Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: hana-samek-norton

  • June SPOTLIGHT on CHAUCER AWARDS – Early Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Romantic Fiction, Crusades, Medieval

    June SPOTLIGHT on CHAUCER AWARDS – Early Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Romantic Fiction, Crusades, Medieval

    Pre 1750 Historical Fiction Award

    Do you have an early historical fiction manuscript or recently released novel? Submit your work to the CIBA 2019 CHAUCER Awards by
    June 30, 2020, and see how your work stacks up against others. 

     

    We know you want to – because we never tire of promoting our authors’ achievements!

    As in Chaucer’s words in the Nun’s Priest Tale of the Canterbury Tales,

    “For crowing there was not his equal in all the land.”

     

    Click here to find out more. 

    We titled the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) division for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction the Chaucer Awards, after the English poet and author of the Canterbury Tales, because #CHAUCER.

    But seriously, did you know that The Canterbury Tales is considered one of the greatest works in the English language? In fact, it was among the first non-secular books written in Middle English to be printed. So, yeah, #Chaucer

    A woodcut from William Caxton’s second edition 0f the Canterbury Tales printed in 1483

    Some interesting tidbits about Geoffrey Chaucer

            • born c. 1342/43 probably in London. He died on October 25, 1400
            • his father was an important London vintner
            • His family’s finances were derived from wine and leather
            • Chaucer spoke Middle English and was fluent in French, Latin, and Italian
            • He guided diplomatic missions across the continent of Europe for ten years where he discovered the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio whose The Decameron had a profound influence on Chaucer’s later works
            • He married well as his wife received an annuity from the queen consort of Edward III
            • His remains are interred in the Westminster Abbey

     

     As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your historical fiction deserves!  Enter today!

    Welcome to the CHAUCER BOOK AWARDS HALL OF FAME

    Click on the links below to read the Chanticleer Review of the award-winning work!

    Pre 1750 Historical Fiction Award

     

    The 2018 Chaucer Book Awards Grand Prize Winner:

    The SERPENT and The EAGLE  by Edward Rickford 

     

     

    2018 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction First in Category Winners:

     

     

     

     

     

    The 2017 Chaucer Book Awards Grand Prize:

    The Traitor’s Noose: Lions and Lilies Book 4 by Catherine A. Wilson and Catherine T. Wilson

    2017 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction First in Category Winners:

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The 2016 Chaucer Book Awards Grand Prize Winner:

    (Chaucer Book Awards was the Historical Fiction division until we divided it for the 2016 CIBAs into two divisions because of the number of entries:

    Goethe Book Awards for post-1750s Historical Fiction and Chaucer Book Awards for pre-1750s Historical Fiction).

    The Towers of Tuscany by Carol M. Cram

     

    2016 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction First in Category Winners:

             

             

             

             

             

             

            The 2015 Chaucer Book Awards Grand Prize Winner:

            (Chaucer Book Awards was the Historical Fiction division until we divided it into two divisions for the 2016 CIBAs because of the number of entries:

            Goethe Book Awards for post-1750s Historical Fiction and Chaucer Book Awards for pre-1750s Historical Fiction).

            Valhalla Revealed by Robert A. Wright

            Valhalla Revealed by Robert A Wright

             

            2015 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction First in Category Winners:

             

             

             

             

             

            The 2014 Chaucer Book Awards Grand Prize:

            (Chaucer Book Awards was the Historical Fiction division until we divided it into two divisions because of the number of entries:

            Goethe Book Awards for post-1750s Historical Fiction and Chaucer Book Awards for pre-1750s Historical Fiction).

            The Love of Finished Years  by Gregory Erich Phillips

            2014 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction First in Category Winners

             

            The 2013 Chaucer Book Awards Grand Prize Winner:

            Propositum - Front Cover 2

            Propositum by Sean Curley

            2013 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction First in Category Winners:

            • Adventure/Young Adult:  I, Walter by Mike Hartner
            • N.A. Western:  Crossing Purgatory by Gary Schanbacher
            • World War II (European):  Deal with the Devil by J. Gunner Grey
            • Adventure/Romance/YA: “Lady Blade” by C.J. Thrush
            • Nordic History:  The Jøssing Affair by J.L.Oakley
            • Regency:  Traitor’s Gate by David Chacko & Alexander Kulcsar
            • Women’s Fiction/WWII: Wait for Me  by Janet K. Shawgo
            • Medieval/Dark Ages: Divine Vengeance by David Koons
            • Women’s Fiction/World History: Daughters of India by Kavita Jade

            What are you waiting for? Before long the CHAUCER Book Award deadline will be history.

            Submit your manuscript or recently released Historical Fiction (pre-1750s) to the Chanticleer International Book Awards!

            Want to be a winner next year? The deadline to submit your book for the Chaucer awards is June 30, 2020. Enter here!

            Grand Prize and First Place Winners for 2019 will be announced on September 5, 2020.

            Any entries received on or after June 30, 2020, will be entered into the 2021 Chaucer Book Awards. The Grand Prize and First Place for 2020 CIBA winners will be held on April 17, 2021.

             As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your historical fiction deserves!  Enter today!

            The CHAUCER Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards – the CIBAs.

            The 2020 winners will be announced at the CIBA  Awards Ceremony on September 5, 2020, which will take place during the 2020 Chanticleer Authors Conference. All Semi-Finalists and First Place category winners will be recognized, the first-place winners will be whisked up on stage to receive their custom ribbon and wait to see who among them will take home the Grand Prize. It’s an exciting evening of dinner, networking, and celebrations! 

            Don’t delay! Enter today! 

          • The SERPENT’S CROWN: A NOVEL of MEDIEVAL CYPRUS by Hana Samek Norton – Medieval Cyprus, Historical Fiction, Literature

            The SERPENT’S CROWN: A NOVEL of MEDIEVAL CYPRUS by Hana Samek Norton – Medieval Cyprus, Historical Fiction, Literature

            Hana Samek Norton begins her epic and engrossing novel of historical fiction, The Serpent’s Crown; A Novel of Medieval Cyprus, with this quotation:  “It sometimes happens that exploits, however, known and splendidly achieved, come, by length of time, to be less known to fame, or even forgotten among posterity.” (Itinerarum Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi) How fortunate for readers, then, that the author brings to life a captivating chapter of history that occurred in Cyprus and Jerusalem in the early thirteenth century.

            While many may be familiar with the main players of the royal Lusignan and Ibelin families, dynastic houses that feuded and intermarried during medieval times, Samek Norton proves that the characters waiting in the wings often play covert but essential parts in history. Had they not been there, events may have played out very differently. Much is owed to these minor characters who were discounted or overlooked, characters who utilized that obscurity to accomplish what their more famous peers didn’t or couldn’t because their lives were too public.

            The Serpent’s Crown is a ringing endorsement of the idea that the personal is political. This is not a novel of battles and treaties, although they are referenced often with explanatory details. Instead, this novel is a stunning examination of how history is forged through the relations between husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings and every configuration of blended families. Spouses were lost to illnesses, pirates, poisons, accidents, and every other possible cause of death. Kings and queens had to have consorts, however, so marriages kept occurring with elaborate step-relations resulting.

            Families were fertile ground for stirrings of love and loyalty, but also betrayals and extortions.  The Lusignans and the Ibelins conspired to gain political power, but these families were often openly hostile towards each other. Juliana often contemplates family matters and specifically “what makes a marriage.” She is married to Guerin de Lasalle, a nephew of King Aimary de Lusinan, King of Jerusalem and Cyprus. Lasalle has a far less grand title, Lord of Parthenay. He had been betrothed to another as a child, a fact that unsettles Juliana and causes her to worry that her marriage is not valid, that in the eyes of the church, she is an adulterer. While she wants for nothing, she is often exasperated by her husband’s absolute loyalty to his uncle, his readiness to do whatever is necessary to assure the stability of the King’s realms. Juliana, a former nun used to a quiet life of piety and religious devotion, springs to action when her father-in-law kidnaps her infant daughter, Eleanor, and takes her to France. Nothing will deter her from recovering the child, but her quest is a long one, comprising several years and many events.

            Samek Norton’s prose is vibrant and evocative. Her detailed descriptions of the ornate, often layered gowns worn by queens and their ladies make one long for a Project Runway of medieval fashions. The sumptuous descriptions of food and the fleshing out of time, of locales, of palaces, of Mediterranean sunlight, provide an exquisite backdrop for the action of the novel.

            The book is thick with details, testimony to the author’s in-depth research, and keeping the many royal relations straight can be a challenge at times. The Cast of Characters listed at the outset of the novel is a great help. Even servants of households are noted because, again, this is a book that shines a light in dusty corners in piecing together events that affected outcomes noted in history books. In this regard, there are no insignificant characters. Samek Norton proves that the broad events of history rest on the shoulders of ordinary men and women.  She gives them their long overdue recognition.

            5 Stars! Best Book Chanticleer Book Reviews