*99,000 words without any extra 'fluff' at the end.

And these aren't your usual victorian/regency gender norms. This story includes diverse characters and LGBTQIA elements, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, and poly romance, as well as reversed and fluid gender norms. It features a clockwork dragon guard dog, an irreverent and intimidating future queen, a metal-worker-turned-consort, and a poly relationship with a vessel of fire and air. It is set against a rich steampunk regency backdrop in an alternate world where magic has influenced the development of technologies and nations, and where Regency and Victorian era gender norms are reversed. But will Raina’s efforts to gather the support of a misfit court with the magic of only a pair of newly bonded wellsprings be enough to save them all from accusations of treason, murder, and all-out war?Ĭlockwork Dragon is an “outside the box” romance of monarchy and mayhem. Blythe soon finds herself fighting alongside Raina for every freedom she’s ever dared dream of, as they try to completely remake a kingdom. But this is no Cinderella story.īlythe’s future wife, Raina, is engaged in a quiet, deadly battle of politics and power with the current regent as she approaches her coming of age and her ascension to the throne. Blythe’s world is turned upside down when a commission for a clockwork dragon ends with a proposal she never could have imagined-and leaves her bonded to the future queen of the Imperial American States. Instead, she’s an embarrassment and burden to her parents, who already have a house full of normal boy wellsprings to marry off. And Blythe has no hope of making a fortuitous match and becoming a magi’s favored lover and pet, the way a male wellspring would. Wellsprings can’t own property and have very little in the way of basic rights. She can’t actually use magic, the way a woman should. In a world where powerful female magic workers rule, and vulnerable male wellsprings must follow the rigid social norms meant to keep their magic pure from corruption, Blythe doesn’t fit in anywhere. The only problem is, women aren’t supposed to be wellsprings. Blythe Li is a wellspring-a vessel containing magic that can only be used by a magi.

Clockwork Dragon by Kaye Draper