Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: chanti

WHEN WALLS TALK by Geralyn Hesslau Magrady – Contemporary Fiction, Family Saga, Family Relationships

Toni has the chance to start her own business in the building of her family’s old bakery. But history waits within those walls. In Geralyn Hesslau Magrady’s novella, When Walls Talk, Toni and her father uncover secrets they could never have expected.

The Russo Bakery, with its 1920s architecture had been the family business since the four Russo brothers first opened its doors. Decades later, Toni and her widowed father plan a complete redesign of what their ancestors made to fulfill her dream of owning a bookstore. As the walls fall around the Russo family business, a long-hidden truth brings about profound personal changes for Toni.

Toni takes this giant leap into the unknown, unsure if she’s even prepared to own a business. But the bookstore is the key to her hope for a better future, her only path to escaping a past tragedy.

In the face of death and loss, Toni is crippled with a feeling of powerlessness. Fighting to never feel that pain again, she builds walls high within her spirit to shut out joy in her life, knowing that openness will only lead to more pain.

The life Toni leads now is reduced to mindlessly putting one foot in front of the other, until a heartfelt promise, a secret, pushes her to act on her dream. The decision will demand more of her than she expects, and she’s not ready for the emotions she’ll face, but the promise compels her forward.

Magrady draws readers immediately to Toni and her father Paulie, their conflicts a careful reflection of the human struggle we all share. Their friends are likewise compelling, bringing the periphery of their lives forward in the storytelling.

Paulie eagerly joins his daughter’s project, working to manage the tension and strain that had once existed between them. Family ties have driven Paulie his whole love, paired with pride in his Italian heritage.

Neither Toni or her father expected or wanted to learn the secrets they stumble across about their family, but history cannot be undone. They have each other and friends new and old to help absorb what the bakery-turned-bookstore has to say. As the walls tumble down, one can only hope Toni will find her own happiness, because the message heard When Walls Talk is a powerful one.

Award-winning author Geralyn Hesslau Magrady gently weaves an emotional story of despair, surrender, and a glimmer of hope. When Walls Talk provides an insightful look at the human spirit, what it must face, and whether it can endure.

The Chicago neighborhood comes to life as a character itself, artfully depicted with the Bakery as the heart of the story.

When Walls Talk invites readers into a world where family secrets can forge new beginnings. The novella brings the loss, legacy, and uplifting power of hope in a family into beautiful relief. A perfect pick for anyone who relishes stories of resilience and indomitable spirit.

September 27, 2024
RUNNING AWAY From The CIRCUS: Confessions of a Carnie Kid (Who Tried to Become a Priest) by Nove Meyers – Memoirs, Coming of Age, Religion & Spirituality

Debut author Nove Meyers breathes life into the big tent of human aspirations and desperations, from his birth into a raucous circus atmosphere to his diligent study for Catholic priesthood.

Running Away from the Circus is a vibrant chronicle that opens with a vignette of his grandmother, clad in sequins and flying on a trapeze. She spun like a top to enthusiastic applause under the circus tent, until the fateful day when she included her young child in the act, dropping her thirty feet to the sawdust-covered floor below. But this did not prevent Nove Meyers from being born and having a story to tell.

The boyhood described was as wild as the circus acts. He was encouraged to smoke cigarettes like his father and watched in astonishment as his mother burned up paper money, possibly to protect his uncle, a counterfeiter. Yet despite his unusual upbringing as one of the family’s third generation of circus owners, Meyers was taken regularly to Catholic church services. There, he discovered God, an entity as mysterious as the traveling circus and carnie crowds he was raised among.

While tending to an elephant in the backyard and working alongside tightrope walkers and a “human cannonball,” Meyers was signing on as an altar boy and making his first confession.

At age eight he became determined to become a priest, but there were obstacles. When he took a summer job as a carnie, he discovered he would have to work on the Sabbath. He struggled to convince himself that God would understand. Even these early experiences foreshadowed the life that would slowly chip away at the spiritual armor he tried to don. And there were girls. To become a priest he would have to take a vow of celibacy, perhaps the largest barrier he faced.

In college, after enjoying the companionship of a young woman, he confronted a priest about the celibacy issue, suggesting that celibacy was merely a church-based control mechanism. Advised by the priest to pray, the young Nove lay in bed and talked at length to God, promising to try his best to become a worthy priest, but also asserting that if he met the right girl, he would love and marry her. He wraps up saying, “I hope You’ll understand. Thanks for listening.”

Meyers demonstrates a clear gift for wordsmithing and a flair for storytelling that expertly handles the quick changes and maneuvers he experienced in the parallel worlds of the church and life under the “Big Top.”

Based on the paradox he faced from an early age between religious requirements and human behaviors, he creates an enthralling tale, kept buoyant with wry humor and fascinating behind-the-scenes depictions of circus and carnival life that may startle those unfamiliar with it as it charms those who have shared his experiences.

The choices Meyers made in his progression between the often-enjoyable chaos of the Big Top to the quiet comfort of the religious sanctuary of the church are remarkable, not only for his lively examination of them but for his rational yet spiritually grounded conclusions. Meyers’ dynamic, frank, and amusing saga will have his readers hoping for a second encore to this captivating life.

Running Away from the Circus by Nove Meyers won Grand Prize in the 2023 CIBA Hearten Awards for Inspiring & Uplifting Non-Fiction.

September 27, 2024
The 2024 Hearten Book Awards Hall of Fame for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction

Take a deep breathe and smile

The Hearten Awards are here to bring you joy, and maybe a few tears with some of these excellent books

**Your Story is Worth Sharing**

You have until September 30th to share your uplifting memoir with us and enter the 2024 CIBAs!

Enter by September 30, 2024

Uplifting and heartwarming work is a vanishingly rare thing these days, and we love having an Awards Division that can inspire readers and writers alike. The Hearten Awards seeks true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more.

Join us in celebrating the Hall of Fame for Grand Prize Winners of the Hearten Awards

Running Away From the Circus
By Nove Meyers

Debut author Nove Meyers breathes life into the big tent of human aspirations and desperations, from his birth into a raucous circus atmosphere to his diligent study for Catholic priesthood.

Running Away from the Circus is a vibrant chronicle that opens with a vignette of his grandmother, clad in sequins and flying on a trapeze. She spun like a top to enthusiastic applause under the circus tent, until the fateful day when she included her young child in the act, dropping her thirty feet to the sawdust-covered floor below. But this did not prevent Nove Meyers from being born and having a story to tell.

The boyhood described was as wild as the circus acts. He was encouraged to smoke cigarettes like his father and watched in astonishment as his mother burned up paper money, possibly to protect his uncle, a counterfeiter. Yet despite his unusual upbringing as one of the family’s third generation of circus owners, Meyers was taken regularly to Catholic church services. There, he discovered God, an entity as mysterious as the traveling circus and carnie crowds he was raised among.

Read more here!

INNER TREK – a reluctant pilgrim to the Himalayas
By Mohan Ranga Rao

A disinclined traveler journeys into the heartland of the revered Mount Kalash Parikarma in Tibet. Inner Trek by Mohan Ranga Rao follows a voyage that culminates in self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment.

Mohan Ranga Rao, a retired Indian businessman, finds himself between a rock and a hard place when a ruthless Bangalore mob boss threatens him to sell his land at a throwaway price. The situation escalates when he discovers that his trusted lawyer has joined forces with the enemy. He can only turn to his wife for solace.

With nothing for him to do about his land, Rao vows to trek around Mount Kailash, a holy Tibetan Mountain. This travel memoir traces his and his wife’s journey to the deified Himalayas, the land of Lord Shiva. Rao shares intimate details of his experience, including the spiritual transformation that he went through during his challenging high-altitude trek.

Read more here!

DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids Who Rescued Them
by Diane Trull & Meredith Wargo

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?”

Read more here!

Love, Life, and Lucille
By Judy Gaman

Award-winning author, motivational speaker, and podcast host Judy Gaman befriends a fun-loving and feisty centenarian in her CIBA Grand Prize-winning novel, Love, Life, and Lucille.

The list of titles and accolades Judy Gaman has accrued begin to pale when she encounters Lucille Fleming for the very first time. The whole reason for the meet-up with the centenarian was specifically to get her opinions on “aging gracefully,” the featured topic of a new book Judy planned to write. What was scheduled as an hour-long interview turned into an absolutely delightful, near three-hour visit. Lucille turned the tables and began asking questions about Judy’s life with compelling earnestness—something Judy rarely experienced. She was unprepared yet exhilarated.

Judy couldn’t stop thinking about this “dressed to the nines” woman with an ear-to-ear smile and a sturdy, affectionate hug. Her contact with this larger-than-life woman was so infectious, Judy made up an excuse—so that she could see her again. During that second meeting, the two became fast friends as they set Fridays aside as their day to get together. Before their next planned meeting, Judy learned that Lucille had gone into cardiac arrest. She was dead for three minutes before she came back full of vim and vigor as if nothing had happened. Five months later, Lucille was more than ready for TV interviews. With that, Judy made plans to write a second book about Lucille and their relationship.

Read more here!

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Hearten Winners is to enter today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

You know you want it…

Are you a Chanticleer Author who has some good news to share? Let us know! We’re always looking for a reason to crow about Chanticleerians! Reach out with your news to info@ChantiReviews.com

September 26, 2024
The Historical Resonance of Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week

From left to right we have Michael Shannon as Captain Beatty and Michael B. Jordan as Guy Montag in the screen adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

It’s still here because it still happens

Banned Books Week, celebrated during the last full week of September, brings authors, publishers, readers, educators, and activists together to underscore the importance of intellectual freedom and our constitutional right to access information. It’s an event that serves as a platform to advocate for free expression and to highlight the detrimental effects of censorship.

The Effects of Banning Books

Banning books not only limits access to diverse perspectives but also stifles critical thinking and discussion. When we silence voices, we miss out on the chance to engage with different experiences and viewpoints and leaves underrepresented people isolated and oftentimes ostracized due to a lack of understanding and empathy for the struggles, triumphs, and complexities of others.

Banned Books Week is an annual event first organized by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1982. It shines a light on the many books that have been challenged or banned in schools and libraries, and it reminds us of the vital role literature plays in shaping our understanding of the world and who we are as people. We are still advocating for these rights forty-two years later.

Fighting Book Bans in the Golden Age of Russian Literature

Bans have been used put into place since Biblical times, but a more modern version is found in Imperial Russia. It’s an interesting point in history when skilled authors used fiction as a way to subvert censors and challenge the structure of their societies through the written word.

Russian writers, the great storytellers of the “Golden Age” of literature (18th & 19th century), were masters of observation during a time when their society was rapidly changing. Western ideas brought back with soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars provided Russian citizens the freedom of thought for the first time in their long history as a monarchy. In a matter of a few years the Russian intelligentsia absorbed the knowledge of over three hundred years of Western Enlightenment and became the catalyst for conversations on the rights of man and the role of church and state in the lives of their citizens. Suddenly, a feudal society’s eyes popped open from a deep sleep and they realized their dreams of freedom were real and within reach.

The great Russian writers–top row from left: Stepan Skitalets, Fyodor Chaliapin, Yevgeny Chirikov; bottom row from left: Maxim Gorky, Leonid Andreyev, Ivan Bunin, Nikolay Teleshov.

The Russian people were in a position to expand their knowledge base exponentially and soon conversations heard in the salons and receiving rooms of St. Petersburg, Russia’s cultural capital at the time, had become passionate with talk of the “rights of man”. Influence the church and state had over the middle class decreased and their power over the people began slipping away. The common man gained the ability to ask his own questions and decide his own fate for the first time in Russian history, and as they sipped their vodka they began to speak of revolution.

And a few wrote.

Government censors, focused solely on traditional news sources, weren’t quick enough to pick up on the messages behind fictional plots and this gave writers a way to move the private conversations they were having out into the mainstream. As a result, Russian literature stands to this day as some of the most important novels in our society, regardless of where your origins lie. By examining the human condition with compelling narratives these great Russian writers succeeded in questioning the way we live and think about our lives, and all under the watchful eyes of those who would have banned those same ideas if presented as non-fiction.

Celebrating the Freedom to Read and Write

During Banned Books Week, libraries, schools, and bookstores host a variety of events to celebrate the freedom to read. Read-alouds and panel discussions highlight the significance banned books, and social media campaigns are now engaging audiences online, encouraging them to share their favorite banned books, quotes, and personal stories.

How You Can Get Involved

Read a Banned Book: Pick up a book from the list of frequently challenged titles. Some notable examples include To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, and The Hate U Give.

Support Your Local Library: Visit your local library and participate in Banned Books Week events. Libraries often provide resources and information about the challenges they face.

Raise Awareness: Use your social media platforms to spread the word. Share posts about your favorite banned books and why they matter to you.

Engage in Conversations: Discuss the importance of free expression with friends, family, and colleagues. Encourage open dialogue about challenging topics often found in literature.

Advocate for Change: Get involved with local advocacy groups that support intellectual freedom. Attend school board meetings to voice your support for diverse literature in schools.

Banned Books Week serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of free expression and the need to protect the right to read whatever we want to read. By celebrating literature that has been challenged or banned, we reaffirm our commitment to fostering an inclusive society that values diverse perspectives. So, let’s turn the page, open our minds, and embrace the stories that challenge us to think critically and compassionately about the world around us.

If you are interested in reading books that challenge beliefs and ideas, we suggest these title:
Tsarina’s Crown
By Jerena Tobiasen
Hemingway Awards First Place Winner

Jerena Tobiasen delivers a sharp, first-rate novel in Tsarina’s Crown,first installment in TheNightingale and Sparrow Chronicles,capturing a precise panorama of Russian politics and British espionage during a delicate period in time.

The year is 1915 and Simon Temple, a young naval officer aboard the RMS Guardian— a British Royal Navy Ship— patrols the North Sea for questionable communications and marine activity. Months later, he is entrusted by the British crown to serve as a liaison on a covert mission in Petrograd, Russia. Simon is careful not to blow his cover as a young aristocrat while he is thrust into the world of international politics, the ruthless Russian Revolution, and becomes caught right in the middle of two powerful royal families.

Read More here…

Remedy for a Broken Angel
Toni Ann Johnson

Remedy for a Broken Angel by Toni Ann Johnson is an intense examination of the troubled personal histories of two beautiful and talented women of color.

Their stories are told in alternating chapters which reveal the mother’s and her daughter’s attempts to reclaim and understand their broken pasts. Each chapter is a revelation into the pain and damage caused by unknown family secrets. Both women struggle with a legacy of shame and self-blame for the price they’re paying for never hearing the truth. Each must learn the lessons found in past years of failure to communicate.

Read More here…

America’s Forgotten Suffragists
By Nicole Evelina
Nellie Bly Awards Grand Prize Winner

Comprehensive in its own right, America’s Forgotten Suffragists by Nicole Evelina is an essential addition to the canon of women’s suffrage and first-wave feminism.

Equal parts local history of women’s right to vote in the nineteenth century and biography of Virginia and Francis Minor, America’s Forgotten Suffragists illuminates the story of a wife-and-husband feminist duo who were the first to fight for women’s suffrage at the Supreme Court level.

Read More here…

Seeing Glory
By Bruce Gardner

Seeing Glory by Bruce Gardner is a sweeping, thought-provoking Christian historical novel of the American Civil War. The novel portrays the critical roles of family ties and religious faith in shaping personal attitudes and actions towards the horrors of slavery and the war itself.

Spanning the era from the famous abolitionist John Brown’s Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 through the end of the war nine years later, Seeing Glory focuses on the gut-wrenching conflicts over slavery and the southern way of life faced by David, Emma, and Catherine Hodge, fictional siblings, raised on a wealthy plantation in Virginia.
Read More here…

She Had Been a Tomboy
By Sandra Bowman

She Had Been a Tomboy: Raising a Transgender Child, a Mother’s Journey by Sandra Bowman is a deeply revealing memoir about a protective mother who watches her sensitive child grow into someone who is familiar, yet new.

This moving narrative tells the story of her two children: how they were born and how they grew. She Had Been a Tomboy hops from one period of the children’s lives to another, showing how the elder child matures and how the female within slowly blooms into being, little by little revealing herself.

But the long journey to realization and understanding of self was not easy, nor was it gentle.

Read More here…

Open a banned book this week and prove you are a champion for the freedom of thought during Banned Books Week!

Thank you for joining us for this Writer Toolbox Article

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From our Book Award Program that has Discovered the Best Books since the early 2010s to our Editorial Book Reviews recognizing and promoting indie and traditional authors, Chanticleer knows your books are worth the effort to market professionally!

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Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email us at info@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

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A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.

And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.
September 25, 2024
The Laramie 2024 Hall of Fame for Americana Fiction!

The Frontier is calling

Submit your Americana, Western or Civil War Novels to the CIBAs!

***Tell your story today***

You have until September 30th to share your Story with us and enter the 2024 Laramie Division of the CIBAs!

Charles M. Russell painted the cowboy seen on Chanticleer’s very own Laramie contest badge. It is one of many such paintings he did that encompassed the Old American Wild West. An advocate for the Native Americans, Charles M. Russell also helped establish a reservation in Montana for the Chippewa people.

Our Laramie Hall of Fame Celebrates the Grand Prize Winners of now and past years!

The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery
By Thomas Goodman

In The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery by Thomas Goodman, four men in a small, depression-era Texas town lay in wait to carry out their unique plan for a holiday heist.

It’s December 23 and a man in a Santa Claus suit walks into a bank. But rather than his bag full of Christmas surprises, he’s brought a gun. With the element of surprise on their side, the robber and his two partners would collect the cash, while another partner waited in the getaway car. It all seemed so simple.

At the time, Texas bankers—in order to deter crimes such as this—promised a $5,000 reward for any dead bandits, “and not one cent” for the capture of a live one. Should anything go wrong, the possibilities for disaster were clear as a Greek tragedy. but what could go wrong?

Full review to come! Buy the book here!

Guarded Hearts
By T.K. Conklin

Guarded Hearts by T K Conklin is a sensual romance in the Wild West, with all the passion and excitement natural to the setting.

Sparks fly between a man with an outlaw past and a woman with a terrifying gift to heal or harm. Strykes is a man haunted both by a violent childhood and his time in an outlaw gang. But he has found a place in Rimrock, where he met LaRisa, an auburn-haired woman whom the townspeople have labeled a “witch” due to her healing herbs and rumors of her “powers”.

LaRisa has kept her distance from people, afraid of her gift of healing touch that can turn dangerous, even deadly. But, when she comes to town to deliver her medicinal herbs, she makes her way to the livery with tasks for Strykes such as shoeing her horse or fixing a spring in her wagon. He is only too happy to oblige the auburn-haired beauty. The attraction between them is instantaneous, yet they both are hesitant to act on it, fearing they would hurt the other– he from his violent past, and she from her “witch” power.

Read More Here

Tom Sawyer Returns
By E.E. Burke

Tom Sawyer Returns is the second book in The New Adventures series by author E.E. Burke.

Readers join a now grown up and far more independent Becky Thatcher as she maneuvers her complicated life in Civil War era Mississippi. Tom has long since left, and Becky is engaged to Union Captain Alfred Temple, who offers her all the safety and security she needs in such uncertain times. But does she love him? Actually love him?

Becky soon discovers that her heart may have other plans.

Read More Here

Trouble The Water
By Rebecca Dwight Bruff
Overall Grand Prize Winner

Robert Smalls’ life should have been one for the history books.

Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1839. When the first shots of the Civil War were fired upon Fort Sumter, Smalls was an experienced helmsman aboard a small cargo ship plying the coastal waters of South Carolina and the neighboring states. Once the war broke out, he found himself working to support a cause that kept him, his wife, and their children locked in chattel slavery.

But in a daring escapade that fell somewhere between a raid and a rescue, Smalls planned, with the help of his fellow crew members (also slaves) aboard the CSS Planter, to abscond with the ship, its cargo of munitions taken from Fort Sumter, and bring their families. The plan was to sail the ship as though its white officers were still on board, pretending to be carrying out their orders—at least until the ship was out of the reach of Fort Sumter’s guns.

Read More Here

Seven Aprils
By Eileen Charbonneau

Disguised gender identities, warfare, and thwarted romance all play a role in this many-layered novel, Seven Aprils, by award-winning fiction author Eileen Charbonneau.

When Tess Barton, a hardscrabble farm girl, saves the life of a man attacked by a panther, she and he little realize how fated this encounter will prove. Ryder Cole, the man she saved, moves on, pursuing a medical career just as the United States seems destined for war. Intrepid Tess will move on, too, when she learns that her widower father sells her in matrimony to an old, brutish shopkeeper. A wise crone cuts Tess’s hair and garbs her in men’s attire. Reborn as Tom Boyde, who will soon, strangely, meet up with Ryder and become one of his “men,” conscripted into Lincoln’s armies. Tess/Tom shows promise as a medical assistant with some undeniable cooking skills, and together with two other conscripts, they make the team in the Union’s army hospital units.

Read More Here

Blood Moon A Captives Tale
By Ruth Hull Chatlien

Ruth Hull Chatlien’s historical novel Blood Moon: A Captive’s Tale shines a light on two worlds trying to coexist in the 1860s Minnesota, that of Westward Expansion and white settlers, and that of the complex network of Sioux tribes dealing with starvation and disease. We follow her protagonist, Mrs. Sarah Wakefield, as she is thrust unwillingly into the midst of the Indian Wars.

Based loosely on the life of real captive, Sarah Wakefield, Chatlien explores both sides of this conflict, through the eyes of our terrified hero, who does what she must to save her life and the lives of her two small children. The first-person narrative in present tense places us in the thick of Wakefield’s narrow escapes, and the presence of the constant threats to her and her children.

Read More Here

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Laramie Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

Are you a Chanticleer Author who has some good news to share? Let us know! We’re always looking for a reason to crow about Chanticleerians! Reach out with your news to info@ChantiReviews.com

September 25, 2024
FINDING The LIGHT, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor – Inspirational Memoirs, Living with Disease, Family & Relationships

Some stories are impossible to look away from, and from its very first sentence, Finding the Light, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor proves itself one of them. “…when my 49-year-old son, Justin, was first diagnosed with a form of early-onset dementia, I was stunned.” Without hesitation, the book draws readers into a saga of family, illness, and resilience.

Although a memoir, Finding the Light is in many ways an instructional text, too. Readers don’t need similar medical situations to draw from Claytor’s lessons of improvement. The conversational, approachable writing style serves this purpose well.

Although it’s in chronological order, this is an unconventional, modern text.

Traditional scene-based paragraphs are offset by poetry, informative sidebars, and even the full text of letters sent throughout Justin’s illness. Claytor deftly shifts between these sections, building a cohesive narrative from which readers can easily learn.

The past is vibrant and immediate: Claytor chronicles events in rich yet simple prose as Justin falls deeper into frontotemporal dementia, or FTD.

Yet Claytor also pauses often to address readers directly with a reflective tone from the present day. This gives welcome context to the book’s main narrative. She uses everything she’s learned to help readers understand Justin’s illness. FTD is a progressive, terminal disease—and a mysterious one, with no known cause. Finding the Light explains FTD patiently, without delving too far into medical details or terminology.

Claytor’s an adept records-keeper, combining her carefully recreated personal experience with thorough research.

The details she offers, from specific dates to particular images (piles of unopened mail, drives along the river road), give the story a tangible quality, as though readers are having this experience alongside her. Yet sometimes, the details come in the stark form of a list or a set of bullet points instead. These breaks from traditional prose offer a sense of the fractured, clinical experience that a terminal illness can become.

At times, Claytor’s emotions burn bright, particularly in her frustrations with the poor training and management at several care facilities. Yet she quickly pulls back from these moments of anger or frustration, letting her present-day self take over with calm reflection instead. She explains her calmness well, however, instructing readers, through example, on the deep value of patience and compassion.

Claytor truly excels at “finding the light,” just as the book’s title suggests.

“Every time I read these words like ‘horrible’ about FTD, it hurts like a paper cut,” she writes. This book offers consistent positivity without the emotional artifice that self-help or instructional books sometimes resort to. Claytor accepts Justin’s changing situation, watching him revert in many ways to his child self, and even finds beauty in this process. She finds true acceptance. And throughout this book, readers may learn how to accept similarly challenging situations in their own lives.

Finding the Light often feels like a long and enthralling conversation over coffee with a friend.

Between its accessible writing style and the unpredictable medical situation, the book becomes impossible to put down. At each turn readers will find a surprising development, such as when Justin contends with COVID, or when he must repeatedly move to new facilities. And each development is carefully contextualized with compassion for Justin, for his caretakers, and for everybody touched by the impacts of FTD. A literary rhythm emerges: touching scene, thoughtful reflection, clear information.

As Justin’s tale with FTD comes to a close, Claytor addresses the reader one last time, with a message for the painful, difficult turns in life.

The final sections of the book are written in the second person, as Claytor wraps up the narrative with a set of clear, actionable takeaways. The last chapter, “7 Survival Tips for Rough Times,” is a welcome reminder that while everyone’s challenges are different, we must all face them. The test is how we navigate these experiences. Thanks to Finding the Light, readers will have a roadmap for travelling through whatever dark paths life has in store with grace, acceptance, and love.

September 25, 2024
UNPAVED by Anthony Horton – Contemporary Fiction, Family Issues, Psychological Fiction

Unpaved by Anthony Horton is a pensive novel of how returning to one’s roots can reveal hints on how to move forward after a lifetime of grief.

Russell Nowak-McCreary is a man whose life has been proudly shaped by formidable women. His mother, Judith, was a prominent cardiac surgeon at the reputable St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. His wife, Anna, thrived as a student of Judith’s and has risen to the top of Boston’s best medical campus. And Russell’s work partner Sarah Westroes joined his company, Datatel, as its CEO with a relentless drive to expand its footprint in the tech industry. His childhood was spent without a father figure, only excepting the fond memories of a single summer at his grandfather’s cabin in the Canadian wilderness.

As he returns to the remote cabin of his youth to set his mother’s affairs in order, Russell takes this time alone to finally process all that he lost.

His mother, Judith, died in her prime from pancreatic cancer. Russell’s only son’s life was taken too soon, and his marriage has fallen apart in the wake of it all. After several dark years enduring grief in compounding waves, Russell comes to wonder how he “felt so incredibly severed from that happy boy who had been satiated with the promise of the future”.

Meanwhile, a corporate and romantic drama unfolds involving Sarah and Datatel. Russell has to reckon with fraud, insider trading, and illicit offshore bank accounts.

While Russell isn’t convinced his lover is the one at fault, he finds it harder to trust Sarah after more of her personal life is exposed. As he ties loose ends on his mother’s will in Toronto, Russell struggles to decide: should he take Sarah’s place as CEO, or leave the company for good?

Anthony Horton’s consistent lyricism gives an engaging rhythm to the story’s slow pace and puddle-hops through time — an arguably welcome reprieve from the typical hustle of an office drama.

The corporate subplot in Unpaved proves to be the most entertaining and propulsive element of the book. Its rare appearance throughout Russell’s pilgrimage to Toronto and Teapot Lake provides the momentum needed to move our protagonist forward as he finds himself venturing into the backwaters of his past.

For readers seeking a novel that sees them in their own grief, Unpaved is a thoughtful work that wades gently into the subject with grace. Horton’s careful prose allows us to take comfort in Russell’s unwavering confidence in the face of uncertainty as he determines how to begin the next chapter of his life on his own.

September 25, 2024
SIX days left to enter the Clue and M&M Book Awards!
Eight Divisions close at the end of September!

Don’t let your book miss out!
- The Clue Award for Thriller and Suspense
- The Mystery and Mayhem Award for Cozy and Not so Cozy Mysteries
Only 6 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success. With over $30,000 in prizes awarded annually, now is the time to make your mark!

The Clue Award for Thriller and Suspense Fiction and The Mystery and Mayhem Awards for Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mysteries are still open!

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 M&M Awards for Cozy and Not-so-cozy Mystery!
- Liese Sherwood-Fabre – The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait
- Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story
- Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions
- Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles
- Patrick E. Craig – The Quilt That Knew
- E. W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail
- Lyn Squire – Immortalised to Death
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Mystery & Mayhem Awards Grand Prize Winner:

A Haunting at Linley

A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel

by Michelle Cox

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Clue Awards for Thriller and Suspense!
- Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance to Death
- Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath
- Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley
- Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak
- Raymond Paul Johnson – The Raven Society: Conspiracy Ignited
- Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Clue Awards Grand Prize Winner:

The Other Murder

By Kevin G. Chapman

The CIBAs offer more than just recognition — they provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.

We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.

Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 3-6, 2025) where Winners from all 25 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.

In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.

Let’s celebrate exceptional storytelling together!

Your book deserves to be discovered

Don’t Delay! Enter Today!

The Clue Awards, and The M&M Awards
September 24, 2024
The Dante Rossetti 2024 Hall of Fame for YA Fiction!

Got a Young Adult in your life?

The Dante Rossetti Awards finds the best books for them!

The Dante Rossetti Awards celebrate stories that bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood. Young readers exist in a liminal space, and we are pleased to feature Young Adult Fiction in the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Join us in celebrating the previous Grand Prize Winners of the Dante Rossetti Awards!

Sour Flower

A Manuscript

By Maryanne Melloan Woods

The review is forthcoming, but this is our gut reaction to this beautiful story:

Makes you cry in a good way with extraordinary beats. Coming of age and slice of life coupled with a story of redemption and finding terra firma after tragedy. Visceral, humorous, and very human.

Learn more about Maryanne at her website here!

Wages of Empire
By Michael J. Cooper

Michael J. Cooper’s latest historical fiction novel, Wages of Empire, draws readers into the perilous journey of sixteen-year-old Evan Sinclair and his father into WW1. On this path, their lives will intersect with such historical figures as TE Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, the Arab nationalist Faisal ibn Hussein, the proto-Nazi and advisor to the German kaiser Guido von List, and Kaiser Wilhelm II himself.

Set in the summer of 1914 we find Evan living in the American southwest where his father moved the family from England for his Oxford sabbatical. Evan struggles to cope with his mother’s death in childbirth and yearns to escape his father’s controlling grip. As war breaks out in Europe, Evan decides to leave home and join the fight, without telling his father.

Read More Here

Taro: The Legendary Boy Hero of Japan
By Blue Spruell

Adventure, classic tales, fantasy, and exciting action combine in TARO: Legendary Boy Hero of Japan, a well-poised debut novel by award-winning author Blue Spruell.

In the turbulent final decades of the sixteenth century, feudal Japan reeled in mayhem as the central hereditary dictatorship collapsed, and tyrannical powers fought to control the empire. TARO: The Legendary Boy Hero of Japan is the story of how one man revolutionized a nation by taking its reigns and forging a new destiny through his depths of compassion and determination.

The story begins with Taro as a young boy. As an heir to the Takeda family, Taro enjoyed reading, much to his father’s disapproval, as he wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a skilled Samurai. Tragedy changes Taro’s presumed destiny when his parents are murdered in a fierce power struggle, leaving him an orphan. Shortly after, a witch saves him from drowning and begins Taro’s new life of adventure, introducing him to a world of mythical creatures. On this new journey, Taro discovers shocking secrets about his lineage, and with them, his ultimate purpose in medieval Japan.

Read More Here

The Best Week That Never Happened
By Dallas Woodburn

Dallas Woodburn’s debut novel The Best Week that Never Happened is a roller-coaster ride through Hawaii and the mysterious depths of its briny deep, sparkling with unreal magic, a poignant romance, and incessant hope.

Tegan Rossi, a freshly graduated eighteen-year-old, awakens in the secretive hideout she discovered with Kai Kapule as two eight-year-old children on her first trip to Hawaii Island. She needs to make amends with Kai as they had a major squabble over something very important that she now oddly forgets. When Tegan catches up with Kai in Hawaii, she enters her best week yet – the Best Week That Never Happened.

The first-person narrative is a fusion of Tegan’s past three years ago and ten years ago, as well as a mystified chronicling of her present with Kai on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Read More Here

But Not Forever
By Jan Von Schleh

Like most fifteen-year-olds, Sonnet McKay loves a good adventure. Still, when she, her siblings, and cousins discover a deserted Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods outside a ghost town near Seattle, they get much more than they bargained for. In an upstairs bedroom, Sonnet inadvertently steps inside a time travel portal and is whisked away to 1895. In her place stands Emma Sweetwine, an identical doppelganger for Sonnet.

Emma’s family was prominent when Monte Cristo was a booming mine town, but life is not what it seems for the oldest of the Sweetwine children. With a mother who seems to despise her and a secret engagement, Emma’s life is oppressive and controlled – a sharp contrast to the spirited, independent Sonnet. With no idea how or why they were switched, Sonnet and Emma must quickly adjust to their new environments and rely only on their closest friends and family. But like any good story, time is running out for the girls as both of their lives rush in opposite directions. They must find a way back to their own times before their chance is gone forever.

Read More Here

Whispers
By Lynn Yvonne Moon

Whispers by Lynn Yvonne Moon explores the issue of incest through the life of twelve-year-old Musetta, whose father has just died. We meet Musetta at her father’s funeral and realize that this girl is dealing with serious issues. Still, more than grief, she’s filled with rage – and relief. And we cannot blame her. Whispers is filled with enough intrigue and family secrets to glue readers’ eyeballs to the page and hug their parents when they reach the end of the tale.

Musetta can’t get the attention of her grieving mother, and she’s not sure who she can turn to for help. Who will believe her story? But she knows what happened to her. After her father’s funeral, she believes the Friday night ritual of rape is over and that the molestation will stop. However, it’s not quite that easy.

First off, there are voices in her bedroom walls – and worse, the molestation continues. Is it her father’s ghost? She can’t go to her mother for help, and she won’t go to the law unless her mother is by her side. Who would believe her over her late father’s reputation as an upstanding citizen and the favorite local judge?

Read More Here

You know you want it…

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Dante Rossetti Winners is to enter today!

September 23, 2024
AN EMPTY HOUSE DOESN’T SNEEZE by David Scott Richardson – WWII Historical Fiction, Coming of Age, Pacific Northwest

In David Scott Richardson’s YA WWII historical novel, An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze, teenager Scott Johannsen—“Scotty” to his mom and friends—leads us on an adventure through the wartime Ravenna neighborhood in Seattle, Washington.

Boeing manufactures B-17s, his grandparents and neighbors grow victory gardens, his parents build a bomb shelter in their basement, and mandatory blackouts occur every night. Scotty navigates a chaotic world filled with danger and wonder yet finds security with family and friends in this heartfelt story.

Scotty runs with his pack—James, Marty, and Burr. We witness what lengths they will go to on a search for chocolate. With Ravenna Park as a backyard and Puget Sound just a short drive away, Scotty’s life is filled with exploration of the natural world. His fishing adventures with his dad in the Sound become an exciting way to supplement his family’s food rations as he dreams about netting a fighting salmon.

Scotty’s peaceful life evokes a sense of innocence in another time. Readers see the responsibilities average citizens rose to in their attempts to safeguard their neighborhoods and families against a potential attack.

Richardson masterfully relates the realities of coming of age in WWII America.

Scotty’s older brother Eric and his younger sister Grace help him navigate this tumultuous time. Gas shortages, young men sent to battle overseas, and the loss suffered by a community when one of their own is killed in battle.

Richardson also explores the plight of Japanese Americans during WWII. The loss of this part of his community directly impacts Scotty and his family when his friends and neighbors are sent to internment camps—regardless of their citizenship. To Scotty it seems incomprehensible and senseless, but Richardson confronts such an important historical fact directly.

Yet more troubles intrude on Scotty’s world. We meet his nemesis, Simon Lashbaugh, a bully who lives on the other side of the park.

He torments and confuses Scotty until he doesn’t know if he can trust his own brother. In his turmoil, Scotty confides in his sister and his buddies to help save his brother from the accusation that he is an arsonist setting fires during the city’s blackouts.

Richardson brings to life the experiences of an average American kid who loves his hometown of Seattle—fishing with friends, running errands for his mom, and sharing secrets with his siblings.

Our hero Scotty is not perfect. He’s a teenage boy who constantly thinks about girls, struggles with math, and tries to please his parents. He wants to survive school and adolescence and make sense of the chaos of WWII contrasted against his serene world.

An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze grabs readers’ attention with a depiction of the great apprehension and uncertainty experienced by America’s youngest citizens during World War II.

Richardson’s characters leap off the page and will capture the hearts of all who enjoy a fast-paced historical war story about a struggling family and the boy who helps save his neighborhood.

September 23, 2024