I love books that question the "what-ifs" of life, and especially ones that explore those questions through fantastical elements of magical realism. BEGIN AGAIN by Helly Action did all of that and more -- this was such a beautiful book!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Digital Advanced Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

This book was unfortunately hard for me to get through. I even tried buying the audiobook after release to see if it helped, but it just wasn’t for me.

I really liked the concept, and the world Acton built is really cool. However, I felt the character had a very serious victim mentality, and that’s always a difficult for me to read because it begins to feel annoying to me. I also felt the story had some fatfobic tendencies, and also had very negative views of mental health.

Again, it just wasn’t the book for me.

Thank you to Helly Acton and Avon and Harper Voyager for a eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An untimely death allows Frankie a chance to look back at choices she made throughout her life and the changes that would have resulted if she chose differently.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me. The main character wasn't likable from the beginning, and it just didn't grab me. I might have liked it more in a different season of life, but she just felt selfish and difficult to relate to.

I loved the plot about looking back on all your missed chances. Magical realism is one of my favorite added elements to stories. I loved how she visited five different lives and got to examine how things would be different. A cool concept that held my interest!

I had been hearing so much about this story and was so excited to get an advanced readers copy of Begin Again by Helly Acton! I hadn't read any of her books before this one and I was instantly hooked! It was a great story with a very nice heart. I'm so glad I got a chance to read this story! Thank you so much!

“Bad idea, Eve. Put the apple down and let’s pretend this never happened.” As the first human, Adam was probably also the first person to wonder how his life would have turned out if he’d zigged instead of zagged—in his case, yanking the apple from Eve’s hand and continuing to live out life in the Garden of Eden. Would his son Cain have turned out murderous if they had stayed away from that tree?

“What if” plots have been popular in all sorts of media, from the movie Sliding Doors to the bestselling The Midnight Library. Now British romcom author Helly Acton has put her own stamp on this story with Begin Again.

Celebrity gossip columnist Frankie McKenzie is brilliant at writing click-bait headlines, but in managing her own life, not so much. Stuck at the same job for twelve years, watching her friends couple up and have children and buy real estate, Frankie feels that life is passing her by in a series of bad dates and Netflix marathons. After she runs out on a blind date (even though it was going pretty well), Frankie manages to kill herself by slipping on a greasy kebab and landing on her head. She finds herself in a way station where she has the choice of visiting every turning point in her life for 24 hours and seeing if things would have turned out better if she’d chosen differently. If she likes her new life better, she can keep it. But for a person who shies away from decisions, can Frankie make the most important decision of all?

Begin Again is basically a funny version of The Midnight Library, with a predictable and formulaic plot. While Frankie is not the same sad sack that Midnight Library’s Nora was, her challenge is the same: to figure out which version of her life leads to love, happiness, and success. Books like these always remind me a bit of The Wizard of Oz, specifically Glinda telling Dorothy that she had the power all along. And Frankie, who has friends who love her and an interesting job, has power that she doesn’t recognize. While she lacks self-confidence, she’s funny and loyal. Her problem isn’t that she didn’t marry her college boyfriend, it’s that she doesn’t believe in herself.

The message in these types of books is clear: Wherever you go, there you are. It may take death and some kind of divine intercession for book characters to realize this, but we readers don’t have those options. Reading books like Begin Again serve as this reminder: You can’t change your past, but you can change your future. Just find the yellow brick road and start walking.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
This was a wonderful book and I'll be purchasing it for the library!

I loved the premise of this book and thought seeing the main character, Frankie, explore the possible what ifs in her life was fun. However the end felt too cliche for me and I was hoping for something different. Overall a sweet story about how our life choices can alter our path.

Begin Again is pure heartwarming charm! Frankie McKenzie is a thirty-something woman who feels unsettled and like something is missing in her life. When a freak accident claims her life, she is miraculously offered a second chance: Frankie can revisit key moments from her past to see if different choices will lead her to the fulfilling life she's always dreamt of. All about the road(s) not taken, this character-driven story is both thought-provoking and the power of choice and self-fulfillment. 100% a must read!

I really loved this book, it’s got a very creative premise. Frankie doesn’t know what’s wrong with her life, but she’s restless. Unfortunately, before she can make any changes, she has a kabob related accident and dies. She finds herself in a transit area where she’s told she gets a second chance.
However, she has to pick a path to go on, and every path shows her what her life would look like if she made a different decision along the way. The descriptions of the paths are fascinating and I enjoyed reading them. 5 stars!

From the publisher:
Despite living firmly in her comfort zone, Frankie McKenzie feels unsettled. She can’t help feeling something’s missing. Is it a home to call her own? Travel? A more rewarding job? A relationship? Before she can work it out, she dies in a freak kebab-related accident after what she sees as yet another dud of a first date.
But life isn’t over for Frankie. Instead, she is miraculously offered a second chance: Frankie can revisit key moments from her past to see if different choices will lead her to the fulfilling life she’s always dreamt of. 

Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley, I received a complimentary copy of [this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I received this digital ARC free from NetGalley. This feel good novel, is easy to read and very enjoyable. I mean who wouldn’t want to explore different outcomes. Visiting different possible lives seems like a very cool adventure. This read is just clever, entertaining and simply charming. A truly enjoyable read.

This was such a quick read for me and so many aspects felt really relatable and realistic. It can be hard to remember that there are multiple paths in life and no one walks the same one when it seems like so many people are exactly where they were meant to be while you're feeling stuck and dissatisfied. Frankie is a single woman in her 30s working a job she doesn't love when she dies on her 36th birthday and is given a second chance at life by trying out other paths hers could have taken had she made different choices. The story follows Frankie on the day leading up to her death in each of these potential lives. Each option has Frankie living a very different life from her current one but gives "the grass is always greener" vibes.

The concept for the story is interesting and I liked seeing how the side characters changed but remained relevant in each life. I also particularly liked lines where Helly Acton portrays how society can make people feel like they're living their life in the wrong way despite there being no right way to be. She does this throughout the book and throws many nuggets of wisdom in that I think are really positive and reassuring to readers who may be like Frankie, unable to see the great things about themselves for all the things they've been led to believe are lacking, and afraid to take a risk and commit to big changes because of anxiety or the what ifs. This book will lead to some self-reflection for readers. I found myself wondering what my life would look like today if I made certain different choices. Every choice sets you on a course that is unique so the idea of going back and changing the outcome and what that would mean for the rest of your life definitely appeals.

There is some romance in this book but the most important love is learning to love yourself and the life you're living. I think it's a beautiful story that many will relate to and it's a new comfort read for me.


"You feel stuck, but you're scared that if you move you'll sink deeper."


Thank you Avon for the digital ARC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When Frankie dies in a freak accident, she is miraculously offered a second chance to see what life could have been. She travels back to pivotal moments from her life to see what would have happened if she made a different decision - moments like what if she said yes to that marriage proposal, what if she took that one way flight, etc. As she visits theme moments she sees what could have been and has the opportunity to choose one of these alternate paths.

This premise is so thought-provoking and throughout reading I couldn’t help but wonder what my key moments might have been and what life could have looked like if I made some different decisions. Seeing Frankie experience those alternate universes and decide what she would have done differently really created a lot of opportunity for reflection as I was reading. This story could feel a bit slow at times, especially as we experienced so many different universes, however, it was overall a heart-warming and reflective adventure and I did want to push through those slower moments to see how the story ended.

Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Frankie McKenzie sneaks out from a first date that she didn't think was going too well with Olie. So she leaves and goes to her favorite kebab place and ends up dying in a freak accident.

She arrives at something called "The Station" where she meets her guide Mabel. Mabel explains everything to her from what happened to her and what will happen next. She learns her life isn't over just yet, she gets a second chance at life. She gets to spend 24 hours in a few different scenarios of her life. From a one-way ticket to Mexico with a new job, getting to reconcile with her mom, and an intimidating job interview that she was terrified to go on.

I love that there was consistency in each of her scenarios which were how close she was to her friends Tom, Priya, and Alice.

In the end, she had to choose to go back to one of those lives or move ahead and not look back. I think she made a great choice in the end.

I loved this book! It is a book with a great message filled with some life-altering decisions and some good laughs.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Have you ever wondered how your life would’ve turned out if you had just made different decisions? I know I definitely have, which is part of what makes this such an interesting book about a woman who gets the opportunity to find out. Frankie is the author of a celebrity gossip column, and overall she’s not particularly happy - with her life or with the choices she made. But when she suddenly dies in a freak accident, she gets to see five different directions her life could have gone, if only she’d made different choices - and has the chance to choose one to continue living.

I was (unsurprisingly) a big fan of the dreadfully clickbait headlines throughout the book. Frankie starts off as perhaps not the most likable character, but by the end I was really rooting for her. I enjoyed this book so much, it ended up being one of my favorite books I’ve read so far this year!

What would you do if you could choose a different version of your life where you had made a different choice? If you married the safe but boring one? If you said yes to the second date? If you showed up for that job interview?

Frankie gets that opportunity one fateful night after slipping on a kebab, dying, and going to an in-between place. She sees what her life would have been like at five different crossroads if she had made a different decision. Frankie has to decide what choices are most fulfilling for her and which life she wants to live.

Begin Again reminded me of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library with bits of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

The characters were likable, the banter was laugh out loud funny, and the pop culture references to the Real Housewives and Friends were a fun addition.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advanced copy of Helly Acton’s Begin Again.

REVIEW: Begin Again ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you made different decisions? Would you still be the same person? Frankie, the main character, makes you laugh but is also so loving; however, she doesn’t like to make big decisions. When she dies, from slipping on a kabob of all things, she goes to a place where she can see five different crossroads in her life where she could have made a different decision. She can experience each life for 24 hours to choose which one she wants to return to.

First of all, I liked how this book was structured. Each time Frankie was experiencing a new possible life, there would be a full chapter about it and then they would come back and talk about how it went. It felt like I was immersed in each of her options. I also really liked the characters and their relationships. Besides Frankie, the story includes her close-knit friends, her parents, some of her exes, and Mabel, her guide to her choices. Everyone had a very distinct personality and it was neat to see how Frankie’s choices affected these relationships. The different characters appeared in each life bit in various ways so it was always interesting to see where their relationships are with Frankie.

While I know this concept isn’t original, it still came through with the characters and storyline so much that I just wanted to keep reading. This book was a perfect mix of fun contemporary female fiction, fantasy, and romance while giving you lots to reflect on. I was thinking about my own life and how things could be different depending on my choices.

Overall this is an enjoyable and fast-paced read that will make your heart full and put a smile on your face.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon & Harper Voyager, for the free advanced copy for my honest review!

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