Waiting on a Miracle: A Twisted Tale

by Anika Fajardo

What if Mirabel and her sisters had to leave the Encanto? A magical addition to the New York Times bestselling Twisted Tale series about Disney’s Encanto.

Mirabel’s worst fear is confirmed—she is responsible for the faltering powers of the Familia Madrigal. Guilt-ridden and feuding with her sisters, Mirabel decides to save the magic herself. Sure, she may be the only gift-less member of her family, but she knows she can put their crumbling pieces back together again.

Unfortunately, Mirabel’s youngest cousin, Antonio, beats her to it. He overhears Tío Bruno’s vision and does the unthinkable—leaves the Encanto to find a solution. Terrified of what could happen outside the safety of their home, Mirabel has no other choice but recruit Strong Luisa and Perfect Isabela to help find their baby cousin.

But what starts as a rescue mission turns into a magical quest with a band of brothers whose family has a deep secret connection to theirs.

And soon, Mirabel learns that missing cousins and disappearing gifts may be just the beginning of their problems….

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings, Fiction, Fairy Tales

400 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2026

About the author

Anika Fajardo is an award-winning writer, who was born in Colombia and raised in Minnesota. Her debut novel, The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore, earned a gold medal from the International Latino Book Awards and a literature award from the Friends of American Writers. She is also the author of middle-grade novels, What If a Fish, Meet Me Halfway, and Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters, as well as Magical Realism for Non-Believers: A Memoir of Finding Family. She lives with her family in Minneapolis.

Reviews

[Kryssy]

**not read yet. Will update starts when read**

💙💚🧡💙💚🧡

Prior to reading, i watched the following movies:
Encanto
I also watched the movie commentary by Dylan is in Trouble

Summaries to compare are below.

Other books based on the story of Encanto include:
Nightmares and Sueños

Encanto
The family starts to think that they are nothing if they don’t have magic. So what. Maybe a good thing they had to fear what they would do without it

- abuelo surrendered and a candle helped the single mom to triplets (must be nice)
- How did she know about the doors when the kids came of age??
- a town was build around the casa?
- While everyone is celebrating antonio getting his powers, the house starts to crack. Only mirabel saw
- Basically selling isabella off to the handsome neighboring family
- Luisa feels the effects of the cracks. Tells mirabel to check bruno’s room. She finds shards of a vision involving her
- Dolores (super hearing) overhears about the vision
- Everyone is mad at mirabel. Rats take the vision shards. She follows them and finds bruno. He never left. Living in the walls
- Bruno forced another vision where mirabel has to hug isabella (for whatever reason)
- Goes to apologize and isa confesses she didn’t want the marriage ands make singing not perfect but still beautiful
- The hug is after she embraced her magic!!
- Abuela blames mirabel again. They argue. Destroys the casita. And the candle
- The whole town comes to help rebuild. And the madrigals embrace who they are now and help each other
- Mirabel puts in the doorknob and the magic comes back


Dylan is in Trouble movie commentary
- which world you rather have? A husband or a magic candle?
- Everything explained in song is kind of bad
- really made the casita a character. So now it’s sad that’s it’s breaking
- wouldn’t abuela be worried about saying stuff about the family being in trouble out loud? There’s the super hearing one
- luisa’s song is about her being worried that she’ll be worthless if no one needed her help anymore
- Are they worried he won’t marry into the family if the magic is dying?
- Real villain is the lack of grandma’s love
- With there was more development on the cousins. The shape shifting guy

[Courtney Caler · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I think of all the times during our adventure when the Madrigals’ gifts faded and all the times the magic came back strong. It happened, I realized, when we worked together, and when we laughed together. That’s when the magic - and our family - is strong.”


This picks up right after the disastrous proposal dinner and Mirabel finding Bruno in the walls.

I am SOBBING! Encanto is one of my favorite Disney movies and I love the Twisted Tales series so I was super excited when I won a giveaway for an ARC of this one. I loved every minute of it, but especially loved the flashbacks of Alma and Pedro. My heart broke for them. And when the reveal of the Ramos’ connection to the Madrigals happened I gasped (even though I had a feeling). I loved this so so much! This is definitely one of my favorite of the Twisted Tales series.

I wish Bruno was able to come home (like in the movie) and recognize that with this story there wouldn’t have been a way/reason for him to but I appreciate Mirabel thinking about how she will convince him to come home at some point.

[Katelyn Peel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books in this series. I do LOVE Encanto so this book had me excited and it did not disappoint. I love that they kept the important pieces of bruno’s vision/living in the walls, Isa really being annoyed at Mirabel, and Luisa losing her strength. It kept the important plot points from the movie in their adventure. The flashbacks to Abuela’s journey to get the miracle added to the story but it also probably could have just been a prologue. Overall, I really loved the story and how they kept the importance of the movie with the spin. Even having Isa and Mirabel make up at the end was the best ending and I would have been mad if it wasn’t true still.