Clean Break by Jacqueline Wilson

Find this book at your library

Genre - Family


If you haven’t read anything by this author, it’s well and truly time you do. She’s among my top three young adult writers (I can’t pick which order), but she is hands-down the best author in the junior fiction section of my library. Ms Wilson is a prize-winning favourite and readers’ choice for very good reasons. There are characters that everyone can relate to, and the characters have dimensions: some you like, some you don’t, and others that have you changing your mind throughout.

The premise of this novel is universal and utterly believable: a father walks out on a family. And the novel’s turning point sees our narrator meeting her favourite author (Jenna Williams, for whom even her illustration seems based on Jacqueline Wilson herself). See what are you waiting for? Track down the author’s books now!

---- Reviewed by Tez

Until It's Over by Nicci French

Find this book at your library

Genre - Mystery


This author (well, authors - Nicci French is a pseudonym for two journalists) is a master of psychological thrillers, and is my favourite writer to come out of England. These standalone novels take ordinary people living ordinary lives, and turn their existence into the stuff of very real nightmares.

In this book, cycle courier Astrid Bell’s neighbour is murdered, and a random client of Astrid’s is dead when she arrives to collect a package. But it’s a third murder that leads the police to believe that there is no such thing as coincidence in this case.

The book was quite a cracker, until it switched to the POV of the culprit - then there was a rehash of the events through the killer’s eyes. While it was nice to read some explanation, it didn’t seem entirely necessary. Nevertheless, I’m eagerly awaiting the author’s next book.

---- Reviewed by Tez