Review: A unique read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 28, 2012
A Clockwork Butterfly is a unique work. It is fantasy, sci-fi, romance, BDSM, a little steampunk--a little bit of everything. This is a world where a toxin has killed most of the men. Those who are left are imprisoned in the Manor. Young women are watched throughout their lives to see if they can be what is needed to interact with the men and bring male children into this world. Lena is one of these young women. She is innocent but considered a top prospect to be a collector of the men's seed. Angelo, himself young and fairly innocent, is chosen for her. They are lost souls who find forbidden love in this world but because of this love Lena is sent away for punishment. She is imprisoned in another manor house where she will be shown the error of her ways by The Wasp, an older woman who commands the fear of even the guards at this prison. The Wasp sexually arouses Lena who remembers her love and her female roommate at the Manor while with The Wasp. But all of these people long for escape from their prisons. Can it happen?I like Angelo and Lena. They are young, innocent, and learning about themselves and sex. Mae, Lena's roommate, teaches her about female love and domination. But Mae does have a secret. I loathed Mae at the beginning but gradually came to like her at the story progressed. The Wasp has an assistant, Cheryl, and both of them have secrets. I had to decide which of them to believe.There is some world building that occurs during the story. It was enough that I understood that toxins killed off the men and the women were trying to keep humanity going through the few remaining men. I would have liked to have seen more world building occur before this story began. Knowing what happened and the history and consequences of the toxins at the beginning of the story would have produced a tighter written story. It would also have kept the story focused on the characters rather than telling the story only to interrupt it with some world building to let the reader know some history of this place.Tabitha Rayne writes good sex. While it has a lot of BDSM, which is forbidden in this world, the reader must remember it is a fantasy so does not follow the rules that a traditional BDSM follows. But the sex is HOT!!! It pairs m/f, f/f, f/f/f, and f/f/m. There is almost a sexual pairing for everyone. For the story there is only one male, Angelo, but they hope to discover more.I liked the butterfly through the story. It is delicate and beautiful but very important to those in the story. Again it would have been nice to know what Angelo did in his cell prior to the story commencing. Lena would still be enthralled of the butterfly but we would know how it fit into Angelo's world.There are typos and logistic errors but they were few and while pulling me out of the story for a few seconds did not cause any major disconnect from the story for me.And all I can say about the ending is there BETTER be a sequel.A Clockwork Butterfly is a hot read, perfect for these long summer nights