Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: CIBAs

The 2024 Hemingway Book Awards Spotlight on 20th & 21st c. Wartime Fiction
The History of War is always important

Especially in Historical Fiction

The Hemingway Awards is our Division for Historical Fiction of 20th Century Wartime. Named for famed War Correspondent and Author Ernest Hemingway, his writings embody much of what this award covers. He didn’t write only war related content, but A Farewell to Arms and For Whom The Bell Tolls are both amazing looks into the rather tumultuous early 20th century.

These are the categories for the 2024 Hemingway Awards for 20th and 21st century Wartime Fiction:
- World War 1
- World War 2
- Women in War
- Occupation/ Diaspora
- Espionage
- Love in Wartime
- Specific Campaign/ Theater/ Battle
The dropping of a nuclear bomb in Stanley Kubrik’s dark satire “Dr. Strangelove”

Submit Your Work Today!

We are delighted to celebrate the 2023 Winners of the Hemingway Awards!
- J.L. Oakley – The Brisling Code
- Kathryn Gauci – In the Shadow of the Pyrenees
- Michael J Cooper – Crossroads of Empire
- Ivan Luiz Hernandez – Isla Vulnerable
- Linda Stewart Henley – Kate’s War
- Jerena Tobiasen – Tsarina’s Crown
- William McClain – Alice’s War
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 Hemingway Book Awards is:

The Silver Waterfall

A Novel of The Battle of Midway

by Kevin Miller

We love stories about wartime history here at Chanticleer. Here are some of the best books we’ve reviewed 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!

ROSES In DECEMBER: Hamilton Place, Book 2
By Mark A. Gibson

Roses in December is the epic conclusion to Mark A. Gibson’s compelling two-part family saga, Hamilton Place. Now focusing on the family’s next generation, James Hamilton Jr.—Jimmy—follows in the footsteps of the father he never met, a Vietnam War hero who died in battle, and ultimately finds his own path in life.

Pressured by a conning mother-in-law only out for monetary gain, the elder Jimmy’s widow, Becca, is pushed to marry Mack Lee, her deceased husband’s older brother who proves to be a cheating and abusive husband. Trapped in this loveless marriage, Becca hopes that attending church will remove her son from the toxic influence of her new husband and set him on the right path to a good life. But it’s the discovery of young Jimmy’s superior photographic memory that opens the door to a brighter future, and he sets a course to an outstanding medical career, coupled with military service in Afghanistan.

Gibson delivers the recent past with a great sense of immediacy, showing events that ripple into our contemporary world using pop references that are relevant in today’s world.

Read more here!

AFTER ME
By J. Shep

The arrival of a mysterious package makes for an enticing beginning in J. Shep’s After Me. Inside we find a manuscript with the same text as the book we’re about to read. This inventive start lends a sense of realism and truth to what follows and creates a vivid yet hazy quality, like memory itself.

After Me travels back in time to rural France just after World War II. The setting appears idyllic at first—almost unbelievably so. Still, there’s a disturbing undercurrent felt from the start. Not from an unwanted presence, but rather from an absence.

Told from the perspective of Ellande, a young boy, he recounts the summer his parents die in an accident and he and his nine-year-old little sister, Madeleine-Grace, are sent to their extended family’s summer home in France. Their care seems competent at first—but cracks in the façade gradually emerge as Ellande begins his tale.

Read more here!

EVERYTHING WE HAD: No Merciful War Book 1
By Tom Burkhalter

Everything We Had, book one of Tom Burkhalter’s No Merciful War series is an inexorable thrill that will grip readers tight. It starts with a poker game, through which a main character’s luck soon becomes evident. But will that luck hold out?

Jack—the poker player—and Charlie—Jack’s older brother—have been separated by war, even though that war has yet to be declared. Everything We Had focuses more on the machinations leading up to US involvement in World War II than on actual combat. The gears of war that have so many young men caught in them move with gradual but inevitable force, and so Everything We Had takes a more thoughtful approach to a historic moment in time.

Connecting with the characters is a gradual process as you get to know the intricacies that make up their individual personalities. This sets the reader up to feel the emotions of the characters as they face an uncertain fate, and throughout the book the author’s clear and methodical research shines with details such as specific views, locations, and—most notably—comprehensive descriptions of the airplanes Jack and Charlie pilot. This allows the reader to become deeply familiar with the motivations of the characters and the capabilities of the airplanes they fly.

Read more here!

These authors keep the recent past alive for us! We thank them for documenting these times and sharing their stories!

We hope to see your work in the 2024 Hemingway Awards!

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!

Your book deserves to be discovered
October 9, 2024
The 2024 Global Thriller Award Spotlight for High Stakes Suspense
The World is at Stake

Can your book save the day?

The Global Thriller Awards is our Division for all the Spy stories, International Conspiracies, and Science based novels. While some of the categories in this Division may have overlap with some others, Global Thriller stands strong in it’s quest to portray potentially World-Destroying Events.

The Categories in Global Thriller for High Stake Suspense are are:
- Historic: Theater of War, Spycraft, and more!
- Lablit: Real Science meets “What-If?” scenarios that feel all too plausible!
- Science Fiction: Sometimes the threat comes from outside our known reality like Alien or Predator
- Dramatic: Classic Die Hard style consequences
- Action/Adventure: ‘Nuf said
- Cybertech: Also known as Cyberpunk. Typically a Dystopian like story, commonly with 1980’s aesthetics and Futuristic technology.
We’re ready for your Thriller Today!

The Global Thriller Book Awards Close at the end of October! Don’t let your book miss out on the chance to be discovered!

We are delighted to celebrate the 2023 Winners of The Global Thriller Award!
- D. L. Wilburn Jr. – The God Protocol: Dragon
- Glenn Dyer – Trust No One
- Mark James – Friendship Games
- Randall Krzak – Ultimate Escalation
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Cobra Pose
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards is:

Jake Fortina and the Roman Conspiracy

By Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke

For our Spotlight Articles we love to highlight some of the best High Stakes Suspense Thrillers that have come our way! Pull out your pen and paper, because your list of books to read is about to get longer!

MAJOR JAKE FORTINA And The TIER ONE THREAT
By Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke

Why would Iranian terrorists break into a Paris cemetery and steal the bones of an American Jewish WWI veteran? The answer lies in the deadly parallel history of WWI and the Spanish flu, but it’s a mystery that Jake Fortina will have to uncover in Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke’s thriller, Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat.

During WWI, the Spanish Flu killed millions of people—some estimates as high as 100 million—but a Jewish nurse tossed off the flu like a cold and continued to serve her country. Iran’s leaders believe the DNA in her bones will let them develop a virus that could kill Americans and Israelis by the millions while simultaneously developing immunity for Iran’s own population.

This threat drives the story as it reaches deep into multiple countries and their governments, who collectively try to figure out the importance of the bones theft and, ultimately, what to do about it.

Read more here!

REVENGE: A Bruce and Smith Thriller Book 2
By Randall Krzak

Randall Krzak raises the bar of the thriller genre with Revenge, the action-packed second book in the Bruce and Smith series.

Javier retires from the Army and his despised desk job at the Pentagon. He lived for the action of working in the field, so as a civilian, he tries to build an international investigative agency called The Brusch Agency. Thanks to his connections from the military, he can do exactly the work he wants, with the people he chooses.

Krzak sets up this book meticulously, building conflicts in the first several chapters. Javier needs to apply for his concealed-carry permit and private investigator’s license while finding office space for his agency, but his plans are staggered as his condo is broken into and trashed. Despite his investigation and that of law enforcement, the culprit remains a mystery.

Read more here!

THE BRISLING CODE
By J.L. Oakley

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!

APOCALYPSE In OUR TIME: The Accountant’s Apprentice Book 3
By Dennis M. Clausen

In The Accountant’s Apprentice III: Apocalypse In Our Time by Dennis M. Clausen, the director of a homeless shelter sees subtle changes in the community around him, changes that are both worrisome and bizarre—portending a change to the world beyond human understanding.

The story of Justin Moore, director of a homeless shelter in San Diego, continues. In the previous books in the series, he has met individuals who seem to be not quite of this world. A.C., a mysterious man in a wheelchair who played an important role earlier in the trilogy, is gone as of the third book, but his wheelchair is now being used by another man— seemingly catatonic and with no name. This man is known only as “Levi” by the staff at the bus depot where he was found, but Justin finds there is something more to him beneath the surface. Levi seems to have certain things in common with A.C., but with unique abilities. Justin is warned by a woman that the man he knows as Levi may be dangerous, but is he? And who is she, anyway?

So many questions are raised, and Justin has few if any answers. In the previous book, he saw a demonic army gathering on the horizon. Was that real? A.C. had given Justin a limited ability to see the future, and a horrifying promise of things to come:

Read more here!

These authors kept us on the Edge of our Seat, and we can’t wait for more!

Flip the switch and enter the Global Thriller Awards today!

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!

Your book deserves to be discovered
October 8, 2024
The 2023 Hearten First Place Winners for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction

The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Nove Meyers’ book, Running Away From The Circus will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Clue 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 2023 Hearten Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Hearten Winners!

Lisa Niver – Brave-ish

Newlywed Niver was on the adventure of a lifetime. She had quit her job, rented out her condo, and was traveling around Asia. To the outside world, Niver was a woman living out her dreams of exploring ancient ruins in Cambodia and seeing orangutans in Borneo. In private, she was keeping a dark secret. But, when she found herself lying on a sidewalk in Thailand, looking up at the sky in severe pain, she knew things had to change. At age forty-seven, Niver found the courage to set course on a new life.

Feeling like a failure, pushing fifty, and moving home to her parents’ house to start again from scratch, Niver started taking one tiny “brave-ish” step at a time to take her life far away from the old one and into the adventurous world of travel writing. These small hurdles led to the challenge of trying fifty new things before turning fifty. From diving into shipwrecks, swimming with sharks, bobsledding at 3 Gs, to indulging in wild escapades, Niver found herself traversing the world on a journey of reinvention, personal growth, and discovering what it actually means to be “brave.”

While Brave-ish chronicles Niver’s inspiring expeditions to distant corners of the world including Myanmar, Cuba, Morocco, Kenya and Mongolia this is more than a travelogue. Niver’s story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of perseverance. Brave-ish inspires readers to dream big, take risks, and embrace the unknown to create a life filled with wonder and excitement, even when courage seems elusive.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Lally Pia – The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy

When a military coup in Ghana leads to the abrupt closure of Lally Pia’s medical school, she is left stranded there, thousands of miles away from her family in California, with no educational prospects or money. Adding to her turmoil is her discovery that her American Green Card has been botched, which means she has no country to call home. But a Sri Lankan priest told Lally that she would one day become a “Doctor of Doctors” —and she is intent on proving him right.

This sizzling multicultural roller coaster illustrates the power of self-determination as Lally, a young immigrant with a drive to succeed, takes on obstacle after obstacle—an abusive relationship, the welfare state, and a gruesome job where she has to dismember human bodies—in order to fulfill her dreams. A story that will resonate with anyone who has faced cultural and immigration hardships, The Fortune Teller’s Prophecy is a nail-biting journey across continents, through hardships, and into ultimate triumph.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Tony Jeton Selimi – A Path to Excellence

Become the master of your destiny with this proven blueprint for achieving your true potential.

Are you tired of settling for mediocrity? Do you want to become the high-achieving person you know you can be? Are you ready to let go of your limiting beliefs and step into the prosperous, successful, and fulfilled life you know you are meant to have?

If so, A Path to Excellence™ is for you.

Thoroughly researched with authentic advice and ground breaking strategies, this illuminating blueprint for self-mastery invites you on a journey to realize your full potential, clarify your vision, and dare to achieve your dreams.

Inside, you’ll join #1 bestselling, award-winning author, Tony Jeton Selimi as he reveals a proven path to achieving the highest levels of personal and professional excellence. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Tony went from living homeless and penniless as a victim of civil war, to becoming a self-made millionaire and internationally recognised authority on emotional intelligence and maximising human potential.

Built on his critically acclaimed The Octagon of Excellence Method, this book breaks down Tony’s 30 years of experience into an easy-to-digest blueprint, challenging you to step beyond your limits and become the master of your destiny.

From Chanticleer:

On the belief that life isn’t just the random cards one is dealt, A Path to Excellence by Tony Jeton Selimi offers a blueprint—the octagon of excellence—to succeed personally, professionally, and spiritually.

Transcending the pitfalls and spontaneous stumbling blocks along the path of life can open the door to self-actualization and progression. As someone who experienced bullying, sexual abuse, early disability, and homelessness, Selimi sets on to become a beacon of light to the hopeless and marginalized.

Within each soul lies a bud of genius waiting to blossom. This book focuses on purpose, vision, and persistence to clear the way to that fullest potential. Affirming challenges as immutable truths of life, Selimi employs Buddhist teaching and personal anecdotes to encourage a head-on confrontation with one’s struggles and promotes a feeling of gratitude. As a blend of philosophical wisdom and practical experience, the initial chapters help readers acknowledge their current life situation, perceiving challenges as epochs of potential.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Trudy Wells-Meyer – Some Things Are Simply Meant To Be

A teenager’s dream, the immigrant — Coming to America. . .

A belief something extraordinary is possible. Starry-eyed she arrives in New York on a massive ocean liner from England, the first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty in the distance, her extended arm — like a welcome — what a goose-bump-moment. Alone, with 2 small suitcases, she steps onto American soil, speaking little English. A life unknown, fear a constant companion. She is 23.

Her trust in faith and fate guides her life, believing in the power of possibilities as far back as growing up in a tiny Swiss village, where even dreaming had its limits. Living above her parents’ hair salon, a stranger’s phone call, an American, with a German accent . . . visits her humble home, a one-hour taxi ride from Zürich, to offer her a job in Atlanta or Houston. As the handsome out of the ordinary mystery man leaves, Mom, and her Swiss stare embarrassing Trudy, holding her hands he says, “See you in America”. In the dark cold hallway, rooted to the floor with a broken leg, a cast to her knee, she utters words: “This . . . has something to do with later.”

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Aurita Maldonado – The Zen of Dancing in the Rain

Society has become a place where combat veterans would rather commit suicide than live. Many who “have it all” are discovering that they still feel miserable but can’t figure out why. They feel powerless under the boredom of what society deems necessary.

Aurita Maldonado is a Puerto Rican woman warrior and Afro Latin dance instructor who chose a different path before and after her two combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

She received a Purple Heart for wounds received in Afghanistan before leaving the Army to align her thoughts, words, and actions. She adopted a new mission: cultivate peace, happiness, and learn to become her own best friend. All while learning to live as one with Mother Earth.

Aurita rejected lucrative government jobs, sold her possessions, and moved to Haines, Alaska, in 2010 to begin her journey with PTSD and self-acceptance. An extreme athlete, she used movement to help her navigate the storms with a grin until she was suddenly paralyzed from the waist down in a fight against a deadly rat lungworm infection.

The perspective shifts she adopted to continue to enjoy life while learning to use her body again will make you reassess your choices to settle for the status quo.

This is an inspirational memoir of a remarkable woman’s journey to stumble in style as she navigates seemingly insurmountable tragedies early in life. It is a story of triumph and discipline. Joy and sorrow. A portrait of a Lady Hurricane dancing, both literally and figuratively as one with the storms of life.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Hearten First Place Winners!

You can see our Hall of Fame on the Hearten Grand Prize Winners, including Nove Meyers’s incredible book Running Away From The Circus here.

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 2024 Hearten Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Submit to the Hearten Awards Today!

October 7, 2024
The Little Peeps First Place Roundup for Children’s Literature!

The Little Peeps Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Childrens and Early Readers. The Grand Prize Winner, Scrap University’s book, The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Little Peeps 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 2023 Little Peeps Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Little Peeps Winners!

Beth Davis – Lacinda the Lion is a Super Youneek Beast

Lacinda the Lion was born in a tiny town where being a Super Youneek Beast wasn’t always celebrated. Her friends and family didn’t know quite what to think of her! She faces some challenges and curious eyes when she goes to school for the first time, but there’s an awesome learning moment for all at the end of the day! This book is a touching story about being unique, gaining self-esteem, and celebrating exactly who you are!

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Adalgisa and David Nico – Fish in the Desert: The Untold Story of the Death Valley Pupfish

When some think of Death Valley, a barren wasteland comes to mind. Far from it, the area, now a protected national park known for its extreme temperatures, is teeming with a diverse range of endemic species, plants, and terrain. Fish in the Desert explores the fascinating and tiny ‘pupfish,’ the world’s rarest fish who have withstood the harsh conditions of Death Valley since the Pleistocene epoch.

The story follows Adele, a young girl, on a road trip with her family to Death Valley National Park in Southeastern California near the border with Nevada. Adele spots a beautiful and tiny blue and purple fish that the park’s Aquatic Ecologist tells the family is called a pupfish, an endangered fish species renowned for its ability to exist with the intense heat and salt and even adapt to a changing ecosystem over thousands of years.

Young readers will learn that the tenacious pupfish, originally among many types of sea life, is the only species to have survived the climate change and extreme conditions of Death Valley and that there are even subspecies of pupfish that evolved separately in different pools of water.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Ruth Amanda – Geckos in The Garden

Is there anything more fun than hunting for geckos in your garden? This delightful counting book, told in whimsical rhyming couplets, invites readers to explore the wonder and joy of tromping through nature to look for geckos.

There’s one on the patio! And another in the shrubs! Before you know it, the whole morning will go by happily hunting geckos. Readers will find one, two, three, four… well, you get the idea. Geckos are everywhere, and they’re oh so much fun to discover.

From Chanticleer:

Geckos in the Garden by Ruth Amanda is a children’s counting book that takes readers through a delightful, rhythmic, aesthetically pleasing romp past a series of hidden geckos.

Amanda starts out with just one gecko in the garden. Every page after, one more is added amongst myriad natural details such as flowers, a snail, a palm tree, garden taps, rocks, a mango tree, leaves, a gate, a bird’s nest, a pond, and more.

Amanda demonstrates a natural sense of narrative arc even within a counting book—readers will feel the climax of the adventure when they arrive at the ninth gecko and read the line, “I spot one—two—no, six—no, more! Nine!” The escalation of the words’ momentum makes the ninth and tenth geckos more dramatic. Furthermore, the clever dénouement includes the narrator realizing the geckos might watch them just as much as they watch the geckos, and this is written alongside an adorable picture of a gecko looking in the window of the narrator’s home.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Jonna Laster – Nutshell Regatta

Grandma took a handful of nutshells from her sweater pocket. I saw empty peanut and walnut shells and asked what they were for. Grandma smiled, “Not shells but sloops and sailboats. This is the HMS Goober”.

From Chanticleer:

In Nutshell Regatta by Jonna Laster, the narrator’s grandmother reveals adventures in nature that could easily be missed without her watchful eye.

With her wise guidance, clouds turn into campers, dandelions hold moon yokes, leaves sing, and a broken branch takes on the form of a fox. Most importantly, twigs and pebbles become sailors who embark on a grand regatta in their nutshell sloops and sailboats.

Three ships come to the forefront of the story. Two of them sink, their twig sailors swimming safely to a nearby lily pad, while one continues on. Its passengers Burt the pebble and Betula the birch twig encounter what appears to be disaster, but when they fall over a waterfall, the grandmother guides the narrator to listen close. When they hear a faint “yipeeeeee” from the bottom of the waterfall, it’s clear that all has turned out well.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon

T.K. Sheffield – The Night Icelandic Horses Saved Christmas Eve

Manuscript

Raven Howell – Friends Come in All Sizes

Patience and kindness are important when you want to make new friends, but it’s hard not to consider what it would be like to have a gangly giraffe or chilled-out polar bear as a pal.

A friendship mission prompts two boys to regard would-be companions of many shapes and sizes, and their imaginative adventures hatch brand new, unexpected buddies.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Little Peeps First Place Winners!

You can see our Hall of Fame on the Little Peeps Grand Prize Winners, including Scrap University’s incredible book The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans here.

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 2024 Little Peeps Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Submit to the Little Peeps Awards Today!

October 6, 2024
The 2023 M&M Awards First Place Roundup for Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mysteries!
The Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Mysteries. The Grand Prize Winner, Michelle Cox’s book, A Haunting at Linley will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the M&M 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 2023 M&M Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place M&M Winners!

Liese Sherwood Fabre – The Adventure on the Purloined Portrait

A long-buried past. A stolen portrait. The artist’s murder. Can Sherlock discover the connection between the three before he’s stopped permanently?

Sherlock can’t shake his apprehension about a family trip to Paris. His mother’s unflappable confidence vanished months ago, and her anxiety has set the whole family on edge. His greatest fears are realized when they witness the death of one of Mrs. Holmes’ former suitors.

As Sherlock seeks to unravel the reason behind the artist’s murder, he unearths a long-buried secret about his mother and survives several attempts to keep him from getting to the truth.

Can he bring a murderer to justice before he’s buried with these hidden secrets forever?

The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait is the gripping fourth case in The Early Case Files of Sherlock Holmes. If you enjoy traditional historical mysteries, you’ll love this origin series about the world’s greatest consulting detective.

Find it on Amazon

Gail Grant Park – We Are Shadows: An Irish Ghost Story

Moira Gallagher has been conversing with ghosts since she was five. Now as an adult, she’s finally putting that ability to good use.

Moira’s ability to talk with the dead gives her detective agency, Gallagher Investigations, an edge in uncovering secrets the past has buried. With the help of her sisters, Nuala and Deirdre, she assists those unsettled spirits in finding peace by righting the wrongs done to them before they found themselves on the Other Side. The past collides with the present as these Irish sisters solve cold-case murders and mayhem through their dreams, paranormal visitations, and spunk.

If you enjoy a cozy mystery, ghosts of the friendly and not-so-friendly variety, or anything Irish, you’ll love We Are Shadows.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Rebecca Olmstead – Dreams and Illusions

Suffering a crisis of faith, will one woman’s cryptic visions lead to the path of healing and save her sister from death row?

Gabrielle Dorian believes God has turned against her. Despite prophetic dreams, the grieving boutique owner resents that her alleged gift didn’t prevent her parents’ accidental deaths or protect her husband from a fatal worksite accident. So after receiving a panicked call from the last of her family, the distraught woman shelves her own sorrow and rushes to Seattle to rescue her estranged sister.

Discovering her sibling has been charged with murder, Gabrielle begins to fear the worst when her brother-in-law is missing and his best friend mysteriously comes up with bail money. Battling a hated former classmate in charge of the case, she fights through the murk of suspicious clues that all point to a guilty verdict.

With her last loved one’s life on the line, can she uncover the truth before it’s too late?

Dreams and Illusions is the riveting first book in the Gabrielle Dorian Mysteries Series. If you like headstrong heroines, fast-paced drama, and dark twists, you’ll love Rebecca Olmstead’s tale of doubt and redemption.

Find it on Amazon

Elizabeth Crowens – Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles

Asta, the dog from the popular Thin Man series, has vanished, and production for his next film is pending. MGM Studios offers a huge reward, and that’s exactly what young private detectives Babs Norman and Guy Brandt need for their struggling business to survive. Celebrity dognapping now a growing trend, when the police and city pound ridicule Basil Rathbone and ask, “Sherlock Holmes has lost his dog?” Basil also hires the B. Norman Agency to find his missing Cocker Spaniel.

The three concoct a plan for Basil to assume his on-screen persona and round up possible suspects, including Myrna Loy and William Powell; Dashiell Hammett, creator of The Thin Man; Nigel Bruce, Basil’s on-screen Doctor Watson; Hollywood-newcomer, German philanthropist and film financier Countess Velma von Rache, and the top animal trainers in Tinseltown. Yet everyone will be in for a shock when the real reason behind the canine disappearances is even more sinister than imagined.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Patrick E Craig -The Quilt That Knew
- A young girl buried in the woods for forty years…
- A desperate killer loose in the village…
- A mysterious quilt and a golden ring…
Jenny Hershberger returns to Apple Creek, Ohio, the village where she grew up. But this is not a happy homecoming. She’s been called upon to solve a horrible crime. But will the killer find her first…

Find it Locally and on Amazon
Lyn Squire – Immortalized to Death

Death strikes England’s foremost novelist, his latest tale only half told. Was he murdered because someone feared a ruinous revelation? Or was it revenge for some past misdeed? Set in the Kent countryside and London slums of 1870, Immortalised to Death embeds an ingenious solution to Charles Dickens’s unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood within the evolving and ultimately tragic consequences of a broader mystery surrounding the author himself. Debut author Lyn Squire kicks off his fascinating Dunston Burnett Trilogy with legendary Victorian novelist Charles Dickens dead at his desk, pen still in hand. Convinced that the identity of Dickens’s murderer lies in the book’s missing denouement, Dickens’s nephew and unlikely detective, Dunston Burnett, sets out to complete his uncle’s half-finished novel. A stunning revelation crowns this tale about the mysterious death of England’s greatest novelist, and exposes the author’s long-held secret.

Find it on Amazon

E.W. Finke – Coyote’s Wail

The baffling death of a beloved Elder. A convocation of eagles, sacred messengers of Kji-Niskam, poisoned. Mi’kmaw First Nation Chief Peter Joe must learn who’s behind the killings before more die. A determined wildlife activist, a self-important Minister of Parliament, a virulent poison, and a plan to eradicate Newfoundland’s newest and smartest predators tangle his trail to the cause and perpetrator, and put his life in danger.

Are things as they seem? The Old Ones’ stories hold the answers.

Find it at Barnes & Noble

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 M&M First Place Winners!

You can see our Hall of Fame on the M&M Grand Prize Winners, including Michelle Cox’s incredible book A Haunting at Linley here.

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 2024 M&M Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Note: Submissions are open until the dates update on the website!

Submit to the M&M Awards Today!
October 5, 2024
The 2023 Chaucer First Place Roundup for Early Historical Fiction!

The Chaucer Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Early Historical Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, James Hutson-Wiley’s book, The Merchant from Sepharad will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Chaucer 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 this years Chaucer posts, we are also highlighting some of the female authors of the past, often overlooked by History.

Marie de France was a 12th Century poet, considered to be the earliest known female poet writing in French. Her work is still read and was also an influence on the genre of Chivalric Romance. One of her works is a series of 102 fables, some translated from Aesop, the ones in the series she wrote have a focus on Female characters. Fable 51 is considered an early version of the Raynard the Fox tale, which was an inspiration for Chaucer while writing the Canterbury Tales, specifically the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, the tale also starring a certain rooster named Chanticleer.

The 2023 Chaucer Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Chaucer Winners!

Gina Buonaguro – The Virgins on Venice

Venice in 1509 is on the brink of war. The displeasure of Pope Julius II is a continuing threat to the republic, as is the barely contained fighting in the countryside. Amid this turmoil, noblewoman Justina Soranzo, just sixteen, hopes to make a rare love marriage with her sweetheart, Luca Cicogna. Her hopes are dashed when her father decides her younger sister, Rosa, will marry in a strategic alliance and Justina will be sent to the San Zaccaria convent, in the tradition of aristocratic daughters. Lord Soranzo is not acting only to protect his family. It’s well known that he is in debt to both his trading partners and the most infamous courtesan in the city, La Diamante, and the pressure is closing in.

After arriving at the convent, Justina takes solace in her aunt Livia, one of the nuns, and in the growing knowledge that all is not strictly devout at San Zaccaria. Justina is shocked to discover how the women of the convent find their own freedom in what seems to her like a prison. But secrets and scandals breach the convent walls, and Justina learns there may be even worse fates for her than the veil, if La Diamante makes good on her threats.

Desperate to protect herself and the ones she loves, Justina turns to Luca for help. She finds she must trust her own heart to make the impossible decisions that may save or ruin them all.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Griffin Brady – The Hussar’s Duty

A duty he believes in. A general he idolizes. But when doubts surface, will he stay true to honor or the chance to return to the woman he loves?

Poland, 1620. Jacek Dąbrowski scents war in the air. Away from the battlefield for five years, the renowned fighter yields to a growing itch and answers the general’s request to help lead the army against the Ottomans. But he’s torn between duty and family when the perils of combat force him to leave his defenseless wife behind.

Attending war councils and taking command of problematic noblemen, Jacek starts to doubt the mission and the sacrifice of being far from his loved ones. But his loyalty to his commander could put him on an irreversible path to disaster…

Will Jacek’s call to arms prove to be his death song?

Find it on Amazon

Robert S. Phillips – Elodia’s Knife

Set in the late 4th century CE, Elodia’s Knife tells the gripping tale of a young Gothic girl who kills her abusive husband and flees his family’s retribution by rafting across the Danube River into Roman territory. Against the backdrop of a crumbling empire and the looming threat of Gothic invasion, Elodia must use her wits and her strength to rise to power in a world that seeks to crush her. With unforgettable characters, pulse-pounding action, and a vivid sense of historical detail, this is a must-read for anyone who loves adventure, romance, and history.

From Chanticleer:

Elodia is a young woman driven by dreadful circumstances to act with deadly force in the Robert S. Phillips novel Elodia’s Knife.

What Elodia hoped would be her leap away from danger instead left her surrounded by perilous threats that now threaten to consume her. Armed with her courage, determination, instincts, and a trusty knife, Elodia faces a hostile world in foreign territory.

Not all are against her though. Allies– even a friend– can be found, if Elodia can summon the bravery to listen to her feelings and own deep wishes.

Young Elodia is unhappily married to an abusive husband. But when he tries to attack her again, she strikes back and kills him.

Read More Here

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Rozsa Gaston – Margaret of Austria

Margaret of Austria was the most significant political negotiator of early 16th-century Europe. About as Austrian as French fries are French, she was born in Brussels in 1480, raised in France, married and widowed in Spain, then married and widowed again in Savoy by age twenty-four.

In 1506 Margaret’s life turned upside down when her brother Philip of Burgundy unexpectedly died in Spain. With their mother Juana of Castile insane, four children, heirs to the Habsburg empire, were left behind in the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands.

Margaret stepped in and took the reins.

Appointed by her father, Maximilian I, Margaret became governor of the Netherlands, then widened her role to broker the 1508 Treaty of Cambrai where Europe’s princes united against Venice.

Ferdinand of Spain, Henry Tudor then Henry VIII of England, Louis XII of France, and Louise of Savoy for Francis I all came to Margaret’s negotiation table. Under her deft diplomacy princes saw reason and wars were averted.

Enjoying political power, Margaret avoided remarriage. Then Henry VIII’s right-hand man Charles Brandon turned her world upside down.

Margaret’s court attracted Europe’s brightest, including the young Anne Boleyn. Yet halfway through her rule Margaret was ousted by enemies. She won back her position with a comeback strategy as astute today as it was in 1517.

Journey to the Renaissance with Margaret of Austria, who shot the fortunes of the House of Habsburg to the stars while setting a winning precedent for female rule in the Netherlands.

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Rebecca Kightlinger – The Lady of the Cliffs: The Bury Down Chronicles, Book 2

Now nearly seventeen, Megge and Brighida must endure another brutal loss.

As they perform the rites of transition that precede a burial, Megge accepts a daunting new charge that carries consequences not even her cousin the seer can predict. It brings visions. Dreams. And voices that come to her as she goes about her work.

A silken voice beckons her back to the cliffs of Kernow, which she has seen only in dreams.

A commanding voice orders her back.

And the menacing voice she’s heard since she was a girl is now ever at her ear, bringing a haunting new meaning to her grandmother’s words, “You’re never alone.”

But only when the tales of an old woman, a stranger to Bury Down, echo those voices and conjure those cliffs does Megge embark on a journey that leads to a secluded cove they call The Sorrows and a destiny none of the women of Bury Down could have foreseen.

From Chanticleer:

In The Lady of the Cliffs, an ambitious sequel in the Bury Down Chronicles by Rebecca Kightlinger, a teenager embarks on a journey that will bring her face to face with unexpected destiny.

The year is 1286 CE in Cornwall, England. At the turn of her seventeenth year, Megge and her cousin Brighida find themselves dealing with a new loss, one that breaks both their hearts. As heirs to the Book of Seasons and Book of Times respectively, they have to protect the books from sinister hands as they hold knowledge and wisdom that must one day be united. The power of these two books calls for a duty that is far greater than any woman of Bury Down has ever borne.

As they take part in a final right of passage that the women of Bury Down perform for their dead, Megge, an apprentice weaver, takes on new challenges that Brighida, an apprentice seer, cannot foretell. Megge begins having dreams and visions. In one of her dreams, she sees a rolling sea drive itself into a cove at the foot of a cliff, and a silken voice asking her to return to the cliffs of Kernow, a place that she has only seen in her slumber.

Read More Here

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C.V. Lee – Token of Betrayal

1461, Isle of Jersey. Disillusioned by war, Sir Philippe de Carteret returns home to hang up his sword and embrace his duties as seigneur of the island’s most powerful manor. Desiring to raise his son in peace and safety, he is dismayed when news arrives that the impregnable fortress of Mont Orgueil Castle has been breached.

He seeks assistance from England to expel the invaders. But amid the chaos of the Wars of the Roses, his pleas go unheeded. To safeguard his son and preserve the family legacy, de Carteret pledges fealty to the new lord. Hopeful that the French will rule benevolently, his illusions are quickly shattered when their tactics turn brutal.

With spies everywhere and unsure of whom to trust, can de Carteret build a rebel force and lead them on a quest to liberate the homeland he loves?

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Chaucer First Place Winners!

You can see our Hall of Fame on the Chaucer Grand Prize Winners, including James Hutson-Wiley’s incredible book The Merchant From Sepharad here.

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 2024 Chaucer Book Awards are open through the end of September!

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

Submit to the Chaucer Awards Today!

October 4, 2024
The 2023 Clue Awards First Place Roundup for Suspense/Thrillers

The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Thriller and Suspense Mysteries. The Grand Prize Winner, Kevin G Chapman’s book, The Other Murder will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Clue 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 2023 Clue Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Clue Winners!

Daniel V. Meier Jr. – Guidance To Death

In this gripping opening to a detective series, we dive into a world where the line between accident and foul play blurs. The story begins with the mysterious crash of an Amertec Electronics company jet, just after it takes off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on a dreary, rain-soaked day with low visibility. While the National Transportation Safety Board deems it an accident, the victim’s wife insists it was murder.

Enter the protagonist, a seasoned former NTSB investigator turned independent aviation accident sleuth. He takes on the case, only to find himself caught in a web of intrigue that points to deliberate sabotage. As he digs deeper, an additional murder ties back to Amertec, thickening the plot and confirming his suspicions of foul play.

The investigation soon reveals a complex puzzle with international implications. Working mostly solo, our detective finds himself in need of assistance and turns to an old flame and a retired Washington D.C. police officer. Their journey into the underbelly of air traffic and corporate espionage is fraught with danger, challenging their wits and courage.

The narrative weaves a tale of high-stakes and suspense, taking readers on a behind-the-scenes exploration of the aviation world. The story not only captivates with its thrilling plot but also educates, offering insights into the intricacies of air travel and investigation

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Frederick Douglass Reynolds – Saint Bloodbath

Detectives McGuire and Cortes take on a gruesome homicide case in Long Beach, California, and navigate the complex role of being the murder police in an area marked by homelessness, drug abuse, and gang violence. With little but their combined decades of detective experience to go off of, they investigate personal and gang-related motives in an attempt to identify and arrest their suspect. When a severed hand is found in the desert nearly 100 miles away, their years-long investigation crosses jurisdictions, and they must connect the dots before the bloodbath continues. Saint Bloodbath explores the true story of multiple heinous crimes, but perhaps more importantly, highlights the lives and experiences of the victims, their peers, and the investigators who sought to bring a murderer to justice.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Jode Millman – The Empty Kayak

For Detective Ebony Jones, crime is always personal. But this time, it strikes too close to home.

A pop-up thunderstorm marched its way across the Hudson River, ambushing a young couple’s kayaking trip. The woman miraculously made it back to shore, but her fiancé remains missing. Ebony and her partner are the first responders who rush to the river to assist in rescuing the capsized boater.

The victim’s identity shocks Ebony to the core. Kyle Emory, the ex-boyfriend of her estranged best friend, attorney Jessie Martin, is the man who never made it out of the water. The accident ignites a firestorm between the two friends, pitting them against each other in a race to discover whether Kyle survived or whether he met his untimely demise. Under pressure from the chief and the DA, Ebony needs to solve the mystery, while Jessie seeks justice for the sake of the daughter she shares with Kyle.The investigation leads them through the dark worlds of social media, online sports betting, and extreme sports. Along the way, they uncover lies and betrayals and gather a list of dangerous suspects who are all linked to the accident survivor, Kyle’s mysterious fiancée. Even more, the discovery that Kyle possessed his own life-shattering secrets has trapped Ebony between her career and her lifelong friendship with Jessie. Yet neither Ebony nor Jessie will stop until they discover the truth about the drowning, even if it destroys their friendship and their lives.

But the evidence is as murky as the secretive Hudson River. Only the river knows whether Kyle’s tragic death was an accident, a suicide, or something more sinister.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Michelle Cox – A Haunting at Linley

In this seventh book of the series, Clive and Henrietta return to England to find Castle Linley in financial ruin. When Clive’s cousin, Wallace, invites an estate agent in to assess the home’s value, the agent is later found poisoned, throwing all of the Castle’s guests into suspicion. Clive and Henrietta are soon drawn into an investigation, which is slowed by an incompetent local inspector and several unexplained phenomena—the cause of which many, especially the frail Lady Linley, believe to be the workings of the ghost of a hanged maid.

Meanwhile, Gunther and Elsie have begun life on a farm in Omaha. Circumstances are difficult, but they are content—until Oldrich Exely appears, proposing an option Elsie finds difficult to ignore. Melody Merriweather, still masquerading as a nun to aid Elsie’s escape, likewise finds it difficult to ignore a letter with tragic news from home, while Julia, on the other hand, receives a very different sort of letter from Glenn Forbes.

Back in England, Clive is called away to London on suspicious business, leaving Henrietta to carry on with the investigation alone. When she is mysteriously locked in the study one night, however, things take on a more deadly, supernatural feel, leaving her to fear that Lady Linley’s “ghost” might just be real after all…

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Margaret Mizushima – Standing Dead

Deputy Mattie Cobb and her sister, Julia, travel to Mexico to visit their mother, but when they arrive, they discover that she and her husband have vanished without a trace. Back in Timber Creek, Mattie finds a chilling note on her front door telling her to look for “him” among the standing dead up in the high country.

The sheriff’s department springs into action and sends a team to the mountains, where Mattie’s K-9 partner, Robo, makes a grisly discovery—a body tied to a dead pine tree. Mattie is shocked when she realizes she knows the dead man. And then another note arrives, warning that Mattie’s mother is in desperate straits. In a last-ditch gambit, Mattie must go deep undercover into a killer’s lair to save her mother—or die trying.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Raymond Paul Johnson – Conspiracy Ignited

“Drop the case!” Bashed over the head and tossed overboard into the cold, dark water of a Los Angeles marina, combat veteran turned litigator Eric Ridge struggles to stay alive—and discover who is trying to kill him. And why. No matter the answer, one thing is certain: Eric Ridge does not abandon his clients and will not drop the case. The question is, what case was his assailant yelling about? Working with his legal team—including his best friend and his computer-whiz wife—Ridge is ultimately drawn into the sinister world of the Raven Society, a secretive cabal that controls the courts by coercing or killing judges. And anyone else who gets in their way. In a race against the clock, will Ridge and his team survive to use the evidence they’ve developed? Or will they suffer the same fate as others who have dared to confront The Raven Society?

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Clue First Place Winners!

You can see our Hall of Fame for the Clue Grand Prize Winners, including Kevin Chapman’s incredible book The Other Murder here.

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 2024 Clue Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Note: Late submissions are accepted until the dates change on the website!

Submit to the Clue Awards Today!

October 3, 2024
The 2024 Chatelaine Book Awards Long List for Women’s Fiction and Romance
The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Romantic 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 2024 CHATELAINE Romantic Fiction entries to the 2024 Chatelaine Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2024 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, CAC25.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2024 Chatelaine Book Awards novel competition for Romantic Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Reenita M. Hora – Vermilion Harvest – Playtime at the Bagh
- Leslie Wibberley – The Unraveling of Emma Hill
- Olivia North – Sharp Edges
- MaryAnn Clarke – Secrets at the Aviary Inn
- Jenn Bouchard – Considering Us
- John W. Feist – Edged in Purple
- Kim Gottlieb-Walker – Lenswoman in Love
- Gail Noble-Sanderson – A Cup of Revenge
- Davalynn Spencer – Covering Grace
- Leigh Grant – Artimon (Book II The Montenegrin)
- Margaret Porter – A Change of Location
- Catori Sarmiento – When We Were Flowers
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Tree Pose
- Bethany Rosa – Pursuit of Innocence
- J. Drew – On the Surface of the Sun
- Nancy Herkness – Royal Caleva: Luis
- CK Van Dam – Medicine Creek Claim: On the Dakota Frontier
- Phillip Vega – Fury in her Eyes
- Jo Morgan Sloan – The Key
- Laurel Osterkamp – The Side Project
- Omayra Velez – The General’s Gift
- Susan Bagby – Home for Love
- John David Graham – Running As Fast As I Can
- David A. Stone – Spruce Harbor Possibilities
- George T. Arnold – The Heart Beneath the Badge
- Sonja N. Griffing – Chasing Noelle
- Linda Broday – Winning Maura’s Heart
- Melissa Collings – The False Flat
- Eve M. Riley – The Secret
- Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day, Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
- Karen Janowsky – Her Name Was Lola
- S.G. Blaise – Meddling Mages
- Karen Janowsky – Dear Prudence
- CK Van Dam – Lone Tree Claim: On the Dakota Frontier
- Amanda Sue Creasey – An Expected End
- Jerry Madden – Steel Valley: Coming of Age in the Ohio Valley in the 1960s: A Love Story
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

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.

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We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Congratulations once more to the 2023 Chatelaine Grand Prize Winner

A Sea of Glass

By Gail Avery Halverson

Click here to see the full list of 2023 Chatelaine Book Award Winners for Romantic Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 Chatelaine Book Awards for Romantic Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2024 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 3 – 6, 2025! Save the Date for Registration!

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.

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!
October 2, 2024
The Dante Rossetti 2023 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, Maryanne Melloan Wood’s book, Sour Flower 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 2023 Dante Rossetti Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Dante Rossetti Winners!

Kerry Chaput – Chasing Eleanor

Newly orphaned Magnolia Parker must protect her sick little brothers, but when the authorities send the boys to an unknown orphan asylum, Magnolia calls on her unwavering grit to bring them home. She’s lost everything but still has a secret weapon-a promise from Eleanor Roosevelt, the most famous woman in America. Setting out on a cross country quest, she befriends two unlikely travelers: Hop, a migrant worker with a big heart, and Red, a young girl traumatized into silence. Hunger and dust storms aren’t the only dangers this found family faces on the rails. After an assault, they’re forced to outrun the police, all while trying to track down the First Lady. But time is running out and Magnolia’s chance to reunite her siblings depends on one thing-finding Eleanor.

Award-winning historical author Kerry Chaput is back with a touching story of loss and survival set in America’s Great Depression. With vivid details and unforgettable characters, Chasing Eleanor takes readers on an adventure of the heart, where a young woman finds hope in the most unlikely places. A touching tribute to the great Eleanor Roosevelt, this adventure-filled story will entertain and inspire all ages.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Lynn Yvonne Moon – Fish Scales

How do we face life when everything we knew to be the truth was in fact a lie? If there was a God, why did he allow her to die? Jarrod must travel to Hawaii to bury his love in an exotic world only to return to solve the mystery behind her sudden death.

Fighting off the grief, denial, and anger, Jarrod must bargain with God to help him fight off his depression while accepting Dru’s death. If he loved her enough when she was alive, could he love her enough to let her go?

Walk with Jarrod and Dru as they explore the wonders and excitement of young love. Experience the newness and freshness that we’ve all but forgotten.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Sophia Krich-Brinton – A Song Like The Wind

Manuscript

J.A. Nielsen – The Claiming

Spense is the unfortunate younger son of Lord Ferrous, with a growing talent for the magical arts and a larger talent for finding trouble, most often in the form of botched spells. Dewy is a Fae princess who tends to disappoint her aunt, the Summer Queen, through her-ahem-carefree life choices. A chance encounter-and another botched spell-leaves Spense bonded to Dewy and able to control her will. But it’s a violation of magic. Not to mention devastating to Human-Fae relations. To free Dewy and save Spense’s kingdom, they must journey through faerie territories-facing feral magic, treacherous wilderness, and their own distractible hearts. Unless that’s just the effect of The Claiming…

From Chanticleer:

The illegitimate son of a human king accidentally binds himself to a Fae princess in J.A. Nielsen’s YA adventure, The Claiming. As war bears down on the kingdom of Telridge, can the two of them break the spell in time?

Lord Ferrous, ruler of Telridge, smells conflict coming for his people. Even so, he denies a mysterious request from the king of the Winter Fae, and sets his sons to prepare their land for war. His eldest, Prince Dirk, gathers his knights and begins to evacuate the common people to the protection of Telridge castle. His younger son Spense, born out of wedlock to the castle’s head cook, uses his finicky magic to Claim a bridge over a powerful river. If he succeeds, the passing will be barred to their enemies. But he fails to realize that the powerful living force he encounters isn’t the bridge at all.

Dewy, crown princess of the Summer Fae, is Claimed instead of the bridge. Her aunt, Lady Radiant, must exile her from their lands. While Dewy’s careless spirit chafed under Radiant’s authority, she grieves for her lost home.

Read More Here

Find it on Amazon

Trish MacEnulty – Cinnamon Girl

When her step-grandmother, a retired opera singer, dies of cancer in 1970, 15-year-old Eli Burnes runs away with a draft-dodger, thinking she’s on the road to adventure and romance. Instead she’s embroiled in a world of underground Weathermen, Black Power revolutionaries, snitches and shoot-first police. Eventually Eli is rescued by her father, who turns out both more responsible and more revolutionary than she’d imagined. But when he gets in trouble with the law, she finds herself on the road again, searching for the allies who will help her learn how to save herself.

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Strider SR Klusman – Luna (Rhone and Stone Book 2)

When Rhone leaves his home in the desert badlands, he finds himself in the Capital Stronghold, a big city where the styles take a bit of getting used to. With Aundrea’s help, he’s enrolled in the OPR’s academy, learning what it takes to be an effective agent. Far too soon it’s graduation, and time for his first assignment.

The little harbor town of Corgy isn’t much to look at, but Rhone finds his cover story as one of the gentry is useful, even if the mayor develops an instant dislike to him.

As an agent, it’s his job to fix problems, but nobody said anything about pirates. When Captain Black, of The Backwater Mistress mentioned, “If you could see the action, as from the eye of a bird flying over, you would be one step ahead of the game,” Rhone took it to heart, and with the help of Stone, his unique friend, and Bella, the erstwhile waitress at The Common House, develops an unexpected and rather up-lifting method to do just that. Whether he survives it, is another matter.

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.

Read More Here

Find it Locally and on Amazon

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 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 2024 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!

October 1, 2024
The Laramie First Place Roundup for Americana Fiction!

The Laramie Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Western and American Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Thomas Goodman’s book, The Last Man will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Laramie 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 2023 Laramie Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Laramie Winners!

Barbara Salvatore – The Trail to Niobrara

1847- Magghie is forced to flee her home after a cholera outbreak ravishes her village. She travels west with her teams of draft horses, and in the company of a Mormon family, but they soon disagree on the best way forward. When her fellow travelers turn on her, tragedy strikes during a flash flood. She must forge ahead on her own to find the place that has been haunting her dreams.

T.K. Conklin – Promise of Spring

When Eastern aristocrat True Tucker left her lush way of life in Charlotte to travel to the untamed western town of Rimrock to spend the winter with her sisters, she never imagined where the trip would lead. Events beyond her control force her to find refuge in a small mountain cabin with a devilishly handsome man and his young daughter. She knows her life is about to change forever when her feelings for him make her forget she is promised to another man. After a few nights in his strong arms, True suddenly questions where she belongs.

Sam Barkley had long ago given up on finding love after the death of his wife and he certainly didn’t expect to find the beautiful blond woman lost in the mountains. After she saves his daughter’s life at the risk of her own, he can no longer fight the growing love he has for her. Just one taste of her untamed passion leaves him craving more and he can’t let her go. Sam has until spring to convince True to stay in Rimrock with him, because he knows that’s exactly where she belongs.

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Elizabeth Woolsey – The Travels of Dr. Rebecca Harper: A Matter of Time

It’s 1981, and Rebecca’s life is going exactly according to plan: a veterinary degree, a husband and daughter, and her first veterinary clinical position. She is set for life. But then the unexpected happens …

Disoriented and desperate after a freak riding accident, she stumbles into the nearby town, which strongly resembles the set of a beloved Western television show from her childhood … and it’s 1857!

Injured and alone, she’s afraid to share where and when she’s from. How will she survive in a world where women are second-rate? Now trapped in another world, she embarks on a desperate quest to return to her husband, daughter, and career.

Rebecca uses her 20th century veterinary skills, knowledge, and modern values to make a new life for herself—and to survive. Her travels across the United States lead to encounters with historical people and events, including the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Jr., Mark Twain, and Clara Barton.

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Daniel Greene – Northern Dawn (Northern Wolf Series Book 4)

War takes guts and luck to survive…but will it be enough?Wolf’s been promoted. He’s helped bring down one of the South’s greatest generals. Yet his country still has more to ask of him and the costliest war in America’s history rages on. Sheridan’s cavalry raids west to destroy Confederate infrastructure and divert attention from Grant’s movement south of the killing fields of Cold Harbor. Yet Wade Hampton and his rebel forces have something else in store for the Union Cavalry Corps. Wolf quickly finds himself in the hot seat of the largest all-cavalry battle of the war near Trevilian Station. Isolated and surrounded can they survive the coming Southern storm? Or will they be overrun and annihilated, a mere footnote in history?

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K.S. Jones – Tastefully Texas

No matter where one travels in Texas, at practically any time of the year in cities large and small, some things remain constant: livestock shows, rodeos, and football—and Chef Mia Ellis rejected them all. With a culinary arts degree as proof that a cosmopolitan lifestyle awaited her, Mia left everything behind in favor of New York City.

But when an emergency brings her back home, Mia finds herself completely unprepared for the town and the people she’s outgrown. Even with cooking—the only thing that has ever separated her from her hometown roots—and her on-hold job in N.Y.C. anchoring her to salvation, Mia has to find a way to earn money while she’s in town. Unfortunately, a dishwashing gig at an out-of-the-way bar and grill is all that’s available.

It isn’t until Mia reconnects with Jace, her old high school sweetheart and heir to Texas Century Ranch, that she realizes she may still have a taste for Texas after all.

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September 30, 2024