Blog Archives
Andersen Light: A Meta-Normal Novel
Tanya D. Dawson’s Andersen Light is a coming-of-age novel that weaves fantasy, trauma, healing, and self-discovery into the life of Georgie Jones, a brave teenager escaping abuse and finding her place in a world bigger and stranger than she imagined. After surviving an unsettling family situation, Georgie relocates to the coastal town of Mystic Creek to live with her father. What begins as a grounded emotional journey slowly opens into a metaphysical one, involving dreams, psychic mentors, a mysterious lighthouse, and a destiny Georgie could never have foreseen.
What hit me first and hardest was the honesty in the way Georgie’s trauma is portrayed. Dawson doesn’t sugarcoat it. She takes you inside the mind of a kid trying to hold it all together, and it’s messy and brave and human. It made me uncomfortable in places, but in the right way. Georgie isn’t a perfect heroine. She’s scrappy, smart, overwhelmed, and trying to find light in all the dark. The writing in these parts feels raw, coming straight from the heart. Dawson nails the voices of kids and teens without slipping into awkward attempts to sound “young.” There’s also something comforting in how safe the adult characters, like her father and the lightworker Luther become. There’s hope alongside the pain, and that balance matters.
I was surprised by the book’s mysticism. At first, it reads like contemporary fiction with serious emotional weight. Then suddenly, you’re in dream realms, lighthouses channel energy, and the story folds into something more like magical realism or soft sci-fi. That shift felt a bit jarring. I wasn’t always sure if the magical side added clarity or distraction. Some of the metaphysical explanations slowed the pace a bit. There were moments where the surreal worked beautifully, especially when it paralleled Georgie’s emotional healing.
Andersen Light is heartfelt and different. It’s for readers who like emotional depth in their YA, especially those who appreciate a blend of real-life grit with cosmic wonder. If you’re someone who’s survived something or loves stories about kids finding their strength, this will resonate with you. I’d recommend it to teens and adults alike, especially those who believe that healing can be both practical and mystical.
Pages: 405 | ASIN : B09HY7W6QK
El legado de Nahia
El legado de Nahia, the third book in El Legado de las Hadas series, dives deep into a rich, multi-generational tale of family, loss, identity, and the eternal tug-of-war between the mystical world of the fairies and the grounding pull of humanity. Centered around Nahia, a fairy torn between love for her human-turned-family and her duties in the Soberanía de las Hadas, this story weaves together folklore, emotion, and a hefty dose of existential pondering. It’s got betrayal, longing, interdimensional drama, and a whole lot of heart.
I was pulled in by the elegance of Bossano’s world-building. That intro on the mythology of fairies is gold. Who doesn’t love the idea of a hidden, ancient race with a code of ethics more complicated than ours? The description of the glamour, their powers, and the strict structure of their matriarchal society sets the tone for a story that isn’t just fantasy—it feels like a believable, fleshed-out parallel reality.
What got me the most, though, was how human Nahia is. Her grief over losing Celeste felt raw and real. She’s not some shiny, perfect fairy—she’s messy, angry, petty even. When she talks about how unfair it is that Celeste died of old age while she, Nahia, still looks eighteen… oof. That bitterness, that jealousy—that’s the kind of vulnerability that made me root for her even when she did something awful.
There were moments when I wanted to shake Nahia. Her hatred for Alaia? It’s kind of intense. I get that Alaia’s a little uptight and maybe not the fairy-loving granddaughter Nahia dreamed of—but it goes beyond petty. Even Nahia’s internal struggle after stealing Calisto—like when she’s hit with the reality of caring for a baby who screams all night was funny and sad and brutally honest.
The writing is lush, poetic in places, and surprisingly down-to-earth in others. Bossano doesn’t shy away from waxing lyrical, but it never feels pretentious. Even when the fairies are flying around glowing like bioluminescent marbles, the story stays grounded in very human emotions: longing, regret, the desire to be remembered, to leave a legacy. That tension between the eternal life of a fairy and the brief, messy beauty of human life? It’s everywhere in this book, and it hits.
El legado de Nahia is about family—chosen, born, and lost. It’s about the ache of time, the price of decisions, and how love—real love—can stretch across worlds. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s a sucker for character-driven fantasy or who’s ever felt like they’re caught between two worlds and not fully at home in either. If you like your fairy tales with a side of real emotion and a splash of bittersweet, this book will resonate with you.
Pages: 305
Gift of Lucid Dreaming
Un Don de Cuna follows a teenage girl whose gift of lucid dreaming allows her to travel to other worlds while she sleeps. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Un Don de Cuna is the second book in a trilogy that covers 200 years. Book 1 is set in the 1800s, and I wanted book 2 to be in modern times, so the story kicks off with the protagonist (Maité) receiving the cradle gift of lucid dreaming from her faery godmother. Maité knows nothing about faeries or about her ancestors, but through her cradle gift, she will discover that the faerie realm is in jeopardy and that she has a huge part to play in saving it.
The loss of Maité’s parents sends her on a journey of self-discovery and helps her understand the depth of her abilities and strength. Do you think there’s a single moment in everyone’s life, maybe not as traumatic, that is life-changing?
To be sure! I believe that we change every time we journey from home —the farther we go, the longer we stay away, the greater the transformation.
It seemed like you took your time in building the characters and the story to great emotional effect. How did you manage the pacing of the story while keeping readers engaged?
Maité’s story truly wrote itself. I loved intertwining her dreams and thoughts into realities that surprised her from one chapter to the next. Each lucid dream revealed more of a sinister plot to take over the realm that had been her ancestral home. When our protagonist realizes she’s at the center of a battle she knows nothing about, she also realizes that, through her dreams, she gained the strength and wisdom needed to succeed.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
Book 3 of the trilogy features Nahia. She is the faery princess who is a common denominator in books 1 and 2, and her story fills in the 200-year gap between them. A thrilling adventure unfolds when Maité and her faery godmother, Nahia, team up to save the realm. Through love, glamour, courage, and sacrifice, they aim to guarantee its sustainability for years to come.
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A los diecisiete años, el entorno cotidiano de Maité se desgarra con la trágica pérdida de sus padres. Desterrada del único hogar que conoce y aislada en el extranjero, la joven lucha por encontrarle sentido a su nueva vida. Ajena al conflicto en la Soberanía de las Hadas, que se cierne inexorable sobre su realidad, Maité descubre que ella, una humana, está en el centro de la gran batalla por el control absoluto de la soberanía.
A través de su don de cuna, Maité empieza a vislumbrar la magnitud de la influencia feérica en su vida. Dispuesta a retomar las riendas de su destino a partir del transcendental descubrimiento, Maité se apoya en Emily, su mejor amiga, y en David, un joven cuyo interés por la genética ilumina posibilidades que cambiarán la identidad de Maité para siempre.
LITERARY TITAN 