Welcome to Day One of our Indie Fantasy Advent Calendar! We’re featuring an underrated indie author every day this holiday season to spread a little festive joy and promote authors we think deserve more love. Read our introduction to find out more.
Let’s open day one and see what book lies behind…
Today, on December 1st, we’re opening our calendar to Undine’s Blessing by Tessa Hastjarjanto.
A dutiful daughter, a mystical archipelago, and a hidden power waiting to command the tides…
Marella spends her days caring for her sick mother and selling her father’s fish. Bound by duty and love, she dreams little of adventure. But when her mother must travel to the city for treatment, her father takes her out to sea, despite her fear of water.
A storm steers them to Emberrain, home to a tribe of magical nymphs and a place of secrets, where Marella discovers a startling truth: her father is a frequent visitor to these mysterious islands. Soon she learns that Emberrain isn’t the only secret he had kept from her.
Marella has the power to control water and communicate with aquatic animals.
Overwhelmed by the magical but dangerous islands, and the secrets of her father, Marella must learn to harness her powers to save herself and her new aquatic friend before they are separated from their parents forever.
Undine’s Blessing is a journey of wonder, where fears are faced and mysteries unravel, and a young girl learns that true adventure begins when you dare to embrace who you truly are.
Undine’s Blessing is set within the same world of the Tales of Lunis Aquaria, a collection of fantasy fairy tale stories that we’ve already reviewed on our blog. This is a cozy, coming of age tale that has already found recognition as a semi-finalist in SPFBOX and finalist in BBNYA 2024. However despite that, this book still needs more love!
It has been a pleasure to watch Tessa’s skills evolve with each new book release, and she definitely deserves more eyes and more ratings. I wanted to personally bring the spotlight on Tessa here, as she is one of the most supportive voices in the indie book community by frequently reviewing other indie authors, as well as hosting book cover reveals and spotlights on her own website, Narratess.
You may also recognise Tessa and the Narratess website for her summer Indie Sales, which many indie authors take part in every year and have sold hundreds of books! Preparing these sales take a lot of work, so if you’ve ever taken part in her sale, you definitely owe her your thanks.
Please take a look at Undine’s Blessing:
About the Author
Tessa Hastjarjanto is a Dutch/Indonesian writer from the Netherlands. She writes speculative fiction, and blogs at narratess.com about books, fountain pens, and writing.
From a young age, she imitated popular stories and games in creating her own worlds. This love eventually led to a master’s degree in media and game studies at the University of Utrecht. However a mundane desk job was enough to inspire her to follow her creative passion. The first fanfics were written in lunch breaks and soon original fiction followed.
With the support of her husband, she now focuses on her writing career while battling chronic pain. Swiss white shepherd, Shiro, acts as a therapy dog to keep her healthy and reduce stress through extensive cuddle sessions.
- Website: www.TessaHastjarjanto.com
- Twitter: @Endalia
- Instagram: @tessa.hastjarjanto
- Bookbub
- Amazon Profile
- Goodreads Profile
I LOVE this!
Thank you, Jodie! We hope to have a lot of fun with it.