The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Romance Fiction. The Chatelaine Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best new books featuring romantic themes and adventures of the heart, historical love affairs, perhaps a little steamy romance, and stories that appeal especially to fans of affairs of the heart to compete in the Chatelaine Book Awards (the CIBAs). We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.
1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Civillia Winslow Hill on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 at the Bellingham Yacht Club in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
This is the OFFICIAL 2024 LIST of the CHATELAINE BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the CHATELAINE Grand Prize Winner.
Join us in celebrating the following authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Reenita M. Hora – Vermilion Harvest – Playtime at the Bagh
John W. Feist – Edged in Purple
Gail Noble-Sanderson – A Cup of Revenge
Nancy Herkness – Royal Caleva: Luis
George T. Arnold – The Heart Beneath the Badge
Sonja N. Griffing – Chasing Noelle
Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day, Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
the Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2024 CHATELAINE Book Awards is:
Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting inMay. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.
NOTE: We will post at least two 2024 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 14, 2025. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2024 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.
Thank you for participating in the 2024 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
Who doesn’t love a good book? It’s full of angst, misunderstandings, sultry moments, and intriguing characters who break our hearts and sweep us off our feet. Like chocolate, romance is one of those extraordinary genres that can go with almost anything—Historical Romance, Mystery Romance, YA Romance, SciFi Romance, Fantasy Romance, the list goes on!
Nothing is better than sharing a book you love with someone you know will love it just as much as you.
The Science Behind Love
Science tells us that two people falling in love is a mix of biological, chemical, and psychological factors. Wouldn’t these same factors play into a reader falling in love with a book? Picture this, you’re in a bookstore scanning the shelves, suddenly, you see a cover that is beautiful, intriguing, mysterious. You pick it up and read the blurb. It teases you with just enough information to make you want to learn more. You read the first page and find out that what it is telling you is exactly what you were hoping for. Your excitement increases as you envision the night ahead, snuggling under the covers, turning the pages as you fall in love with the characters and join them in their journey to find love. As you read, your heart starts to race with anticipation, you cry, you laugh, and you swear your devotion to the love you’ve found between the covers of a book.
Is there anything better than a great love story?
The Love You Find Between the Covers
Romance is one of the bestselling genres out there, and it’s clear we’re all looking for love stories that move us. But falling in love isn’t a one step process. First, your curiosity is peaked when you first look at a cover, you judge it by look, page count, and other factors to see if it’s a book that fits you, then you find yourself fascinated when something unexpected happens in the first few pages. You’re hooked!
As you continue reading you find yourself captivated by the characters. Perhaps they are way more complex than you had anticipated, and you can’t bear the thought of leaving the story half-read, so you march on, feeling nervous, stressed, afraid, and hopeful as the characters go through the trials and tribulations they face in the plot. Now you are infatuated! You can’t put it down! What’s going to happen? Will they, or won’t they?
As you draw closer to the climax, you find yourself on the same rollercoaster as the characters. You empathize with the characters and want to see the love match made. You fight the despair of coming to the last page, knowing you’ll have to put these wonderful characters away when you are finished. Ohh! The agony!
As you place the book on your own bookshelf you find yourself thirsting for more. More love, more conflict, more moments where you think all is lost, but then…
You realize you’ve fallen in love!
The Chatelaine Awards finds the best romantic novels of the year!
At Chanticleer we love Romance Books, and we love to show it off with ourChatelaine Awards! Check out our current Finalists here! First Place Winners will be announced at the Chanticleer Authors Conference!
The Chatelaine Awards are where we find all our romance books about bookstores and beyond!
Are you looking for your next great romance novel? Find your perfect literary match with these Chanticleer romance authors!
A Sea of Glass By Gail Avery Halverson
CIBA Grand Prize winner Chatelaine division
A Sea of Glass by Gail Avery Halverson is a sweeping historical novel that captivates readers as it takes us from the bustling world of Colonial Boston to the shores of Barbados. But the island’s burgeoning sugar industry harbors dark secrets for those trapped there, either by circumstance or by slavery.
The colonial backdrop is brimming with conflict. Businesses struggle under British taxation enforced by the hated Red Coats. With the dangers of traveling through pirate—and privateer—infested waters, there are more than enough shifting winds to keep readers engaged until the very end.
Lady Catherine Abbott-McKensie, her physician husband Simon McKensie, and their daughter Charlotte, enjoy the pace of life in Colonial Boston, but their peace does not last long.
In Loving Beth, a Christian historical romance by Bonnie Rose Ward, a young woman finds herself in dire straits when her widowed mother dies unexpectedly.
Beth’s father had taken out loans to improve their property, but he was killed in the Civil War, leaving his wife and daughter to struggle to keep up with the payments. Now, Beth is alone without any means to keep her home—finding and taking in two young, abandoned children certainly doesn’t help. But even amidst her troubles, Beth’s thoughts keep going back to the mysterious and handsome stranger who found and brought home the body of her mother.
Edged in Purple by John W. Feist welcomes readers to a place outside of time and space, a liminal space where characters of myth wait to return to their fated stories.
The Fold is a beautiful land, a near-utopia shepherded– literally– by Thetis and Peleus of Greek mythology. They raise the heroine of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Perdita, after her father had accused her mother of betraying him with another, the whole sad story a product of his own paranoia.
Perdita’s story is proceeding as it was written. She has already met Florizel, the man who should be the hero of her romance– when her story is intersected by another. Just as The Winter’s Tale features royal courts, doomed relationships, mistaken identities, and family murder, so too does an ancient Greek drama: the Oresteia of Aeschylus, the story of Agamemnon after the Trojan War.
After decades spent in a loveless, broken marriage, Crisa wants another chance at love. In Splintered Dreams, a romance novella by Diana Lynn, she must first stumble through her own insecurities to find it.
When Crisa’s husband, Alan, dies unexpectedly she is left with a stark emptiness inside her heart. Her marriage had been a sham. Her husband’s infidelity and lies crushed her idea of love and left her with questions about who she is, what she wants, and will she ever trust someone with her heart again. Casual sexual relationships can’t fill the void. She needs true love.
Physical intimacy is only part of what Crisa desires. She yearns for the kind of love that lasts a lifetime.
Air Boat: Love is an Adventure By Jacek Waliszewski
For readers interested in a unique romance,Air Boat: Love is an Adventureby Jacek Waliszewski offers a distinctive cast of characters and tense excitement in the sky.
Air Boatbrings together a former Special Forces soldier, Luke, who prefers to keep to himself, an independent and sarcastic female pilot, Stella, and a three-legged Husky named Saint who marches to the beat of his own drum. These captivating characters embark on a fast-paced, page-turning tale.
Author Jacek Waliszewski starts this romantic adventure with a suspenseful scene of a vintage plane barreling towards the Twin Cities, accompanied by two F-16 fighter jets, before setting the stage for the two main characters to meet. The mystery of this scene will stick in the reader’s mind, drawing them forward with stark curiosity that only grows in excitement.
Featuring authors like J.D Barker, book doctor Christine Fairchild, and publisher Brooke Warner, our annual conference is shaping up to be excellent! You won’t want to miss out on the best tips around the business of being an author!
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.
Just like the many objects hanging from a Chatelaine, Romance Fiction can have many different types and we’re excited to see what 2024 brings us! Here’s the Categories-
Contemporary Romance
Historical Romance
Adventure & Suspense
Romantic Steamy/Sensual (Not Erotic)
Inspirational/Restorative/Clean
Romance Fiction doesn’t have just one type. Modern Day to History, Adventurous or not, Steamy or Clean, we love it all!
You know what fits most of our Categories? The Mummy. Modern movie, Historical setting, Plenty of Action, yet the Romantic elements are on the clean side.
While other Divisions also have Romantic inclined categories (Paranormal, M&M, Rossetti, Laramie and Hemingway all have categories for Romance) you can never go wrong with a plain and simple Love story. Or maybe you like a little drama in your books.
Historical Romance seems to be a rather popular category now, in both the books we see and wider in the book market. This year’s Grand Prize for Chatelaine is a Historical Romance! Taking place in the 1600’s in England, Colonial America and the Caribbean, it fits firmly into the Historical genre.
The SKEPTICAL PHYSICK (The Stockbridge Series, Book 2) By Gail Avery Halverson
In the second in a series by author Halverson, an aristocratic, intellectually curious young woman has fallen in love with a young physician, a commoner whose radical experimentations have jeopardized his reputation. The couple is just recovering from the professional and personal rigors of dealing with London’s plague victims when the city is overwhelmed by fire. Their services are needed now more than ever.
Supported by mentor hospital administrator Father Hardwicke in his medical endeavors, Simon McKensie is finally on the verge of marrying the woman he adores, Catherine Abbott. Even the wealthy, protective Aunt Viola has come to terms with the fact that, though she might not approve the match on social grounds, she sees that Catherine will be happy with Simon.
Did you know? Gail Halverson’s book A Sea of Glass won the 2023 Chatelaine Grand Prize! The review is to come!
EDGED In PURPLE By John W. Feist
Edged in Purple by John W. Feist welcomes readers to a place outside of time and space, a liminal space where characters of myth wait to return to their fated stories.
The Fold is a beautiful land, a near-utopia shepherded– literally– by Thetis and Peleus of Greek mythology. They raise the heroine of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Perdita, after her father had accused her mother of betraying him with another, the whole sad story a product of his own paranoia.
Perdita’s story is proceeding as it was written. She has already met Florizel, the man who should be the hero of her romance– when her story is intersected by another. Just as The Winter’s Tale features royal courts, doomed relationships, mistaken identities, and family murder, so too does an ancient Greek drama: the Oresteia of Aeschylus, the story of Agamemnon after the Trojan War.
SUMMER STORM: Magic at Myers Beach Book 2 By Alan B. Gibson
In Summer Storm, the second book of Alan B. Gibson’s Magic at Myers Beach series, local business owner Greta the Witch has a chance at fame, fortune, and fairytale love—if she can keep it all from being stolen first.
Picking up cleanly after Summer Thunder (Book 1 in the series), this story opens with Greta worrying about her social life. Her best friend Lily has left on an extended honeymoon with her husband Theos the King. Fortunately, her acquaintance, Julie, moves back to town, and while they soon develop a close friendship, things get awkward when she learns that Julia received a massive financial gift from Lily and Theos, and she was left with nothing.
Greta can at least focus on her business, the Witch’s Cauldron, and being the star of a reality show that’s planning to film her daily life. And when Greta meets a mysterious and charming man—Zsombor, or “Dos” to his friends—she finds herself rocketed to a level of stardom she couldn’t have imagined. She attends an opening gala for the renovated Fairy Kingdom tea house, and after a mixture of disastrous and fabulous public appearances she becomes Myers Beach’s rising influencer star.
In Loving Beth, a Christian historical romance by Bonnie Rose Ward, a young woman finds herself in dire straits when her widowed mother dies unexpectedly.
Beth’s father had taken out loans to improve their property, but he was killed in the Civil War, leaving his wife and daughter to struggle to keep up with the payments. Now, Beth is alone without any means to keep her home—finding and taking in two young, abandoned children certainly doesn’t help. But even amidst her troubles, Beth’s thoughts keep going back to the mysterious and handsome stranger who found and brought home the body of her mother.
Life is not easy in her tiny settlement in West Virginia, and young, pretty Beth finds that it is not about to get any easier. The new banker holds a grudge toward her for having rejected his advances, and the man’s snobbish wife is determined to make Beth’s life even more miserable. The loans that Beth and her mother worked to pay each month are suddenly due in full— but the banker’s unwanted and ugly advances are foiled with the appearance of the mysterious stranger.
Edged in Purple by John W. Feist welcomes readers to a place outside of time and space, a liminal space where characters of myth wait to return to their fated stories.
The Fold is a beautiful land, a near-utopia shepherded– literally– by Thetis and Peleus of Greek mythology. They raise the heroine of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Perdita, after her father had accused her mother of betraying him with another, the whole sad story a product of his own paranoia.
Perdita’s story is proceeding as it was written. She has already met Florizel, the man who should be the hero of her romance– when her story is intersected by another. Just as The Winter’s Tale features royal courts, doomed relationships, mistaken identities, and family murder, so too does an ancient Greek drama: the Oresteia of Aeschylus, the story of Agamemnon after the Trojan War.
Orestes, the hero of that ancient tale, joins Perdita in the fold, pulling both of them from the paved road of fate.
They fall in love. Florizel goes mad with jealousy and proves that she’s MUCH better off with Orestes– as he pursues the lovers out of The Fold and into a reality that none of them are quite prepared for.
The reality they wake up in is that of the late 19th century, among the ruling class of the teetering Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Habsburgs, not far from Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s date with destiny.
Edged in Purple begins as a whimsical combination of fantasy and mythology.
Characters such as Orestes and Perdita’s adopted mother Thetis mingle with characters from the classics of literature– not just Perdita herself but nearly all of the personae from The Winter’s Tale. Peleus implies that characters from countless other stories have passed through The Fold on their way to their own endings, whether happy or not.
This setting offers a wealth of possibilities for stories to mingle and morph, which Edged in Purple explores to excellent effect.
It turns two familiar stories into one brand new adventure, transforming The Winter’s Tale into the kind of love vs. power romantic triangle that defines such stories as The Princess Bride, with Orestes, Perdita, and Florizel taking the roles of Wesley, Buttercup and Prince Humperdinck, respectively.
However, the curtain of fantasy is pulled back and the characters must inhabit the bodies of very real historical figures. And yet still, they seek to control their own fates.
After all, they managed it once, back in The Fold.
But as fantasy transforms into historical fiction, their lives become fixed to moments in time. And as Orestes– now Franz Ferdinand– learns, the wheels of history can’t be steered as easily as a story.
The two very disparate parts of Edged in Purple are equally compelling, and while that switch from fantasy fairy tale utopia to oncoming historical tragedy could send some readers for a spin, those interested in the blending of genres will be enthralled by this mirrored tale.
For readers who do make the leap, Franz Ferdinand and Sophia’s impossible happy ever after is both compelling and heartbreaking. Recommended for readers who enjoy portal fantasy, historical fiction, and tragic romance.
The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Romance Fiction. The Chatelaine Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best new books featuring romantic themes and adventures of the heart, historical love affairs, perhaps a little steamy romance, and stories that appeal especially to fans of affairs of the heart to compete in the Chatelaine Book Awards (the CIBAs). We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.
The 2021 Chatelaine Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the Chatelaine Grand Prize Winner were announced by Gail Noble-Sanderson on Saturday, June 25, 2022 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar.
This is the OFFICIAL 2021 LIST of the CHATELAINE BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the CHATELAINE Grand Prize Winner.
Congratulations to all!
Valerie Taylor – What’s Not Said — A Novel
Alex Sirotkin – The Long Desert Road
Evie Alexander – Highland Games
Tina Sloan – Chasing Cleopatra
Kana Wu – No Secrets Allowed
John W. Feist – The Color of Rain
Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Breath, Book One in the Desert Hills Trilogy
Emma Lombard – Discerning Grace
the Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 CHATELAINEAwards is:
The Long Desert Road
by Alex Sirotkin
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the 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.
Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews
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The 2022 CHATELAINE Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!
Submissions for the 2022 CHATELAINE Book Awards are open until the end of August. Enter here!
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in August. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
Author John W. Feist unfolds a true-love story, old-fashioned letter style, in his historical romance novel, The Color of Rain: A Kansas Courtship in Letters.
Three and a half years pass before Irene Webb, a college-educated schoolteacher, hears about the beloved Wilson family she stayed with as a boarder, caring for Harold and Wallis, their two sons. But the news sent to her in August of 1896 is not good; Allie, Frank’s wife, unexpectedly dies. “I realize this is no time for letters,” Irene writes to him before expressing her most profound condolences. Formalities aside, the letter sparks renewed friendship, and the two Kansas friends begin exchanging letters regularly.
A handsome, well-respected local banker and now eligible bachelor, Frank Wilson, is nothing less than a hot ticket item with “the path to [his] home … a pilgrimage for unmarried women bearing casseroles.”
While the attention is encouraging, he’s not interested in finding a replacement for Allie right away. Except for Irene. Three months after Allie’s death, Frank makes the day trip via two trains from Horton to visit her at her parents’ farm in Nortonville—a mere half-hour drive with today’s modern conveniences. Thus, a long-distance courtship commences.
Frank and Irene remain busy people – his with banking, and Irene (the oldest of seven children) cares for her ailing father and holds down the fort of the large Webb household. The two lovers keep to weekly letter-writing since they barely have the chance to see each other, especially when trials and tribulations convolute their individual lives. Irene cannot imagine the issues she must confront, including an enticing school principal offer, as she contemplates marriage.
Rising author, John W. Feist, utilized his storytelling skills to bring a love journey to life.
The benefactor of his grandparents’ courtship correspondence, Feist saw an opportunity to go back in time and recreate what “dating” looked like near the turn of the twentieth century. It’s difficult to imagine the formalities behind courtship, let alone women succumbing to patriarchal ties. But that was not necessarily the case with Feist’s grandparents.
If Irene wasn’t the intellectual she was, she might have balked at Frank’s direction toward marital preparation. Instead of following through with the usual romantic proposal, Frank gave her Orson Squire Fowler’s groundbreaking Creative and Sexual Science to read and for them to discuss. To his delight, she took up the challenge. Although the hefty read might have carried an undercurrent of male domination, what made it revolutionary was Fowler’s eye-opening stance that husbands and wives should be considered equals, an ideal Frank had with Allie and hoped he’d have Irene.
Of course, there is so much more to Frank and Irene’s relationship.
The Color of Rain: A Kansas Courtship in Letters goes beyond recording a family legacy; it is a human-interest story. Feist’s rich writing style stitches historical details, providing a seamless flow from letters-writing to narrative sections that capture everyday life’s realities amid unsettling times. Concerns over Indian Territory and Negro Freeman allotments (which Frank was involved in as a banker) and contracting diseases like malaria and typhoid (both Irene’s mother had, eventually dying from the latter) are two prime examples.
The Color of Rain: A Kansas Courtship in Letters is a must-read for all, especially history aficionados.
A fast-paced political thriller, Night Rain, Tokyo is more than just bureaucratic intrigue. Brad Oaks is in Washington D.C. trying to get the Wishbone Pipeline project off the ground for Elgar Steel. Before he can make much progress in his task, he is called home by the news of the death of his boss and mentor, Ernie Elgar. Twin sisters Sarah and June Elgar are at odds about the Wishbone pipeline project. After their father’s death, the sisters have inherited control over Elgar Steel. But soon, they discover they have another sister in Tokyo. Brad is then sent across the world to meet with Amaya Mori to buy her Elgar Steel shares, but he quickly becomes caught in the crosshairs of international politics and his own heart.
Night Rain Tokyo is a heart-pounding, pulse-racing, political thriller that deals with the importance of family, identity, and love in an ever-increasingly complex world. John Feist pulls from his own experience in law and government relations, adding in the realities of bureaucratic hurdles, and this gives the plot a great touch of authenticity. In short, readers searching for an international, high-stakes political crime thriller that hits all the marks, look no further. Feist’s storytelling is smart. However, Feist understands there is more to an authentic political story than lobbying politicians and negotiating international business deals.
At the heart of Night Rain, Tokyo, are the personal struggles of its characters. Amaya has lived her whole life as an outsider in her own culture, while Brad is opening his heart again years after a significant loss. The Elgar sisters are at odds and struggle to maintain their familial bond at the cost of achieving their desired outcome for the Wishbone pipeline project. In real life, thereis always more than just what is on the surface, and Night Rain, Tokyo is much more than the international Wishbone project.
Night Rain, Tokyo is the first book in his political thriller series, and he sets the bar high. Readers will not want to miss the next book, Blind Trust, and the just-released third book, Debt and Doubt.
Congratulations to the First Place Category Winners and the Grand Prize Winner of the CLUE Book Awards for Suspense, Thriller, and Mystery Novels, a division of the 2019 CIBAs.
The CIBAs Search for the Best Suspense Thrillers Novels
Chanticleer International Book Awards is celebrating the best books featuring Suspense, Thrilling Adventure, Detective Work, Private Eye, Police Procedural, and Crime Solving. We enjoy reading them all.
The 2019 CLUE Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the CLUE Grand Prize winner were announced at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference that was broadcast via ZOOM webinar the week of Sept 8 -13, 2020 from the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash.
J.L. Oakley, author of Tree Soldier – Previous Overall Grand Prize Winner announced the 2019 CLUE Book Award Winners.
This is the OFFICIAL 2019 LIST of the CLUE Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the CLUE Grand Prize Winner.
Congratulations to:
John W Feist –Blind Trust
Nancy Adair –RABYA
Janet K. Shawgo –Legacy of Lies
V. & D. Povall –Jackal in the Mirror
Joanne Jaytanie –Salvaging Truth, Hunters & Seekers, Book 1
Marian Exall –A Splintered Step
J.P. Kenna –Joel Emmanuel
The CLUE Book Awards
2019 Grand Prize Winner is
Salvaging Truth by Joanne Jaytanie
This is the badge for the 2018 CLUE Grand Prize Winner – California Sonby Timothy Burgess
How to Enter the CLUE Book Awards?
We are accepting submissions into the2020 CLUE Book Awardsuntil September 30, 2020. After this date, all entries will go into the 2021 CLUE Book Awards.
The 2020 CLUE Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC 21 on April 17, 2021.
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in October. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
If you have any questions, please email info@ChantiReviews.com == we will try our best to reply in 3 or 4 business days.
Brad Oaks and his wife Amaya have no idea what is in store when they answer a call for help from the newly appointed Japanese prime minister in John W. Feist’s second novel, Blind Trust.
The year is 2022, and a mysterious explosion compromises Japan’s electric grid infrastructure (LNG regasification, to be precise). Yuko Kagano’s election as the next prime minister comes with the hope that she will commit to her campaign promise of restoring Japan’s energy structure. However, she must first deal with the criminal activity associated with the previous leader. She needs help. She calls on Brad Oaks and Amaya Mori, his wife, for advice on pipeline and steel strategies. Amaya especially, as the two women have known one another since college, and both are heirs to familial steel companies, the American Elgar Steel and the Japanese Kanawa, respectively.
Brad Oaks gave up his lawyer career a few years back after he rescued Amaya when she was abducted due to her connections with her father’s company. The two fell in love, married, and moved to California. Now, Brad is the executive vice president of Elgar Steel (Please refer to John W. Feist’s first novel in the series, Night Rain, Tokyo). Three years later, they receive a call from Eisuke Tanaka, the commissioner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, who delivers the message that Yuko requests a meeting with them in Tokyo. The call couldn’t have come in a more inconvenient time. Brad and Amaya are critically assessing a possible new season in their marriage: adoption. Placing their plans on hold, they fly to Tokyo unaware that they will be walking into deadly covert schemes to undermine the prime minister.
John Feist blazes a path in his approach to geopolitical suspense. Having ventured into Japanese culture via his past professional connections, Feist understands, firsthand, the underlying and ongoing cultural tension that exists between the Japanese and foreigners in the business sector. That said, Feist’s method of storytelling is not Americanized, which usually follows an often dizzying and fast-paced route. Instead, tension builds through innuendo-rich dialogue scenes between characters as he undergirds his plot with realistic aspects of Japanese culture that is rooted in “nativism” (the revival or perpetuation of an indigenous culture especially in opposition to acculturation, Merriam-Webster).
Feist does an excellent job surrounding Brad and Amaya, his principal characters, with a diverse cast of characters that range from subdued to surly. Each chapter alternates character POVs packed with a handful of red herrings and a plethora of unexpected twists and turns amid political history and the sights, sounds, and smells of a beautiful Asian country.
Blind Trust is a unique and satisfying Political Thriller that closes on a promising note of a sequel.
The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Romance Fiction. The Chatelaine Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
