Shelby Nichols Adventure Books In Order

Publication Order of Shelby Nichols Books

Shelby Nichols Adventures are mystery romance Series by Colleen Helme who also writes bestselling, paranormal and suspense fiction. The highly humorous and wildly entertaining series of novels feature a woman named Shelby Nichols, who suddenly developed an ability to read minds. It is quite a peculiar premise for a novel and Colleen has been asked if mind-reading is a power that she always wanted to have. While she can write about a woman with such an ability, she has asserted that it causes so much trouble that it would not be worth it. While she made her name with the popularity of “Carrots,” the first novel of “Shelby Nichols series that was published in 2011, it was not her first novel. Her first novel was “Flame of Destiny”, which she only did for fun but loved the process so much she decided to learn about authorship. Her husband found a community college with a novel-writing class and signed her up. That class helped her develop aspects of the importance of a universal question, point of view, scene writing, showing rather than telling and character motivation. She has never looked back since. When she is not writing, she loved to play card and board games, write, hike, read, and bike with friends and family.

Shelby Nichols the lead of the Shelby Nichols Adventure series by Colleen Helme is something of a Stephanie Plum of the Janet Evanovich novels. Shelby is a housewife in her thirties with two children who lives in the outskirts of the city, goes to church and is a member of the local PTA. She is an ordinary woman who could be just the next-door neighbor, until a close brush with death gives her an unusual ability. Nichols went to the mart to get some carrots to prepare the evening meal when the bank next to the mart gets robbed. She freezes while everyone else ducks as bullets whizzed past, with one grazing her temple. While she was lucky to survive, the injury on her head changes her life forever. She can now read the minds of all people around her which as expected makes her life difficult. Since she can read the minds of people she gets into a lot of trouble first with her husband who does not like her new powers. She can tell what her husband, her best friend or children think about which makes her vulnerable to getting her feelings hurt. Things get even more complicated when the local mob boss learns of her powers and wants to use them for his organization. She then decides to take things into her own hands and starts an investigative cum consulting agency to help her community. However, things are usually not that black and white in the world she just entered. While she is not the smartest of people she does have a lot of chutzpah and an overactive sixth sense that gets her out of many difficult situations.

“Carrots” the first novel of the series introduces Shelby Nichols your everyday woman that had gotten married to the first man she ever loved. She has a very predictable and organized life that revolves around her children and husband. Everything changes when she decides to go to her usual grocery store to get some carrots. As the cashier is ringing up the groceries she just bought, a gunman robs the bank in the building. One daredevil customer tries to unmask the robber and gets shot causing everyone to scurry for cover. Shelby is frozen as the gunman starts shooting, only to find herself on the floor bleeding from a head wound. The good thing is that the bullet had just grazed her head and otherwise she feels fine. But then she realizes that she can hear the thoughts of people around her. With such an uncanny ability her life is turned upside down. Her husband declares that he loves her but he keeps thinking about the redhead at work. Her children think she is too old to understand them and that she is too bossy. Meanwhile, she cannot stop thinking that the gunman may be looking to kill her as she is the only one that could identify him. But then she is saved from getting killed by a hitman who works for the mob. While he had saved her life he had put her in greater danger as his boss realizes that she has an ability he would love to use in his criminal enterprise.

In “Fast Money” the second installment of the series, Shelby goes out to get some groceries when she finds some great boots on sale. There is nothing she loves better than shoes and hence she checks her bank balance and learns that it has the tidy sum of $5 million. She immediately knows that it has Uncle Joey of the mob is the one that has put the money into her account. She tries to get ahold of him but is told that he just left town and is in Mexico to find some missing money, a former client and his missing niece. In the meantime, the police call in Shelby to help find some artwork belonging to the local gallery that had been stolen. As she heads to the court building to check up on her husband she notices that there is something weird going on. She informs the deputies that the bank robber who is being tried in court is thinking of escaping. The deputies soon learn that the man in custody is an assassin rather than a robber and that he had killed the robber. The assassin has killed twenty-seven people and never been caught until Shelby found him out. He is now ready to kill to ensure that Shelby does not bring him down with her extraordinary powers. Things get even more complicated when she gets phone calls from a Mexican Drug cartel and the CIA. It will take a lot for Shelby to go back to normal but will her husband support or even understand what she is doing?

“Lie or Die” the third novel of the Shelby Nichols series sees Nichols start her own consultancy. A bank is looking to recover some money that they had lost to a robbery a few days past. Unfortunately, they had approached a private detective named Robert Felt who is not making things easy. The man wants the finder’s fee for the job and is of the opinion that Shelby may be involved in some illegal activities. In the meantime, Uncle Joey the mob boss wants Shelby’s help to determine who is the most trusted of his lieutenants to promote. He is dealing with a big case in court, which could just crush his operations if he were to lose. The odd thing is that Shelby’s husband Chris is in charge of the case since the lead attorney was attacked and left for dead by unknown assailants. Shelby is worried about the safety of her husband. She soon realizes that there is someone that really wants to put Joey away and she will have to draw upon all her talents to keep him out of jail. Once again we have a novel full of colorful characters including the most vicious nemesis Shelby ever faced.

2 Responses to “Shelby Nichols Adventure”

1. Wendy: 2 years ago

   I’ve been listening to the books in order and I was disappointed to find out at the end of “Devil in a Black Suit”, that it comes just before “Devious Minds”. I love this whole series!!

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2. ANABEL E GOMEZ: 2 years ago

   Just wanted to reach out to say that I just discovered this series and have fallen in love with this series! It’s so refreshing and makes me so happy! I’ve already finished reading them all and can’t wait for the next adventure! Please keep this series going. I don’t have a lot to look forward to but this series gives me much to look forward to! I loved the characters and story line. You have such a gift. Please continue to share it with us.

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