Exposure: A Novel by Therese Fowler

Exposure: A Novel by Therese Fowler
384 Pages (Hardcover)
Ballantine Books
May 3, 2011
Source: Publisher Format: Hardcover

Therese Fowler has written her most gripping novel to date—a ripped-from-the-headlines story of ardent young love and a nightmarish legal maelstrom that threatens to destroy two families.

Amelia Wilkes’s strict father does not allow her to date, but that doesn’t stop the talented, winsome high school senior from carrying on a secret romance with her classmate Anthony Winter. Desperately in love, the two envision a life together and plan to tell Amelia’s parents only after she turns eighteen and is legally an adult. Anthony’s mother, Kim, who teaches at their school, knows—and keeps—their secret. But the couple’s passion is exposed sooner than planned: Amelia’s father, Harlan, is shocked and infuriated to find naked pictures of Anthony on his daughter’s computer. Just hours later, Anthony is arrested.

Despite Amelia’s frantic protests, Harlan uses his wealth and influence with local law enforcement and the media to label Anthony a deviant who preyed on his innocent daughter. Spearheaded by a zealous prosecutor anxious to turn the case into a public crusade against “sexting,” the investigation soon takes an even more disturbing and destructive turn.

As events spiral wildly out of control and the scandalous story makes national news, Amelia and Anthony risk everything in a bold and dangerous attempt to clear their names and end the madness once and for all.

A captivating page-turner, Therese Fowler’s Exposure is also a deftly crafted, provocative, and timely novel that serves as a haunting reminder of the consequences of love in the modern age.

    This Adult/YA crossover novel is a page-turner that older teens and adults do not want to miss. Incredibly realistic, heart breaking, frustrating and unfair, Exposure, like the events in the novel, plays with your emotions until you are fighting alongside the main characters, begging to rewrite history.

    Exposure follows the story of two teens madly in love: Anthony and Amelia. One problem... their fairytale romance is something more out of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet than Disney'a happily ever afters. Anthony's father is out of the picture, leaving him with his loving, accepting mother. She is happy to see Anthony so starry-eyed happy. Then there are Amelia's parents, especially her father, who is strict, full of himself, overprotective, and filled with prejudice. It is no wonder the couple chose to keep their relationship secret from them...

    However, when things start spiraling out of control, even the teens can't help wondering if secrecy was the best decision. Nude pictures. Arrests. Misdemeanors. Felonies. Sex-offender. Jail. The two-faced, backwards ways of the Justice system leads to the downfall of these two families, threatening to rip them completely apart, leaving no person unaffected or with solace.

    >Two huge questions are now posed. One, is modern technology to blame? But more importantly, can true love rise above?

    I LOVED this novel. It took me for a ride emotionally and it really got me thinking about the unforgiving, ironic ways of the U.S judicial system. The difficult situation that the characters face in this novel is incredibly realistic. Not just in the way that the reader can envision it happening in real life, but to the point that it does happen, and all too often. Which adds to both the environment created and the overall effect of the novel.

    The characters also added hugely to the effect. It was not because they are realistic, because that would be a huge understatement. No, these characters are real. So real that at numerous times I felt that by reading Exposure I was invading their privacy. It took alot for me to remind myself that the characters are not, in fact, walking around somewhere, oblivious that their story is being told this way... and yet, I still don't know if I'm quite to the point where "fiction" adequately describes this novel.

    I could go on for pages and pages about this book. I could tell you each little thing I loved, and each little thing that made me cringe, smile, tear up, scream and gasp. I could do all these things, but I won't because I could not stand being the one who took anything away from the effect of this novel for you. Now I am leaving you with the responsibility to read it (which you most definitely should) and the promise that you will not be disappointed.