BOOK RECOMMENDATION: THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY

Today is the official release date for Ashley Hope Pérez’s THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY!

The synopsis:

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. Azael needs the truth. The knife cut, but somehow it also connected.

Because my YA group author blog, YA Outside the Lines, is participating in the blog tour for THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY, I had a chance to read a galley of the book during the holiday season...and what a fabulous Christmas present it turned out to be! The voice is what absolutely sucked me in as I read THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY. I know from personal experience that writing a male voice can be a challenge for a female author, and I found Azael's voice absolutely authentic and believable...so much so, I even wished I was back in his head during the portions of the book that were driven by Lexi's voice. But Lexi proved equally powerful, in the end; actually, at the close of the book, I was grateful to have had the time in her head, as well. Getting to know Lexi made the novel's conclusion have even greater impact.

I love the fact, too, that THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY reads like a mystery (a genre I've been reading more of lately). A lightning-fast read that you'll be sorry to put down, once started...Grab yourselves a copy here.