The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Romance and Women’s Fiction. The Chatelaine Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (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.
These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 CHATELAINE entries to the 2025 Chatelaine Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 Chatelaine Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Chatelaine Book Awards novel competition for Romance and Women’s Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
Allison G. Smith – New Tenant
Amanda Nelson & Lisa-Marie Potter – Just What the Doctor Hired
Ann Dunbar – Áine’s Salvation
Anne M. Beggs – By Arrow and Sword: Book Two Dahlquin Series
Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One: Take 4 Slating Magic Hour
Charlene Tess & Judi Thompson – Angel’s Heart
Crystal Charlotte Cc Lane – Kevin and Katherine in the Next Lifetime
Crystal Charlotte Cc Lane – Shilpa’s Blue Crayon
D.J. Pratt – Prima Nocta: A Mystical Quest for Love
E.L. Deards – The Lavender Blade
Elizabeth Conte – Chosen Mistress
Emily A. Myers – You Can Feel It in the Silence
Eve M Riley – The Escape
Eve M Riley – The Game
Hanna Park – The Scald Crow
Jerry Madden – Steel Valley: Coming of Age in the Ohio Valley in the 1960s a Love Story
Jourdana Webber – Unconventionally Elle
Kathleen Brehony – The Third Act
Kim Gottlieb-Walker – Lenswoman in Love
Kinsey Wiseman – The Election
Lizzie Jenks – Devil in Our Hearts
Louisa West – Gwen Lee and the Trident of Poseidon
Patrick E. Craig – When the Hummingbirds Danced in the Honeysuckle Sky
Rhone Atleshen – Gaslight
S.E. Beathan – Nothing Lost
S.E. Reichert – No Words After I Love You
S.G. Blaise – Eldryan Elders
Sharon Shipley – December and Mae
Shawn Hays and Stephen Hays – What Light Was
Sue C. Dugan – Forever Ever Always
Susan Bagby – Sweet Ridge Hearts
Susan W. Green – Crystal Lake Christmas
Tammy Mannersly – A Garland at Bitterbark Creek
Tasha Zima – The Making of a Storm
Tatiana Mcclintock – Boyband Love Escapades
Tina Sloan – Chasing Czars
Tori Ross – Baked and Burned
Wanda Penalver Bevan – The Rains of Wishton
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
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.
Only 10 days left to submit your books to these CIBA Divisions and embark on a journey to discovery.
The Chanticleer International Book Awards provide ongoing recognition that amplifies authors’ digital footprints through high-traffic website features, social media promotion, newsletter spotlights, and long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year and beyond!
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Chatelaine Awards for Romantic Fiction!
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
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Chatelaine Grand Prize Winner:
The Key
By Jo Morgan Sloan
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Humor and Satire Awards for Satirical and Allegorical Fiction!
Bill Burkland –The Misconceived Conception of a Baby Named Jesus
Julie L. Brown –No One Will Save Us: A novel
Dan Kopcow –Madcap Serenade
Marco Ocram –The Awful Truth About The Name Of The Rose
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Humor and Satire Grand Prize Winner:
The Man Who Saw Seconds
By Alexander Boldizar
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Somerset Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!
Robert Gwaltney –Sing Down the Moon
Ann Bancroft –Almost Family
Christina Boyd –Woman in the Painting
Kay Smith-Blum –Tangles
Anthony Horton –Unpaved
Erika Shepard –Abomination Child
Leslie DeBrock –The Frog-Eyed Gospel, A Texas Exodus
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Somerset and Overall Grand Prize Winner:
Vermilion Harvest- Playtime at the Bagh
By Reenita Malhotra Hora
The CIBAs provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the 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 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 17-19, 2025) where Winners from all 28 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.
It is a truth Universally acknowledged that a Reader in search of a book, must be in want of a good Romance.
Other Divisions may have categories for Romantic themes, but if you want purely Romance, look no further! Historical to Modern, Steamy to Clean, even throw in some adventure, We’ve got it all!
Join us in celebrating These recent Grand Prize Winners of the Chatelaine Award!
The Key
By Jo Morgan Sloan
Our Review of the newest Grand Prize Winner is still upcoming. In the meantime, here is what some Goodreads readers have been saying:
“It’s an adorable read that had me feeling like this: 🥰🥰🥰 basically from the moment I read the dedication until I got to the end (though there were a couple dark moments), and I loved the queer rep, from the members of the DnD group to Tabby and Jax themselves.
I really liked that Tabby’s experience as a trans man was mostly positive. He’s happy with who he is and reading about his feelings brought me a lot of joy. His anxiety over whether or not to tell Jax the truth was so real, I felt it too. And the way Jax feels about his friendship with Tabby is so sweet… ahhhh! The writing just sucked me in and made it so easy to feel all the feels.
Tabby’s relationship with Rob, who is also a trans man, was very interesting. It made me consider some possible advantages and challenges in trans relationships that I never thought about before, and of course it’s great when books give us something new to think about.” – El
“Amazing. This book was described to me as “the gayest book I’ve ever read” and I could not agree more. Right from the start, Sloan’s writing drew me in. With a surprising depth of maturity in their writing for a debut author I quickly found myself swept away. Tabby and Jax stole my heart and keep my giggling and kicking my feet along the way. A truly binge-worthy holiday romance.” -Mandie
“What happens when you and your first love separate on good terms due to distance and you take that chance to become the real version of yourself? And then what happens if years later you really get that second chance? The Key is a beautiful second chance, trans romance with a lot of nerdy flare. Jaxon and Tabby are beautifully complex and well-rounded characters who made me want nothing more than to see them get their happily ever after. The complexities of young love, the incredible vastness and scope of the trans journey and what it means to different people, being bisexual but straight passing, each character brings something new and unique and heart breaking to the story that just made the story that much more touching. Fun read, beautiful story.” -Samantha
In this rich, absorbing tale, Gail Avery Halverson continues the remarkable saga of Lady Catherine Abbott and Simon McKensie that began with the multiple award-winning novels, The Boundary Stone and The Skeptical Physick. Sweeping us from a quaint village in England to Colonial Boston and to the beautiful evils of 17th century Barbados, Gail Avery Halverson has once again written a truly compelling and unforgettable novel.
After a heartbreaking tragedy, Catherine yearns for the safety and familiarity England, but when a free, black woman attempts to accomplish the unthinkable, Catherine is forced to decide where her future lies.
When a daring investment in the lucrative 17th century Barbados sugar trade takes a horrifying turn, Simon must at last set his dedication for medicine and scientific discovery aside and face the true ugliness of slavery.
Joining the multitude of courageous souls in the first waves of the Great Migration from England to America, Simon and Catherine McKensie lay witness to the forging of a new country, the first seeds of violent rebellion against the Crown, and the bitter tentacles of a slave trade just beginning to take root.
Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man By Reenita Malhotra Hora
Master storyteller Reenita Malhotra Hora’s YA romance Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man takes us on a charming journey through the life of one teen, Ila Isham.
Hora introduces Ila and her best friend Deepali, two boy-crazy teens on a summer quest. Readers will fall in love with the smart, sassy, angst-filled, rebellious Ila. A typical teenage girl, Ila lives in Mumbai with her mom and Sakkubai, their house manager. Ila’s mother calls her obsessed, but that seems unfair. Is she obsessed just because her every waking minute is spent thinking of Ali Zafar, famous pop icon, singer, and heartthrob? Or is she obsessed with fellow classmate Dev?
No, Ila couldn’t be taken with Dev because he’s one of three young men that her best friend Deepali is juggling in her summer experiment of exploring her “feminine mystique.” This turn of phrase becomes just one of many opportunities for Hora’s humor to shine as Ila remarks, “That’s a book by Gloria Steinem . . . no Betty Friedan.” Deepali’s response? “Yaar. Don’t be so literal.” The delightful balance between Ila’s book smarts versus Deepali’s street smarts carries us through Hora’s expertly crafted story.
Alex Sirotkin’s debut novel, The Long Desert Road, navigates the emotional arcs of life in contrast with the greater expanse of the cosmos. Here a young woman must face her addictions while the people around her try to move beyond her backlash.
We meet Henry Spinoza, a 44-year-old quirky science writer. He ponders his life as half over, looks for the right woman, and wonders if there isn’t more to existence.
For twenty years, Henry, a science writer, has been researching a non-fiction book on the universe that he intends to write. Henry’s feeling “bored, boring, and budget-conscious…the trifecta of gloom,” as he puts it. But in the middle of this ennui, his sister-in-law invites him to dinner, along with her divorced friend, Isabel Dalton, an attorney, and “the setup is afoot.”
In When the Wind Chimes by international best-selling author Mary Ting, Kate Summers wants to make this Christmas extra-special for her older sister, Abby, and four-year-old nephew.
A year ago, she’d given up Christmas with her family to spend the holiday with her boyfriend, Jayden, whom she had caught cheating on her the next day. Not only is she hoping to erase that memory, but she also has another even more important reason to make this Christmas special. A few months after her disastrous break-up with Jayden, her brother-in-law, Steve, passed away from cancer, so Abby and Tyler will be spending their first Christmas alone.
After taking a leave from her job as a graphic designer in LA, Kate flies to Poipu, Kauai, determined to make this an amazing holiday, but on her way to her sister’s house, she meets a mysterious man, who gives up his cab for her. Kate can’t get the handsome stranger out of her head, and when she sees him again in her sister’s art gallery–and destroys his expensive shirt with paint–she is both mortified and excited.
Remember to add your next reads to your StoryGraph or Goodreads account! Now that you’re set on your next five reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Chatelaine 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!
The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards (The CCDAs) for Fiction recognizes artistic excellence across genre in great cover design. The CCDAs are a new Award Division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).
Our design is inspired by books designed by the incomparable Coraline Bickford-Smith. Her simple, beautiful, and evocative designs do so much to make the book work as a visual ambassador, capturing the essence of story and compelling potential readers to pick it up, click on it, or share it with others. A well-designed cover signals professionalism, sets expectations for your genre, and serves as a powerful marketing tool to stand out in both digital and physical spaces.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring clear genres, audience, time periods, typography, and longevity across genres of Historical Fiction, Romance, Literary, Satire, Speculative Fiction, and Youth Reads.
These titles have moved forward in the Long List of the 2025 CCDA Fiction entries to the 2025 CCDA Fiction SHORT LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 CCDA Fiction Semi-Finalists. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2025 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards novel competition for Fiction Books!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works:
AJ Humphreys – Trip a Psychological Horror Novel
Andrew D.H. Moore – Children of Solo
Anne Polli – Mason the Magnificent
Catherine M Mathis – Ines the Queens of Portugal Trilogy
Charlie Robinson Cover by Ruth Noble – Bow Tie Sex
Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
Debbie Black Cover by Kelly Black – Deetjen’s Closet a Quest for Magic
Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
Ellis K. Popa – Dawn To Dusk
Erika Lynn Adams – Allie’s Adventure on the Wonder
George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
Glen Dahlgren – The Wrath of Order
Gregg Brandalise – The Death of Us All
JL Spears – Daemon Protocol
Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
KD Straus – To Be True
Leslie Liautaud- Butterfly Pinned
Margaret Porter – Sequins and Starlight
Maria Giuseppa – R&R a Feast of Words
Mark A. Gibson – Roses in December
McKinley Aspen – Cogitatio Shadows in the Wind Book Two
Michael Bailey – Sweet Hunger
Miki Taylor – Bentley Makes a Dump Cake
Once Upon a Dance – A Tail of Twirls
Richard G Nixon – The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon the Scottish Borderlands 1508-1509
Sarah V Barnes – She Who Rides Horses a Saga of the Ancient Steppe Book One
Sarah V. Barnes – A Clan Chief’s Daughter
Sean Hagerty – Cabal
Sue C. Dugan – Forever Ever Always
Susan Rogers – Warrior Pose
Sydney Roubian – Scarecrow Finds a Heart
Tamar Anolic – The Keepers
Theresa Janson – Reservations a Samantha Wright Crime Series
T.O. Paine – The Crisis
Travis Davis – War on the Porch
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.
The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Romantic Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Jo Morgan Sloan’s book, The Key will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Chatelaine contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!
In a politically tense Amritsar, India, Aruna, an Anglo-Indian schoolteacher, and Ayaz, a feisty Muslim law student, fall in love only to discover that courting openly is easier said than done. Not only are they from different communities, but his political activism during the tumultuous year of 1919 comes at the cost of their romance.
Against the deadline of a military order, Aruna, who is only nineteen, must find her lover and warn him about Colonel Dyer’s impending attack on Jallianwala Bagh. An attack that is eventually heard around the world.
Playtime at the Bagh during Baishakhi is a metaphor for Colonel Dyer’s rain of bullets released upon thousands on the one fateful day of April 13th, 1919.
Love, hate, denial, and betrayal are wrapped inside a single love story capturing today’s hope with yesterday’s despair.
Heir to a crumbling Bronze Age kingdom, where power and conquest define a man’s worth, a young man struggles to forge his own path against the grim destiny scripted for him. A girl born in jail, but raised in a world where tranquility and duty reign, hesitates to abandon her sheltered life for a future filled with uncertainty.
Bound by expectations they did not choose, these two unlikely lovers—drawn from the pages of ancient myth and timeless drama—dare to challenge the fate assigned to them. Together, they must navigate the perilous world of royal ambition, rigid hierarchies, and a collapsing empire that leaves no room for rebellion.
Their journey into second chances is a daring dance between love and duty, fate and free will, survival and sacrifice. To be together, they must confront the full force of tradition and power—and decide whether love alone is enough to change the story history demands they follow.
From Chanticleer:
Edged in Purpleby 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.
Swansea Station – 1947 The war is over, and with hopes of reconstruction beginning, rationing ending, and lives starting over, Drew awaits the decision regarding a new position with the railway. But mystery and mayhem arrive aboard an afternoon train carrying the new vicar, Liam O’Neill, and a cadre of visitors from Ireland. Drew’s attention is once again focused on unraveling the threads of revenge and solving another murder. The unfolding of an unexpected relationship with the young vicar proves another mystery for Drew to unravel. This is the second book in the award-winning Drew Davies Railway Mystery Series.
A second chance romance, Cinderella story…but for the king, not the prince.
Luis, king of the exotic island country of Caleva, is stunned to discover that he has a daughter he never knew existed. He is determined to bring his newfound child into his life and that of the royal family. To do that, he knows he must win over her adoptive mother.
Eve, single-mom vet tech in the heartland of Iowa, is concerned when a mysterious stranger sets up a secret meeting. The shocking truth that is revealed upends her life, as she and her adopted daughter are swept off to Caleva and wrapped in the luxurious, privileged world of royalty.
But there’s an unexpected complication: passion flares between Eve and Luis.
She isn’t queen material, and he has sworn never to wed again, so their affair can have no happily-ever-after…or can it?
If you were rooting for Queen Clarisse to find her true love in The Princess Diaries, you’ll love Eve and Luis’s story. Read Royal Caleva: Luis to feel all the feels of two single parents trying to protect their shared daughter, while struggling to find their own happiness with each other.
When Sheriff Heath Royal seeks relief for his tormented conscience by attending church services for the first time since his youth, he is beckoned to an empty seat by the wealthy, recently widowed Rebekka Korhenen Brando, and both are immediately, although unwittingly, stirred by an unintentional rekindling of the feelings that almost led to a marriage between them twenty-five years earlier.
Gossipy church members and malicious tongue waggers from the small community of Shady Spring, Texas, watch in amusement and sometimes in horror as the former lovers struggle through a series of challenges and near-death experiences to determine whether the forces of evil or the roundabout intervention of God Himself will allow them a life together.
Standing in their way is a demented ranch foreman convinced that he and Rebekka are destined for each other. Heath’s dubious future as a lawman, and grudge-bearing outlaws who want to put the sheriff into his grave. The solutions may be divined under the sheltering limbs of a magnificent old oak tree where Heath and Rebekka seek solace and open their hearts to each other.
What would you do to get back to the person you love?
Noelle Montgomery is used to battle. As a kindergarten teacher, she fights germs, intrusive questions, and ‘the wiggles’ on a daily basis. She’s not afraid of anything…except asking her boyfriend, Griffin, what comes next.
When a visit to a friend forces the issue, Noelle takes a walk to clear her head and stumbles onto a gruesome scene. She’s the only person who can help convict rising drug lord, Luis Duque, of murder, and escaping his wrath is the one battle she knows she can’t win. When offered witness protection, Noelle gives up on her unknown future with Griffin and starts over with a brand-new life.
Griffin Daniels has a ring in his pocket the night he’s told his girlfriend is killed. After years of careful preparation, his dreams, and the woman he loves are gone in an instant. He forces a confrontation with Duque’s gang and learns that Noelle may still be alive. Using his tech savvy and the help of his best friend, Griffin finds Noelle as she races across the country to testify by Christmas. But…Duque’s been looking for her, too.
Reunited and still in danger, Noelle and Griffin must work together to survive Duque and find their way back to love.
Chasing Noelle is an emotionally-driven contemporary romance with elements of suspense and a touch of Christmas magic.
Rebecca Young Ackerman was raised to be a prominent lady in Boston society in the late 1800s. Being the dutiful daughter, albeit young and naive, she always did as her father said. When he marries her off to a man of his choosing, she realizes how fast dreams of marital bliss can fall apart. Fearing for her life, an unexpected telegram regarding her brother gives her the opportunity she needs to take her boys and flee from her narcissistic husband. Always looking over her shoulder, her fear is real. Traveling across the country, a chance encounter with a certain gentleman finds herself wishing for a better life.
Nathaniel ‘Nate’ Burns In 2016, Nathaniel Burns, a well-respected police officer serving the tough neighborhood of Roxbury in Boston, finds his partner and himself answering a domestic violence call one airless summer night. Events unfold quickly, and he suddenly finds life as he once knew it, coming to a tragic end. Due to his mother’s ‘Celtic Gift,’ Nathaniel is transported back to 1875 to begin life anew. What he didn’t expect was to fall in love with a lady in peril in the Yuma desert of 1880. Both long for a new life, but can they leave their past behind to find love?
Romance and women’s fiction have the remarkable ability to capture the full spectrum of human emotion, from the exhilarating rush of first love to the complex dynamics of family relationships and personal growth. These genres celebrate the stories that matter most to readers seeking authentic representation, emotional depth, and the affirming power of love conquering obstacles. The Chatelaine Awards for Romance and Women’s Fiction honor authors who craft narratives that reflect the beautiful diversity of love stories, recognizing voices that speak to hearts across all backgrounds and experiences.
Celebrating Our Grand Prize Winner!
We’re delighted to celebrate our 2024 Chatelaine Division Grand Prize Winner, Jo Morgan Sloan for their compelling novel The Key. This extraordinary work explores a unique second-chance romance between two men who were high school sweethearts, who are separated at a young age. Years later, as adults in San Francisco, they reconnect through Tabby’s LGBT D&D group, but Jax doesn’t recognize Tabby due to his transition.
What makes The Key exceptional is its sensitive exploration of identity, love, and the courage required for authentic relationships. Sloan masterfully navigates the emotional complexity of Tabby’s situation as he becomes Jax’s confidant while hiding the truth that he is Jax’s missing first love. The novel addresses contemporary issues of LGBTQ+ representation with nuance and heart, showing how love can transcend identity while acknowledging the real fears and challenges faced by transgender individuals. This powerful story demonstrates the strength found in chosen family, authentic friendships, and the possibility of love finding a way back to itself. Sloan will receive a Chanticleer Editorial Review and be invited to participate in an Author Interview, offering deeper insights into their approach to inclusive romance storytelling.
The Chatelaine Awards celebrate the rich tapestry of romance and women’s fiction, honoring stories that speak to every heart:
Contemporary Romance features modern love stories that navigate today’s world, from workplace romances to online dating adventures, capturing how love flourishes in our current cultural moment.
Historical Romance transports readers to bygone eras where period details and historical context add richness to timeless love stories, from Regency ballrooms to Victorian drawing rooms and beyond.
Romantic Adventure & Suspense proves that love and danger make an irresistible combination, featuring couples who fall in love while solving mysteries, escaping peril, or embarking on thrilling journeys together.
Inspirational/Restorative/Clean showcases love stories that uplift and inspire, focusing on emotional intimacy, personal growth, and relationships that heal and transform without explicit content.
Romantic Steamy/Sensual celebrates passion and desire, featuring love stories that embrace the full physical and emotional intensity of romantic relationships with heat and authenticity.
Broken Faces
By Chris Karlsen and Jennifer Conner
A towering achievement, Broken Faces: Historical Romance Based on True WWI Events by Chris Karlsen and Jennifer A Conner follows two young people who, for different reasons, embark on a journey to restore the self-esteem torn from wounded soldiers by bloody conflict.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 plunged Europe into one of the most horrific wars in history. Daily British papers featured articles about a bleak future. London quickly felt the effects of the war, with stores closing and basic goods in limited supply.
Abigail Belorman, a young American woman and talented sculptor, had relocated to Britain with her newlywed husband Theo, the US ambassador to England. Pained by Theo’s emotional neglect, Abigail finds comfort in visiting injured soldiers who had returned from the front to a nearby hospital. Each of the young men there has a story to tell and wounds to recover from. Some, however, suffered irreparable damage to their faces, along with any chance at a normal life taken from them, and they will be forced into isolation.
The citizens of the three fairy kingdoms clash, forced to live shoulder-to-shoulder alongside ungoverned Outliers. In Summer Cyclone, fourth book of Alan B. Gibson’s Magic at Myers Beach series, unassuming tea-shop manager Stefán tries to find love while keeping all of fairy society from fracturing.
The three fairy kings, Theos, Zsombor, and Christophe, evacuate their people to Myers Beach. It’s only here that they have any chance of recreating fairy dust after their old sources had been poisoned, and saving every fairy life. They take in the Outliers, remnants of a fallen kingdom, and at first find good will between the groups. But with thousands of fairies moving in, they have to keep everyone on a short leash or else risk humans catching wind of their new neighbors. Resentment of these strange Outliers builds.
Stefán, a close confidant to Theos, struggles to keep anti-Outlier sentiment at bay with the help of some enigmatic and knowledgeable new friends. Rumors of him giving the Outliers special treatment grow stronger as some fairies begin to suspect that he’s actually one of them.
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.
If you’re looking for a beach read with supernatural intrigue, A Circle of Stars by Erin Lark Maples will draw you in from page one. Ember “EJ” James, a newly-arrived stranger in the strange land of Prescott, AZ, immediately begins navigating unfamiliar territory, both physically and metaphysically.
Forty-something EJ doesn’t know it yet, but when she agreed to take over her deceased uncle Hollis’s shop in Prescott, she stumbled into a world of magical realism. The plant shop, as it turns out, is more than just that—it hides secret access to other realms, which supernatural beings will go to great lengths to access. Much like the plants in the shop, this tale is dark, tangled, and intriguing beyond belief.
Anyone else may have felt helpless. But EJ remains upbeat, charmingly self-deprecating, and resourceful to the end. There’s a great joy in seeing how she works through her new surroundings, unfazed by (almost) everything they throw her way.
The 2022 Laramie Grand Prize Winner and a Chatelaine First Place Winner!
Guarded Heartsby 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.
These reviews represent just a glimpse of the passionate storytelling and emotional depth waiting to be discovered in today’s romance and women’s fiction.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the exceptional romance and women’s fiction we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Chatelaine Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous heartwarming stories as they advanced through our competition tiers. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.
Don’t Let Your Love Story Go Untold!
The romance and women’s fiction market continues to flourish as readers seek authentic, diverse love stories that reflect their own experiences and dreams. Whether your work features contemporary couples navigating modern relationships, historical lovers defying social conventions, adventurous partners facing danger together, or any other expression of love’s infinite possibilities, the Chatelaine Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your storytelling deserves.
Romance has the unique power to affirm hope, celebrate diversity, and remind us that love truly can conquer all. From sweet, inspirational stories that warm the heart to passionate tales that ignite the imagination, every thoughtfully crafted romance has the potential to become a reader’s new favorite escape. Don’t let your love story remain untold. Submit to the Chatelaine Awards today and join the celebrated authors who’ve found their devoted readership through Chanticleer!
The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards (The CCDAs) for Fiction recognizes artistic excellence across genre in great cover design. The CCDAs are a new Award Division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).
Our design is inspired by books designed by the incomparable Coraline Bickford-Smith. Her simple, beautiful, and evocative designs do so much to make the book work as a visual ambassador, capturing the essence of story and compelling potential readers to pick it up, click on it, or share it with others. A well-designed cover signals professionalism, sets expectations for your genre, and serves as a powerful marketing tool to stand out in both digital and physical spaces.
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring clear genres, audience, time periods, typography, and longevity across genres of Historical Fiction, Romance, Literary, Satire, Speculative Fiction, and Youth Reads.
These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 CCDA Fiction entries to the 2025 CCDA Fiction LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 CCDA Fiction Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.
We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards novel competition for Fiction Books!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works:
AJ Humphreys – Trip a Psychological Horror Novel
Andrew D.H. Moore – Children of Solo
Anne Polli – Mason the Magnificent
McKinley Aspen – Cogitatio Shadows in the Wind Book Two
Catherine M Mathis – Ines the Queens of Portugal Trilogy
Charlie Robinson Cover by Ruth Noble – Bow Tie Sex
Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
Debbie Black Cover by Kelly Black – Deetjen’s Closet a Quest for Magic
Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
Ellis K. Popa – Dawn To Dusk
Erika Lynn Adams – Allie’s Adventure on the Wonder
Gary Gabel – The Constitution Kids
George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
Glen Dahlgren – The Wrath of Order
Gregg Brandalise – The Death of Us All
JL Spears – Daemon Protocol
Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
KD Straus – To Be True
Leslie Liautaud- Butterfly Pinned
Margaret Porter – Sequins and Starlight
Maria Giuseppa – R&R a Feast of Words
Mark A. Gibson – Roses in December
Michael Bailey – Sweet Hunger
Michele Sayre – Darke Realms One Tough Temporary She Alpha Arcana 2
Miki Taylor – Bentley Makes a Dump Cake
Once Upon a Dance – A Tail of Twirls
Richard G Nixon – The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon the Scottish Borderlands 1508-1509
Sarah V Barnes – She Who Rides Horses a Saga of the Ancient Steppe Book One
Sarah V. Barnes – A Clan Chief’s Daughter
Sean Hagerty – Cabal
Sue C. Dugan – Cat-Atonic
Sue C. Dugan – Forever Ever Always
Susan Rogers – Warrior Pose
Sydney Roubian – Scarecrow Finds a Heart
Tamar Anolic – The Keepers
Theresa Janson – Reservations a Samantha Wright Crime Series
T.O. Paine – The Crisis
Travis Davis – War on the Porch
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
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.
Only 2 weeks 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 Cover Design Awards are still open!
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2024 Cover Design Award for Fiction!
Ann Phillipp –Grand Theft Death
C.L. Olsen –Old Crabby Turtle
Deborah Swenson –Till My Last Breath
Laura C. Rader –Hatfield 1677
Gail Noble-Sanderson–The Book of Rules
Margaret Porter –A Change of Location
Mark A. Gibson –A Song That Never Ends
Travis Davis- One of Four
R.W. Meek- The Dream Collector Book 1; Sabine and Sigmund Freud
And a huge round of applause for the 2024 Cover Design Fiction Grand Prize Winner:
Luna, Rhone and Stone Book 2 by Strider S.R. Klusman
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2024 Cover Design Awards for Non-Fiction!
Anne Gately – Sunburnt: A Memoir of Sun, Surf and Skin Cancer
Kasey J. Claytor–Finding The Light: Navigating Dementia with My Son
Kathryn Caraway –Unfollow Me
Linda M. Lockwood –Sky Ranch: Reared in the High Country
Marianna Marlowe –Portrait of a Feminist: A Memoir in Essays
And a huge round of applause for the 2024 Cover Design Awards Non-Fiction Grand Prize Winner:
Teaching in the Dark by Genet Simone
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 2026) where Winners from all 28 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.
The Cover Design Awards recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in every genre. The Grand Prize Winner, Strider Klusman’s book, Luna will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Cover Design contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!
Hannah Ballard’s most successful relationship: her career.
Her superpower is an uncanny ability to discover perfect movie settings while avoiding the limelight herself. She’s involved in pre-production for a film based on a bestselling historical novel when a chance meeting with an aristocratic landowner leads her to Somerset and his estate in picturesque Milver Vale—the ideal backdrop for a period drama. Martin Latimer, Marquess of Milverston, believes the release of a high-profile motion picture can increase tourism and bolster the local economy. And he hopes to spend more time with its intriguing location manager.
After Hannah suffers a professional setback, proximity and mutual passion propel the couple into an exhilarating affair. But Martin soon becomes a magnet for the scandal-hungry media, forcing Hannah into a painful and damaging decision.
Powering through heartbreak is hard. Especially when coping with unemployment—and dealing with members of her fractured family. For their protection, she must part from the nobleman asking her to stay with him. Who makes her believe that, at long last, she actually could be falling in love.
From New York Harbor to the battlefields of France, relive World War I through the eyes of an unknown soldier, as told through his diary. See how the 100-year-old diary brings a father and his estranged son back together by retracing his experiences fighting in the battlefields of France in 1917 – 1918 to his final resting place—the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
His diary was found next to his lifeless body by a young French girl who witnessed his death and bravery as he tried to protect his fellow soldiers. How the unknown soldier felt and what he experienced fighting on the Western Front in World War One —his day-to-day struggles and life as a private and then as an NCO. As he led his men into combat. The pride and fear he felt and the overwhelming stress he encountered, sometimes frozen with fear from the sheer brutality of modern warfare from all sides. His bravery in combat and leadership in training and on the battlefield. How he coped as he watched his fellow soldiers, battle buddies, and friends die one after another. Some from battlefield injuries from conventional weapons and gas attacks, but also diseases from the unsanitary conditions of trench warfare and influenza. His only wish was to come out alive, a wish that would never come true.
But return home, he did.
From Chanticleer:
One of Four: World War One Through the Eyes of an Unknown Soldier by Travis Davis is a compassionate and intimate portrait of the tenuous and unforgiving First World War, as shown through the eyes of an American soldier on France’s front lines. Based on real people and events in 1918 France, One of Four begins with a young French girl, Camille, who stumbles upon a diary lying next to an unknown American soldier. He was killed among his comrades in a German ambush near the banks of the Aire River, as he tried to protect his fellow soldiers. When Camille comes of age, she leaves her hometown to seek a better life in Paris. There, she is killed after joining a German resistance group. But before her death, she tucked the soldier’s diary in her Bible and hid it in a local bookstore.
Decades later, a man by the name of Walter travels to France with his son, Alex, to whom he’d become estranged after the painful divorce from Alex’s mother. He hopes this will be a journey of healing and exploration and that their time together will revive their shaky relationship. While there, Alex purchases the Bible left by Camille many years ago. By reading the hidden diary entries of the soldier together, Alex and Walter’s relationships takes an unexpected turn.
Patricia Schuster acquires both independence and furniture polish after inheriting her grandmother’s house and antique business. Her new life in the Northern California town of Lakeville is in jeopardy, however, when she is falsely arrested for stealing a rare 1950’s Cadillac and is blackmailed by Jimmy, a toothpick-wielding used-car salesman. When the real car thief ends up dead, she turns to her grandmother’s friends—four women in their golden years who play fast and loose with the law. But how far over the line will Patricia have to go to find a killer and clear her name?
From Chanticleer:
Grand Theft Death is best read when you need a break from reality. Don’t read it if your two feet are firmly placed in all things serious. In fact, don’t read it if you areeven thinking of going to the serious side of life. This book is as realistic as a Saturday morning cartoon – and twice the fun.
The characters are delightfully quirky, the situation fun and surprising, and the action as snappy as popping corn. The heroine, Patty Schuster, is kind, sincere, wry, and unique, at the same time so easygoing that she can roll with the endless punches the plot throws at her and carry on with a good heart.
Good thing, since the plot treats Patty like a punching bag.
She starts out in jail, falsely arrested for car theft, then gets tangled up with thieves, spies, forgers, smugglers, bad cops, good cops, sleazy hoteliers, double-crossing gangsters, nosy neighbors, felonious grannies, and divorcing parents—not to mention murder of the friend in trouble she tried to help, which led to her arrest.
Colonist Benjamin Waite, a devoted husband, father, and skilled military scout in King Philip’s War, reluctantly obeys orders to guide a brutal attack against a camp of Algonquian Natives.
After the catastrophic event, Benjamin is burdened with guilt and longs for peace. But the Algonquians, led by the revered sachem Ashpelon, retaliate with vengeance upon Ben’s Massachusetts town of Hatfield, capturing over a dozen colonists, including his pregnant wife Martha and their three young daughters.
Hatfield 1677 is a tale of three interwoven yet diverging journeys of strength and survival. Benjamin is driven by love and remorse to rescue his family; Martha is forced into captivity and desperately striving to protect her children; and Ashpelon is willing to risk everything to ensure the safety and freedom of his people.
Based on the lives of the author’s ancestors, this riveting and unforgettable novel gives voice to three vastly different experiences in North America during a time before the creation of the Declaration of Independence. Then, the land was but a wilderness and a battleground; equality was not yet perceived as self-evident; and liberty and happiness were nothing more than dangerous pursuits.
For over three hundred years, that’s what the Hamilton family has called a shrinking swath of farmland in the Appalachian foothills of South Carolina.
Home.
That’s the failing tobacco farm where Walter and Maggie Hamilton choose to raise their three children. Walter has big plans to make the farm more profitable, but his plans are interrupted by World War II and family heartbreak. Walter returns from the war a changed man and finds Maggie, too, has changed, neither of them for the better. But at least their family is together again at…
Home.
More than anything, that’s where their eight-year-old son, Jimmy Hamilton, wants to be. However, after an unspeakable tragedy, he’s sent away from the only life he’s ever known to live with a kindly uncle in North Carolina.
Home.
That’s where Jimmy is finally going to be, unless fate has plans of its own…
A Song that Never Endsis the first installment of the Hamilton Place series, an epic family saga extending from the Great Depression to present day. Through war and peace, love and loss, triumph and tragedy, follow the Hamilton family on their journey from a run-down farm in South Carolina, through the jungles of Vietnam, to the top of the world in New York City, and beyond the gardens of stone at Arlington.
From Chanticleer:
A Song That Never Ends, the first volume of a two-part series by Mark A. Gibson, opens a dramatic fictional saga of the Hamilton family from the late 1930s Depression era, to 1967 and the Vietnam conflict. Here against the backdrop of a South Carolina tobacco farm, we come to witness a family in turmoil.
The calm and reserved Walter Hamilton and his rebellious, impulsive wife Maggie strive to build a life and raise a family. But the couple is tested by a series of misfortunes—miscarriages and stillbirths, and Walter’s enlistment during WWII leaving him with guilt-induced PTSD as he deals with the memory of fallen comrades.
At the center of this heartfelt story is James, the middle child, who at the tender age of eight is forced from his home due to a horrific accident and sent to live with a widower uncle.
Wales, 1946. In the beautiful seaside village of Mumbles, Drew Davies, a young Welsh woman, is determined to pursue a career in a profession that has been historically denied to women. Living with her grandparents in their charming stone cottage, Drew’s quiet life changes course suddenly when murder, espionage, and a cast of scoundrels and saints enter the picture, but not even murder can stop Drew in her tracks. This is the first historical cozy mystery in Gail’s new Drew Davies Railway Mysteries series.
Most bullies are hurting somewhere inside. This magical and heartwarming tale about an old giant sea turtle and a tiny little fish teaches us about BRAVERY, TRUST, FORGIVENESS, and HOPE. And to HELP others in need, no matter how different we are.
This is the story of an old sea turtle with a rusty fish hook stuck in his foot! He is quite crabby about his unfortunate situation, and likes to terrorize the little sea creatures. One day he catches little fishy, and plans to have him for dinner until little fishy tells the old turtle that if he will trust him and let him go, he will come back with his friend Mr. Swordfish, and he can saw that old rusty fish hook off so he will feel better!
A portion of the profits from this book are donated to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation center.
The Dream Collectorimmerses the reader into the exciting milieu of late 19th Century Paris when art and medicine were in the throes of revolution, art turning to Impressionism, medicine turning to psychology. In 1885, Julie Forette, a self-educated woman from Marseilles, finds employment at the infamous Salpêtrière, hospital and asylum to over five thousand disabled, demented and abandoned women, a walled city ruled by the famed neurologist and arrogant director, Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot.
Julie Forette forms a friendship with the young, visiting intern Sigmund Freud who introduces her to the altering-conscious power of cocaine. Together they pursue the hidden potential of hypnotism and dream interpretation. After Freud receives the baffling case of the star hysteric, Sabrine Weiss, he is encouraged by Julie to experiment with different modes of treatment, including “talking sessions.” Their urgent quest is to find a cure for Sabrine, Princess of the Hysterics, before Dr. Charcot resorts to the radical removal of her ovaries.
In Paris, Julie finds a passion for the new art emerging, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and forms friendships with the major artists of the period, including Pissarro, Monet, and Degas. Julie becomes intimately involved with the reclusive Cezanne only to be seduced by the “Peruvian Savage” Paul Gauguin. Julie is the eponymous ‘Dream Collector’ collecting the one unforgettable, soul-defining dream of the major historical figures of the period.
Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Breath, Book 1 of the Desert Hills Trilogy
A 2021 Chatelaine First Place Winner!
Emily Sweeney, MD, is a vibrant young trauma physician at a major Seattle medical center who is tragically taken from the comfort of her 21st Century life. Suddenly, dropped into the 1880s unforgiving frontier, she is determined to survive, or die all over again. Using her knowledge and skills as a physician, Emily struggles to save a stranger in the desert hills of the Arizona Territory. In the end, can she return to her previous life and leave behind the man she’s come to love?
Caleb Young, a once-prominent Boston attorney in 1880, is haunted by his past filled with lies and deception. Hoping to outrun his demons, he willingly leaves his privileged life behind. Heading straight into unforeseen trouble, he is shot for revenge and left to die in the desert hills. Now, dependent on a beautiful woman who appears out of nowhere using her hands and heart to save him, will he finally have a reason to live.
Two lives forged out of truth and trust, can their love survive, or will it take its last breath?
For a country kid, the odd styles and new-fangled contraptions of the steam era were beyond Rhone’s comfort zone, but he was here to do a job, if he managed to graduate from the OPR Academy.
Using his front as a nobleman’s son, Rhone and his unique partner, Stone, are sent to an easy first assignment, the little harbor town of Corgy. But he quickly discovers the mayor dislikes him and that pirates are hounding the shipping trade. With one disliking him, and he disliking them both, things weren’t starting off well. Unfortunately, it was his job to fix problems and he was glad he had Stone along to help.
Only when he met Bella, the fiery waitress at The Common House, and Captain Black, of The Backwater Mistress, did he find his answer and an entirely uplifting experience you won’t want to miss.
From Chanticleer:
Luna, the second book in Strider S.R. Klusman’s YA Rhone and Stone Series, follows Rhone and his alien partner Stone as they develop a ship that can sail through the air.
The two train to become agents for the Office of Public Recrimination, urged to join by their friend – and now boss – Aundrea. Rhone struggles through training with the help of his trusty partner, but a much more difficult test remains before them – their first assignment.
Aundrea sends them to Corgy, a port town, without explaining their mission. But it doesn’t take long for Rhone to encounter troubles from shore and sea alike.
He and Stone meet Mayor Dugan, who takes an instant dislike for Rhone, posing as a wealthy merchant’s son. But it’s his front, designed so by the ladies of the OPR, and commands a great deal of respect and authority from the locals, if not Bella. Sometimes it’s difficult not to forget his actual purpose for being at Corgy. As an agent of the OPR, he must solve the town’s greatest problem, a rash of pirate attacks on Corgy’s vital ocean-borne trade; if they continue, Corgy won’t survive.
The submissions for the 2025 Cover Design Awards – CCDAs – are underway, and both Fiction and Non-Fiction divisions close on July 31, 2025!
In the three seconds it takes you to read this sentence, a potential reader has already decided whether your book is worth their attention. That’s the brutal reality of today’s marketplace: your cover has exactly three seconds to communicate genre, grab attention, and compel someone to pick up your book or click that buy button.
The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards celebrate the visual art of storytelling—recognizing the designers, publishers, and authors who understand that powerful cover design isn’t just decoration, it’s marketing. Whether displayed 50 feet tall at a trade show or reduced to a thumbnail on Amazon, your cover is your book’s most important piece of retail real estate.
The 5-Element Formula for Cover Success
Every winning cover must instantly communicate five critical elements:
Genre – Is it clearly science fiction, romance, mystery, or a memoir within those crucial three seconds?
Target Audience – Does it speak to young adults, literary fiction readers, business professionals, or general trade audiences?
Mood – Suspenseful, romantic, humorous, dark, or inspirational—the emotional tone must be unmistakable.
Timeframe – Contemporary, historical, futuristic, or period-specific settings should be immediately apparent.
Place/Culture – Whether it’s small-town America, ancient Rome, or outer space, location context sells books.
As Chanticleers founder Kiffer Brown says: “Effective covers sell the first book. The content between the covers sells the second book.”
Celebrating Our First ever 2024 Grand Prize Winners for the CCDAs!
Fiction Grand Prize Winner: Luna by Strider Klusman
This YA steampunk adventure cover perfectly exemplifies winning design—immediately communicating its genre through Victorian-inspired mechanical elements, targeting young adult readers with dynamic character positioning, and establishing a fantastical mood that promises adventure. The cover tells potential readers exactly what they’re getting: imaginative steampunk storytelling for the YA market.
Non-Fiction Grand Prize Winner: Teaching in the Dark by Genét Simone
This powerful memoir cover demonstrates how non-fiction design can convey both emotional impact and genre clarity. The visual elements immediately signal this as narrative non-fiction while the mood suggests a serious, transformational story that will resonate with educators and readers interested in social justice themes.
Both winners will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. They’ll also be invited to participate in Chanticleer 10-Question Interviews and receive featured coverage across our promotional platforms.
Design Categories That Drive Sales
Fiction Categories:
Literary/Contemporary/Satire – Sophisticated design for discerning readers
Romance – Emotional connection and genre expectations
Historical Fiction – Period authenticity with modern appeal
Supernatural & Speculative Fiction – Otherworldly elements that intrigue
Suspense/Thriller/Mysteries – Tension and danger in visual form
Youth Reads – Age-appropriate design that appeals to young readers and their parents
Non-Fiction Categories:
Narrative Non-Fiction Works – Story-driven design for memoir, biography, and true stories
Advisory/How-To/Guides – Clear, professional design that builds trust and expertise
Looking at Cover Excellence
Check out some of the outstanding cover designs we’ve celebrated recently that showcase the perfect marriage of artistic vision and market savvy!
These covers represent the gold standard: designs that work whether they’re displayed in bookstores, featured in online retailers, or showcased at book fairs and conferences.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the exceptional cover designs we receive every year. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
Your cover design deserves recognition in an industry where visual impact drives sales. From indie authors investing in professional design to major publishers showcasing their best work, the Cover Design Awards celebrate the artistry that makes books impossible to ignore.
Your Cover is Your Silent Salesperson
In bookstores, at trade shows, on digital platforms your cover works 24/7 to sell your book. Whether you’re a designer proud of your visual storytelling, a publisher showcasing your best releases, or an author who invested in professional design, the Cover Design Awards provide the recognition that turns great design into marketing momentum.
You know you want it…
Don’t let your cover blend into the crowd—the deadline is July 31, 2025!
Submit to the Cover Design Awards today and make your book impossible to ignore!
The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards (The CCDAs) for Fiction recognizes artistic excellence across genre in great cover design. The CCDAs are a new Award Division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).
