Ten Hours to Live

Ben falls in love with Sophie while he's playing Sir Lancelot, rescuing her from an unhappy love affair. Their relationship develops slowly, with the threat of Ryan, Sophie's ex-boyfriend, always in the background. A foolish argument ends the relationship but the end of the book sees the pair reunited. Sound familiar? Standard love story fare, but with a big difference: Johnson makes his characters into real people and explores their preoccupations and obsessions with keen observation and insight. This book will say a lot to many young readers - advance from here along the spectrum to Romeo and Juliet.