Eighteen-year-old Liam Whelan must balance the pressure and danger of his new role leading his entire empath clan while searching for a fabled ‘soulmate’ in Shaila Patel’s paranormal romance novel, Soulmated.
Since the age of six, guided by his father’s visions, Liam and his family have traveled across the United States, moving from town to town searching for the girl destined to “join” with Liam. However, no empath in centuries has found a soulmated union. No one knows what joining actually means. Liam tires of his parents’ search for what he considers a fantasy girl, but he agrees to give up one more year of his life. The family moves to North Carolina for Liam’s senior year.
Laxshmi Kapadia will graduate a year early. Her mother, an overprotective and overbearing widow, plans Laxshmi’s entire life. Either her daughter attends med school or marries a proper Indian boy. Neither prospect appeals to Laxshmi, who wants to major in dance and doesn’t even want to start dating, let alone get married. So, when she meets the handsome new boy two doors down from her house, she doesn’t understand why he’s so drawn to her, unaware of her latent empathic abilities.
Liam marvels at Laxshmi’s power, smitten with her mesmerizing eyes. But as the two become closer, a strange power begins to emerge, a force that threatens their lives and draws the attention of the enemies that Liam must face as a leader.
Liam and Laxshmi bear the weight of responsibility, both to the family and themselves.
At barely eighteen, Liam has to prove himself worthy to lead his clan. He embraces the great honor but fears the added burdens of becoming the “prince.” In addition to his rigorous schooling, he constantly reviews the financial documents of his people to be sure of their success. His heightened empathic abilities make him an asset to the entire empath world and a dangerous wildcard. Liam doesn’t want to control the Group of Elders, but his father pushes him toward that future. This responsibility combines with his remarkable potential, and Liam becomes lost in his abilities.
Laxshmi struggles under no less responsibility.
Her father died five years ago, and since then, Laxshmi’s mother has focused entirely on her. Mrs. Kapadia struggles financially and determines that her daughter must do better by becoming a doctor or marrying a wealthy man. Though she balks at her mother’s control, Laxshmi can’t help but feel she must be the dutiful daughter to keep a promise made to her father. Can Laxshmi give up on her dreams for the sake of her mother? Laxshmi honors her mother’s wishes to stay away from all boys, especially those who are non-Indian, though it means she may be missing out on a genuine love with Liam.
Ironically, both Liam and Laxshmi find a certain freedom in the responsibility of a relationship with each other. Though they must invest great emotion, they make that trade for the chance to choose their paths. Rather than being burdened by another’s emotions, they make each other stronger.
The Hemingway Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works for 20th Century Wartime Fiction. The Hemingway Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
The Hemingway Book Awards competition is named for Ernest Hemingway who was born July 21, 1899
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring 20th Century Wartime Fiction in Historical Fiction; Romance and Romantic Fiction; Mysteries, Thrillers, and Suspense Fiction of the time; Literary works and Satire and anything else that author imaginations can dream up for the HEMINGWAY Book Awards division. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. For Post-1750s Historical Fiction, see our Goethe Awards here.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2021 Hemingway 20th Century Wartime Fiction Long List to the 2021 Hemingway Book Awards SHORT LIST. The Short Listers will compete for the Finalist positions. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 17 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, June 25th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference–whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person.
These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2021 Hemingway Book Awards novel competition for 20th Century Wartime Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
Judith Berlowitz –Home So Far Away
Lorelei Brush –Chasing the American Dream
Murray Pura & Patrick E. Craig –The Scepter And The Isle
John Winn Miller –The Hunt for the Peggy C
Murray Pura & Patrick E. Craig –Far On The Ringing Plains
Marian Exall –Daughters of War
Carrie Kwiatkowski –Out of The Woods
Shanna Hatfield – Sadie
W. Hock Hochheim –The China Alamo
Michael J Cooper –Sins of the Fathers
Marina Osipova –Too Many Wolves in the Local Woods
Marina Osipova –Push Me Off the Cliff
Scott A. Porter –Here They Come
Chris Karlsen –The Ack Ack Girl
Kathryn Gauci –The Secret of the Grand Hotel du Lac
Kathryn Gauci –The Blue Dolphin – A WWII Novel
Dave Mason –EO-N
Richard Alan Schwartz –The Soldier: A Novel of the Vietnam War Era
Jerena Tobiasen –The Emerald, Book II of The Prophecy
Good luck to all in the next rounds.
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.
FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.
Seating is Limited. 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.
The Gertrude Warner Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Middle Grade Fiction. The Gertrude Warner Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Contemporary Middle Grade, SFF & Paranormal Middle Grade, Mystery Middle Grade, Historical Middle Grade, Adventure Middle Grade, and Graphic Novels. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. For Young Adult Fiction see our Dante Rossetti Awards here and for Children’s Literature see our Little Peeps Awards here.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2021 Gertrude Warner Middle Grade Fiction Long List to the 2021 Gertrude Warner Book Awards SHORT LIST. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 24 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, June 25th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2021 Gertrude Warner Book Awards novel competition for Middle Grade Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
Didem Saracel – Story of Carbon
Clayton Marshall Adams – The Mask
Mary K. Savarese – The Girl in the Toile Wallpaper
Sean March – Little Wade and Watchtower: Abigail and the Great Gang Trap
B.L. Smith – Serious Business on Albatross Lane
K.P. Boardman – The Falling Sisters
Murray Richter – Fishing for Luck
J. B. Spector – The Sunlit Curse, Book 1 of The Mer-Prince Adventures
Sean March – Little Wade and Watchtower: Abigail and the Great Gang Trap
James Love – Max Voltage: Multiverse Mayhem
Ben Gartner – Sol Invictus
Ronnie Swire Siegel – Displaced: A Story About Climate Change and How Displaced Animals Ring the Alarm
Esta Lemon – The Loser Blog
KS Mitchell – The Mystery of the Golden Ball: Pen & Quin International Agents of Intrigue
D. H. Timpko – The Firma Twins and the Flute of Enchantment
Susan McCormick – The Antidote
Gloria Two-Feathers – Buck Keeper of the Meadow
Jay Spencer – The Phantom Airplane Mystery
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2022 Gertrude Warner Book Awards for Middle Grade Fiction. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.
FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.
Seating is Limited. 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.
Love is in the air with Valentine’s Day, and what better way to find yourself than curling up with a good book and a warm drink. But, with the advent of romance, we thought we’d give you the chance to “date” a few of the many excellent books Chanticleer has reviewed.
Of course, now is the time that most people think about romance for Valentine’s Day like our Chatelaine Authors. Like with dating sites, the best way to improve your book’s dating profile is by submitting it for Reviews and Awards — and we have some great ones for you to look over here!
As the adage goes, don’t judge a book by it’s cover!
What we’re doing for this is just providing you some images and part of the review associated with the book, but not the book itself. If you think you’d be interested in giving it a read, feel free to click the “see more” button at the end of our review excerpt.
We do have to give a special thanks to Village Books and Paper Dreams right here in Whatcom County for inspiring us with their idea for “Blind Date with a Book,” where customers buy a book based on a review rather than knowing what it is.
Let’s look at some of the books for Valentine’s Day:
Do you like Paranormal Romance wrapped in Mystery and Family Relationships?
At first, Aura hopes that Natalie just went off with friends and didn’t bother to call. But the silence continues for more than a week. Aura jumps in her truck to search the last place Natalie’s cell phone had been used, a mountain near Somers, Montana, behind a place called the Diamond Ranch. Before she can get onto the mountain to search, Aura becomes embroiled in a darker mystery when she finds a mutilated hand near where Natalie had been staying. With the gruesome discovery, she fears that Natalie ran into more serious trouble than she had first suspected.
When a handsome sheriff’s deputy questions her, Aura feels a stirring she hasn’t ever experienced.
Dane Burke, a no-nonsense lawman, has a case to solve. He shouldn’t be thinking about the mysterious, beautiful drifter in any way except as a possible suspect. With one failed marriage and a non-existent relationship with his estranged brother, he can’t allow himself to feel anything, not even lust. Little does he know, Aura feels much the same, but for very different reasons. Aura keeps her true identity hidden: a shape-shifting nymph. As part of her supernatural nature, any man who loves her or that she loves will die. The two delve deeper into the mystery and the search for Natalie, and their feelings become impossible to deny.
Do you like Women’s Fiction that has Divorce, Romance with a splash of Literary Fiction?
In 1966, Jenny, a Mud Angel, dropped everything to fly to Florence, Italy, in search of treasures buried in mud and water after the Arno flooded. She worked tirelessly alongside her fellow Mud Angels to rescue these priceless works of art and ancient books.
For all of Lyn’s life, she heard her mother’s stories until they became mundane and commonplace. But before Jenny passe away, she gave Lyn instructions on where to find her precious journal from her time in Italy. She left a cryptic message, so when Lyn, an up-and-coming writer, has a chance to teach at a writer’s retreat in the city her mother loved, she jumps at the opportunity. Three years later, she still journeys there yearly for one month to explore Florence. With her latest book under her belt, Lyn decides to tell her mother’s story.
Do you like Historical Renaissance Fiction with a Literary Twist?
Vittoria Colonna, an Italian noblewoman and poet born in 1490, lives with grief and isolation. As an adult, she meets and forms a deep friendship with the revered painter and poet Michelangelo. This meeting forms the center point of the novel that takes readers back and forth through time. The story traces Vittoria’s life from her childhood and betrothal to her future husband Ferrante, to her later years with Michelangelo.
As a child, Vittoria leaves home for the island of Ischia. There, she lives with her betrothed Ferrante and his aunt Costanza d’Avalos.
Vittoria and Ferrante’s future union will strengthen political alliances. But will Vittoria and Ferrante happily fall in love?
Later, Vittoria becomes a widow and withdraws from public life for several years. One day, she meets Michelangelo, while he paints The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. Their friendship changes each other’s lives forever.
Do you like Medieval Historical Fiction steeped in Alternate Religions with a nod to Ancient Civilizations?
Nonbelievers of the Great Mother Goddess threaten certain persecution. But Herrwn has maintained the traditional practices passed to him by his own father. As an orator in charge of repeating the legends and beliefs of his people, he knows the importance and the heavy responsibility required by his sacred office. With the decrease in believers outside of the valley, he understands the precarious position of the community and the difficult balance he must maintain.
Over the course of his long life, he has come to rely on his cousins, Olyrrwd, Chief Healer, and Ossiam, Chief Oracle, but as the years pass, his loyalties become torn when what starts as simple gibes between the two priests morphs into unspoken fear of what the other might do to gain favor with the various priestesses chosen as the Goddess Incarnate. Having lost his beloved wife and young child, Herrwn grows closer to Olyrrwd, and becomes the peacekeeper between the priests to keep what remaining family he has left.
Jack Volant, an aspiring painter and Union cavalry officer, wounded at Gettysburg, travels to Paris following the war to become a more accomplished artist. It is there that he begins a tumultuous relationship with Charlotte, a sculptor who sells her work to Empress Eugenie, wife of the Emperor, and a noted art patroness.
Jack’s younger brother Steven, while still in America, becomes embroiled in an affair with a professor’s wife. When the professor, an expert shot, learns of it, he challenges the young man to a duel. Fearing for his life, Steven changes his name and flees to Paris where he engages in the eerie occupation of unwrapping mummies in the salons attended by the elite.
All these dynamic characters, many involved in intrigue and murder, will interact in the decadent City of Light. They enjoy its ambience for only a short time, however, before war finds them once again. In 1870, the influence of the Empress, Prussian militarism and national rivalry will lead to disaster for France in the Franco Prussian war, the siege of Paris. In the chaos, Charlotte, deeply in love with Jack, waits anxiously as he attempts to save his brother and Jerome from the Prussian onslaught.
FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.
Seating is Limited. 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.
Laura Parker struggles to take responsibility over her life after the death of her husband in Peggy Patrick’s romance novel, Surrendered II: Pride.
Since her husband Matt died last year, Laura Parker can’t move on. He made every important decision for her and their five-year-old son, Andy. When Laura finds a brochure for Wyoming’s High Point Dude Ranch among her husband’s things, she takes a chance. Laura books a trip for her and Andy in the hopes that some time in the wild will begin restoring her son’s joy.
Andy quickly takes a shine to the ranch ramrod, Jesse Brandon, who doesn’t seem to mind letting the boy tag along. But he surprises Laura with his rude, confrontational attitude. When he kisses her, Laura’s pain turns to utter confusion. She begins to question everything she thought she knew about her marriage and herself, and she has to choose whether to draw closer to Jesse or to escape.
Jesse has more than one secret, and little does Laura know, he’s about to turn her world upside-down.
Laura searches for her own identity. Having married at eighteen, she has experienced very little of the world on her own. She saw Matt as the savior who rescued her from extreme poverty and emotional abuse, and gave her the middle-class life she always wanted. However, over the course of the book, Laura realizes that Matt wasn’t “taking good care of her,” but keeping her trapped in a much darker relationship. Laura comes to terms with this reality in a journey that, unfortunately, many women will find all too real.
Simply driving to the ranch opens Laura’s eyes to how much her sheltered life has taken away her freedom. But Jesse has a much bigger impact on her, forcing Laura to face the hard truths beneath the surface. She had stopped really living even before Matt’s death. Jesse helps her wake up, and though his manner is sometimes harsh, Laura starts to to understand how much she has missed, and how much more her life–and Andy’s life–can be.
Laura and Jesse develop a complicated and dynamic relationship.
Jesse’s early hostility shocks her to the point of crying more than once, but he dances between harsh and distant to gentle and attentive in the span of minutes. He even accuses her of being a bad mother, and trying to seduce his younger brother as a replacement father for Andy. Will Jesse’s harsh treatment push Laura to see that she’s hurting Andy and herself by allowing fear and grief to consume her? His dedication to showing Laura a life beyond survival makes their eventual love story even more endearing.
Faith plays a major role in Laura’s journey.
Jesse has spent the past three years forming a strong bond with God, but his ranch’s financial struggles test that faith. With Laura’s arrival, his long-suppressed physical needs are fighting what little control he has left. They clash on the idea of faith; Jesse sees God in every facet of his life, but Laura is a self-proclaimed atheist. She refuses his beliefs from the outset, and Jesse cannot understand why God would bring Laura into his life and give him such strong feelings for her. However, when Laura witnesses a true miracle, she must come to terms with this new idea that God might, in fact, be real.
Aura Montgarten needs to find her sister, Natalie, in Danica Winters’ paranormal romance, Montana Mustangs.
At first, Aura hopes that Natalie just went off with friends and didn’t bother to call. But the silence continues for more than a week. Aura jumps in her truck to search the last place Natalie’s cell phone had been used, a mountain near Somers, Montana, behind a place called the Diamond Ranch. Before she can get onto the mountain to search, Aura becomes embroiled in a darker mystery when she finds a mutilated hand near where Natalie had been staying. With the gruesome discovery, she fears that Natalie ran into more serious trouble than she had first suspected.
When a handsome sheriff’s deputy questions her, Aura feels a stirring she hasn’t ever experienced.
Dane Burke, a no-nonsense lawman, has a case to solve. He shouldn’t be thinking about the mysterious, beautiful drifter in any way except as a possible suspect. With one failed marriage and a non-existent relationship with his estranged brother, he can’t allow himself to feel anything, not even lust. Little does he know, Aura feels much the same, but for very different reasons. Aura keeps her true identity hidden: a shape-shifting nymph. As part of her supernatural nature, any man who loves her or that she loves will die. The two delve deeper into the mystery and the search for Natalie, and their feelings become impossible to deny.
Dane and Aura have juxtaposing relationships with their respective siblings.
Aura and Natalie couldn’t be closer. As demigods, the two nymphs have lived for over five hundred years. They share the same curse, connecting them by something else–the need, but inability, to love. Because they cannot allow themselves to find love in a mate, they only have each other. Though Natalie has often “gone wild” and let her Mustang side free for days or weeks at a time, she always returns to her sister who hasn’t shifted in many years. In fact, the two have never gone seven days without speaking before. Aura will do anything to find her sister, even if it means using her nymph powers of seduction to force Dane to help her.
Dane and his brother, Zeb, couldn’t be further apart. For over twenty years, Dane has stayed away from the Diamond Ranch, once his childhood home and owned now by Zeb. Dane vowed to never return to the ranch when he caught his wife in the arms of his brother. Absence has not made their hearts grow fonder. When Dane shows up at the ranch to question his brother, Zeb meets him with a shotgun, and when Dane releases Zeb from custody, the two brawl in a parking lot. Aura can’t understand their interactions because of her closeness with Natalie.
Aura and Dane must both face their fear of love.
Dane was hurt before, however Aura knows that for her, life and death hang in the balance of her love. She wants to protect Dane from her curse. This presents an ironic twist considering Dane, the consummate protector, has sworn to save lives even at the cost of his own. Aura seems fearless, but in truth her fear of love controls her to the point she has never shared her secrets with any man. She uses her hundreds of years of watching humans cruelly hurt animals as part of her excuse—how could she possibly love them?
Despite her fear, Aura can’t deny she actually enjoys Dane’s controlling nature, the predator and prey feelings that excite her nymph nature. Her feelings go beyond lust, though, coming from “somewhere hidden,” a place no man has ever touched. These new feelings make her consider allowing herself to love and be loved. Though she has always prided herself on being free, she knows she has never truly been so because of her fear of love. Dane’s love becomes the very thing to break her from the bonds of that fear.
Two private investigators find themselves reluctant but effective partners in Lisa Towles’ fast-paced psychological thriller, Hot House, Book 1 of the new E & A Thriller Series.
Two separate cases start to merge in a very murky middle. Mari Ellwyn unravels an attempt to blackmail a federal appellate court judge. Derek Abernathy looks into the mysterious death of a college student. He also investigates the death and disappearance of two of the reporters covering her case.
The reporters pursued the trail of a story involving the judge with whom Mari works. It seems the judge had a connection to the dead college student in Derek’s case. As they dig deeper into the joined cases, threats against Mari start to come from all sides, even from her former handlers at the CIA.
But the secret buried, literally, at the heart of this case comes with a shock. Because the victim was not who she seemed. At least not all of the time.
Hot House delivers a dark, edge-of-the-seat thriller. It begins as a relatively straightforward investigation into seemingly unrelated mysteries. But as the story follows the investigation, especially Mari Ellwyn, two levels of mystery open up.
On the surface, Ellwyn and Abernathy are dogged and determined investigators who mostly follow the rules, if only because they want to make sure that the case will hold up for their mutual frenemy, Ellwyn’s ex-lover and Abernathy’s former boss, Ivan Dent, Chief of Detectives for the LAPD.
Not that they don’t play a bit fast and loose at the edges of those rules. After all, sometimes in the pursuit of truth, the investigators have to step outside the lines.
Everyone involved in this mystery seems to have deep, dark and often deadly secrets. It’s clear from this new investigation that Dent’s detectives missed way too much in that initial search. Abernathy won’t talk about his firing from the LAPD. Ellwyn keeps her real motive for pursuing this investigation under wraps.
But Sascha Sophie Michaud had the most secrets of all – some of which she kept even from herself. And Michaud’s secrets provide the threat to the investigators – along with making the case so difficult to solve.
Readers will easily put themselves in Mari Ellwyn’s shoes.
She loves her dog, she’s not so sure about relationships – she even has a strained one with her family. But her few friends will ride or die with her. As capable as she is – and she is very capable – readers will shake in their shoes as this mystery threatens Mari’s life.
The resolution of the case is marvelously done, managing to be both expected and unexpected at the same time. Not that the reader will see any of it coming.
In the final pages, while the disparate cases that Ellwyn and Abernathy began with have wrapped up very satisfactorily, it’s clear that Mari Ellwyn has just pulled another thread on a case she’s been following for over a year. Hot House ends with the sense that there’s more for Mari to uncover in her own personal quest.
Readers will be left hoping and looking forward to Mari Ellwyn’s future investigations.
Thirty-five-year-old Lyn Bennett explores the life of her late mother before she was married, in Jule Selbo’s romance novel, Find Me in Florence.
In 1966, Jenny, a Mud Angel, dropped everything to fly to Florence, Italy, in search of treasures buried in mud and water after the Arno flooded. She worked tirelessly alongside her fellow Mud Angels to rescue these priceless works of art and ancient books.
For all of Lyn’s life, she heard her mother’s stories until they became mundane and commonplace. But before Jenny passed away, she gave Lyn instructions on where to find her precious journal from her time in Italy. She left the cryptic message “Find me in Florence,” so when Lyn, an up-and-coming writer, has a chance to teach at a writer’s retreat in the city her mother loved, she jumps at the opportunity. Three years later, she still journeys there yearly for one month to explore Florence. With her latest book under her belt, Lyn decides to tell her mother’s story.
Lyn’s life shifts dramatically, and she soon searches for more than her mother’s history.
When she arrives in Florence, Lyn’s life seems on the upward swing. She put her writing back on track after the death of both of her parents, married a successful lawyer, and hopes to begin a family soon. However, all of that vanishes when Stan, her husband, surprises her not long after her seminar in Florence begins. Stan and Susie, Lyn’s best friend since junior high school, had an affair. The two followed Lyn to Florence to deliver the news in person, thinking her love of the city might lessen the blow of utter betrayal. Lyn’s true journey begins with this revelation. Suddenly, Lyn loses her hope as the people of Florence must have lost when her mother volunteered fifty years ago. But like the city, Lyn must endure.
Soon following the bombshell announcement, Lyn struggles between what she “should” do and what she “wants” to do.
She should accept this betrayal like an adult, negotiate reasonably with her cheating husband, forgive her BFF, and move past all of her pain. But surrounded by Florence, a city that called to her mother to leave her normal life, Lyn learns not to follow “the should” but to chase after “the want.” The vitality and passion of the Florentines give Lyn the strength she needs to “shed [her] skin.” Lyn rids herself of a life lived in fear of taking chances. Her mother’s own rash decision to become a Mud Angel and experience the adventure of a lifetime propels Lyn to stop accepting the expectations of everyone else. Perhaps Jenny meant for her daughter to learn this very lesson. As Lyn explores her fledgling confidence, she begins to realize all her mother gave up by returning to the US to fulfill her promise to marry Lyn’s father. She feels the life her mother could’ve lived if she had followed the “want” rather than the “should.”
This clash of responsibility and desire extends beyond Lyn’s story. Matteo, a man Lyn grows to care for over the course of the novel, wrestles with his wants as well. His responsibilities weigh on him, coming from a proud Italian family with a lineage and family home dating back four hundred years. They hope–expect–him to marry a woman closely connected to the family business. But after a chance meeting, he draws closer to the American with the broken heart. He should stay away, give her time to mourn the loss of her marriage and best friend, but he wants more from her. Though Matteo should pursue the woman his family has chosen, he wants the woman he shouldn’t, and like Lyn, he will have to decide whether to follow his heart or his head.
This novel celebrates Florence, its people, and its customs.
Any lover of Italy will enjoy the history included in Lyn’s story. With the detailed descriptions, readers come along on the journey to this beautiful city, eating at its most celebrated restaurants, and walking its ancient streets. Florence shows Lyn her innermost feelings and surrounds her with passion and acceptance. Embracing and appreciating Florence makes Jenny’s story alive, rather than just a dusty story from half a century ago.
Linda Cardillo debuts triumphantly into historical fiction with her novel, Love That Moves the Sun.
Vittoria Colonna, an Italian noblewoman and poet born in 1490, lives with grief and isolation. As an adult, she meets and forms a deep friendship with the revered painter and poet Michelangelo. This meeting forms the center point of the novel that takes readers back and forth through time. The story traces Vittoria’s life from her childhood and betrothal to her future husband Ferrante, to her later years with Michelangelo.
As a child, Vittoria leaves home for the island of Ischia. There, she lives with her betrothed Ferrante and his aunt Costanza d’Avalos.
Vittoria and Ferrante’s future union will strengthen political alliances. Later, Vittoria becomes a widow and withdraws from public life for several years. One day, she meets Michelangelo, while he paints The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. Their friendship changes each other’s lives forever.
Cardillo takes great care with the novel’s front matter. She includes lots of material to help the reading experience.
In the front sections of the book, readers will find a timeline, to help as the novel shifts around. The author also provides a list of historical figures, and fictional characters added for entertainment value. In her author’s note, Cardillo adds that while she followed facts as much as possible, she filled in the gaps with fiction. This shows respect to the life of Vittoria Colonna. Cardillos brings her to life in fiction as Vittoria did for her husband in poetry.
A theme of polarity shapes Love That Moves the Sun.
Michelangelo, an artist of paint and of words, “Sees humanity’s secrets and brings them to life on the page.” But the unwavering expectations of the public burden him. Vittoria struggles between staying in her self-imposed seclusion to pray and write, and the powerful pull towards rejoining society and her bond with Michelangelo. The events of the past and present also mirror each other. Events have a subtle organization that sees them building off the context of what happened before. As the past meets with the present, the gaps in Vittoria’s story come together. Readers get the full picture of her life and feel like they know her strongly.
Linda Cardillo’s Love That Moves the Sun keeps alive the memory of Vittoria Colonna’s life and work, as a woman who struggled between being a woman of God and a woman in love. Readers of historical fiction and romance should not miss Love That Moves the Sun.
The Goethe Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in post-1750s Historical Fiction. The Goethe Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
The Goethe Book Awards competition is named for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was born at the dawn of the new era of enlightenment on August 28, 1749.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring Late Period Historical Fiction. Regency, Victorian, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, World and other wars before the 20th century, history of non-western cultures, set after the 1750s, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them. For 20th century Wartime Fiction, see our new Hemingway Awards here.
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2021 Goethe Late Historical Fiction Long List to the 2021 Goethe Book Awards SHORT LIST. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 24 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, June 25th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the Semi-Finals of the 2021 Goethe Book Awards novel competition for Post-1750s Historical Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2021 CIBAs.
J.G. Schwartz –The Curious Spell of Madam Genova
Andrew Schafer, M.D. –Unclean Hands
Leah Angstman –Falcon in the Dive
Margaret Rodenberg –Finding Napoleon: A Novel
Anna Bullock –The Companion
Margaret Porter –The Limits of Limelight
Pamela Nowak –Never Let Go
Paula Butterfield –The Goddesses of Tenth Street
Adele Holmes, M.D. –Winter’s Reckoning
Tammy Pasterick –Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash
Ron Singerton –The Refused
Alice McVeigh –Susan: A Jane Austen Prequel
Jodi Lea Stewart –Triumph, a Novel of the Human Spirit
S. Lee Fisher –Becoming Olive W. – The Women of Campbell County: Family Saga: Book 1
Drema Drudge –Victorine
Sophia Alexander –Silk: Caroline’s Story
Lorelei Brush –Chasing the American Dream
Lee Hutch –Molly’s Song
Orna Ross –After the Rising
Alfred Nicols –Lost Love’s Return
Glen Craney –The Cotillion Brigade: A Novel of the Civil War and the Most Famous Female Militia in American History
Bryan Ney –Absaroka War Chief
Jenni L. Walsh– A Betting Woman: A Novel of Madame Moustache
Dana Mack –All Things That Deserve to Perish
Pamela Hamilton –Lady Be Good
Lori McMullen –Among the Beautiful Beasts
Mike Jordan –The Freedom Song
Florence Reiss Kraut –How to Make a Life: a novel
Kathleen Williams Renk –Vindicated: A Novel of Mary Shelley
Michelle Rene –Maud’s Circus
J. E. Dyer –Barons
Judith Berlowitz –Home So Far Away
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
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We are now accepting submissions into the 2022 Goethe Book Awards for Post-1750s Historical Fiction. The 2022 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2023.
FLEXIBLE REGISTRATIONS ARE AVAILABLE for these challenging times.
Seating is Limited. 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.
Eighteen-year-old Liam Whelan must balance the pressure and danger of his new role leading his entire empath clan while searching for a fabled ‘soulmate’ in Shaila Patel’s paranormal romance novel, Soulmated.
Laura Parker struggles to take responsibility over her life after the death of her husband in Peggy Patrick’s romance novel, Surrendered II: Pride.
Linda Cardillo debuts triumphantly into historical fiction with her novel, Love That Moves the Sun.
