about Paolo’s wife but he didn’t care because he would make a deal with the devil to protect his family. It also didn’t hurt that this deal would increase the Fabrizio family power and finances by millions.

Soon after Giuseppe took over as the head of the company he reluctantly met Serafina and fell head over heels in love with her in just a few short weeks. Although it took her a bit longer to warm up to the idea of marrying Giuseppe, but once he turned on the charm she quickly changed her mind.

 He relayed his wish to legitimize his family business and she admitted that she wanted the same for her family’s business as well. The two of them wanted to change the image of both their families, from fear to respect. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned which he quickly found out after taking control of the company. In no time at all he learned that both of their families had more enemies than he could count in a month of Sundays.

However, it wasn’t until Serafina was kidnapped a few days before their wedding by a ruthless rival of both the Santini and Fabrizio families that he truly understood what being a Fabrizio was all about. He realized that men like his father and Paolo had to go to great lengths to keep the family safe from people that wanted to hurt them. He also realized that families with lots of money and great power would always be targeted by people who wanted to take it away in order to take their place.

Giuseppe had yet to learn the connections he needed in order to call in favors to have Serafina rescued. At that moment he felt both helpless and useless so he made a promise to his father and to Paolo that once Serafina was safe in his arms he would never be helpless again. Giuseppe would make his family more respected but he would leave the fear their name caused intact for the safety of his loved ones. He finally understood that a touch of fear could be a good thing when it was needed.

Paolo had to call in a big favor in order to contact the only people that would be able to get his daughter back, the Dubois’. Of course they were reluctant to meet with Paolo but agreed since Serafina’s life was in jeopardy. The Dubois’ were able to rescue her safely but they had to use deadly force in order to do so. They got Serafina back just in time for her wedding and the Santini’s as well as the Fabrizio’s had made a new ally in their fight to protect their families.

(In case you forgot this is the connection between the Fabrizio’s and Nicolette Dubois-Romanov. From the Russian Royalty series! Her parents rescued Serafina just as they did with Olga)

A few short years after Giuseppe and Serafina wed the two of them merged both of their family’s illegitimate companies and turned it into the legitimate empire that it is today. Very few people knew that Serafina was Giuseppe’s secret weapon when it came to making smart business decisions. She was a fast learner and she knew how to run a business because Paolo had taught her everything he knew. Serafina had used that knowledge to help create the Fabrizio Empire. She was quick to realize an opportunity that would make a great deal of money.

Of course she was also Paolo Santini’s daughter so she did have a ruthless side when it came to protecting her family. But then again so did Giuseppe this was a trait they passed down to all of the Fabrizio children, especially the males.

That’s why to this day a Fabrizio man never makes a threat that he can’t deliver on and he never makes a promise that he can’t keep.   

The strength of a woman can only be tamed by a man with passion that equal to her strength.

And by tamed I do not mean controlled as my readers can see with my characters love and passion can soften the hardest of hearts.  Many of the women in my books overcome painful obstacles in life before finding the love of the right man. However protecting their family will always be their number one priority that includes protecting their men.

So love them or hate them the Landry women will always be beautiful, sexy and passionate as well as sassy, brassy and classy. And there will always be a hot, gorgeous Fabrizio man that loves them.  

So that was a quick history lesson on the Landry women and Fabrizio men. I truly hope this helped you as my readers understand these characters a bit more. Feel free to send me an email if you have any more questions or if you’d just like to share your thoughts on this or any of my blogs and books.

As for me as a writer, I can only say this;

I am dedicated to writing about strong, smart, passionate multi-cultural women because I want my daughters to know that these traits are not optional they are a necessity. Every woman deserves to be loved and happy but not at the cost of being mistreated and or used. A woman’s self respect, self confidence and self worth should never be traded for any reason. Strong women raise strong families.

It was a blessing from the good Lord, with a strong will. And the love of my husband and family that got me through Breast Cancer and all the unpleasant horrors that came with it. That includes the treatment and side effects. I won the battle but it’s a daily struggle to maintain good health so strength is a must for me and all of the survivors like me.

So for all of you that enjoy reading my books especially the Landry/Fabrizio series thank you for supporting my work and as long as you keep reading what I write, I’ll keep writing for as long as I am able to.

Until next time Peace, Love and Happy Reading!

 Shelli Quinn