Sexual Consent Laws are Explored through a Teen's Eyes in New Novel by Author Nancy Ohlin

    ITHACA, NY, November 11, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In Consent, Young Adult author Nancy Ohlin brings to the page the story of a high school senior who falls in love with her music teacher. This thought-provoking novel, at once passionate and disturbing, will leave readers with conflicting emotions about love and legality. Consent will be released November 10, 2015 by Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.

Ohlin, who has written or ghostwritten over eighty books, takes an all-too-common phenomenon--the student-teacher affair--to the next level. Readers will see the relationship blossom from the perspective of the young narrator, Beatrice Kim, but will also be forced to think about the morality of the issue. "Consent is a complex love story that makes Bea and Dane's relationship relatable and even kind of awesome. That is, until the sky falls in," Ohlin explains.

Ohlin faced a few challenges while writing Consent, but the toughest was a personal one. "I was victimized by a high school teacher when I was fifteen," Ohlin reveals. "What happened to me was bad, and the easiest thing would have been for me to write an angry, one-dimensional story based on that experience. But I wanted to move beyond that and create a much more nuanced narrative--something that would have a lot of people discussing and debating the subject of consent. In the end, Consent was not my story at all but Bea's."

For that reason, her male protagonist was the most difficult to write. "On the one hand, he's a high school teacher who sleeps with his student, which made me instinctively want to write him as a villain," says Ohlin. "On the other hand, Bea is in love with him, and their relationship changes her in an incredibly positive way."

In writing Consent, Ohlin "didn't want to trivialize the very real crimes that happen against children and teens. Bea's and Dane's relationship is a very specific one with very specific parameters; it's also fictional."

Ohlin is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). She also blogs at Young Adult Outside the Lines.

About the Novel

CONSENT by Nancy Ohlin, Young Adult, 268 pages. ISBN: 9781442464902, Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse), Synopsis:

In this sexy and intriguing novel, an intense--and passionate--bond between a high school senior and her music teacher becomes a public scandal that threatens the reputation of both.

Bea has a secret.

Actually, she has more than one. There's her dream for the future that she can't tell anyone--not her father and not even her best friend, Plum.

And now there's Dane Rossi. Dane is hot, he shares Bea's love of piano, and he believes in her.

He's also Bea's teacher.

When their passion for music crosses into passion for each other, Bea finds herself falling completely for Dane. She's never felt so wanted, so understood, so known to her core. But the risk of discovery carries unexpected surprises that could shake Bea entirely. Bea must piece together what is and isn't true about Dane, herself, and the most intense relationship she's ever experienced in this absorbing novel from Nancy Ohlin, the author of Beauty.

Praise for CONSENT

"Consent is as delicate, as profound and as subtle as the music that gifted young pianist Beatrice plays in moments of near-mystical inspiration. Nancy Ohlin tackles a very delicate subject with so much wisdom, so much clear-eyed honesty, and such a deft touch that I was blown away. A quick read you can't put down." - Michael Grant, New York Times bestselling author of the Gone series

"... a layered and thoughtful contemporary novel. The push and pull between what is perceived and what is true throughout the narrative adds another dimension to the unreliable first-person narration as readers and Bea contemplate Rossi's agenda. ...Ohlin delivers an open-ended novel ripe for discussion as readers follow the plot's twists and turns." - School Library Journal

"A compassionate but clearsighted look at student-teacher liaisons." - Kirkus

"Seen from Bea's naive viewpoint, the book reads almost like a romance, but readers will wonder about Dane's past long before Bea does, giving the story an uncomfortable edge. Bea learns about 'age of consent' the hard way yet gains self-confidence by the story's end. A morally complex novel good for discussions with older students." - Booklist

About the Author

Nancy Ohlin is the author of CONSENT, ALWAYS, FOREVER, and BEAUTY. She has also collaborated on several celebrity novels, including a New York Times bestselling YA trilogy. Born in Tokyo, Japan, Nancy divided her time between there and Ohio. She received a BA in English from the University of Chicago, and she lives in Ithaca, New York with her family.

Learn more at nancyohlin.com.

About Barclay Publicity

Barclay Publicity is a boutique public relations agency specializing in author publicity and book promotion. Our goal is to provide results-oriented author publicity and book promotion services to published authors writing Women's Romantic Fiction. We are committed to building trust by delivering a tangible service to our clients in an area of public relations in which results are usually difficult to guarantee. To get more information about Barclay Publicity or its clients visit http://www.barclaypublicity.com. To contact Barclay Publicity email them at [email protected].

About Simon Pulse

SIMON PULSE delivers fresh, bold voices that inspire compulsive reading for teens and beyond. With a focus on high-concept commercial fiction, we're proudly known as an imprint to push boundaries, to be daring and edgy and of the moment. Our dynamic books--from cult classics to electrifying debuts--embrace escapism and get people talking. Quite simply, we publish the books teens want to read.

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