I’m Sheila Roberts, and this spring I am going back to the beach (Moonlight Harbor to be exact), for my seventh novel in my Moonlight Harbor series. I love this beach town and I love the people who live there. I especially love The Mermaids – the band made up of Bonnie Brinks, her mother Loretta, and Bonnie’s daughter Avril, three generations of women who know how to sell a song. Now, if they can just sort out their love lives and make their dreams come true, they’ll really be rockin’!   M is for Mermaids, and I hope you’ll love these three! E reminds us that everyone swims into dangerous waters once in a while. But our heroines are proof that you can find your way to a safe harbor eventually. R stands for romance … times three. M is for the men who are giving our poor Mermaids grief and the good ones who are there for them, no matter what. A is for Avril, young and ambitious – too young to go face the dangers lurking in Nashville. At least that’s how her mom sees it. I … Hmmm. How about I hope you’ll enjoy spending time…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MURDER ON BEDFORD STREET, a Gaslight Mystery 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When midwife Sarah Malloy and her private investigator husband, Frank, try to help a woman whose husband has wrongly locked her away in an asylum, they discover nothing is what it seems in the Longly family, and they must stop a killer before more lives are lost. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Finding a location for the Gaslight Mysteries is so important because that is the title as well. I was looking for what was a nice residential neighborhood in 1901 and Bedford Street was and still is. Recently, a producer expressed interest in turning the Gaslight Mysteries into a TV series and she has been shopping it around.  She dearly loves the series, and she happens to live on Bedford Street, so I gave her a little nod for all her hard work. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? I would love to hang out with Frank and Sarah in real life. I created them to be people I would like and gave them characteristics…

1–What is the title of your latest release? BEAR WITH ME NOW, out April 25 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A man in the middle of a nervous breakdown hires the wannabe park ranger who saved him from a bear attack as his sober companion—even though he doesn’t drink. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The first trip I took after the pandemic started was driving through Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in Big Sky, Montana with my sister, and it felt like the world was opening up for me. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? I’d want to go on maybe the first three miles of a hike with Darcy! After that she’d have to carry me. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Sweet earnest liar 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Wolves were extirpated from Yellowstone National Park by 1926 and only reintroduced in 1995. But after wolves lost their federal protections, the states around Yellowstone authorized increasing numbers of wolf kills, and in 2022 hunters baited, trapped, and shot 20% of Yellowstone’s wolves. Darcy, the book’s heroine, is a conservationist…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Renee Rosen!   Writes: Historical fiction in a variety of time periods, from the 1800s to the 1960s. The one thing you’ll find in all her novels, regardless of the era, is a cast of strong, trailblazing women. In the past, she’s written about Helen Gurley Brown, who was the first female editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. She’s also explored Mrs. Astor and Alva Vanderbilt’s notorious feud for control of New York society during the Gilded Age. And in her newest novel, she reveals the story and secrets behind the cosmetic icon, Estée Lauder, and how she went from making face creams in her Upper West apartment to dominating the makeup counters at Saks Fifth Avenue.   About: Renee Rosen is the USA Today bestselling author of eight historical novels, including The Social Graces, Park Avenue Summer, Windy City Blues and What the Lady Wants. Her latest novel, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl (April 25, 2023) is based on Estée Lauder’s rise in the cosmetic industry….

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Mindy Quigley!   Writes: Twisty, funny cozy mysteries that’ll keep you guessing. Give me a great setting—say, a charming, upscale pizzeria nestled alongside a stunning lake—and I will put a dead body in it. Just as the best marinara sauces balance sweetness with acid, I like cutting through hominess and humor with a vinegary little splash of murder. I also love taking a strong, slightly flawed protagonist who readers can root for and surrounding her with a unique supporting cast who come to feel like family. My favorite reader reviews say things like, “People on the train thought I was crazy because I couldn’t stop laughing out loud” or “Stayed up way past my bedtime because of all the plot twists at the end.” If I’ve managed to make someone snort-laugh their morning Starbucks on the subway or stay up ‘til 2 A.M. reading, I know I’ve done my job.   About: Originally from Chicago, I spent several years living in the U.K. before…

Pluto in The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe is the father of modern crime-fiction so it’s fitting that we start with what is still possibly the most shocking cat story ever. The narrator supposedly loves cats but that doesn’t stop him murdering two of them and then his wife. Of course, it doesn’t end well for him… Typically, EAP has no problem breaking the unspoken law of crime-writing: never kill the cat.   Olivia in The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward This book is such a masterpiece of storytelling that it doesn’t even come as a surprise that one of the narrators is a cat. All humans are Teds to Olivia who says, supremely cat-like, ‘I think it’s OK to say that I am beautiful’. But, like all good narrators (and all cats), Olivia has a secret…   Charlie in Here to Stay by Mark Edwards Master of suspense and real-life animal lover, Mark Edwards, often has cats in his books. My favourite is Charlie in this psychological thriller about the in-laws from hell. It’s very comforting that, whatever horrors befall the narrator, Elliott, he never forgets about his loyal pet. Mark says,…

1–What is the title of your latest release? BLIND TRUST 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? What do illegal arms trafficking, counterfeit money, the U.S Government, and bombs have in common? According to EOD expert Nicolás Garcia…they’re safer than working with Lyla Fox. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Washington D.C. epitomizes intrigue which made locating my SNAP Agency there perfect. You really never know who you’re walking next to, sitting by on the Metro, or eating dinner near – spies, secret service, politico conspirators. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Definitely. Her spunkiness and spontaneity would make every minute with her an adventure. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Impulsive, generous, loyal. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That tough characters are hard to write. LOL. But seriously. These two characters throughout the series have guarded themselves and trying to break that wall down was way more difficult than I imagined. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I try not to edit as I draft but it inevitably happens. If I’m stuck sometimes it helps to…

Marked for Murder, Book 26, Merry Wrath Mysteries by Leslie Langtry Samurai Squadron: Spinward Fringe Broadcast 18 by Randolph Lalonde Toxic by Sam Crescent Rogue Familiar by Jeffe Kennedy Trapped: Brides of the Kindred Book 29 by Evangeline Anderson Gather Close by Megan Derr The Arranger (Amish Country Brides) by Jennifer (J.E.B.) Spredemann McAllister Must Die!, Book 16, McAllister series by Matt Chisholm T.’s Ladies Ride Again by J.T. Edson Craven’s War: The Final Chance, Book 12, Craven’s War series by Nick S. Thomas     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.

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE DUTCH ORPHAN 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Set during WWII, this is a story about a Dutch woman who offers shelter to a Jewish baby, and her sister, who must choose between family loyalty and her own safety. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The Dutch Orphan is a companion novel to my debut, The Dutch Wife, which was about a Dutch resistance fighter, Marijke, who is forced into prostitution in a concentration camp. In the beginning of that novel, Marijke brings a Jewish baby to a Dutch couple who will try to protect the child by passing her off as their own. This scene creates the link to The Dutch Orphan, so it was only natural that I set the novel in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I’ve also lived in Amsterdam for the past ten years, so I drew a lot of inspiration from the sights and history I encounter here on a daily basis. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Johanna’s personality and strong moral code are loosely based on traits of one of my best friends,…

1–What is the title of your latest release? ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? For readers of historical fiction who love stories of personal triumph, ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL is a book about two women impacted by the all-but-forgotten eugenics movement. Set in pre-and post WW2 California and Nazi-occupied Vienna, the novel explores the role ruling society has had in defining individual human worth – specifically within this “race betterment” crusade, and how dangerous it is when those in power impose standards of perceived perfection upon everyone else. ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL reaffirms the inherent value of every human life – a timely tale for these days of ours. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I chose California’s wine country for the majority of the setting because of all the states California sterilized more people without their consent and knowledge inside its institutions than any other, and a good portion of these procedures took place at a state-run residential facility in Sonoma County. I also chose Vienna after Adolf Hitler annexed Austria because of the pervasiveness of the Nazi scheme there to reshape the gene pool through not just the same…