I Know What I Saw (Fern Glade) - Softcover

Mannering, Christy

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798218718572

Publisher: Mannering Afterlight Press, 2025

Synopsis

Eighteen-year-old Kiera Allison has always felt caught between two worlds: her family's deep-rooted magic in Fern Glade and the shadowy pull of something no one will name. Her coven recognizes her, but they don't understand the flickers of darkness in her spells or why sigils behave differently when she's near.

When a long-dormant sigil awakens under Kiera's hand, it sets off more than sparks. The veil between realms begins to fray, and no one can agree on what's bleeding through. Her aunts call it a coincidence. But Kiera knows better. Something is calling to her, and it's not done yet.

With help from her best friend Paige, fae-blooded, intuitive, and just as haunted, and Harvey, a quietly brilliant outsider with his late father's journal of magical patterns, Kiera begins to piece together what the coven won't say: her magic isn't broken. It's incomplete.

As shadow magic begins to twist through Fern Glade, warping spells and cracking old wards, Kiera faces a choice. She can suppress the half of herself no one taught her to wield, or she can embrace it and risk becoming the very thing her family fears.

About this title

About the Author

Christy Mannering is a Delaware native, storyteller, and self-proclaimed nerd with an endless curiosity for both the magical and the mundane. By day, she works in communications at the University of Delaware; by night, she crafts stories laced with hidden magic, haunted friendships, and hard-won hope.

She's the proud mom of two sons and a daughter—her hearts walking around outside her body—plus her oldest son's brilliant girlfriend and a fiercely loyal dog named Bekka.

Alongside her oldest son, Christy co-leads 3B: Brae's Brown Bags, a nonprofit that provides healthy food to homeless and low-income populations. When she's not writing or advocating for equity, she's likely sipping strong coffee, playing a cozy game on Steam, or sinking into her latest favorite mystery.

I Know What I Saw is her debut novel and the first in the Fern Glade series.

From the Inside Flap

Some shadows are just darkness. Others are watching.

In the quiet, cloistered village of Fern Glade, magic hums in the soil, whispers through the trees, and coils beneath the cobblestones. Witches, fae, and old families live by ward and ritual—guarded, bound by bloodlines, and steeped in tradition. But when eighteen-year-old Kiera Allison begins to sense something watching her from beyond the woods, no one listens. No one, except Paige—her best friend, her anchor, and the girl the magic should have protected.
When Paige vanishes, all Kiera has is a torn bag, a trembling cat, and a certainty no one will believe: the shadow is real, and it took her.

As secrets unravel and loyalties fracture, Kiera finds herself at the edge of two worlds—one rooted in light, the other twisted in shadow. A forbidden legacy stirs in her blood, a connection that may either save Paige or consume Kiera whole. To uncover the truth, she'll have to confront the forgotten magic of Fern Glade, the haunting tether between realms, and the dark lineage she was never meant to understand.

"I Know What I Saw" is the first installment in The Fern Glade Series—a lush, atmospheric journey into found family, ancient magic, and the strength it takes to rewrite your fate.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mannering Afterlight Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798218718572
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 206