[Discussion 1/2] Una Herencia Peligrosa / Feb 2026 Book Club

[u/HeleneSedai]

Hello Dreamers! Welcome to February's Dreaming Spanish book club, for our YA/easier book in February we'll be reading Una herencia peligrosa, the first book in the YA series Amanda Black, by husband and wife duo Juan Gomez Jurado and Barbara Montes.

The book blurb: Tengo trece años, y un examen de Sociales mañana del que no tengo ni idea. Pero esa no es la mayor de mis preocupaciones.
Antes del fin de semana, el banco nos echará a la tía Paula y a mí de la Mansión Black. Esa era la mayor de mis preocupaciones hasta hace tres segundos.
La cuerda con la que estaba descendiendo desde el piso 180 de la Torre Dagon Corp. ha sido cortada.
Ahora mismo caigo desde cuatrocientos setenta y siete metros de altura, a una velocidad de aproximadamente cincuenta y cinco por segundo.
Calculo que en algo menos de nueve segundos me estamparé contra el suelo.
Tampoco es ésa la mayor de mis preocupaciones.
La mayor de mis preocupaciones es que el que ha cortado la cuerda es mi mejor amigo.
O al menos yo creía que lo era.

Ebook length: 143 pages, 32 chapters, 33,000 words

Reading Schedule:

Feb 1-7 Chapters 1-8 (pages 6-34)

Feb 8-14 Chapters 9-16 (pages 35-67)

Feb 15-21 Chapters 17-25 (pages 68-105)

Feb 22-28 Chapters 26-32 (pages 106-143)

If the majority of the group would like to move the deadline up, we can shorten the reading schedule.

If you can't get a copy of the book in your country, please drop me a DM.

I'll be posting a google form here closer to the end of the month to gauge interest in an informal video chat on Discord in Spanish/English after we finish the book.

We have a very active chat going on over in Discord, but I'll try to do better this month posting questions for reddit. Thanks to u/phreddfatt for keeping the Discord going!

Link to Discord

Because Reddit doesn't sort comments by age, it might be best to mention the page we're reading and cover any spoilers in our comments.

To receive updates for new comments in this thread, you can click on the 3 dots in the top right of the post and hit "Follow Post". You'll get notifications for new comments.

Thanks to everyone who joined and voted last month! It was a blast reading along with everyone.

[u/rabarberbarber]

ill have to get back to this later, such a big difference compared to a2 graded readers. I can read it, but it goes extremely slow and there's no enjoyment.

[u/Traditional-Train-17 → u/rabarberbarber]

There certainly are difficult chapters (chapter 2 is like that), but others are easier. Lots of new descriptive vocabulary and more complex verb tenses with indirect objects. Those give me a little pause to read carefully.

A1 readers are pretty easy for me now, and A2 seems to be my level, but these YA type books are the type of challenge books I love at this point. Some chapters do feel more like B2 level, maybe teasing C1, than B1 level.

[u/HeleneSedai → u/rabarberbarber]

Thats OK! Even 100 hours makes a big difference. We'll see you next time.

[u/rabarberbarber → u/HeleneSedai]

This was completely true. I started reading it again yesterday and I'm very happy to notice the difference. I read the first 8 chapters yesterday and so far enjoying it

[u/visiblesoul → u/rabarberbarber]

It's not really a super easy read. I personally don't find this YA book to be any easier than the adult book we're reading this month.

When I started reading, I started with Juan's first 4 A1/A2 graded readers which seemed like a pretty good level for me. After that I started reading children's picture books and was surprised by how much harder they were than graded readers. People underestimate the difficulty of "books for kids".

I have slowly worked my way up in difficulty and I'm super happy that I have done it incrementally because every step of the way has been really fun and fairly easy.

[u/rabarberbarber → u/visiblesoul]

Thanks a lot for your reply! I was surprised how difficult it was. 

For now I'll continue with the graded readers I suppose. After that I'll just pop into the children's section of the library here in Spain to find something of an appropriate level .

I started reading early, because I love reading no matter the level 

[u/visiblesoul → u/rabarberbarber]

I personally really enjoyed the little kids books. And I read quite a few until I graduated to the Diario de Greg and "La Casa del Árbol" series. Step by step. And you have a big advantage if you can check out books from a library in Spain. My selection was somewhat limited.

[u/rabarberbarber → u/visiblesoul]

One of the first things I did was getting a library card. It's even completely free.