L. Y. MARLOW is originally from Philadelphia. She is the founder of Saving Promise, a national organization dedicated to raising awareness of and ending domestic violence-which has affected several generations of her own family. This is her first novel.

Inspired by a true story, Color Me Butterfly follows four generations of mothers and daughters-haunted by a common specter of domestic abuse-as they discover the strength, hope, and courage to survive.

The last thing Eloise Bingham wanted was to leave the comforts of her South Carolina home and family. But at the end of World War II, the young wife follows her husband, Isaac, to Philadelphia-only to experience his sinister and violent temper. Eloise's children-and their children and grandchildren-will face their own trials over the next sixty years: Mattie, who has lived in her mother Eloise's shadow, finds it takes a life-changing tragedy to help her break free; Lydia, Mattie's strong-willed daughter, summons the resolve to rise above the cycle of abuse; and finally, Treasure, Lydia's lively daughter, has the chance to be the first to escape her family's destructive legacy.

It will take unconditional love, old-fashioned family values, faith, and fearless determination-already embedded in each woman's DNA-to triumph over a life plagued with unspeakable pain.