The Big Light

Finding Grace in the Grit

De: Nicole Legerra

Narrado por: Tess Donelon

You don’t always know when you’re rising. Sometimes, it looks like getting up again. And again. And again. Built from wreckage. Carried by grit. She became the light they said she’d never find.

The Big Light is a memoir about rising through the ruins and finding light in the places no one thought to look. Nicole Legerra doesn’t offer a polished narrative, she offers the truth. From the streets that shaped her to the silence that nearly broke her, this is a story built from grit, and grace. It’s about pain that didn’t just leave scars, it carved purpose.

With language that burns clean and cuts deep, Legerra traces the anatomy of endurance and resilience. This isn’t a tale of arrival or redemption, it’s a reckoning. A blueprint for how to survive the hard and still build something luminous from it. This is for the ones who survived the hard, who love fiercely despite it, and those who have learned to carry both grit and grace in equal measure.

For those who’ve walked through the dark and wondered if there was anything left to find, The Big Light is proof: it is light that saves you in the dark, and it’s always there…even when you can’t see it.

©2024 Nicole Legerra Publishing (P)2026 Nicole Legerra

Message Heard: You Matter

I decided to listen to The Big Light: Finding Grace in the Grit by Nicole Legerra because of a comment she left on one of my social media videos about why I host lives and how hard it is for indie authors’ books to break through. Her response was deeply personal—she mentioned following me since the beginning, back when I whispered, and she spoke honestly about her journey and her book. She said something that really stuck with me: “It’s all about who you know.”

She also shared that this book exists to tell people one simple thing: you matter.

On a whim, I downloaded it.

It took me a bit to actually press play. I wasn’t in a good headspace for a few months—which doesn’t happen often for me. But once the fog cleared, after finishing a very spicy why choose series, I said, today’s the day. So I started.

I shared on social media that I had begun listening and tagged Nicole and the voice actor, Tess Donelon. Nicole reached out and shared that it wasn’t the best day for her—it was the anniversary of her grandmother’s death. Having already started the book, I understood immediately what her grams meant to her. That timing felt significant.

As I listened, I realized Nicole and I are probably around the same age. Her descriptions of growing up in the 80s mirrored parts of my own life in more ways than one. She talks about a childhood marked by a violent, raging alcoholic father. Check. And I realized something important: if I had tried to listen to this book during the headspace I’d been in a few months ago, there’s no way I could have continued. But I wasn’t there anymore—so I did.

It’s clear Nicole is a survivor, and her story is a testament to the idea that even in the roughest situations, there is hope. She could have given up so many times. She could have believed she didn’t matter, that she was insignificant. But her faith—and the few people who showed up for her—kept her going.

While I’m not a religious person, the faith mentioned throughout this book didn’t bother me at all. I’ve always said that if I’d been raised differently, who knows—I might be in church every day. I see faith similarly to how others look to the universe for signs. It’s a way of looking beyond yourself and your circumstances, a guide for a moral and ethical compass. As long as there’s no judgment or pressure to change someone else’s beliefs, I have no issue with it—and there was none of that here.

I’ve never really read a memoir or biography before—at least, I don’t think I have. Like Nicole, I have large gaps in my memory. I always thought that was just how my brain worked, but reading this made me wonder if trauma blocked out parts of my past so I could survive and thrive. The closest thing I can remember reading that felt similar was The Diary of Anne Frank. I remember being in sixth grade and asking my teacher to wait until I returned from band class before continuing to read it aloud. She did. And I think it was because, for the first time, I realized someone else had lived through something worse than I had.

Back to Nicole’s story.

I really enjoyed listening to the ups and downs of her life and found myself constantly wondering how it would end. I appreciated seeing life lessons through her eyes. There were moments that made me cry—especially the abuse scenes. Things like the "crack of a belt" hit far too close to home and brought pieces of my own childhood back to the surface. But instead of breaking me, it reminded me that I’m not alone.

While there were similarities between our lives, Nicole endured far more than I did. Her mother never chose her and ultimately abandoned her. That didn’t happen to me. My mother was quiet and just surviving during my childhood, but she never left me or my sister. My father passed away before my first child was born, and I’m grateful I never had to navigate that as an adult. After he died, my mother found her voice and purpose—especially once I had children. I joke that I’m the reason she’s happy, because I give her grandkids to love. She shows up to everything now—concerts, performances, theater shows—often with flowers because she knows I’ll forget.

If you’re interested in understanding what it’s like to grow up with an abusive parent, to be abandoned in every sense of the word, and to continue facing hardship long after childhood—yet still find the light—this is a book I would recommend.

I’ll be honest: I don’t really know how to review a memoir or biography. These are simply my thoughts and feelings.

Thank you, Nicole, for sharing your story. Because you never know who will hear it at exactly the right moment in their life—when they need to be reminded of one thing:

You matter.

Five Stars isn’t enough!

Just wow.
The Big Light cracked something open in me 💔then put it back together❤️.
This isn’t just a a person who wrote a story or a memoir about her life, it shows what it means to fight for your voice in hopes to help others through your own pain. Nicole laid it bare with honesty and strength, refusing to look away from the hardest parts. That HAD to take courage! She definitely doesn’t sugarcoat anything but she carries so much resilience by what she went through that YOU feel changed by the end. Her writing is clear, fierce, and deeply human. Tess Donelon’s narration was new to me, but unforgettable 👏! She doesn’t just read, she walks through the story like she’s lived it, bringing every moment to life with care, honor and conviction. Together they created something unforgettable! This audiobook proves that even in the darkest places, light can be found. Ugh! So good!
You need to hear this!