Monday, October 28, 2024

Showcase of I Know She Was There by Jennifer Sadera and a Giveaway of a Print Copy of the Book and a $40 Amazon Gift Card

I Know She Was There by Jennifer Sadera Banner

I KNOW SHE WAS THERE

by Jennifer Sadera

October 28 - November 22, 2024 

Virtual Book Tour

Synopsis:

Be careful what you see when you shouldn’t be looking.

Residents of the posh Upstate New York neighborhood of Deer Crossing enjoy all the amenities wealth provides. From drive-up dog-grooming to monthly botox parties, these lucky suburbanites have everything they could ever want. And one thing they don’t. Stalker Caroline Case, who wheels her infant along their streets each night with just one goal...to spy on anyone too careless or too foolish to close their window blinds.

Convinced the owners of the impressive homes are living a dream existence, the troubled new mom hopes to escape her working-class life by prying secrets from the unsuspecting. But the fairy tale twists into a nightmare when she sees something she shouldn’t. Something that shatters her illusions about the people in the privileged community she’s obsessed with, even as she begins to doubt what she saw.

I Know She Was There by Jennifer Sadera

As Caroline investigates the event, shocking secrets are laid bare, and nothing is as it seems. She knows she must prove something sinister occurred in Deer Crossing or risk letting someone get away with murder.




Praise for I Know She Was There:

"‘Twisty’ doesn’t begin to describe this compelling and complicated story. Don’t even try to guess how this turns out—just put yourself in Sadera’s capable hands and enjoy the ride!"
~ Karen Dionne, author of the #1 international bestseller The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister

"In the world of thrillers, few conceits are more alluring than a ‘mostly harmless’ habit gone terribly awry. Such is the premise in Jennifer Sadera’s addictive I Know She Was There, where protagonist Caroline Case’s proclivity for sidewalk-spying on her wealthy neighbors turns into her own living nightmare. Sadera’s deeply psychological novel, echoing nicely to Rear Window, has Caroline guessing not only what she saw, but whether she saw it at all, and her struggle becomes ours through effective first-person narration. An impressive and thrilling debut . . . Sadera is an author to watch."
~ Carter Wilson, USA Today bestselling author of The Father She Went to Find

"Jennifer Sadera’s intense debut about a troubled young mother on a passionate mission to discover the truth kept me awake all night! It’s a gut-wrenching and addictively readable thriller."
~ Bonnar Spring, author of Toward the Light (2020), Independent Publishers’ bronze medal winner for Best First Novel, New Hampshire Literary Awards—People's Choice winner for fiction, and Disappeared (2022) ‘Best of 2022’ from Bookreporter and Crime Fiction Lover short fiction: 2023 Al Blanchard Award, 2024 Derringer

"Twisty and compelling, I Know She Was There deftly explores how well we can truly know each other—or ourselves."
~ Tracy Sierra, author of Nightwatching

"A knockout debut—sharp domestic suspense that combines taut prose with a complex, artfully crafted unreliable narrator, and plenty of twists and turns that readers won't see coming. I Know She Was There proves Jennifer Sadera is a voice to watch."
~ Elena Hartwell Taylor, bestselling author of the Eddie Shoes and Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery series, including the upcoming A Cold, Cold World

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Suspense, Domestic Suspense
Published by: CamCat Books
Publication Date: November 12, 2024
Number of Pages: 352
ISBN: 9780744310955 (ISBN10: 0744310954)
Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | CamCat Books

Read an excerpt:

Jane Brockton was going to get caught.

My heart raced when Jane emerged from the side door of her home; what she and I were both doing was risky, but it was too late for regrets. I wondered if she thought so too. Probably. Her behavior was becoming alarmingly brazen. I pulled Emmy’s stroller closer and pushed aside boxwood branches, widening the portal I peered through. Although Jane’s across-the-street neighbors’ hedge was directly in front of her farmhouse-style McMansion, it was too dark this late at night for me to be seen.

Go back inside if you know what’s good for you. I pressed my fingers to my lips as the man emerged from the house next to hers. Even if I’d yelled a warning, Jane Brockton wouldn’t heed it. Who the hell was I? Certainly not someone her neighbors on Woodmint Lane knew. If Jane observed my late-night excursions through the streets of her stylish suburban New York neighborhood, her first instinct wouldn’t be to worry about her behavior.

I was prepared. If confronted by any resident of the exclusive enclave, I’d explain I walked the streets late at night to lull my colicky baby to sleep. I couldn’t admit my ulterior motive—worming my way back onto Primrose Way and into my former best friend’s good graces. And there was no need to share how, lately, the lives of this neighborhood’s inhabitants had been luring me like a potent drug—or how Jane Brockton was fast becoming the kingpin of my needy addiction. Jane stood out, even in this community of excess: gourmet dinner deliveries, drive-up dog grooming, same-day laundry service, and monthly Botox parties.

Her meetings with the mystery man were far from innocent. The first tryst I’d witnessed was late the previous Friday night—exactly a week earlier. I’d strolled around the corner of Woodmint Lane just as the pair had emerged from their side-by-side houses and taken to the dark street like prowlers casing the block. I followed their skulking forms up Woodmint, being careful to stay a few dozen yards behind, until all I could discern was their silhouettes, too close to each other for friendly companionship. They’d eventually crossed Primrose Way and veered into the woods where the bike trails and picnic areas offered secluded spaces. When they didn’t emerge from the wooded area, I backed Emmy’s stroller up silently and reversed my route, heading away, my pulse still throbbing in my temples.

It was impossible to deny what was going on, as I watched similar scenes unfold three nights that week: Jane slipping soundlessly from her mudroom door like a specter, the flash of the screen door in the faint moonlight an apparent signal.

This night, as they hooked hands in the driveway between the houses, I slicked my tongue over my dry lips. She risked losing everything. I knew how that felt. Tim had left me before I’d even changed out his worn bachelor-pad sofa for the sectional I’d been eying at Ethan Allen. I watched them cross through the shadows, barely able to see them step inside the shed at the far end of Jane’s yard. And all under the nose of her poor devoted husband, Rod. He couldn’t be as gullible as he appeared, could he?

A voice called out, shattering the stillness of the night. I flinched, convinced I’d been discovered. I scanned the immediate shadows, placing a hand over my chest to still my galloping heart.

“Jane?” It was Rod’s voice. I recognized the timbre by now. Settle down, Caroline.

My eyes darted to the custom home’s open front door. Rod had noticed his wife’s abandonment earlier than usual. Warm interior light spilled across the porch floorboards and outlined Rod’s robed form in the door frame.

“Are you out here? Jane?”

The worry in his voice made me hate Jane Brockton. I flirted with the idea of stepping away from the hedge and announcing I’d witnessed her heading to the shed with the neighbor. Of course, that would be ridiculous. I was a stranger. My name, Caroline Case, would mean nothing to him.

Rod closed the door and my gaze traveled to the glowing upstairs window on the far left of his house. The light had blinked off half an hour earlier, like a giant eyelid closing over the dormered master bedroom casement. I knew exactly where their bedroom was because I’d studied the Deer Crossing home models on the builder’s website. I knew the layout of all three house styles so well I could escort potential buyers through them. I’d briefly considered it. Becoming a real-estate agent would give me access inside, where I could discover what life behind the movie-set facades was really like. Pristine marble floors, granite countertops, and crystal vases on every conceivable surface? Or gravy-laden dishes in sinks and mud-caked shoes arrayed haphazardly just inside the eye-catching front doors?

I suspected the latter was true for almost every house except for my former best friend Muzzy Owen’s place on Primrose Way. Muzzy could put Martha Stewart to shame.

I wedged myself and Emmy’s stroller further into the hedge. Becoming a real-estate agent wouldn’t connect me as intimately to Jane and Rod Brockton (information gleaned by rifling through the contents of their mailbox) as I was at this moment. Trepidation—and yes, anticipation—laced my bloodstream and turned my breathing shallow as I waited for Rod to come outside and start his nightly search for his wife. Some may consider my interest, my excitement, twisted, but I didn’t plan to use my stealthily gathered information against anyone. It was enough to reassure myself that nobody’s life was perfect, no matter how it appeared to an outsider.

A faint click echoed through the still night. I squinted through the hedge leaves, my eyes laser pointers on the side door Jane had emerged from only moments before. Rod appeared.

As he stepped into the dusky side yard, I thought about the people unknown to me until a week earlier: the latest neighborhood couple to pique my interest. Even though they were technically still strangers, I’d had an entire week to learn about the Brocktons. A few passes in my car last Saturday morning revealed a tracksuit-clad Gen Xer, her wavy hair the reddish-brown color of autumn oak leaves, and a gray-haired, bespectacled boomer in crisp dark jeans and golf shirt standing on the sage-and-cream farmhouse’s front porch. Steaming mugs in hand, their calls drifted through my open car window, cautioning their little golden designer dog when it strayed too close to the street, their voices overly indulgent, as if correcting a beloved but errant child. The very picture of domestic bliss.

I studied the Colonial to the Brocktons’ right. On the front porch steps, two tremendous Boston ferns in oversized urns stretched outward like dozens of welcoming arms. The only testament to human activity. Someone obviously cared for the vigorous plants, but a midnight peek inside that house’s mailbox revealed only empty space. It made me uncomfortable not knowing who Jane’s mystery man was.

And did Rod usually wake when his wife slipped between the silk sheets (they had to be silk) after her extracurriculars? He obviously questioned her increasingly regular late-night abandonment. He wouldn’t be roaming the dark in his nightwear if he hadn’t noticed.

Perhaps Jane said she couldn’t sleep. She needed to move—walk the neighborhood—to tire herself. Hearing that, he’d frown, warning her not to wander around in the middle of the night. Rod was the type—I was sure just by the way he coddled his dog—to worry about his lovely wife walking the dark streets, even the magical byways of Deer Crossing. Hence, the need for new places to rendezvous each night. But the shed on their very own property! Even though this night’s tryst was later than usual, it was dangerously daring to stay on-site. Maybe Jane wanted to get caught.

A scratching sound echoed through the quiet night. I looked at the side door Rod had just emerged from, saw his silhouette turn back and open it. The little dog circled him, barking sharply. The urgent yipping cut clearly through the still air, skittering my pulse. I quickly glanced at Emmy soundly sleeping in her stroller. If the dog didn’t stop barking, I’d have to get away—fast. Emmy could wake and start her colicky wailing, which would rouse the Brocktons’ neighbors whose hedge I’d appropriated. One flick of their front porch light would reveal me in all my lurking glory.

As if to answer my concerns, the dog ceased barking and scampered toward the shed. I rubbed at the sudden chill sliding across my upper arms. That little canine nose was sniffing out Jane’s trail.

Rod stepped tentatively forward. It was too dark to see what he was wearing beneath the robe, but I pictured him in L. L. Bean slippers with those heavy rubberized soles and cotton print pajamas, like Daddy used to wear. Daddy’s had line drawings of old-fashioned cars dotted across the white cotton background. Model Ts and roadsters. I felt angry with Jane all over again. How dare she . . .

“Sorry, darling,” Jane called, striding from the shadows, stopping a few feet in front of him. “I was potting those plants earlier and thought I left my cell phone in the shed.” Her voice was soft, relaxed. She was a pro.

“I saw it on the bookshelf in the study earlier this evening,” Rod said, bending to calm the little dog, who was bouncing between them like a child with ADHD.

“Oh geez, I’m losing it,” she said, laughing.

Not yet, you’re not, I thought. Not yet.

***

Excerpt from I Know She Was There by Jennifer Sadera. Copyright 2024 by Jennifer Sadera. Reproduced with permission from Jennifer Sadera. All rights reserved.

 

Author Bio:

Jennifer Sadera

Jennifer Sadera began her writing career just out of college as a junior copywriter at book publisher NAL before transitioning to the editorial departments of national women’s magazines Woman’s World, Redbook, and Beauty Digest. She’d already established herself as a freelance writer and blogger when she decided to follow her true passion: creating novels. She is an active member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime; her writing has earned her multiple awards at Atlanta Writers Conferences and a fellowship at the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. I Know She Was There is Jennifer’s debut psychological suspense novel. When not writing, Jennifer can be found gardening, traveling, or reading anything she can get her hands on. She is blessed with CJ, her husband of many years, two adult children, Amanda and Ryan, and two adorable rescue grand dogs named Sunny and Moonie.

Catch Up With Jennifer Sadera:

JenniferSadera.com
Goodreads
LinkedIn
Instagram - @jensadera
Twitter/X - @jennifersadera
Facebook - @jennifersadera


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It's Monday!! What Are YOU Reading? - 10/28/2024

                              http://bookdate.blogspot.com/

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I hope you had a great reading week.
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This is a weekly meme hosted by Kathryn at BOOK DATE!

Post the books completed, the books you are currently reading, and the books you hope to finish at some point.
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Books Completed:

CROSS MY HEART by Megan Collins - review will be on January 17, 2025.

Slow at first, but worth the wait - tense and twisty.

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THE BUSINESS TRIP by Jessica Garcia - review will be on January 15, 2025.

Oh my - SO GOOD!!  You will need your thinking cap!!

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THE LOST HOUSE by Melissa Larsen - review will be on January 14, 2025.

Pretty slow until the last ten percent.   

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THE JEWEL OF THE BLUES by Monica Chenault-Kilgore - review will be on November 29.

A bit wordy, but entertaining and well-researched.

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THE CHAMPAGNE LETTERS by Kate Macintosh - review will be on December 12.

So good - It's about Veuve Clicquot, the Champagne Queen of Reims.

THE LAST FASHION HOUSE IN PARIS by Renee Ryan - review will be on December 20.

Another well-researched gem by fabulous Renee Ryan.

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THE FRENCH WINEMAKER'S DAUGHTER by Loretta Ellsworth - review will be on December 11.

SO GOOD - LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the storyline and the characters.

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WHAT THE WIFE KNEW by Darby Kane - review will be on December 10.

Another good one by Darby Kane.

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THE SUNFLOWER HOUSE by Adriana Allegri - review will be on November 12.

A marvelous debut - wonderful research, pull-in-writing, and some tender moments despite what was going on in one of the many homes in the Lebensborn Program during WWII.

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CHRISTMAS WITH THE QUEEN by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb - review will be on November 11.

Do NOT miss this one!!  Sweet characters and a great storyline

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THE MEMORY DRESS by Jade Beer - review will be on November 5.

LOVED IT!!

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WHO LOVES YOU BEST by Marilyn Simon Rothstein - review is in the book's title.

A lovely, change-of-pace read...don't miss it.

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THE PRESIDENT'S LAWYER by Lawrence Robbins - review is in the book's title. 

Excellent debut - courtroom drama at its best.

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Book Currently Reading:

A SERIAL KILLER'S GUIDE TO MARRIAGE by Asia MacKay - review will be on January 18, 2025

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Books Up Next:

THE FAMILY INSIDE by Katie Garner - review will be on January 28, 2025.

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THE WEEKEND GUESTS by Liza North - review will be on January 29, 2025.
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THE GIRLS OF THE GLIMMER FACTORY by Jennifer Coburn - review will be on January 30, 2025.

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LAST TWILIGHT IN PARIS by Pam Jenoff - review will be on February 4, 2025.

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THE QUEENS OF CRIME by Marie Benedict - review will be on February 11, 2025.

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NOTHING EVER HAPPENS HERE by Seraphina Nova Glass - review will be on February 12, 2025.

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EVERY PRECIOUS AND FRAGILE THING by Barbara Davis - review will be on February 18, 2025.

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COME FLY WITH ME by Camille Di Maio - review will be on February 19, 2025.

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THE LOST PASSENGER by Frances Quinn - review will be on February 25, 2025.

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THE YOUNGER WOMAN by Cate Ray - review will be on February 26, 2025.

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BROKEN COUNTRY by Claire Leslie Hall - review will be on March 4, 2025.
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A MAP TO PARADISE by Susan Meissner - review will be on March 18, 2025.
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BEACH VIBES by Susan Mallery - review will be on March 19, 2025, 2025.

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THE FISHERMAN'S GIFT by Julia R. Kelly - review will be on March 20, 2025.
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THE LIBRARY GAME Gigi Pandian - review will be on March 21, 2025.
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THE OTHER PEOPLE by C. B. Everett - review will be on March 25, 2025.

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I WOULD DIE FOR YOU by Sandi Jones - review will be on March 26, 2025.
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CORAM HOUSE by Bailey Seybolt - review will be on April 15, 2025.
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FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY by Jennifer E. Smith - review will be on April 16, 2025.

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THE PAGE TURNER by Viola Shipman - review will be on April 18, 2025.
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TOUGH LUCK by Sandra Dallas - review will be on April 29, 2025.

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SUCH A GOOD MOM by Julia Spiro - review will be on April 30, 2025.

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THE GIRLS OF GOOD FORTUNE by Kristina McMorris - review will be on May 20, 2025.

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THE MARTHA'S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB by Martha Hall Kelly - review will be on May 27, 2025.

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SHAW CONNOLLY LIVES TO TELL Gillian French - review will be June 17, 2025.
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PARTY OF LIARS Kelsey Cox - review will be on July 1, 2025.

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HIGH SEASON by Katie Bishop - review will be on August 12, 2025.

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Mailbox Monday - 10/28/2024

  

BOOKMAIL THAT ARRIVED THIS WEEK.

WHAT ARRIVED FOR YOU?

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On Tuesday, October 22, I received:

1.  THE OTHER PEOPLE by C. B. Everett, courtesy of Atria Books, Simon & Schuster Atria Marketing, and NetGalley.


2.  THE GIRLS OF GOOD FORTUNE by Kristina McMorris, courtesy of Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley.

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On Wednesday, October 23, I received:

1.  THE LIBRARY GAME by Gigi Pandian, courtesy of St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and Netgalley.


2.  PARTY OF LIARS by Kelsey Cox, courtesy of St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and Netgalley.


3.  I WOULD DIE FOR YOU by Sandi Jones, courtesy of Hector DeJean of St. Martin's - also a NetGalley copy.


4.  SHAW CONNOLLY LIVES TO TELL by Gillian French, courtesy of St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and Netgalley.

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On Friday, September 25, I received:

1.  EVERY PRECIOUS AND FRAGILE THING by Barbara Davis, courtesy of the author.

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