Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: CIBA

The 2025 Chatelaine Spotlight for Romance Fiction
Celebrating Love in All Its Forms

The Chatelaine Awards are looking for Romance this fall!

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.

Read More Here

Summer Cyclone
By Alan B. Gibson

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.

Read More Here

Loving Beth
By Bonnie Rose Ward

A Chatelaine First Place Winner!

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.

Read More Here

A Circle of Stars
By Erin Lark Maples

The 2024 Ozma Grand Prize Winner!

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.

Read More Here

Guarded Hearts
By T.K. Conklin

The 2022 Laramie Grand Prize Winner and a Chatelaine First Place Winner!

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

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

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

Read More Here

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!

Submit to the Chatelaine Awards today! Deadline: October 31st

You know you want it…
October 6, 2025
7 days Left! Book Awards for Young Readers Close at the End of September!
Time is almost up for these Back-to-School reads!

Don’t let your book miss out!
Only 7 days remain to enter your books to these CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success!

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!

The Dante Rossetti, Gertrude Warner and The Little Peeps Awards are still open!

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Little Peeps Awards for Early Readers!
- Kristen J Anderson – Lorelei the Lorelei: The First of Many Firsts
- Raven Howell – Keep Trucking
- Julie Lomax – Melissa Moo Moo’s Special Lesson
- Dr. Gerry Haller – Will’s Adventure to the Candy Mountain
- Shaziya M. Jaffer, Jessica Alexanderson and Brad W. Rudover – A Recycling Adventure to The Scrapyard!
- Mike Mirabella and Lenny Lipton – I Used to Be Shy
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Early Peeps Grand Prize Winner:

Island Moon

By Ruth Amanda

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Gertrude Warner Award for Middle Grade Fiction!
- Thomas Kuhn – Tommy Rocket and the Goober Patrol
- Debbie Noble Black – Deetjen’s Closet
- M.J. Evans – Coal Dust and Dreams
- M.C. Dingman – Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life
- Maggie Lynch – The Power of S.A.D.
- Sue C. Dugan – Mayday
- Carolyn Armstrong – No Time To Waste
- Sandy Grubb – Just Like Click
And a huge round of applause for our 2024 Gertrude Warner Grand Prize Winner:

Back to Bainbridge

By Norah Lally

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Dante Rossetti Award for Young Adult Fiction!
- Mark Kraver – The Willow
- C.H. Brown – The Appearance of Power
- Eileen Charbonneau and Jude Pittman – Spectral Evidence
- J.A. Nielsen – The Winter Heir (Fractured Kingdoms, Book 2)
- John Middleton – The Pool of Initiation
- E. L. Werbitsky – The Marsh Keeper
And a huge round of applause for our 2024 Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner:

The Realm of Gods

By Glen Dahlgren

The CIBAs offer 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 17-19, 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.

Let’s celebrate exceptional storytelling together!

Your book deserves to be discovered

Don’t Delay! Enter Today!
September 23, 2025
10 Days left for September Non-Fiction that Guides
Non-Fiction Closes Soon!

Don’t let your book miss out!
Only 10 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success.

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!

The I&I, Harvey Chute and The Mind and Spirit Awards are still open!

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Mind & Spirit Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment!
- Shari Biery – It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
- Damian Fozard – Disbelief
- Eileen Marlowe – The Call to Connect With Spirit
- Anne Kiehl Friedman – Higher Love: A Psychedelic Travel Memoir of Heartbreak and Healing
- Jane Kim Yu – Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Mind & Spirit Grand Prize Winner:

Naked in the Now

By Marijke McCandless

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the I&I Award for Guides and How-tos!
- Margaret C Beeler – Tropetails: A Cocktail and Mocktail Book for Bookworms
- Tania Israel – Facing the Fracture How To Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation
- Katherine Fabrizio – The Good Daughter Syndrome: Help For Empathic Daughters of Narcissistic, Borderline, or Difficult Mothers Trapped in the Role of the Good Daughter
- Bob Dahms, MBA, CPA, CMA – Let’s Talk About This: 50 Things You Need to Know About Starting and Managing a Small Business
- Douglas A. Burton – The Heroine’s Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction
- Jacqui Clarke – Stop Worrying about Money
And a huge round of applause for our 2024 I&I Grand Prize Winner:

Success with Hydrangeas: A Gardener’s Guide

By Lorraine Ballato

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Harvey Chute Award for Business and Enterprise!
- Roger Spitz – Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World
- Jenny Li Fowler – Organic Social Media: How to Build Flourishing Online Communities
- Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel – Cultural Intelligence for Marketers: Building an Inclusive Marketing Strategy
- Neal Schaffer – Digital Threads: The Small Business and Entrepreneur Digital First Marketing Playbook
- Melina Palmer – The Truth About Pricing
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Harvey Chute Grand Prize Winner:

Stop Worrying About Money

By Jacqui Clarke

The CIBAs 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 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.

Let’s celebrate exceptional storytelling together!

Your book deserves to be discovered

Enter Today!
September 20, 2025
The 2025 Harvey Chute Awards Hall of Fame for Business & Finance

Book Business in Book Awards

***Submit your book today!***

You have until September 30th to submit your book to the 2025 CIBAs!

Let’s take a look at the Grand Prize Winners for the Harvey Chute Award!

Stop Worrying About Money
By Jacqui Clarke

Stop Worrying About Money by Jacqui Clarke serves as a lucid and candidly insightful guide to understanding the cornerstones of financial literacy, whether for a working professional, business owner, or anyone seeking to better manage their savings and investments.

This practical and insightful approach to financial awareness endeavors to decode the mystifying fundamentals of financial freedom, wealth management, and money psychology. Rather than merely presenting facts on numbers and investments, it adopts a holistic perspective, covering principles of earning, understanding, and wisely managing money.

Written by an experienced professional and fiscal guardian to many, Clarke’s Stop Worrying About Money paves a clear and accessible roadmap for navigating the often-chaotic terrain of financial planning.

The book begins by exploring how upbringing and personal experiences shape a person’s financial habits.

Read More Here

Using Behavioral Science in Marketing
By Nancy Harhut

The Full Review for this book is forthcoming:

Increase engagement, response rates and the ROI of marketing initiatives with this step-by-step guide to harnessing hardwired consumer behavior and instinctive responses.

Using Behavioral Science in Marketing shows how to apply behavioral science principles in key areas of marketing, including marketing communications, email, direct mail and ad campaigns, social media marketing and sales funnel conversion strategies. Highly practical and accessible, it includes case studies and examples from AT&T, Apple, Spotify and The Wall Street Journal showing how these approaches have been used in practice.

Using Behavioral Science in Marketing also reveals how to increase consumer involvement and engagement, convey exclusivity and desirability, and prompt customer action and loyalty with scientifically proven principles such as autonomy bias, storytelling, and the Von Restorff effect.

Featuring common mistakes to avoid and key takeaways at the end of each chapter, it’s also accompanied by downloadable checklists and an interactive template to use in practice. In a highly competitive space, where even an incremental advantage can result in significant uplifts, this is a crucial resource to create stand out and successful marketing-especially for marketers in highly regulated or highly competitive environments.

Buy it here!

Reconfigurement
By E. Alan Fleischauer

A guide to achieving financial freedom in retirement, E. Alan Fleischauer’s bestseller Reconfigurement™ reveals a roadmap guided by the Mantra, “Navigate, Customize, and Thrive.”

Advances in medicine, nutrition, and longevity planning now offer unparalleled possibilities to live longer, higher-quality lives. However, looming over this rosy image is a genuine concern: the financial ramifications of a longer retirement term. More alarming is that a sizable portion of the American populace is not harnessing their 401(k) retirement plans.

In light of this scenario, can traditional investment programs with fraying safety nets, such as pensions, remain viable? Reconfigurement combines the emotional fulfillment of making retirement dreams a reality with practical guidance that rejects the notion of a set retirement age of 65. This work’s personal tales and sound financial guidance entice readers away from the constraints of traditional retirement approaches.

Read More Here

Beyond Balancing The Books: Sheer Mindfulness for Professionals in Work and Life
By George Marino

George Marino, a practicing CPA and Mindfulness Coach, explores the possibilities for sustainable positivity in one’s work-life through mindfulness principles and practices in his new book, Beyond Balancing the Books: Sheer Mindfulness for Professionals in Work and Life.

It would be difficult to find a profession more fraught with detail, deadlines, and distress than a typical CPA. Applying to that particular realm the idea of mindful meditation is a challenge that author Marino has taken on because it is a process he has lived. He opens his book by comparing two CPAs and their approaches to life and work-life.

Read More Here

Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage
By Laura Huang

Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage by Laura Huang is a valuable mixture of business strategy, science, and examples, all directed to help readers develop their unique skills and strengths.

Author Laura Huang takes readers through her own journey to becoming an award-winning Harvard Business School professor. Along with real-world examples of both successful entrepreneurs and up-and-coming business students, she lays out a four-part guide on how to create your personal edge.

Creating your own edge is essential to getting ahead in life no matter who someone is or where they come from. Huang herself is a child of immigrants and was one of a few female engineering students at her university. She had to navigate her own specific challenges, figuring out what worked for her and what did not.

Instead of being in business to invent or promote the next big thing, Huang is in the business world for its rich research opportunities.

Read More Here

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Harvey Chute 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!

September 12, 2025
The 2024 Harvey Chute First Place Roundup for Business and Finance

The Harvey Chute Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Business and Enterprising Non-Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Jacqui Clarke‘s book, Stop Worrying About Money, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Harvey Chute 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!

The 2024 Harvey Chute Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place Harvey Chute Winners!

Roger Spitz – Disrupt With Impact

Disrupt With Impact is the ultimate guide to thriving in today’s complex business landscapes. It offers strategies that will allow you to navigate uncertainty and change through strategic decision-making.

Covering major challenges such as sustainability, AI, geopolitics and cybersecurity, this book is your compass for exploring the uncharted waters of the future. These paradigm shifts will redistribute trillions of dollars, presenting opportunities for immense value creation, while those clinging to business as usual face growing risks of value destruction. Through fascinating research and original frameworks, Disrupt With Impact offers the knowledge and confidence you need to lead your business through disruption.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Jenny Li Fowler – Organic Social Media

Organizations and institutions focused on community building have a built-in group of ambassadors who embrace their message and vision. Social media managers have a unique opportunity to lean into this loyalty by creating a social presence informed by this digital engagement.

In Organic Social Media, Jenny Li Fowler outlines the important steps that social media managers need to take to enhance an organization’s broader growth objectives. Fowler breaks down the important questions to help readers determine the best platforms to invest in, how they can streamline the approval process and other essential strategic steps to create an organic following on social platforms.

Organic Social Media explains how to elevate the key growth objectives of a brand by creating or recreating its online presence. Early chapters walk readers through the planning phase, the process of strategic goal setting, platform selection, resource management and content discovery. Later chapters focus on executing these established plans and offer a strategic way to build a content calendar and track the success of social. With this book, social media managers will future-proof the online presence of any organization.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Anastasia Karklina Gabriel – Cultural Intelligence for Marketers

Brands not only reflect culture but actively shape societal norms and values. Move beyond performative inclusive marketing and drive the cultural conversation.

A brand today can build a marketing strategy that not only effectively resonates with audiences but also meaningfully impacts society at large. Learn how to produce inclusive marketing using an approach grounded in critical perspectives on society and the impact brands wield in shaping it. In this book, cultural theorist and strategist Anastasia Karklina Gabriel draws on social analysis, media theory, and semiotics to help marketers improve cultural fluency and future-proof brand strategy by embedding equity and inclusion into every aspect of marketing. Cultural Intelligence for Marketers explains how to create an inclusive marketing strategy using an actionable approach that draws on advanced insights into culture, identity, representation, and the power of media in driving social change.

The book offers an in-depth dive into the urgent need for cultural competence in marketing using a framework rooted in 4Cs: Culture, communication, critical consciousness, and community. It delves into practical aspects of conscious marketing, inclusive innovation, cultural insights, brand activism, social impact, and responsibility in business. It features insights from current and former marketing leaders at Wieden+Kennedy, Mindshare, Dentsu, and Saatchi & Saatchi, among others. Drawing on case studies from brands that are actively pursuing inclusive marketing strategies, including Microsoft, Pinterest, Billie, and REI, Gabriel outlines the process of deploying cultural intelligence to attain commercial advantage while transforming society for the better.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Neal Schaffer – Digital Threads

Are you a small business owner, entrepreneur, or content creator struggling to navigate the complex world of digital marketing?

Do you want to learn how to build a powerful online presence, leverage social media, and harness the power of AI tools without breaking the bank?

In Digital Threads, renowned digital marketing consultant and Fractional CMO Neal Schaffer offers actionable insights and practical strategies that have helped countless businesses and entrepreneurs achieve their marketing goals. Drawing on over a decade of experience, Neal provides a comprehensive playbook that demystifies digital marketing and empowers you.

Digital Threads is your ultimate guide to mastering digital marketing in today’s fast-paced, digital-first economy.
In today’s digital-first economy, having a strong online presence and effective marketing strategy is crucial for success. Digital Threads provides you with the knowledge and tools you need to thrive. Whether you’re just starting or looking to refine your existing strategies, this book is your go-to resource for achieving measurable results and sustained growth.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Melina Palmer – The Truth About Pricing

The ultimate guide to pricing mastery and value-based pricing, The Truth About Pricing helps you unlock the secrets of your buyers’ minds, understand their needs, and set prices that skyrocket your business’s success.

Pricing mastery made easy. A must-read for entrepreneurs seeking to determine what their customers value and set prices they want by understanding the truth about pricing—it isn’t about the price. Everything that happens before the price matters much more than the price itself. Have happier clients, boost your profits, and confidently master the pricing game with this comprehensive guide.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Harvey Chute First Place Winners!

Watch for our Spotlight and Hall of Fame Articles that will feature incredible books, including Jacqui Clarke’s amazing Stop Worrying About Money!

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Harvey Chute Awards!

Got a great Business and Enterprise Book?

The 2025 Harvey Chute Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Submit to the Harvey Chute Awards Today!

September 10, 2025
The 2025 Harvey Chute Spotlight for Business & Finance
Mastering Financial Success!

The Harvey Chute Awards for Business & Finance

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, financial literacy and strategic thinking have never been more crucial. From navigating investment complexities to building sustainable business models, professionals and entrepreneurs need reliable guidance to thrive. The Harvey Chute Awards for Business & Finance celebrate the exceptional works that provide this essential knowledge, recognizing authors who translate complex financial concepts into actionable insights that empower readers to take control of their economic futures.

Celebrating Our Grand Prize Winner!

We’re proud to celebrate our 2024 Harvey Chute Division Grand Prize Winner, Jacqui Clarke for her transformative guide Stop Worrying about Money. This comprehensive work goes beyond traditional financial advice to address the psychological and practical aspects of money management. Clarke, described as “Australia’s best-kept money secret,” delivers a holistic approach that helps readers clarify their values, set realistic goals, and build genuine financial security. Her book tackles everything from combating expense creep and avoiding common money traps to overcoming setbacks and mastering long-term planning, all while maintaining an accessible and encouraging tone.

What sets Stop Worrying about Money apart is its emphasis on financial literacy as a journey of self-awareness rather than merely a destination of wealth accumulation. As our review noted, Clarke “blends theoretical financial advice with pragmatic applications, incorporating real-life examples, case studies, and interactive exercises” that transform potentially dry subject matter into engaging and digestible content. The book addresses critical issues from building a trusted “finance village” of advisors to understanding the impact of financial decisions on personal relationships. Clarke will be invited to participate in a Chanticleer Author Interview, offering readers deeper insights into her expertise and approach to financial empowerment.

The Harvey Chute Awards recognize the full spectrum of business and finance literature, encompassing categories from traditional Finance and Investing & Money to contemporary essentials like Social Media, Technology Guides, and Communications. This comprehensive approach reflects the reality that modern business success requires mastery across multiple disciplines, whether you’re developing a Motivational framework, crafting Business Strategy, understanding Economics, or building Marketing expertise.

Explore All Business & Self-Help Divisions

The Harvey Chute Awards are part of Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of transformative non-fiction:
- Mind & Spirit Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment: Spiritual growth, mindfulness, meditation, and personal enlightenment
- I&I Awards for How-To and Self-Help: Practical guides, self-improvement, skill development, and instructional works
The Doctor’s Voice
By Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli

A Harvey Chute First Place Winner!

Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli speaks out on serious professional issues faced by modern healthcare workers, in The Doctor’s Voice.

Doctors deal with overwhelming stress, leading to burnout, illness, many of them leaving the profession, and even a higher-than-average rate of suicide. The Covid19 pandemic both heightened and helped illuminate some of the causes of this stress, prompting author Garbelli to write this book as a set of advice for his colleagues and as advocacy for broader changes in hospitals and other healthcare systems.

Garbelli highlights a common disconnect in communication—administrators and higher-ups telling doctors what to do while those doctors don’t have much opportunity to bring up the problems they encounter day-to-day.

Read More Here

The Money Map
By Kasey J. Claytor

A Mind and Spirit First Place Winner!

“There is something magical about money—the way it appears and disappears, grows and shrinks, and, in a similar way of taming a hesitant wild horse, with calm assuredness and confidence, not only will you learn to control it, but you will find you can joyfully master it.” -Author Kasey J. Claytor

Claytor insists that every successful endeavor starts with an individual’s thinking and beliefs. She details this concept – and how to live with it in mind – in her new book, The Money Map: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success.

From the onset of her business-oriented career, Claytor has drawn from her beliefs as she upholds financial success as a spiritual goal. In this volume, she takes the mystery out of money to show it as an extension of the mind, body, and spirit. Claytor ensures the beginning of an endearing journey toward clearer financial decision-making, investments, and goals by asking readers to identify the worries of their own ego and to eliminate unproductive ideas and actions.

Read More Here

Tax MythBusters
By Lily Tran

Tax MythBusters: Don’t Fall Prey to the Tax Misconceptions, compiled by tax professional Lily Tran with essays by other financial, tax, and accounting professionals, gives valuable insight into the myths of what can and cannot be claimed as a deduction for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

This work provides tips and strategies to optimize tax planning and make the most of available deductions. As the foreword reminds the reader, “Knowledge is power when it comes to taxes,” adding that gaining a better understanding of the tax rules and regulations will allow you to “make smart financial decisions and protect yourself from unnecessary risks.”

The essays that make up this work are short, succinct, and to the point about the pitfalls and challenges that face small business owners, framing these dangers as “myths.”

Read More Here

Reconfigurement
By E. Alan Fleischauer

Chanticleers 2022 Harvey Chute Grand Prize Winner!

A guide to achieving financial freedom in retirement, E. Alan Fleischauer’s bestseller Reconfigurement™ reveals a roadmap guided by the Mantra, “Navigate, Customize, and Thrive.”

Advances in medicine, nutrition, and longevity planning now offer unparalleled possibilities to live longer, higher-quality lives. However, looming over this rosy image is a genuine concern: the financial ramifications of a longer retirement term. More alarming is that a sizable portion of the American populace is not harnessing their 401(k) retirement plans.

In light of this scenario, can traditional investment programs with fraying safety nets, such as pensions, remain viable? Reconfigurement combines the emotional fulfillment of making retirement dreams a reality with practical guidance that rejects the notion of a set retirement age of 65. This work’s personal tales and sound financial guidance entice readers away from the constraints of traditional retirement approaches.

Read More Here

These reviews represent just a glimpse of the strategic insights and practical wisdom waiting to be discovered in today’s business and finance literature.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the exceptional business and finance works we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Harvey Chute Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous outstanding titles as they advanced through our competition tiers. In a market flooded with millions of books, professional recognition cuts through the noise. The CIBAs provide ongoing promotion that maximizes your digital footprint and expands your readership through:
- High-traffic website features
- Social media promotion across established platforms
- Newsletter spotlights like this reaching thousands of industry professionals
- Long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year
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.

You wouldn’t hide a business! Don’t hide your book!

The business and finance market continues to demand fresh perspectives and proven strategies, with professionals, entrepreneurs, and individuals seeking guidance they can trust and implement. Whether your work provides innovative investment strategies, practical business solutions, cutting-edge technology insights, or foundational financial education, the Harvey Chute Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your expertise deserves.

Business and finance literature has the unique power to transform lives, build wealth, and create sustainable success. From comprehensive guides that help readers master complex financial concepts to targeted strategies that solve specific business challenges, every expertly crafted work has the potential to become an essential resource. Don’t let your knowledge remain untapped! Enter the Harvey Chute Awards today and join the distinguished authors who’ve found their professional audience through Chanticleer!

Submit to the Harvey Chute Awards today! Deadline: September 30th

You know you want it…
September 8, 2025
The 2025 Dante Rossetti Hall of Fame for YA Fiction

Got a Young Adult in your life?

The Dante Rossetti Awards finds the best books for them!

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

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

The Realm of Gods: The Chronicles of Chaos Book 3
By Glen Dahlgren

Our review for the newest Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner is still upcoming. In the meantime, here is what GoodReads readers have been saying:

“I honestly cannot begin to describe how much I loved The Realm of Gods!! I’ve been so very invested over all four books and I’m so very sad it’s come to an end – but what an ending it was!

I’m not even sure what to say without spoiling it, I’m still absolutely reeling from how epic the ending was!!

think I’ve gone through just about every emotion reading these books. I’ve laughed, I’ve grieved, I’ve whooped with joy – even nearly throwing my phone (always at those halfway points) and the ending literally gave me goosebumps it was just brilliant!!”

-Toni

“The Realm of Gods is an epic conclusion to The Chronicles of Chaos series, and I absolutely LOVED it. The story picks up right where the last book left off, diving straight into the action. The world-building is fantastic, and the characters continue to grow in ways that feel natural yet surprising. I especially appreciated how even the villains were complex and interesting, making the stakes feel higher and more intense. Listening to the audiobook added another layer of immersion, and the narration really brought the characters to life.

This final book wraps up the series beautifully, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you hooked. The pacing is perfect, and the emotional depth of the story shines through. If you’re a fan of epic fantasy like The Lord of the Rings or The Wheel of Time, this is definitely a series worth diving into. Highly recommend!” -Amber

“The Realm of Gods is a perfect ending to a great series however this reader is very hopeful the author will add to the series in the future. Like with the previous books I found the story to be interesting and captivating and just an absolutely fun, thought-provoking read.” -Dwayne

Sour Flower

A Manuscript

By Maryanne Melloan Woods

Sour Flower, the unpublished feel-good coming-of-age novel by Maryanne Melloan Woods, contrasts the joys of teen friendship with the hardships of growing up in a broken family.

As a fourteen-year-old in 1970s San Francisco, Marigold (call her “M”) Hayes is fed up with her life.

M is very much aware of her role as the mature buzzkill in the family. Her parents, college dropouts and now divorced hippies, barely have it together. M often has to act as the mature adult for the sake of housing and basic necessities. With a spaced-out father who barely supports them and a mother who thinks her daughter is a square, it’s a miracle that M has kept her family afloat for so long.

When her English teacher suggests M apply to Barnum—an elite prep school offering scholarships to students in need—she dares to hope. Maybe this could give her a chance to pursue her dream of becoming a financially stable businesswoman.

Read More Here

Wages of Empire
By Michael J. Cooper

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

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

Read More Here

Taro: The Legendary Boy Hero of Japan
By Blue Spruell

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

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

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

Read More Here

The Best Week That Never Happened
By Dallas Woodburn

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

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

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

Read More Here

You know you want it…

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

September 5, 2025
The 2024 Dante Rossetti First Place Round Up for YA Fiction

The Dante Rossetti Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Young Adult Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Glen Dahlgren’s book, The Realm of Gods will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Dante Rossetti 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!

The 2024 Dante Rossetti Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place Dante Rossetti Winners!

A note from Chanticleer:

This year’s Dante Rossetti Winners is special, in the way that half of our First Place Winners for this year are manuscripts. We are very excited to help these authors celebrate their work, and hopefully see them come out someday!

Mark Kraver – The Willow

Mark Kraver reveals a swashbuckling side of American history in his latest young adult historical fiction novel The Willow. Heroine Abigail Spragg uses her pirate fortune to fund a school for girls, which teaches its students, including Abigail’s teenage daughter Hannah, to fight like their seafaring ancestors.

When Abigail receives a letter from one of her many pirate connections requesting that she use his fortune to help a mysterious acquaintance open this school, she finds the idea preposterous. After all, education for women is rare in 1700s New England. The East Coast is bathed in a strict status quo and still recovering from the witch trials that had taken so many lives. Many people go out of their way to avoid straying from societal norms.

Nevertheless, Abigail sets out, reconnecting with her widowed sister Eunice and bringing her oldest daughter along as they seek the enigmatic Hope Terwilliger and open “The Willow Finishing School”.

The full review will be released upon publication!

C.H. Brown – The Appearance of Power

According to the authors blog, Book 1 is out of the editing stage, and she is going to be releasing all 3 books in the trilogy together once they are finished. We are very excited to see those when they come out!

Eileen Charbonneau and Jude Pittman- Spectral Evidence: Newfoundland (Canadian Historical Mysteries)

Seventeen-year-old Newfoundlander Charlotte Jaddore loves nothing more than learning sacred healing arts from the elders of her Mi’kmaq and Beothuk grandmothers. But the year is 1692 and her father needs her help. Their American cousins in Salem, Massachusetts have been accused of witchcraft. Will Charlotte help her father fight for the lives of Philip and Mary English?

When father and daughter arrive in Salem, their cousins have already been imprisoned. How can the couple survive against spectral evidence— harming their victims from afar as invisible projections? The motives of their accusing neighbors are anything but spiritual. They are after the English family’s wealth.

And the sights of those accusers are now fixed on the heirs. Can Charlotte get young Mary, Philip and William to Newfoundland, without infecting her own beloved island with spectral evidence fever?

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

J.A. Neilsen – The Winter Heir

Spense might have saved his country of Telridge and won the heart of the faerie princess. But he doesn’t feel like a hero—not while Dewy is stuck in the Winter lands, all because of a bargain she made on his behalf.

After months of fruitless research, Spense abandons the libraries of Telridge and turns to the Faerie Oracles to seek a solution. Meanwhile, Dewy is no damsel in distress. She is on a journey of her own, diving deeper into her magic, and finding alliances in the most unexpected of places.

As they each seek the Winter Heir, they face unsettling truths about themselves, their world, and the steep costs of magic.

From Chanticleer:

The Winter Heir, the second book in J.A. Nielsen’s Fractured Kingdoms series, picks up where the first book, The Claiming, leaves off—with its protagonists struggling under the weight of a vital bargain.

Lady Dew Drop, Dewy to her friends—and her frenemies—is languishing in the court of the Winter Fae, a summer princess nearly frozen in both heart and spirit as she does her best to fulfill the pact she made with the Winter King. Meanwhile, the man who got her into this mess, the human mage and illegitimate princeling of Telridge—Spence Ferrous—tries to fulfill the deal for her.

But the story is much bigger than these two young lovers. The Winter King is dying without a legitimate heir. And it’s his own proud, arrogant fault. As much as both the humans and the Summer Fae would be willing to let him suffer the consequences of his own actions—he’s not the only one who will.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

John Middleton – The Pool of Initiation

We’re currently working with Middleton on his entire series! We can’t wait for it to wrap up so he can share it with our community!

EL Werbitsky – The Marsh Keeper

Some secrets aren’t meant to be shared…

Sixteen-year-old Calvin Hughes can see human energy and in that revealing light learns the best and worst of the people around him.

He tells no one what he sees, until a young girl vanishes beneath the marsh and the truth behind her tragedy is too disturbing to hide.

But when enchantments lure Cal toward the haunted waters and his sole confidante betrays him, Cal discovers the danger of knowing too much and the price for sharing secrets, especially one that could change the world.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Dante Rossetti First Place Winners!

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Got a great Fiction Book? The 2025 Dante Rossetti Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Submissions don’t officially close until the date on the website changes!

Submit to the Dante Rossetti Awards Today!

September 3, 2025
The 2025 Dante Rossetti Spotlight for YA Fiction
Has your book come of age?

Then it’s time to enter the Dante Rossetti Awards!

The submissions for the 2025 Awards are underway, and Dante Rossetti closes on September 30, 2025!

The Dante Rossetti Awards for Young Adult Fiction are named for Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), the British painter, poet, and a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Better known for his romantic paintings, Rossetti was also a prolific poet who, along with his siblings, formed one of literature’s most creative families. His sister Christina was a celebrated poet, Maria became an essayist before joining a religious order, and brother William served as a prominent editor and literary critic.

We chose Dante Rossetti to represent our Young Adult Awards because the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’s core principles: having genuine ideas to express, studying nature attentively, sympathizing with what is direct and serious and heartfelt, and producing thoroughly excellent work. These mirror what the best young adult literature achieves. Like the Pre-Raphaelites who defied Victorian social conventions, exceptional YA fiction encourages young readers to question norms, observe the world carefully, and find their own authentic voices.

La Viuda Romana by Dante Rossetti

The Art of Writing for Hearts and Minds in Transition

Creating exceptional young adult literature means respecting the intelligence and emotional capacity of readers who are simultaneously naive and wise, hopeful and cynical, dependent and fiercely independent. YA authors walk a fascinating tightrope: addressing mature themes and complex emotions while remembering that their readers are still developing their understanding of themselves and the world.

The best YA fiction doesn’t talk down to its audience or oversimplify complex issues. Instead, it explores themes like identity, justice, love, loss, family, friendship, and social change with the nuance and respect that young adult experiences deserve. Whether it’s a dystopian rebellion that mirrors real-world social justice movements, a contemporary romance that explores healthy relationships, or an epic fantasy that examines power and corruption, exceptional YA literature helps readers process their own experiences while providing the escapism and adventure that makes reading addictive.

Young adult readers have sophisticated BS detectors that can spot condescending or inauthentic writing from a mile away. The authors who succeed in this space are those who remember what it feels like to be young while bringing adult writing skills and perspective to stories that honor the complexity of the teenage experience.

Celebrating Our 2024 Grand Prize Winner!

We’re excited to honor Glen Dahlgren, whose epic fantasy conclusion The Realm of Gods: The Chronicles of Chaos Book Three claimed the 2024 Dante Rossetti Grand Prize with a story that pulls no punches in its exploration of power, rebellion, and the battle between order and chaos. In this climactic volume, protagonist Galen must navigate the Dreaming – an ethereal realm where past, present, and future collide – while confronting both his nemesis Carnaubas and the horrifying truth that the exiled gods of Order still hunger for dominion.

What makes The Realm of Gods exemplary YA literature is its refusal to simplify complex themes of tyranny, rebellion, and human connection. Alongside Eve, a young girl with the ability to see the threads connecting everything, Galen embarks on a desperate quest to prevent Order’s return – a premise that resonates with young readers who understand that fighting against oppressive systems often requires extraordinary courage and unlikely alliances. The novel’s recognition as both a Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner and recipient of the American Fiction Award and Indies Today Best Epic Fantasy Award demonstrates how exceptional YA literature can compete on any literary stage. In addition to ongoing promotional features, The Realm of Gods will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. Glen Dahlgren will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview, and The Realm of Gods will receive a coveted Chanticleer Editorial Review.

Categories That Capture the Full YA Experience

The Dante Rossetti Awards welcome young adult fiction across every genre and emotional landscape:
- Contemporary YA – Stories grounded in today’s reality that explore authentic teen experiences, relationships, and challenges
- SFF & Paranormal – Science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal tales that use otherworldly elements to explore very real themes
- YA Adventure/Romance – Action-packed stories and love stories that acknowledge the intensity of young relationships and experiences
- YA Historical – Past-set stories that help young readers understand different eras while exploring timeless coming-of-age themes
- Dystopian/Edgy/Urban – Darker stories that don’t shy away from difficult topics or challenging social commentary
- Mystery/Thriller/Suspense – Puzzle-solving adventures and high-stakes narratives that respect young readers’ ability to handle complex plots
Each category acknowledges that young adult readers seek different types of stories depending on their mood, interests, and life experiences, from light romantic escapes to heavy social commentary and everything in between.

The Complete Youth Literature Journey

The Dante Rossetti Awards complete Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of youth literature at every developmental stage:
- Little Peeps Awards – Picture books and early readers that introduce children to the magic of storytelling
- Gertrude Warner Awards – Middle grade fiction for readers developing independence and exploring more complex themes
Together, these three divisions ensure that exceptional youth literature receives recognition at every stage of the reading journey, supporting the development of lifelong readers and critical thinkers.

Looking at Young Adult Excellence

Check out some of these outstanding YA books we’ve celebrated recently!

An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze
By David Scott Richardson

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

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

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

Read More Here

Luna: Rhone and Stone Book 2
By Strider S.R. Klusman

A Chanticleer Dante Rossetti First Place Winner and Cover Design Grand Prize Winner!

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.

Read More Here

Crossroads of Empire
By Michael J. Cooper

A Chanticleer Hemingway First Place Winner!

Crossroads of Empire by Michael J. Cooper brings readers back into sixteen-year-old Evan Sinclair’s journey through the battlefields of WWI. The adventures and the war itself pick up right where the award-winning Wages of Empire left off.

As in the first book, Evan begins his part of this story by going missing, this time not just from his father’s perspective, but from his own. Severely injured during his service with the Flemish resistance, Evan is discharged from a French field hospital. He’s on his way back to England by hospital ship when it is sunk by a German U-boat. When he reaches British shores as the sole survivor in a lifeboat, he’s left with amnesia and has no memory of who he is.Evan’s search for his own identity leads him to Rosslyn Castle, the Sinclair family’s ancestral home in Scotland. There he unravels secret family histories and connections long buried. Finally, with assistance from a wise woman, Evan regains his memory. Without the protection the amnesia provided, he faces a host of painful and traumatic memories.

Read More Here

The Hidden Library, Book 2 of the Isle of Dragons Series
By L.A. Thompson

Isle of Dragons: The Hidden Library by L.A. Thompson is a breathtaking race to seize the reins of destiny and find a magical library that was once the subject of stories and lore. Jade and Kaylen, once friends, oppose each other in search of this hidden library and its world-changing secrets.

Demoted and dejected, Kaylen reels from her valiant but failed attempt to bring back the final item that King Jarrod needs to fulfill a prophecy. The iconic stone remains out of reach. Kaylen is summoned for an audience with the king. A glimmer of hope for the future flickers, but the king demands an even more ambitious mission of her. He will restore her rank and honors if she finds for him the mysterious hidden library that can open a gateway between worlds. It’s a deadly challenge that will once again pit her against an old friend.

Jade summons all her strength and courage with others who stand against the king who has made her family suffer. When she and Kaylen clash, sparks will ignite as hot as a dragon’s roar.

Read More Here

These works demonstrate how the best young adult literature combines sophisticated storytelling with authentic understanding of the teen experience.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the exceptional young adult books we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!

The Dante Rossetti Awards recognize the unique challenge and responsibility of writing for young adults, readers who deserve stories as complex, authentic, and emotionally honest as their own experiences. Whether you’re exploring contemporary issues, dystopian futures, epic fantasies, or historical periods, these awards celebrate books that respect young adult intelligence while providing the emotional satisfaction and escapism that great literature offers.

Your Young Adult Story Matters

Young adult readers are at a crucial point in their relationship with literature where they’re deciding whether books will remain an important part of their adult lives. Your YA novel could be the book that helps a teenager understand they’re not alone, provides comfort during a difficult time, or simply offers the perfect escape when life feels overwhelming. These readers are passionate, loyal, and influential; when they love a book, they become its most enthusiastic ambassadors.

Speak to the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s leaders – the deadline is September 30, 2025!

You know you want it…

Submit to the Dante Rossetti Awards today and help us celebrate literature that takes young adults seriously!
September 1, 2025
Three Rules for Writing Historical Fiction That Will Transport Readers Back in Time
There is magic in historical fiction.

Magic that takes you to another time and place. In a time machine, you might say, with a beautiful cover and pages in between.

That’s what readers expect when reading historical fiction. A time machine. They want to immerse themselves in a world that once was and now can only be visited in their imaginations. But who is this storyteller, this weaver of time, and how, exactly, does this time machine transport readers into the past?

Let’s look under the hood of that writer’s time machine and get to know the rules of historical fiction!

1. Immerse Readers in the Past

Historical fiction requires authenticity. Placing the reader in a world that once existed means they have a sense of that world based on their own experiences and knowledge. This doesn’t mean you can’t shape their beliefs, but to do so you must adhere to the way that world existed.

Before you tap one key on your computer, do your research. Immerse yourself in your characters world. Be a reporter from that time and ask yourself the who, what, why, and how questions that will help you set the tone and create the authenticity to make your story ring true.

Make sure your sources are relevant and reliable. Readers of historical fiction tend to be well-versed in the time periods they are interested in reading about, so it’s up to the writer to make sure the details they put into their story are as accurate as possible.

2. Characters That Live in the Past and Thrive in the Present

They say the more things change, the more they stay the same. This thought can be applied to the characters your readers will meet in your story. Styles change, trends evolve, and what was once acceptable in society no longer is, but some things never change.

To make relatable characters in historical fiction you must blend the societal norms of their era with issues that can still resonate with readers today. You see this in the anguish over someone’s death, or the joy of seeing your destination after a long, difficult journey. Humanity has always shared similar desires and calamities, use them to bridge the gap between readers and the characters in your imaginary world.

Blending the past and present is also needed for other details within your story. Maybe it’s clothing or language, or a specific smell or sound that places the reader in the past. Slip inside your character’s skin, but keep in mind the thru lines that humans have always shared.

3. Restrain Your Research

If you enjoy writing historical fiction, there’s a good chance you love learning about the past, and that’s where our good intentions can derail our writing process. Each turn of the page generates a new idea for your story, and time slips away before you realize your research has sucked up all the time you’d set aside for actually working on the manuscript.

To protect yourself from this fast road to nowhere we suggest blocking out dedicated time for the research portion of your designated work time. Set an alarm for a specific time and commit to ending that day’s research no matter where you are in the process so you don’t miss out on writing. That is what timers are for!

Be clear in your goals for your research to ensure you get what you want from the time spent researching. Organize the appropriate resources and tools you’ll need before sitting down so they’ll be within reach, and write a list of the things you want to accomplish before getting started. If you find yourself straying from your goals, refer to the list to find your next subject to research.

Create steps for your research to break down the work into manageable tasks. You could do it by subject matter, or resource material, or anything that fits your specific needs. The point is to make it less overwhelming as you move through the tasks. Prioritizing the tasks to get the most important or urgent ones done first will also help you to streamline the process further.

Don’t forget to take breaks from your research to get out of your headspace and refresh. Sometimes we can become so involved in the worlds we are researching that it’s hard to get into the world of our imagination. By taking a break to refresh, it gives our brain time to process the information and see it anew to incorporate into a plot.

Buckle Up for a Long Ride

There’s no way around it—good research takes time and effort. But the payoff can be amazing for your readers. The more you can place them in the time period of your story, the more the story will infiltrate into their imaginations. The devil is in the details, but the details need to make sense. So don’t rush the process. Set boundaries, work toward goals, and find good, reliable sources and you’ll surely find the valuable information that will take your readers back in time on a magical historical fiction ride all the way to the very last page!

For more tips on streamlining your research check out these Chanticleer articles:
The Last Man
Thomas Goodman
CIBA Grand Prize Winner in the Laramie Division

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

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

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

Guns blaze within minutes of entering the bank.

Read more here…

The Brisling Code
By J.L. Oakley
CIBA First Place Winner in the Hemingway Division

In The Brisling Code, a fast-paced first installment of her historical thriller series, Oakley weaves a brilliant portrayal of the perils met by the Norwegian Resistance during WWII.

Layered perspectives—from resistance workers, traitors, and even an SS Officer—create a rich world through which readers can understand the sacrifices that were made to free our world from the tyranny of Nazi Germany.

Immersed in volatile Nazi-occupied Bergen, Norway, fearless young intelligence agent Tore Haugland and his team of organizers work tirelessly to protect the essential work of the Norwegian resistance.

Read more here…

The Spoon
By Lisa Voelker
CIBA First Place Winner in the Goethe Division

Lisa Voelker’s historical fiction novel, The Spoon, takes us back to the 1950s in Hungary during the daring student uprising, and attempted revolution, in Buda and Pest. The author weaves historical facts with fiction in the form of family lore that has been handed down for generations.

We follow scores of people whose lives intersected during this uprising of 1956. The revolution was, at its inception, a time of joyous upheaval, but in less than two weeks became one of devastating dissolution. People fled Hungary by the thousands, but not before giving the Soviet Union a taste of their discontent.

Read more here..

The Merchant from Sepharad
By James Hutson-Wiley
CIBA Grand Prize Winner in the Chaucer Division

Joshua Ibn Elazar, the eager son of a Jewish merchant, travels to al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule) to prove himself in his father’s business. But he finds an unwelcoming, degrading society waiting for him, and begins a journey of misfortune and anger in James Hutson-Wiley’s historical fiction novel, The Merchant from Sepharad.

Shortly after arriving in the city of Lishbunah, al-Andalus, Joshua is tricked out of the gold for his living expenses. Worse yet, he learns that Jews in Lishbunah suffer under oppressive laws, holding far less status than Muslim citizens. He can only find help in Lishbuna’s Jewish community, meeting Rabbi Hiyya al-Daudi and his son Yaish, who house and feed him.

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A Siren Called Truth
By Patricia Roberts Wright

Patricia Roberts Wright’s A Siren Called Truth plunges into the fierce rivalry of the Bone Wars, a real-life scientific feud between paleontologists Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh. Blending history, ambition, and human drama, this gripping historical novel explores the cost of discovery and the lengths people will go to secure their legacy.

A Siren Called Truth is a character-driven exploration of rivalry. Edward Cope, a self-taught genius, is determined to unearth America’s prehistoric past, but O.C. Marsh stands in his way, a well-funded and politically savvy adversary. Their battle for dominance in paleontology is not just about fossils—it’s about reputation, power, and the relentless pursuit of truth.

A Siren Called Truth’s prose transports readers to the rugged landscapes where fossils lie buried beneath layers of time.

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Recognition for Historical Fiction Excellence

Don’t miss out on your chance to submit to these fabulous Historical Fiction Awards!

Whether you’re writing pure historical fiction or adding bits of history into other genres, professional recognition celebrates the craft behind effective tales from the past. The Chanticleer International Book Awards recognize outstanding fiction across multiple divisions that dive into the past:

Chaucer Awards ~ Perfect for Early Historical Fiction (Pre-1750s Historical Fiction Novels

Goethe Awards ~ Ideal for Late Historical (Post-1750s Fiction Novels

Laramie Awards ~ Excellent for Western, Pioneer, Civil War, First Nations Fiction Novels and other Historical Fiction Books

Hemingway Book Awards ~ Fitting for 20th & 21st century Wartime Historical Fiction Novels

The 2025 deadline is August 31st! These awards recognize the skillful writing in genres that creates memorable, impactful historical fiction.

Historical fiction is about creating emotional experiences that resonate in the modern world long after the final page. Whatever your primary genre, adding in great period details, creating relatable characters, and sticking to a good process all the way to the finish can transform good stories into unforgettable ones.

Submit before August 31 and let professional judges recognize your skill in crafting compelling, historical fiction.
August 14, 2025