The Butterfly and the Flame
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Emily felt as though she were falling through time, and before she realized it, the day of the wedding had arrived …
She didn’t want to marry Jonathan, and she knew he didn’t want to marry her. Her parents didn’t want her to marry him … After today she’d be trapped in an unloving, abusive, and impotent marriage—a prisoner of her husband’s design, trapped in their home, only leaving for social functions and dinner with his parents. She’d almost never see her family. Jonathan and Aaron hated each other. Jonathan knew that seeing her family would bring her great joy, and that was something that he simply wouldn’t allow.
It was nearly impossible to get a divorce, except in cases of lechery or homosexuality. But even with a marriage dissolved for those reasons, the unfaithful spouse was punished, sometimes severely, for violating the sacred covenant of marriage. Jonathan would certainly look outside the marriage bed to satisfy his carnal lust. What was worse, there was nothing she could do to make the authorities believe he’d been unfaithful to her. It would be his word against hers, and they would believe his. Then there was that other thing—
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About the Book
“There’s something you need to know about Emily...”
In the year 2404, America is no more. In a land ruled by the oppressive theocracy known as the Dominion of Divinity, being gay is a capital offense, adultery is punished with the lash, women are forbidden to work, and forced marriages are common.
Fifteen-year-old Emily La Rouche faces an impossible choice. On her sixteenth birthday, she will be forced to marry Jonathan Marsh, the son of her landlord. If she refuses, her family will lose everything. If she takes his hand, it is certain that her life will end by a hangman’s noose in front of an angry mob. All because Emily has been hiding an enormous secret for years—she was born a boy. As the wedding approaches, Emily’s parents realize the only way that she will be safe is if she is to escape the Dominion.
With her brother Aaron at her side, Emily flees across post-apocalyptic America in search for a new home. With vile bounty hunters on her trail, only time will tell if Emily will ever find a place where she can live and breathe free as the person she was always meant to be.
About the Author
DANA DE YOUNG graduated from Mount Mercy College in 2005, majoring in journalism and political science. She is an advocate on transgendered issues and has been a featured guest speaker at colleges and diversity seminars throughout the Midwest. She lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This is her first book. For more information visit: www.dana-deyoung.com