Helly Acton Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Helly Acton is an accomplished published author and copywriter.

She is from London but also has lived in Africa, Australia, and the Middle East. She was born in Zimbabwe and emigrated to the East Sussex coast with her family when she was 15. There she completed school while spending holidays in Saudi Arabia thanks to her father being placed there for work.

Helly attended King’s College London, where she studied Law. Then she went into advertising. When before taking a break from the working world and took three months off to travel in Asia, India and Africa before ultimately landing in Australia.

She had just intended to travel for a year but what was supposed to be just one year ended up somehow turning into six. When she went through the break-up of a relationship in Sydney, the author decided to return home where she was suddenly the only single friend of her group.

Helly decided that it was time to have some more experiences and threw herself into online dating in the city. She was determined to have some new experiences and the silver lining is that she was able to find inspiration for her future stories.

The author is married to her husband Chris and they share a son named Arlo. The family lives all together in Berkshire along with their dog, Milo.

The Shelf is a 2020 novel written by Helly Acton. This was a Radio 2 Book Club Pick and a book that authors and readers could not get enough of. Lindsey Kelk called book ‘Fun, fresh and thought-provoking’ while Jo Whiley said that it was a ‘really fun read’ and called it ‘Very entertaining!’.

If you’ve been looking for a book that is going to whisk you away from the everyday and will keep you engaged and turning the pages until you get to the end, check out this book that you might just find difficult to put down and that Woman & Home called a ‘witty, life-affirming page-turner’.

Sometimes you feel like life is a race, but sometimes it can feel like you never chose to enter it and you’re still losing. That’s how main character Amy feels at this moment in time, something that many people can relate to.

Amy looks around her and everywhere that she turns, it seems like people are getting married. They’re having kids, they’re buying homes, they’re running businesses and settling down. It’s not just in her imagination. Every time she logs into her Instagram app, it just confirms what she already knows.

When her boyfriend decides to surprise her with the news that they’re going on a big wonderful holiday, Amy thinks that this must be it. He must be going to propose to her and finally ask the one question that she has been waiting for. The question that would catch her up to everyone else and the one that would let them be one of those happy, settled couples on social media.

Amy feels like she is walking on sunshine, but what feels like a dream starts to slowly transform into a nightmare when she discovers that somehow she is on the set a reality television show similar to Big Brother called ‘The Shelf’.

It turns out that the great holiday that her boyfriend booked was not to be after all, and Amy gets even more disappointed when it becomes extremely clear that there is no proposal happening. Nothing is coming her way and she is part of five other women who are now being filmed and are being in the process of being dumped live on television.

To make matters even worse, she has to compete in a variety of humiliating tasks so that she can hopefully be made something called ‘The Keeper’. While she is inside the house, is she going to find out that there are worse things that exist in life than being left on the shelf? Can she use this experience to find a new sense of appreciation for her life and all that she has to offer?

Even though this is not what she thought she wanted, at the end of the day Amy has to admit that it was for the best. Can she see the value in following her own path and will her relationship with her dead-end boyfriend concluding leave room for something more in her life? In the end, this reality television experience may be the best thing that ever happened to her. A great read that you won’t want to miss.

Begin Again is a 2023 book by Helly Acton. This is a great contemporary read that doesn’t take itself too seriously and considers the question of what would we do if we could do it all again.

Frankie McKenzie has a comfortable life, but even though it’s all quiet and nice she can’t help but feel that there is something there that is missing. It could be a better job, traveling, a home of her own, or a relationship. She’s still thinking about all of it when she ends up dying on a first date on a freakish accident involving kebabs, of all things.

Even though her life is over, it appears that her life has not entirely ended. Somehow she is offered the opportunity of having a second chance where she can go back to different important moments from the past where she will see if making different choices could end up meaning that she was living the fulfilling life that she has always wanted.

There are so many different chances now to do different things. She finds herself wondering if she wants to swim in Mexican waters with a handsome man or say yes to a proposal. What might have happened if she had gone after that huge career in the media that she had always wanted?

Frankie gets to see what her life would have been like if things had gone differently. Would she actually keep her life the way that it was or would she alter things with the chance to start over? Will she be happy with the results, or is the point to appreciate the life that you have no matter what because you can find joy and fulfillment and appreciate things no matter what choice you make? Check out Begin Again by Helly Acton and find out.