Each Monday the Smashwords store lists the top ten most highly anticipated indie fiction ebooks based on the previous week’s preorder accumulations. Each title on the list is scheduled to release within the next week. To help the talented authors on this list accumulate even more preorders, click the title of the book. The hyperlink will bring you to a Books2Read page where you can order from your preferred ebook retailer. If the preorder is part of a series, click the hyperlinked series title to learn about the other books in the series. Be sure to check back Friday for a list of the Top 25 Bestselling Indie Ebooks.

Welcome to Jen’s Jewels, a weekly column where we dive into the heart of storytelling with today’s most exciting authors. Whether you’re looking for your next must-read or curious about the creative sparks behind your favorite books, you’ve come to the right place. This week, we’re checking out AN OVERDUE MATCH by Sarah Monzon, a delightful romance that turns library check-out histories into a matchmaking tool. With a heroine who’s beautifully resilient and a hero who’s more than meets the eye, this charming novel is sure to steal your heart. Let’s chat with Sarah about the inspiration behind her latest release! Jennifer Vido: Using library check-out histories as a matchmaking tool is brilliantly original. What creative spark or real-life observation led you to develop this charming and unconventional approach to romantic connections? Sarah Monzon: I wish I could say that I had a fun story behind this idea, but really, it just kind of popped into my head one day. I was thinking about the character of Evangeline, and I might have just watched Jewish Matchmaking on Netflix a couple of weeks prior, then, poof, the idea of using the books that library patrons check out as a matchmaking tool…

Book Title:  A TINY PIECE OF BLUE Character Name: Silstice (Silly) Trayson Describe Yourself I’m a thirteen-year-old girl living with my family in the farmlands of southern Michigan during the early 1930s, which became known as the Great Depression. We’re dirt poor, often not having enough food and I’m skin and bones. I’m starting high school soon and I hate my tattered clothes, but we have no money for new clothes. I want to fit in, but my family is known as the “Trashy Traysons” and no one wants to befriend me. Why Do You Have Such a Weird Name? I was born on December 21 and the midwife told my mother it was a special day, the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Unfortunately, my mother misunderstood and thought the word was “silstice” and named me that. “Silly” became my nickname which I’ve grown to hate because all the kids snicker when the teacher does roll call. Our family is called The Trashy Traysons because my father has never held down a real job and we have lots of old barrels, wood, metal, and junk in our yard. What Are Your Biggest Problems? My house burns down…

1–What is the title of your latest release? DAWN OF GRACE – Mary Magdalene’s Story 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? On the brink of despair, Mary is about to discover that while the life of faith is never perfect, perfect love casts out fear – and Jesus makes all things new. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The Bible gave me the place after I picked the person whose story I wanted to tell. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely! I loved telling Mary’s story, though storytelling is never easy. I look forward to meeting her in heaven one day. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Lonely, Fearful, Loving 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I had no idea what it might be like to cast demons out of someone or how it might feel to be possessed by demons, but with Mary’s story, I had to learn. I turned to author Bill Myers, someone with real-life experience in that area and read his book, Supernatural Wars, that he’d written describing his meetings with a man possessed and what it took to…

1–What is the title of your latest release? I GOT ABDUCTED BY ALIENS AND NOW I’M TRAPPED IN A ROM-COM 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A wildlife biologist was studying meerkats when she got abducted by aliens. Now she finds herself on the other side of the camera in an intergalactic conservation effort run by a terribly underfunded research team to help a nearly extinct alien race with her species saving coochie. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The main goal is that the Biwbans want to preserve what is left of the Sankado species after they were decimated in an oil spill caused by the Biwban’s recklessness. The Sankado’s home planet, Krydon 4 was too far gone to save, and a new planet had to be sourced out. I wanted the Biwbans in charge of the conservation project to try and create an ideal habitat for both humans and Sankado by terraforming a new planet. Since humans are more fragile than Sankado, they were used as the basis for the new planet. However, due to lack of funding, corners had to be cut. Instead of sending a proper research team…

CHAPTER ONE It’s 11:45 on a Friday night, and Rav Trivedi is cranky. It’s been l a long day and a long week. He should be ordering dessert at his favorite restaurant, or sipping champagne at a gallery opening, or whatever it is normal people do on a Friday night in New York City, but instead he had to work late, and now he’s inching his way crosstown in the back of a yellow cab that reeks of cotton candy. It’s taken ten minutes to travel two blocks, and the pink air freshener swinging from the rearview is so overpowering it’s making him dizzy. He tries to lower the window to vent the sickly­ sweet odor, but the button doesn’t respond. “Excuse me,” he says, leaning forward, “the window back here won’t go down.” “I don’t open windows in traffic,” the driver informs him. “Exhaust fumes give me a headache.” “Right.” Rav fades back into the seat and considers his options. As usual, his instincts are torn between the two sides of his upbringing, as if one of his parents is perched on each shoulder. On the left sits His Lordship, English to a fault, counseling his son to bear…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A BEAUTIFUL KNIGHT the second book in the Cursed Kingdom series. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Medieval Knight Gavin Campbell has been trapped in another realm for three hundred years. Although he is desperate to escape, he accepts that breaking his curse is an impossible task. Thankfully, Sabrina Lockhart, a headstrong modern woman, is determined to find a way to free him—and she might just hold the key to his release. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I prefer to write stories set in Scotland. While researching castles that are used as homes, I discovered Dunimarle, Castle near a small village called Culross that is not too far from Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a perfect setting for my story. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I adore the female protagonist, Sabrina. She is driven and works as a fashion photographer. I would love to hang out with her while she works. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? She is Independent, Tenacious, Headstrong 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned a lot of about fashion…

For the month of romance, we’ll look at stories set in lush and unusual locales. What could be more symbolic of Valentine’s Day than chocolate?  So it’s fitting to begin with THE SPANISH DAUGHTER by Lorena Hughes, which explores the delights of chocolate and a city that became renowned for its production.  Growing up in Spain, Puri developed a love of chocolate she inherited from her estranged father.  To her surprise, she finds upon his death that he has left her his cocoa estate in Vinces, Ecuador.  Excited to claim this legacy, she convinces her husband Cristobal to close their chocolate shop and leave World War I-devastated Europe behind to begin a new life on the estate.  But someone doesn’t want her to arrive; on the voyage, an assassin tries to murder her, killing her husband instead.  To protect herself, Puri adopts her husband’s identity and continues on, still determined to settle in Vinces.  Once arrived, she discovers a family she knew little about, half-siblings from her father’s bigamous second marriage, with three sisters now vying to control the business, while the person who wanted her dead is still at large.  Incorporating facts about the history of the real Vinces,…

February, the time our thoughts turn to roses, chocolate, and true love. Sadly, this month is also the time when so many of us fall prey to the various colds, flus, and tummy bugs circulating in our closed-up homes and workspaces. Feeling rotten is not fun, but if you’re sick enough to get away with pampering yourself, bundling up with a warm drink and a good book or audiobook may just make your malaise more bearable. And what better way to forget the world and celebrate the month of February than with a new J.D. Robb book? BONDED IN DEATH, number sixty in the series (!!), is an unusually poignant volume that among other delights, lets us better understand and love Summerset, Roarke’s butler/father figure and usually Eve’s nemesis. It turns out Summerset had a more complicated youth than we knew, and the people he fought together with during the Urban Wars have remained bonded in friendship. When one of them is murdered, the group comes together to launch their own search for justice even as Eve searches for the killer. I always enjoy J.D. Robb’s books, but this one was especially touching. Author Jewel E. Ann has been writing…

For this month’s Mondays are Murder, I want to talk about mysteries set in other countries. When I travel, I read mystery authors from the places I’m going to visit. So when I went to Scotland and the Shetland Isles, I looked for authors who’s books would give me a sense of place. If you’re a fan of the Shetland TV series, you’ve probably heard of Ann Cleeves because it’s her books that the series comes from. Her first book in the series is Raven Black, the first time we meet one of my favorite detectives of all time – Jimmy Perez. The best part of Cleeves’ books is that, in a way, she makes Shetland itself a character. You’ll see what I mean if you read the series. Start with RAVEN BLACK. Ann Cleeves – RAVEN BLACK – Shetland Island Mysteries It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter’s eye is drawn to a splash of color on the frozen ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbor, Catherine Ross. The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man–loner…