The cover of THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY.

I know, isn’t it gorgeous? And when you read The Knife and the Butterfly in February of 2012, you’ll see just how perfectly the cover fits the novel. Knife… or butterfly? It’s all in how you look at things.

Here’s the copy from the jacket:

Azael Arevalo wishes he could remember how the fight ended. He knows his MS13 boys faced off with some punks from Crazy Crew. He can picture the bats, the bricks, the chains. A knife. But he can’t remember anything between that moment and when he woke behind bars. Azael knows jails, and something isn’t right about this lockup. No phone call. No lawyer. No news about his brother or his homies. The only thing they make him do is watch some white girl in some cell. Watch her and try to remember.

Lexi Allen would love to forget the fight, would love for it to disappear back into the Xanax fog it came from. And her mother and her lawyer hope she chooses not to remember too much about the brawl—at least when it’s time to testify. Lexi knows that there’s more at stake in her trial than her life alone, though. She’s connected to him, and he needs the truth. The knife cut, but somehow it also connected.

Read an excerpt of The Knife and the Butterfly here. If you are a teacher, librarian, bookstore employee, book blogger, or otherwise credentialed, email meto find out about getting an e-galley. Or create a netgalley.com account and request access from my publisher.

Mad props to the Carolrhoda Lab editorial and design team (and especially my editor, Andrew). Yup, they’re rockstars.