Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: andrea-weir

  • SPOTLIGHT on CHATELAINE and Its Hall of Fame Authors – Romance Novels & Romantic Fiction in all its Forms!

    SPOTLIGHT on CHATELAINE and Its Hall of Fame Authors – Romance Novels & Romantic Fiction in all its Forms!

    Chanticleer Book Reviews is seeking today’s best books featuring romantic themes and adventures of the heart, historical love affairs, perhaps a little steamy romance, we will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

    Find out more about the stunning beauty that Dante Rossetti painted, Jane Morris, at the end of this blog post.

     

    Do you have a romance novel or manuscript ready for readers?

    Do you want to see how it stands up to others in its category?

    Then don’t delay! The CHATELAINE Book Awards division is accepting submissions from both recently published and complete manuscripts in romance and romantic fiction. But this year we’ve moved our deadline – to keep you on your toes!

    The new deadline for the Chatelaine Awards is AUGUST 31, 2020! 

    That’s right, the last day for submissions into the 2020 Chatelaine Book Awards is August 31, 2020. So, if you love Piña Coladas – and getting caught in the rain… I mean, if you like writing about those things, and other things having to do with matters of the heart, including these:

    The Chatelaine Awards Categories are:|
    Contemporary Romance
    Historical Romance
    Adventure & Suspense
    Romantic Steamy/Sensual (Not Erotic)
    Inspirational/Restorative

    Send them in today! What are you waiting for?

    Click here for more information and submission form! 

    Don’t Delay! Enter Today! 

    Insiders’ Tip: Other genre divisions of the Chanticleer International Book Awards have romance categories as well. Multiple submissions of the same work to a variety of  CIBA writing competitions divisions are accepted. Check out our divisions here. 

     

     

     

     

    Please join us in congratulating and reading these top works in this diverse range of all reads Chatelaine: Romance, Chick-Lit,  Women’s Fiction, Inspirational, Suspenseful, and, of course, Steamy and Sensual in the
    CHATELAINE HALL of FAME!

    Nicola Slade took home the Chatelaine Grand Prize Ribbon in 2018 for The House at Ladywell.

    Congratulations to the 2018 CHATELAINE Book Awards for Romantic Fiction  First in Category Winners!

     

    Leigh Grant’s MASK OF DREAMS  took home the Chatelaine Grand Prize Ribbon for 2017.

    The First Place Category Winners of the CIBA 2017 CHATELAINE Awards:

     

     

     

     

     

      M.A. Clarke Scott’s The ART of ENCHANTMENT took home the 2016 Chatelaine Grand Prize.

     

    The First Place Category Winners of the CIBA 2016 CHATELAINE Awards:

     

    Nicole Evelina’s DAUGHTER of DESTINY took both the Chatelaine Grand Prize and the OVERALL Grand Prize winner for 2015.


     

    The First Place Category Winners of the CIBA 2015 CHATELAINE Awards:

     

    Janet Shawgo’s FIND ME AGAIN won the 2014 Chatelaine Grand Prize.

    Find Me Again Janet Shawgo

    The First Place Category Winners of the CIBA 2014 CHATELAINE Awards:

    Kate Vale’s CHOICES was awarded the 2013 Chatelaine Grand Prize and took home the OVERALL Grand Prize for best book of the year!

     

    The First Place Category Winners of the CIBA 2013 CHATELAINE Awards:

    • Historical Romance: The Lily and the Lion by Catherine T. Wilson & Catherine A. Wilson
    • Southern Romance: Swamp Secret by Eleanor Tatum
    • Mystery: The Hourglass by Sharon Struth
    • Jane Austen Inspired: Pulse and Prejudice by Colette Saucier
    • Paranormal: Crimson Flames by Ashley Robertson
    • Christian Inspirational Romance: Chasing Charlie by C. M. Newman
    • Restorative: A Path through the Garden by Nancy LaPonzina
    • Classic Bodice Ripper: To Dare the Duke of Dangerfield by Bronwen Evans

     Who will win the CHATELAINE Book Awards Blue Ribbons for 2020?

    The judging rounds will commence in August! Submit your works today!

    The last day for submissions into the 2020 Chatelaine Book Awards is August 31, 2020. Winners will be announced at our CAC21 conference – scheduled for April

    Click here for more information and submission form! 

    Don’t Delay! Enter Today! 

    And remember our Insiders’ Tip: Other genre divisions of the Chanticleer International Book Awards have romance categories as well. Multiple submissions of the same work to a variety of  CIBA writing competitions divisions are accepted. Check it out here!

    A little information about the Chatelaine Book Awards icon:

    Romance Fiction Award

     

    We feel that Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Pre-Raphaelite painting of Jane Morris (muse and wife of William Morris) in a Blue Silk Dress captures the many moods of the Chatelaine division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.  Jane Morris (nee Jane Burden—little is known about her childhood but that it was poor and deprived) was known for her keen intelligence. William Morris fell in love with her when she sat for him as a model. She was privately tutored to become a gentleman’s wife upon their engagement. It is said that she was the inspiration for George Bernard Shaw’s character Eliza Dolittle of My Fair Lady fame. The Blue Silk Dress was painted in 1868 by Rossetti and it currently resides in the Society for Antiquaries of London.  She was 29 when Rossetti painted it. Rossetti and Jane Morris became closely attached until his death in 1882. To read more about the fascinating Jane Morris, click on this Wikipedia page.

  • A FOOLISH CONSISTENCY by Andrea Weir – Women’s Literature, Family Drama, Romance

    A FOOLISH CONSISTENCY by Andrea Weir – Women’s Literature, Family Drama, Romance

    The course of true love almost never runs in a true straight-line, and this is certainly the case in Andrea Weir’s lovely romantic novel about second chances, A Foolish Consistency.

    Although Fate seems to have smiled on Dr. Will Tremaine and Callie Winwood, former sweethearts a couple of decades ago, when they meet again in an emergency room, their second chance at love is problematic. Will is a widower in Westin, a community in the East, and Callie is a divorcée in California. It’s not just the entire country that separates them, but the events of the last twenty-five years. Their attraction to each other is undeniable, however, and as feelings reawaken, they take the first steps to reconnect and build something new, something they hope will last.

    Inevitably, they have obstacles to overcome. Will’s children, Lizzy and Wiley, are thirteen and eleven, respectively, and still grieving the death of their mother, Joanna, two years earlier. Their maternal grandparents behave almost as if their mother were still alive, and they never acknowledge that Joanna suffered from mental health issues. While Lizzy reacts to her father’s new girlfriend with typical adolescent angst and anger, her grandparents completely overreact and plot to gain custody of their grandchildren. Their motives for doing so blind them to the reality of the situation and pit Will and his children against Callie and her grown children, especially her son, Ben, in his early twenties.

    Considerable depth is added to the narrative by Callie’s understanding of Lizzie’s feelings.  Having lost her own mother at an early age, Callie vividly recalls how difficult it was to accept her father’s new girlfriend who eventually became her stepmother. Although Callie loves Will deeply and wants a future with him, she also understands that Lizzy’s feelings are a priority, one that requires a great deal of patience and sensitivity. These qualities make Callie even more attractive to Will who reassures his children that his girlfriend is not seeking to take their mother’s place.

    Most scenes alternate between Callie’s first-person point of view and Will’s third-person outlook. This interchange between the female and male experiences of the romance gives the novel an intimate robustness, very appropriate for the narrative. The author handles the pacing just right, and the reader roots for the outcome one always wants in a romance. Still, the protagonists have much to learn about each other and themselves, and the author does not settle for a too easy denouement.

    Love once lost is not always easy to regain, even when the couple in question are like peas and carrots. Andrea Weir brings memorable characters, shimmering and confident prose, and realistic dialogue to her stellar contemporary romance of mid-life star-crossed lovers seeking a second chance in A Foolish Consistency.