Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: chanti

THE GREATEST MATCHMAKER In SPACE: Eudora Space Kid Book 4 by David Horn – Picture Books, Sci-fi, Children’s Adventure Books

David Horn’s Eudora Space Kid series continues with another fabulous middle-grade Sci-fi novel, The Greatest Matchmaker in Space.

Horn takes us back to the decks of the Athena, an AstroLiner and the flagship for the Astrofleet of the planetary Republic. The intrepid Eudora is ready to fly into another adventure, this time as a matchmaker for Captain Jax.

Eudora loves math and science, and even though she’s only in third grade, she dreams of becoming a chief engineer on an AstroLiner. But, she would settle for Captain if that’s what they offered her. When she visits Cafeteria 1 for dessert, she finds Captain Jax, who, per usual, yells, “Get off my bridge.” He’s used to kicking Eudora off the bridge while he’s working, but he must be deeply distracted to confuse it with the cafeteria.

She notices his sad eyes and dejected manner and asks what’s wrong. To her surprise, he invites her to sit with him, and she excitedly realizes the Captain of the Athena is going to confide in her.

He’s been thinking about Miss Allison, Eudora’s teacher. She’s shocked because she loves being in Miss Allison’s class. Does Captain Jax want to fire her?

In fact, he says that he’d like to go on a date with Miss Allison. In her relief, Eudora agrees to help, claiming romance as her specialty alongside engineering. Even though Eudora’s a math and science genius, she’s seen her mother reading all sorts of romance books, so she suggests a double date. Now all Eudora has to do is talk yet another person into going. Easy, right?

This book becomes laugh-out-loud funny as Eudora realizes she’s in over her head.

Can she get Miss Allison to agree? And what about her own date, Arnold? Captain Jax is counting on her, and she can’t let him down because he could help her get into the Astro University. But when she runs into a love triangle between Captain Jax, Miss Allison, and the MedBay officer, how will she untangle the mess?

Find out in David Horn’s latest installment aboard the Athena, The Greatest Matchmaker in Space. Readers will love Eudora’s antics as she marches boldly into the romance department on the AstroLiner. This book flies high with five stars.

June 1, 2023
DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids who Rescued Them by Diane Trull & Meredith Wargo – Memoirs, Animal Rescue, Animal & Pet Care

We love our dogs. We love our cats. But what do we do when people no longer want them, use them for cruel purposes, or release them into the streets with no thought for what will happen to them? Diane Trull’s memoir with Meredith Wargo, DAWGS, shines a light on these questions.

Trull begins the story as a fourth-grade teacher in Dalhart, Texas. One of her young students asks about an article in a local paper showing photos of adorable dogs at a shelter who were up for adoption, wondering what happened to those who weren’t adopted.

Instead of dodging the question, and with great trepidation, she answered it with the truth: those who weren’t adopted would be put to sleep. Her tiny students were understandably shocked. Then one of them said, “I don’t want any of those dogs to die. Isn’t there something we can do to save them?”

That simple question, asked by a child in a classroom in 2003, started a profound adventure in the lives of Diane and her husband, Mark, and her students.

Together, they started a private dog shelter, working with a reluctant animal control officer and an even more reluctant city council to take in as many pets as possible, feed them, groom them, and bring many back to health until, hopefully, someone would adopt them.

This was no simple task. For most of us, taking care of one or two animals in our homes is enough. How can someone take care of hundreds? Without government funding, and with a workforce of only two adults and a small group of nine-to-ten-year-old children, the struggles started to pile up. The noise of barking dogs brought constant complaints, the food and medical attention cost too much, and the sheer effort to take care of these animals in the harsh weather of the Texas Panhandle overwhelmed the volunteer school children even with help from other concerned citizens.

The development of the shelter is in itself a remarkable story. But even more profound is its effect on the children who volunteered for months, or even years.

The shelter had a strict code of ethics regarding those young volunteers including full permission of their parents, and a required balance between school and their work at DAWGS. Its motto, then and now is, ”Making a difference, one animal at a time, one child at a time, one day at a time.”

Students who participated learned life lessons of responsibility, compassion, and dedication that helped shape them as people. Some of these fourth graders are still involved with the shelter after nearly 20 years.

Many dogs have their stories told in this book. Tales of abandoned, damaged pets who were nursed back to health at the shelter and subsequently adopted. Also told are the stories of the many companies and individuals whose key donations and hands-on work have made this shelter work.

A heartwarming story? Yes. But equally important is the hard work and grit that ensured the success of this shelter. Highly recommended.

DAWGS by Diane Trull won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Hearten Awards for Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction.

May 29, 2023
Memorial Day 2023: Remembering our History and Honoring Those Who Died in Service
Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the USA to honor and remember those who died in service to our nation. The date of the holiday changes but it always falls on the last Monday of May.

In the U.S.A., Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance of those who died in service to their country. The holiday was officially proclaimed in 1868 to honor Union and Confederate soldiers who loss their lives in the Civil War.

The latest historical research has the Civil War death toll at 850,000. This number has surpassed all the other wars the U.S.A. has fought in combined. The population was estimated to be approximately 31 million (not counting Native Americans or Black Americans).

Click here to access the U.S. Census Memorial Day Infographic for more information and the complete infographic.

The important takeaway from this graphic is that all other wars, skirmishes, conflicts, and battles that the US has been involved with combined, none have taken the toll that the war that took place on the U.S. soil—the Civil War—has. Period.

Civil War Death Toll: 850,000 deaths (latest research)

All Other US Military Involvements since 1870s until 2020: 707,081 deaths

Memorial Day is one of three official days The United States has to honor those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces.
1. Memorial Day, a federal holiday, is observed the last Monday in May, honors those who have lost their lives in action in service to our nation.
2. Veterans Day, a federal holiday, that is observed every year on November 11th to honor all those who have served in the Armed Forces.
3. Armed Forces Day is a celebration day that honors all active and former personnel across the six branches of the United States military. It is celebrated on the third Saturday of every May. This year’s (2023) has already passed on on May 20.
As any of you know, the head and founder of Chanticleer Book Reviews, Kiffer Brown is a self-described military brat. Her father, brother, her Aunt Ellen, nephews, and cousins have served or are serving in the military. Recognizing and honoring the service of those in the Armed Forces is a longstanding tradition for her and her family.

National Moment of Remembrance

On Memorial Day, remember that there is a National Moment of Remembrance. To honor the moment, pause for one minute at 3 p.m. at your local time, and remember those who have died in service to this nation.

Second Lieutenant Billy Wayne Flynn was killed in action, Vietnam, January 23, 1967. He was 24 years old. (He gave to me my first book of poetry before he left for Vietnam. I still have it. Kiffer Brown)

The Military and Front Line Book Awards

Submit by 10/31/23!

The 2022 Grand Prize Winner for the Military and Front Line Awards, Lost in Beirut by Ashe & Magdalena Stevens

Every year we receive several non-fiction books that deal with serving in the military or some other front line capacity in service to our nation. This year the number and quality of submissions was great enough that we are excited to announce the new division that recognizes work focusing on those in Military or Front Line Service.

The new Division honors the following Non-Fiction Narratives:
- Military and Armed Forces Service Narratives
- Medical Stories focused on Nurses, Doctors, Health Care Workers, and other Essential Workers
- Stories of Community Service Workers such as Firefighters and Police
- CARE, Peace Corps, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and other service organizations
- Work in Agencies that serve their Community and Government
- Families of those who serve in these Community Roles
Keep Telling Stories – They Are Needed!

We are always honored to be trusted with any book at Chanticleer. It is a pleasure to be able to highlight these stories in particular with their own division.
- “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.“–Mark Twain
- “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” – Maya Angelou
- “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”—Joseph Campbell
Got a Military OR Wartime Fiction Story?

Submit by 10/31/23!

We now also have the Hemingway Awards for 20th C. Military Fiction.

The 2022 Hemingway Grand Prize Winner, Running with Cannibals by Robert W. Smith

The 2023 CIBAs are open.
If you don’t submit, you can’t win!

Thank you to veterans everywhere!

All of us at Chanticleer have family who have served, and that makes holidays like Memorial Day important to us. We ask you to take time out of your day to remember the veterans in your life and those who have died in active service on this day of reflection.
May 29, 2023
THE INTREPID: Dawn of the Interstellar Age by Arnie Benn – Hard Sci-fi, Mystery Suspense, Colonization Sci-fi

Two interstellar missions encounter something beyond their understanding in Arnie Benn’s sci-fi novel, The Intrepid: Dawn of the Interstellar Age.

The Intrepid begins a century after Apollo 11. Aksel Bolt, mission commander aboard the Centaurian, wakes too early – seven years into a projected twenty-eight-year sleep on the voyage from Earth – to find Mission Control ordering the crew to rendezvous with another incoming spacecraft. But details are scarce, due in part to being too far from home for two-way communication. What is this other ship, who crews it, and how is it even able to catch up? Will this change their peaceful mission of exploration? And what might be waiting for them at their destination?

The crewmembers are forced to pivot in order to survive their continued mission.

Bolt also finds that a member of his crew did not survive hibersleep. Was it simply a mechanical error, or was it sabotage? Was it murder? Did the crew member know something they shouldn’t have? Benn’s story twists and turns, tightening the suspense aboard this historic mission.

The Intrepid boasts strong general pacing paired with the intensive exposition often necessary in hard sci-fi. The central dangers aboard the Centaurian will drive readers onward, the growing awareness that the crew is alone, far from familiarity, struggling with their growing apprehension. It doesn’t help that disturbing things seem to be going on back home, light years away.

Full of refreshing surprises that will drive readers toward an unexpected and satisfying conclusion.

There is so much packed into The Intrepid as it is that it delivers the questions and plots of multiple novels in one. A bonus to this is that the book includes an extensive glossary of scientific terms to complement the intended realism of the science in the story.

“I’m on the surface now,” Kihumba says. “The human race… has officially reached the stars.” She tries to swallow but her mouth is dry; she is live to the entire solar system, or will be, when the signal finally reaches home 4 years from now. Her heart is pounding. Don’t forget the rest, Kioni. “Welcome, Earthlings, to the dawn of a new age.”

Part suspense, part future history, a tiny bit romance, and all hard-driving science fiction, Arnie Benn’s near-future space exploration tale is a thoughtful and exciting journey into the wonders and mysteries that humanity has to look forward to…

Or beware of.

May 26, 2023
A LONG TIME DEAD by T.L. Bequette – Mystery, International Crime, Legal Thriller

T.L. Bequette’s thrilling Joe Turner Mystery series continues in A Long Time Dead.

This book echoes the style of Earle Stanley Gardner’s early whodunits, where there are two possibilities. The authorities see only one, and Jake will have to use his special brand of savvy to find the explanation for his client’s innocence.

Joe, a California criminal defense lawyer, moves into his new Oakland office. As he unpacks a box labeled “Red Sox”, containing memorabilia for display, he comes upon an envelope containing two 2013 Red Sox ticket stubs, a credit card receipt, and a picture of him and his mom. The memories come flooding back.

Joe hasn’t seen his friend, Owen Prescott, in ten years—not since the afternoon he gave Joe that envelope. Not since Owen fell off the radar.

In 2013, 24-year-old Owen Prescott becomes a newly celebrated author, having produced a best-seller during graduate school. In the process, he acquires a lawsuit filed by an envious, disgruntled professor, and an admiring stalker against whom he secures a restraining order.

When the professor turns up dead, everything hits the fan.

Upon the advice of his wealthy father’s attorneys, Owen fled the country on the day of the Red Sox game. He went underground, and no one has seen him since. Now Joe wonders about his friend and begins to ponder what really happened. Was Owen capable of murder? If not, who killed the professor?

When he begins to delve into those questions, acquiring the police files on the case, Joe learns that Owen was recently sighted in Europe. Meanwhile, an FBI cold-case investigator follows the same trail, trying to close a net and capture Owen so he can be tried for the murder.

Where Owen is, who he has become, and what he has been doing for ten years add additional dimensions to this mystery. His assumed safety falls apart around him, and surprising individuals both threaten and protect his secret. For one such character, the reader can only wonder what’s next.

Bequette’s yarn introduces a plethora of multi-dimensional characters. Everyone’s motives help shape and move this convoluted plot forward to an unexpected and satisfying answer to “who done it?”

From the very beginning, this story will hook readers. Fast pacing, clever plot twists, and intercontinental flavor make A Long Time Dead difficult not to finish in one sitting.

May 24, 2023
The 2022 CIBAs Grand Prize Winners for Non-Fiction, Shorts, and Series!
A Huge Congratulations to all of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards (CIBAs) Division Non-Fiction, Book Series, and SHORTS Grand Prize Winners!

Every tier of the CIBAs is an important one, though few rise to be one of the coveted Division Grand Prize Winners.
- See all Fiction Grand Prize Winners here
- See the Overall Grand Prize Winner here
All First Place and Grand Prize winners were announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference at the CIBAs Ceremonies on Saturday, April 29th at the Chanticleer Banquet. We have a separate post for Fiction, the Shorts Awards, and the Series Awards.

Now let’s take a step back and look at where we came from to make this happen.

Want to join in the fun? Submit to the 2023 CIBAs today!

Now, presenting the Non-Fiction Awards Grand Prize Winners!

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 I&I Awards is:

Emotional Magnetism

by Sandy Gerber

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 NELLIE BLY Awards is:

Saints & Soldiers

by Rita Katz

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 HARVEY CHUTE Awards is:

Reconfigurement

by E. Alan Fleischauer

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 MIND & SPIRIT Awards is:

A Sky of Infinite Blue

By Kyomi O’Connor

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 HEARTEN Awards is:

Inner Trek
– a reluctant pilgrim to the Himalayas

By Mohan Ranga Rao

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 MILITARY & FRONT LINE Awards is:

Lost in Beirut: A True Story of Love, Loss, and War

by Ashe & Magdalena Stevens

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 JOURNEY Awards is:

A Fraction Stronger

by Mark Berridge

Now, presenting the Shorts & Series Awards Grand Prize Winners!

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SHORTS Awards for Collections and Anthologies is:

God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me

by Lori Lee Peters

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SHORTS Awards for Short Stories and Essays is:

Old Man Baseball

by Mike Murphey

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SERIES Awards is:

The Curtis Jefferson Series

by Vince Bailey

We have badges available starting with the Short List. If you need a digital badge reflecting your tier level, please email info@ChantiReviews.com with your division and rank, and we will send you one as soon as possible.

The 2022 Grand Prize Winners!

A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in June. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items.

To ALL the WINNERS: You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.

Grand Prize Division Winners will receive a customized digital badge. When we receive it from our graphic artist, we will also post here and in the Grand Prize Division Winners Official Posting.

Thank you for participating in the 2022 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.

Team Chanticleer

Make sure your Award gets the attention it deserves on Goodreads.com

In the Librarian Manual on Goodreads, you can go to your Book Edit Page — Literary Awards.

You want to list the Award for Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA) Winners, and be sure to include the year and what place you received. For example:

The year Long List, Short List, Semi-Finalist, Finalist, First Place, Division Grand Prize, or Overall Grand Prize Winner

Note from Goodreads: “To add a new award or edit an existing award, you’ll need help from one of our volunteer librarians or a staff member.” For assistance, post in the Goodreads Librarians Group.

Always double check that you’ve written everything correctly before posting it. The search function for Awards on Goodreads is both case and punctuation sensitive.

The Overall Grand Prize Winner for the 2022 CIBAs

was Michelle Cox’s Book A Spying Eye

The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
See all Fiction Grand Prize Winners here

See the Overall Grand Prize Winner here
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Facebook and Twitter handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in June. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items.

To ALL the WINNERS: You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.

Grand Prize Division Winners will receive a customized digital badge. When we receive it from our graphic artist, we will also post here and in the Grand Prize Division Winners Official Posting.

Thank you for participating in the 2022 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.

Team Chanticleer
May 22, 2023
MIGUELITO’S CONFESSION by Miguel A. De La Torre – Historical Fiction, Cultural Heritage Fiction, Latin Literature

Miguelito’s Confession by Miguel A. De La Torre shows the resonate struggle of escaping the generational cycle of poverty and injustice.

Human nature is a product of circumstance, interwoven with the impact of one generation on the next. Sometimes history teaches people lessons of pain, cruelty, and inhumanity. How can someone rise above the disadvantages they’re raised in, the pressures that hold them hostage from their own goals and wishes? Especially at risk are the innocent children caught in the midst of a maniacal battle within the corrupt powers of society. Can an illegal immigrant find success and happiness despite the brutalities of life? And what is the personal cost of pursuing justice?

Manuel de la Cruz is dying, and he is alone.

At the end of his life, he suffers from dementia, a mixed blessing that releases him from the violent slice of history he had fully participated in. It allows him to forget the cruelty and violence he inflicted as part of the police force during the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Even the times that followed are lost to him, all he did to escape from the consequences of his actions by escaping to the U.S.

Yet suddenly, in his final moments, Manuel is granted the ability to think clearly again, a sign that justice is possible. As Manuel leaves this world, he is haunted by what his life has been, his impact upon others and his family, and especially the psychological inheritance he leaves his son Miguelito.

Now, this is Miguelito’s story, and he takes a difficult journey.

As a young boy, his family lived in the slums of New York. It’s a filthy, dangerous place to grow up, and its threats are magnified many times over for an illegal immigrant boy who is despised for being Latino. The author is masterful in his portrayal of this revolting setting.

Miguelito seeks out ways to survive his painful world. He learns from others who dwell in the corners of humanity, minorities who are punished for not being what the majorities require. Playing the social games forced upon him, Miguelito discovers some peace, persistence, and answers through his secretive worship of African gods. It’s an unexpected friend who introduces him to this path, helping him weather the turmoil that his mere existence incites around him.

Author and Professor Miguel A. De La Torre lifts conventional history out of a single point of view. Miguelito’s Confession brings to life the complex past settings, and the lessons revealed both sting and inspire.

This is history shown without glorification. Readers will be engaged by the author’s ability to mold multi-dimensional characters with complex motives. The backdrop slice of life is described artfully within a foundation built by preceding generations. Vivid pictures of human interaction drive the present and shape the future, holding the reader in a thought-provoking trance.

Empathy for the characters pulls the reader deeper and deeper into the story, in pursuit of hope. Will they uncover the hidden answer to what can make life worth living, and what can finally bring justice?

May 19, 2023
The 2022 CIBAs Grand Prize Winners for Fiction!
A Huge Congratulations to all of the 2022 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards (CIBAs) FICTION Division Grand Prize Winners!

Every tier of the CIBAs is an important one, though few rise to be one of the coveted Division Grand Prize Winners.
- See all Non-Fiction, Shorts, and Series Grand Prize Winners here
- See the Overall Grand Prize Winner here
This post has links to each of the 16 individual CIBA FICTION Divisions’ Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners. We will have a separate post for Non-Fiction Award Winners and another post for the Shorts Awards, and the Series Awards’ winners.

All First Place and Grand Prize winners were announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference at the CIBAs Ceremonies on Saturday, April 29th at the Chanticleer Banquet. We can’t express how excited we are to be able to do this in person with our fully vaccinated and boosted staff in a healthy metro area.

At the break in 2022 CIBAs Ceremony between the First Place Division announcements and the Grand Prize Announcements.

Now let’s take a step back and look at where we came from to make this happen.

Want to join in the fun? Submit to the 2023 CIBAs today!

Now, presenting the links to the 2022 CIBA Fiction Division Awards Grand Prize Winners!

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CYGNUS Awards for Science Fiction is:

The Last Lumenian

By S. G. Blaise

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 OZMA Awards is:

Soar a Burning Sky

By Steven Michael Beck

A Manuscript

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 PARANORMAL Awards is:

COLD AS HELL

By Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards is:

HYBRID HYSTERIA

By Charlie Robinson

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CLUE Awards is:

Have You Seen Me?

By Alexandrea Weis

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 Mystery & Mayhem Awards is:

A Spying Eye

A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel

by Michelle Cox

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 DANTE ROSSETTI Awards is:

Wages of Empire

by Michael J. Cooper

Manuscript

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 GERTRUDE WARNER Awards is:

MYSTERY FORCE, Volume 1

by Ted Neill and Suzi Spooner

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 LITTLE PEEPS Awards is:

Ravens Roost

by Maggie Bates

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 LARAMIE Awards is:

Guarded Hearts

by T.K. Conklin

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CHAUCER Awards is:

Daughter of Hades

by Mack Little

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 GOETHE Awards is:

Eleonora and Joseph:

Passion, Tragedy, and Revolution in the Age of Enlightenment

by Julieta Almeida Rodrigues

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 Hemingway Book Awards is:

Running with Cannibals

by Robert W. Smith

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 CHATELAINE Book Awards is:

Operation Mom:

My plan to get my Mom a life and a man

by Reenita Malhotra Hora

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 MARK TWAIN Awards is:

DELPHIC ORACLE, USA

by Steven Mayfield

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SOMERSET Awards is:

Everything That Was

by Conon Parks

We have badges available starting with the Short List. If you need a digital badge reflecting your tier level, please email info@ChantiReviews.com with your division and rank, and we will send you one as soon as possible.

The 2022 Grand Prize Winners!

Make sure your Award gets the attention it deserves on Goodreads.com

In the Librarian Manual on Goodreads, you can go to your Book Edit Page — Literary Awards.

You want to list the Award for Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA) Winners, and be sure to include the year and what place you received. For example:

The year Long List, Short List, Semi-Finalist, Finalist, First Place, Division Grand Prize, or Overall Grand Prize Winner

Note from Goodreads: “To add a new award or edit an existing award, you’ll need help from one of our volunteer librarians or a staff member.” For assistance, post in the Goodreads Librarians Group.

Always double check that you’ve written everything correctly before posting it. The search function for Awards on Goodreads is both case and punctuation sensitive.

The Overall Grand Prize Winner for the 2022 CIBAs was Michelle Cox’s Book A Spying Eye

The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
See all Non-Fiction, Shorts, and Series Grand Prize Winners here

See the Overall Grand Prize Winner here
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Facebook and Twitter handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in June. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items.

To ALL the WINNERS: You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.

Grand Prize Division Winners will receive a customized digital badge. When we receive it from our graphic artist, we will also post here and in the Grand Prize Division Winners Official Posting.

Thank you for participating in the 2022 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.

Team Chanticleer
May 17, 2023
Celebrating the 2022 CIBAs Overall Grand Prize Winner: Michelle Cox for A Spying Eye
We are deeply honored and excited to announce the 2022 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards

The CIBAs seeks out the best books across 25 different genre divisions featuring the best plots, characters, and stories out there. These books are put to the test until one is announced as the Overall Grand Prize Winner for the Year at the CIBAs Ceremonies, sponsored by The Chanticleer Authors Conference.
- See all Fiction Grand Prize Winners here
- See all Non-Fiction, Shorts, and Series Grand Prize Winners here
The Overall Grand Prize Division Winner was announced by Kiffer Brown, Maggie Marr, and James Conroyd Martin at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

This is the OFFICIAL Announcement for the OVERALL GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the 2022 CIBAs!

And NOW for the

2022 CHANTICLEER INT’L BOOK AWARDS

BEST BOOK

and

OVERALL GRAND PRIZE WINNER

A SPYING EYE

by Michelle Cox

Michelle Cox will also be awarded $1,000 USD in recognition of her 2022 BEST BOOK of the YEAR – Chanticleer International Book Awards – Sponsored by Chanticleer Reviews & Media.

A Chanticleer Review of Michelle Cox will be featured in the in the Chanticleer Reviews OnWord Magazine (print and epub) along with other promotional and marketing opportunities along with an interview with her.

Thank you Michelle Cox for participating in the 2022 Chanticleer International Book Awards. We look forward to receiving future work in our CIBAs.

See Michelle Cox’s Division Grand Prize Win in the 2022 M&M Awards here

CONGRATULATIONS Michelle Cox!

The 2022 Division Grand Prize Winners and the Overall Grand Prize Winner for Best Book – Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards

From all of us at Chanticleer International Book Awards and Chanticleer Reviews.

Looking for your Division? Check out our previous posts!

THANK YOU to CAC23 SPONSORS and FRIENDS

And to FRIENDS of CHANTICLEER REVIEWS:

Maggie Marr, Cathy Ace, J.D. Barker, Robert Dugoni, Chris Humphreys, Eric Lucas, Bradley Metrock, Jessica Morrell, Scott Steindorff, and Paul Hanson of Village Books

We will post more photographs and information. Do check back and subscribe to the Chanticleer Reviews e-news letter.

We have exciting news for the Chanticleer Community on the horizon so do stay tuned!
- See all Fiction Grand Prize Winners here
- See all Non-Fiction, Shorts, and Series Grand Prize Winners here
You know you want a coveted Chanticleer Reviews Blue Ribbon!

Submit your works (manuscripts or novels published after or on January 1, 2019, are accepted) to the prestigious Chanticleer International Book Awards today! Entries are being accepted into the 2022 CIBAs in all 18 fiction divisions and seven non-fiction divisions.

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May 17, 2023
SAVONNE, NOT VONNY by Robin Lee Lovelace – Southern Literature, Myths & Legends, 1960’s

Robin Lee Lovelace evokes a world in which the mystical intertwines with the everyday in Savonne, Not Vonny, a coming-of-age story set in rural Louisiana.

Nine-year-old Savonne lives in a small room at the back of Mama Gwen’s whorehouse, in Indianapolis in the ’60s. Her mama is one of the working girls, and her father is Mama Gwen’s own son. Savonne’s daddy dotes on her, and Mama Gwen loves Savonne like the daughter she never had; the two of them together make a loving home for Savonne, in the midst of their raucous brothel.

By contrast, Savonne’s birth mother rarely pays her any mind. A “crazy-ass woman” with a temper “as hot as a Mississippi afternoon,” Coco is not at all opposed to beating the bejesus out of someone. In a fury one night, she does something that cannot be undone, and in her headlong flight out of town, she takes Savonne with her.

And so it is that Savonne is forced from the only home she’s ever known and left in the care of her mysterious and reclusive great-grandfather, Pompey.

With Pompey, Savonne enters another world, one of casual acquaintance with hoodoo and root work, a world where Papa Legba guards the crossroads and serves as an intermediary between the human and the spirit world, a world where an enemy might cast a subtle spell or command the serpents, or shapeshift into another form himself. However, as long as Pompey is there to guard her, Savonne is safe. She takes after her great-grandfather, and he recognizes that she too has the gift, the ability to conjure, “the natural.”

But the day will come when Savonne is left to face the forces that would undo her, with only Leatha, Pompey’s old black dog all gone now to gray and stiff-boned, by her side. Before her journey home is over, Savonne must outwit an enemy far more powerful than she — and rely on help from the most unlikely of allies.

Robin Lee Lovelace has conjured a world in which the seen and the unseen alike direct our days, in which the divine intermingles with the mundane, with characters so rich and fully realized they fairly leap off the page.

Pick this story up for the delicious experience of diving headlong into a landscape reminiscent of those spun by the finest Southern writers in the American canon.

Readers may find themselves racing through this novella to see how it all comes out for Savonne in the end, and likely wanting more of Savonne and her world (and maybe those allies too) in her full short story collection, A Wild Region, is available now!

Savonne, Not Vonny by Robin Lee Lovelace won Grand Prize in the 2020 CIBA Shorts Awards for Short Stories.

May 17, 2023