Four women, four love affairs at the crossroads.

One is betrayed once too often.

One’s past catches up with her

One falls for the wrong guy.

One for the right one, but 40 years too late...

From the prize-winning author, Helena Halme, comes a moving novel of newfound love, break-ups, and old passions rekindled.

When Alicia decided to take over her step-father’s farm, little did she know that the moral dilemmas she’d face would have far-reaching consequences. Not only does her new life back on the islands threaten to break up her own fragile affair with the Swedish journalist Patrick but also the relationship forged with Frida, the ex-girlfriend of her dead son.

Brit, Alicia’s best friend has recently returned to the islands and couldn’t be happier with her new life. Heavily pregnant, living with the man of his dreams, the Sea Captain Jukka, her life is turned upside down when a former lover, Nico, turns up on the islands and threatens to reveal a devastating secret about her.

Meanwhile, Frida could not have found love with anyone more unsuitable than Andrei. He’s come to the islands to find out the truth about the demise of his younger brother Daniel. Unbeknown to Andrei, Daniel is also the father of Frida’s baby daughter.

As the summer on the islands heats up, Alicia’s mother Hilda, too, finds romance, but can she trust a man she vowed never to see again some forty years earlier?

Set on the Åland Islands which lie between Finland and Sweden, An Island Summer has family intrigue, stunning Scandinavian scenery, and quirky island folk. An unmissable, standalone, holiday read for 2021! 

Do you want to write your own life story but don't know how to turn real events into fiction?

 Now with updated content! 

This inspirational book shows you in 10 easy steps how to turn your life into a novel. It shows you how to:

• Research your own life
• Find the right genre for your life story
• Create an engaging plot and story arc
• Shape strong characters out of ‘real’ people
• Use dynamic dialogue
• Stop worrying about what people might think of your book
• Write regularly and with confidence

Helena Halme is a prize-winning author of 12 fiction and two nonfiction titles. She is a former BBC journalist, a translator, and a magazine editor, and began writing fiction after gaining an MA in Creative Writing. Her true love story, The English Heart, is a bestselling novel and has been downloaded thousands of times on Amazon.

In Write Your Story, Helena shares her experience in using her life as the inspiration for her books and shows you how easy it is to turn your life story into a fiction title.

Now with added writing tips and new advice on the process of turning your life into fiction.

Get this inspirational book and start writing your life story today!

How many times have you heard a bestselling author say the route to success is to write every day?

In this inspiring book, author of several bestselling titles, Helena Halme, reveals the secrets of how writers train themselves to work every day. She discusses why writing every day brings success, as well as gives you tips on how to motivate yourself to turn up to work at your writing desk every single day.

Some of the topics covered in this handy guide are:

• Why does writing every day bring you success?
• The real reason why you’re not writing
• Why the more you write the more you thrive as an author
• How to turn off your inner critic
• Why making writing a daily habit is easier than you think

• How plotting your novel or planning a nonfiction title makes daily writing easier

Get this uplifting guide to writing every day and become a successful author today!

Would you like to write in another language? Here is a handy guide to get you started!

Knowing different languages enriches your life and through that your writing. I took the decision early on in my career to write in English, even though it’s my third language after Finnish and Swedish.

In this book, I share with you a few practical tips to make it easier to write in another language. I also discuss topics such as how language affects our behavior and reveal techniques I have found useful when writing in another language. Four other authors who write successfully in a second language also share their knowledge and methods.

“Helena's experience and tips are excellent. She covers foreign language, language itself, and even writing as a whole. I highly recommend this book to anyone hoping to express themselves in a second language.” – Amy McCracken, Editor, Designer, and Author.

Get this easy guide to writing in another language today!

Transport yourself through ‘sensational fiction’ to the fascinating and serenely beautiful Åland Islands between Finland and Sweden!

Love on the Island series by the ‘brilliant author’ Helena Halme is a sweeping saga set on a small group of Nordic islands filled with tourists in the summer and snow and ice in the winter. This boxset combines the three first full-length novels in the 'must read' series with Alicia, a journalist raised on the islands, her British surgeon husband, Liam, and a Swedish reporter, Patrick, who makes Alicia's heart beat a little too fast...

The Island Affair (Book 1)

After her son’s tragic death, journalist Alicia and her husband Liam travel to the Nordic Islands where Alicia was raised. As they struggle to keep their marriage afloat, secrets are revealed which threaten to end their relationship, but at the same time give Alicia hope for the future. Enter tall, blonde Patrick with the most piercing blue eyes Alicia has ever seen. As the summer heats up, can Alicia find a way to embrace life and love once more?

An Island Christmas (Book 2)

It's time for Alicia to enjoy her first winter back on her beloved Islands with her family. But her estranged husband, Liam, springs an unwelcome and devastating surprise and her ex-lover, Patrick, tempts her with an altogether different kind of future, making Alicia face an impossible choice. With her world crashing around her, can Alicia create the idyllic Island Christmas she’s always dreamt about?

The Island Daughter (Book 3)

Alicia returns home to the islands after a family tragedy, leaving behind a new life in Stockholm with Patrick. But when Mia Eriksson, Patrick's ex, makes a move to rekindle her relationship with him, Alicia is torn between duty and her own happiness. Alicia’s world is further upended when deeply buried family secrets surface. How can she face the future when everything she believed to be true about her past is a lie? 

Join Alicia’s small island community in the captivating new series set on the most picturesque of Scandinavian islands. Once you enter her world, you’ll never want to leave.

When past secrets shatter your present, how do you face your future?

After her dear stepfather has a fatal heart attack, Alicia returns home to the Åland Islands to support her mother, Hilda. She leaves behind a new life with her lover, Patrick, in Stockholm. 

But when her lover’s ex, Mia, the daughter of the local property magnate, makes moves to rekindle her relationship with Patrick, Alicia is torn between duty and her own happiness.

Alicia’s hopes of a brighter future are further dashed when deeply buried family secrets surface. How can she forge a new life when everything she believed to be true about her past is a lie? 

Meanwhile, Alicia’s best friend, Brit, has her own problems. After a life spent footloose and fancy-free, traveling the world working on cruise ships, she’s both horrified and delighted when she sees the thin pink lines on a test tube. But how can she have a baby with a man she’s only known for a matter of months?

The Island Daughter is the third novel in Helena Halme’s Love on the Island series, but it can also be enjoyed as a standalone read.

Join Alicia’s small island community for another installment in the “captivating” new series set on the most picturesque of Scandinavian islands. Once you enter her world, you’ll never want to leave.

She's ready for a safe life. He's got her heart and a spirit for adventure. When a future together seems impossible, will love prevail? 

Finland, 1980. Kaisa has never been a risk-taker. After graduation, she plans to marry the dependable older man who paid for her classes and kept a roof over her head. But when she accepts an invitation to a party at the British Embassy, a handsome naval officer makes her want to throw caution to the wind. She surprises herself when they share a passionate kiss under the stars and promise to see each other again. But how could she possibly give up her sure-thing relationship for a man she barely knows?

When Peter Williams pictured his future, he saw a rising in the ranks and an endless trip around the world. Though when he meets the strong-willed Kaisa in Helsinki, his passion for the sea takes a serious turn. Not even the excitement of hunting down Russian submarines can compare to the thrill of his lips on hers. But despite his growing feelings, his commanding officers won’t tolerate him pursuing a woman from a Soviet-friendly nation. Can their love go the distance?

The Nordic Heart Box Set includes Books 1,2,3 and 4 in this true love story series with over 700 pages of unputdownable fiction.

The English Heart (Book 1): When Kaisa is invited to the British Embassy cocktail party in Helsinki to celebrate a Royal Navy visit to Finland, she's not looking for romance. Enter dashing Navy Officer Peter. Kaisa falls head over heels in love and the two embark on a long-distance relationship. But at the height of the Cold War, while the Englishman chases Russian submarines, Kaisa is stuck in Finland, a country friendly with the Soviet Union.

The Faithful Heart (Book 2): In Britain, Kaisa finds herself jobless, lonely and shunned by the other Navy wives. Her ambitions to pursue her own career are repeatedly crushed by her foreignness and her marriage to the Navy. Enter rich, charming and clever Duncan, who seems to have all the answers to Kaisa’s problems. Can Kaisa resist his advances?

The Good Heart (Book 3): Kaisa knows she’s to blame for the marriage break-up and flees to her native Finland. Peter doesn’t care one way or the other. He’s angry at everything and everybody. He’s about to lose the one thing that means the most to him: his Navy career. All because he fell in love. Can Peter and Kaisa find their way back to each other and reignite their love?

The True Heart (Book 4): Kaisa’s relationship with Peter is blighted by childlessness, but worse is to come when she learns of a close friend’s illness, which could wreck her happiness. And then life takes another heartbreaking twist … Can love conquer all?

BOX SET INCLUDES:

1. The English Heart

2. The Faithful Heart

3. The Good Heart

4. The True Heart

Look out for exclusive, never-published bonus chapters from the series as well as a FREE prequel novella – details inside the book.

If you enjoy books by Jojo Moyes, Liane Moriarty or Elin Hilderbrand, you’ll adore this stylish series of novels by the Finnish author Helena Halme.

Grab your copy of The Nordic Heart Series Books 1-4 and start reading this epic Nordic love story based on true events now!

Do you immediately know when you meet THE ONE?

It’s a snowy day at Uppsala University in Sweden where Alicia is studying English. A migraine is threatening to ruin her day, and the last thing she expects is to meet the man of her dreams.

Liam, a recently qualified British doctor is in Uppsala attending a medical conference when a beautiful leggy blonde chooses to sit at the same table as him in the busy student canteen. She's not the first woman Liam has been attracted to, but there's something beguiling about this young student and he cannot take his eyes off her.

Get this charming story of love at first sight in a cold climate now!

‘Coffee and Vodka is a rich story that stays with us….with moments of brilliance.’ - Dr. Mimi Thebo, Bath Spa University.

Eeva doesn’t want to remember, but a return to Finland where she grew up forces her finally to confront her past.

‘In Stockholm, everything is bigger and better.’

When her father announces the family is to leave Finland for a new life in Sweden, 11-year-old Eeva is elated. But in Stockholm her mother finds feminism, Eeva’s sister, Anja, pretends to be Swedish and her father struggles to adapt.

One night, Eeva’s world falls apart.

Fast forward 30 years. Now teaching Swedish to foreigners, Eeva travels back to Finland when her beloved grandmother becomes ill. On the overnight ferry, a chance meeting with her married ex-lover, Yri, prompts family secrets to unravel and buried memories to come flooding back.

It’s time for Eeva to find out what really happened all those years ago …

Coffee and Vodka has it all: family drama, mystery, romance and sisterly love.

If you like Nordic Noir, you’ll love this rich Nordic family drama by the Finnish author Helena Halme.

Review:

‘The descriptions of the difficulties of childhood, sisterhood, relationships, and parenthood transcend national borders.’ - Pauline Masurel, editor & writer.

Review:

‘Like the television series The Bridge, Coffee and Vodka opens our eyes to facets of a Scandinavian culture that most of us would lump together into one. I loved the way the narrative wove together the viewpoint of Eeva the child and her shock at arriving in a new country, with Eeva the sophisticated adult, returning for the first time to the country of her birth, and finding it both familiar and irretrievably strange.’ Catriona Troth, Triskele Books.

Review:

‘I loved reading this. After picking it up (or opening it on my Kindle I should say) it was hard to put it down; I even missed my stop on the bus to carry on reading.’ Goodreads reader.

Pick up Coffee and Vodka to discover this brilliant, heart-warming Nordic family drama today!

A grieving mother. Secrets at the heart of the family. A love affair that could destroy everything…

After the tragic loss of their 17-year-old son, journalist Alicia and surgeon Liam struggle to keep their marriage afloat. During their usual holiday to Åland, the Nordic islands where Alicia grew up, the rift between the couple deepens.

Enter tall, blonde Patrick, with the most piercing blue eyes Alicia has ever seen. When Patrick confides in Alicia about the near loss of his daughter and the breakdown of his marriage, Alicia is surprised to feel an affinity with the Swedish reporter. He’s the only person who understands her.

But secrets held by people close to Alicia give her life another surprising turn and she finds there is a new reason to live – and love – again.

The Island Affair is perfect for fans of the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante, Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale, and Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.

Read The Island Affair, a family drama chock-full of mystery and passion, set in one of the most captivating holiday islands in Scandinavia, today!