Each S&S post features one romance or feel-good book and its blurb, and one in a crime fiction genre. (Click the covers to see the books on Amazon.) Today’s books are two of my all-time favourites, though one’s been around for quite a lot longer than the other.

Sweet: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4, by Sue Townsend

Friday January 2nd
I felt rotten today. It’s my mother’s fault for singing ‘My Way’ at two o’clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children’s home.

Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents’ marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and ‘misunderstood intellectual’, Adrian’s painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.

Adrian Mole needs no introduction – the books aren’t ‘sweet’ in the romantic sense, but they’re definitely feel-good, which is just what we need at the moment. This is the first book in the series, and I think it’s the best, too. 

Sour: The Lies Within, by Jane Isaac

Be under no illusions by her kind face and eloquent manner . . . This woman is guilty of murder . . .
 
Grace Daniels is distraught after her daughter’s body is found in a Leicestershire country lane. With her family falling apart and the investigation going nowhere, Grace’s only solace is the re-emergence of Faye, an old friend who seems to understand her loss. DI Will Jackman delves into the case, until a family tragedy and a figure from his past threaten to derail him.
 
When the police discover another victim, the spotlight falls on Grace. Can Jackman find the killer, before Grace is convicted of a crime she didn’t commit?

I’ve read all Jane Isaac’s books to date, and this one, largely set in Market Harborough in Leicestershire, is my favourite. The courtroom scenes are completely convincing and must have needed a tremendous amount of research. Very well done, a real page-turner!