Sanet Blignaut

South African-born author of the SANA thriller series and the Virella science fiction books, now writing from Virginia, USA.

Click here to see Sanet Blignaut’s full collection of books on Amazon

Portrait of author Sanet Blignaut

About Sanet Blignaut

“Why was I spared — and spared for what?”

Sanet Blignaut is a South African-born author now living in Virginia, USA. Her debut science fiction adventure, Virella: The Secret of the Stars, invites readers into a universe where believing like a child opens every door.

Her SANA thriller series draws on a life that reads like fiction itself — a childhood in South Africa marked by both wonder and darkness, a journey through loss, faith, and survival, and a new beginning as a refugee in America. Through her heroine Sana, she explores the question that has followed her since she was sixteen: why was I spared — and spared for what?

Sanet writes about resilience, truth, and the quiet courage it takes to keep going. When she’s not writing, she’s working, studying, and building her American dream one page at a time.

  • Born in South Africa
  • Lives in Virginia, USA
  • Writes in English and Afrikaans

Her books

Two worlds: the SANA thriller series and the Virella science fiction books. Swipe or use the arrows to browse, then open a book for its full description.

The SANA series

A thriller series of faith and survival. Sana is forty-nine, works a hotel front desk, and has spent thirty-three years asking why she was sent back from the tunnel of light. Book by book she follows a trafficking network into her own childhood and her mother’s murder.

Content note: these books deal with child trafficking, abuse and murder. They are also stories of hope, and of a God who never left.

  1. Spared

    She was spared for a reason.

    Sana is forty-nine, works a hotel front desk, and has spent thirty-three years asking God one question: why didn’t You take me? At sixteen, on a wooden stretcher in an ambulance, she saw the tunnel of light — and was sent back. She’s carried the question ever since.

    Then a fourteen-year-old girl walks through her lobby holding a man’s hand like a leash. And the girl mouths one silent, desperate word: help.

    What follows pulls Sana into a trafficking network with roots in her own childhood — back to the parties, the strangers, the cupboard she barricaded her bedroom door with at thirteen. Every step of the investigation unlocks a memory she’s buried for decades. And when she discovers her own mother’s brutal murder may not have been random, the past and present collide.

    Spared is the first book in the SANA thriller series — a story of faith, survival, and the God who never left. For readers who believe that the darkest nights end, that truth matters, and that love — in the end — always wins.

    Kindle eBook, free to read with Kindle+

    View Spared on Amazon
  2. The Light Said Not Yet

    One year after she saved Amara, Sana receives a box with no return address.

    Inside: her mother’s murder file. Thirty years old. Thirty-seven wounds — for a television. Sana knows what the police never saw: this was not a robbery. It was a message.

    The trail leads to Crouse, a retired magistrate with a past full of parties and girls. Sana goes undercover as a caterer, wearing a wire. But when the knife finds her, she sees the tunnel again — and this time, the light says: not yet.

    Kindle eBook, free to read with Kindle+

    View The Light Said Not Yet on Amazon
  3. The Girl Behind the Cupboard Door

    Two-fourteen in the morning. The phone rings, and Greyling needs Sana.

    A twelve-year-old girl has barricaded herself in a bedroom, a cupboard pushed against the door. She will not talk. She will not come out. Sana knows that cupboard. At thirteen, she pushed one against her own door every night.

    The trail leads to Hendricks, the man who painted her portrait when she was thirteen, still operating forty years later, now as a philanthropist. Behind him stands the Meridian Foundation, and Pastor Daniel Whitfield. To reach the girl, Sana must walk back into the house she survived, and open the cupboard door.

    Kindle eBook, free to read with Kindle+

    View The Girl Behind the Cupboard Door on Amazon

Newer books in the series are listed on Amazon: see every SANA book on Sanet Blignaut’s Amazon page.

Virella

Science fiction about a hidden planet of light, written for dreamers of all ages, in English and in Afrikaans.

In English

Virella: The Secret of the Stars

They are watching. Not to conquer — to remind.

Beyond the veil of dark matter orbits Virella, a hidden planet of light and harmony. Its people, the Virellians, have watched Earth for centuries as humankind lost its balance: economy above ethics, noise above music, survival above living. Now the window for gentle help is closing.

When Sariel — an emissary with eyes like molten crystal — appears to Lior on a winter night in Cape Town, he is pulled into a mission as simple as it is dangerous: to plant crystals of remembrance in hospitals, schools, and parliaments. Not to control. Not to conquer. Only to help humanity remember how to be human.

But remembrance has enemies. And when the mission is threatened, Lior must face a trial that will decide not just his fate, but the future of two worlds.

A story for dreamers of all ages — about light being a choice, and the quiet courage of remembering.

Kindle eBook, free to read with Kindle+

View Virella: The Secret of the Stars on Amazon

In Afrikaans

Virella: Die Verborge Juweel van die Heelal

’n Reis na ’n wêreld wat nog nooit vantevore bestaan het nie — ’n planeet vol misterie, lig en lewe.

Ver buite die Melkweg, in die Driehoek-sterrestelsel, lê Virella: ’n planeet met turkoois oseane, kristalvlaktes wat snags gloei, en reuse luminara-bome wat die lug met ligte spore vul. Hier leef die Aureliane — wesens van lig en energie, wat glo elke lewe dra ’n vonk van die Groot Puls wat die heelal verbind.

Hierdie kort maar magiese verhaal bring ’n mengsel van wetenskapfiksie en mitologie: ’n wêreld waar mense eendag mag land, nie om te verower nie, maar om te leer — hoe om hul eie planeet te genees en weer in harmonie te leef.

’n Boek vir dromers, sterrekykers en almal wat glo dat daar meer is as net ons wêreld.

Read the English summary

A short, magical story that blends science fiction and mythology. Far beyond the Milky Way, in the Triangulum galaxy, lies Virella: a planet of turquoise oceans, crystal plains that glow at night and giant luminara trees. It is home to the Aurelians, beings of light and energy who believe every life carries a spark of the Great Pulse that connects the universe. One day humans may land there, not to conquer, but to learn how to heal their own planet.

Kindle eBook (free to read with Kindle+) and paperback

Bekyk Virella: Die Verborge Juweel van die Heelal op Amazon

Every book in one place

Click here to see Sanet Blignaut’s full collection of books on Amazon

On her Amazon page you can also follow Sanet to get an email when her next book comes out.