Reviewed by Marisa O’Neill
Publisher: Samhain
4.7 Stars
There are some books you just have to read from beginning to end with out pause. This is the case with Deidre Knight’s Butterfly Tattoo, a contemporary romance that has you settling in and reading for the long haul. Touching all the right chords, this is the story of love lost, love found and finding love with in.  It’s about the scars you can see and the ones that are hidden, the ones that reside deep in your soul and cause a heart to be broken.
Ms. Knight’s lyrical dialogue and ability to write cleanly what the heart wishes to express is magic, and her story about a man, a woman and a child finding each other after individual tragedy is telling of her talent.

What do you do when you’ve lost the love of your life? How do you cope when your partner, your co-parent, the person you thought you would spend eternity with dies?  How do you get past a heart ache so big you thought that just putting one foot in front of the other was all you had energy for?  Michael asks himself those questions every day since his life partner Alex died leaving him to raise their only daughter Andrea.  When he meets Rebecca he begins to hope that perhaps his life could be about more than survival.
Rebecca has similar hopes.  Having been brutally attacked, left for dead and terribly scarred for life, she has no illusions about love. But then she meets Michael. Together they begin to test the waters and to begin to hope again.

This story epitomizes and reinforces that love is about the person – not their color, creed, political affiliation or sexual orientation.  Michael’s first true love, the person whom he has a daughter with was a man. He loved him with a great passion. His death crushed him. Meeting Rebecca and falling in love with her, he knows what he has always known – that it’s the person you fall in love with. And taking the journey with both Michael and Rebecca you understand this very clearly.

Ms. Knight takes away all the artifice and jargon and simply states through the conversations and thought processes of each character how important it is to love with unbiased freedom.  Each chapter is written from a character’s point of view.  And she does this seamlessly. She has a lyrical style that allows you to understand each characters thoughts and struggles; the dialogue flows and ebbs and you ride the wave.

I cried a lot while reading this book. The sadness and tragedy Rebecca, Michael and Andrea overcome is touching. She uses a deft pen to bring a myriad of emotions to the reader and compels you to love them. Ms. Knight’s thoughtful and understated approach will entice and enchant you and make you think; and most of all, fall in love with her book.