Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Empress Theodora

Excited to SHARE these FREE and 99 Cents Books from Chanticleer OVERALL Grand Prize Winners

Hi and Happy Weekend from Kiffer Brown

I am excited to share with you two great books – Chanticleer Overall Grand Prize Winners – that are on special at BookBub and Amazon for the next several days! Be sure to add these to your To – Read digital library!

FORTUNE’S CHILD, A Novel of Empress Theodora by James Conroyd Martin

James Conroyd Martin brings to life one woman we should all know better in his multi-award-winning, epic novel, Fortune’s Child: A Novel of Empress Theodora.

Like Cleopatra, Empress Theodora was a legend in her own time. And also, like Queen Cleopatra before her, Empress Theodora’s life and accomplishments were distorted and maligned by the male historians of her own time. Even after death, men who couldn’t bear or couldn’t believe that a woman, particularly a woman of the lower classes as Theodora was, could possibly have accomplished the things she did or wield the power she had. Chanticleer Reviews

If you didn’t get the BookBub link, here are links where you may download this exceptional historical fiction for free through August 17th, 2024.

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YQ8T1G1

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07YQ8T1G1

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YQ8T1G1

Amazon AU: https://tinyurl.com/2uvw9udw

Don’t delay! Download your copy today for your To Read Library!

ALSO, here is another fantastic offer showcasing on BookBub another Chanticleer Overall Grand Prize Winner – a Mystery!

The Only Witness by Pamela Beason

Can a gorilla identify a criminal? Neema is a “signing” gorilla that is part of an animal communication project (think KoKo). She is also the only witness to a crime.

A missing baby. A teenage mother suspected of murder. A jaded detective whose reputation is on the line. A signing gorilla destined for the auction block. A scientist who is about to lose everything. Will the revelation that a gorilla is the only witness to the crime save or doom everyone involved?

I, personally, am a big fan of the “Neema” series! It is a marvel of storytelling and a riveting mystery. Read Chanticleer’s review here.

If you did not receive the BookBub email for the 99 cent sale of The Only Witness, you can download it to your To – Be Read digital library with the link below for 99 cents until August 21, 2024!

We are passionate about helping readers discover great reads and new authors!

If your Chanticleer Award Winning Book is featured in a book promotion for free or 99 cents, we’d love to share it! Email us with the related links to Info@ChantiReviews.com with Book Special in the Subject line.

If you are interested in the Chanticleer International Book Awards program, please click here.

August 15, 2024
FORTUNE’S CHILD: A Novel of Empress Theodora by James Conroyd Martin – Ancient History Fiction, Middle Eastern Literature, Biographical Fiction

James Conroyd Martin brings to life one woman we should all know better in his multi-award-winning, epic novel, Fortune’s Child: A Novel of Empress Theodora.

Like Cleopatra, Empress Theodora was a legend in her own time. And also, like Queen Cleopatra before her, Empress Theodora’s life and accomplishments were distorted and maligned by the male historians of her own time. Even after death, men who couldn’t bear or couldn’t believe that a woman, particularly a woman of the lower classes as Theodora was, could possibly have accomplished the things she did or wield the power she had.

Fortune’s Child, the first book of a projected duology, Theodora, near death, determines to leave behind an accurate chronicle of her life and work. She’s desperate to get a step ahead of the official biography already being written by a man who hates her, everything she came from, and everything she stands for.

What’s an empress to do?

As Claudius does in Robert Graves’ landmark I, Claudius, Theodora intends to tell her own story before it is too late. A terrible cancer that will eventually claim her life significantly weakens Theodora. She lacks the strength to write the biography herself. So she commissions an old friend, the scribe, historian, and palace eunuch Stephen, to write it for her.

After all, he was there for a great deal of it. So much of it, in fact, that Theodora placed him into prison to keep him quiet about it all and has now released him to have him set the record straight.

An empress in the making.

As Theodora tells Stephen details of her past, both before they met and after, the reader experiences her hardscrabble childhood. One comes to understand that before all else, Theodora was a survivor.

Everything she did, every decision made, every hard path she took, points to a woman who wanted to survive. In the truest form of survival, Theodora wanted to make a better life for herself, and if possible, for the women who came after her.

James Conroyd Martin masterfully brings the 6th century Eastern Empire to life. From Africa to the Levant to the glittering gem of Constantinople, the reader sees the sprawling successor to the Roman Empire through the eyes of a woman whose story began at the bottom as an actress and a prostitute. Despite the humble background, the Empress determines to rise to the top by any – and every – means available to her.

Empress Theodora’s story will resonate with modern readers.

The determination to make a far better life for herself, based on her own gifts and on her own, Theodora’s proto-feminism makes her an easy character for contemporary readers to identify with as she rises to dizzying heights and unprecedented power. As she discovers loyal friends and makes desperate enemies on all sides.

The facts and figures of Martin’s masterpiece are not hidden. They are for all to uncover. Theodora’s life and accomplishments are not nearly well enough known. The adventure, the danger, the drama, and the glitter swallow readers whole into this recreation of a world that is long gone and an empress who should be better remembered.

Fortune’s Child is a brilliant historical biography rendered in full color, vibrantly animated by its author, James Conroyd Martin. Theodora’s life story is so significant, in fact, that it will take more than one volume to tell all there is to tell. And that is simply glorious.

James Conroyd Martin won the Overall Grand Prize in the 2019 CIBA Awards, the Best Book of the Year, for Fortune’s Child: A Novel of Empress Theodora.

April 2, 2021
The 2019 Overall Chanticleer International Book Awards Grand Prize Winner – 2019 CIBAs

We are honored and excited to announce the Best Book Overall Grand Prize Winner of the 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards – the 2019 CIBAs

Chanticleer Reviews Grand Prize Ribbons!

Who took home the coveted Overall Grand Prize Best Book Blue Ribbon?

There are 17 Grand Prize Blue Ribbons, but only one will Overall Grand Prize Blue Ribbon for Best Book. The competition is fierce and competitive. We love each one, but only one can win.

Who will be able to display and promote the gorgeous Grand Prize Badge in all book promotions for the winning title?

17 authors made it to the exclusive CIBA Grand Prize Levels

Which title will receive the Chanticleer Reviews Package and be featured in the Chanticleer Reviews magazine winter quarter’s edition?

There were 17 CIBA Grand Prize Division Winners!

Who will be interviewed and featured in our well-trafficked website?

All of the CIBA Grand Prize Division Award Winners will be featured!

Who will receive the Overall Best Book Grand Prize Book Award Winner’s $1,000 USD?

There is only one $1,000 USD check at this time for the one CIBA OVERALL BEST BOOK.

CONGRATULATIONS to

James Conroyd Martin,

author of the 2019 CIBA Overall Best Book Fortune’s Child: A Novel of Empress Theodora

The journey of Fortune’s Child: A Novel of Empress Theodora by James Conroyd Martin in the 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards.

James Conroyd Martin, author of the Overall Best Book of the Chanticleer International Book Awards selection: FORTUNE’S CHILD: a novel of Empress Theodora

Fortune’s Child: a Novel of Empress Theodora authored by James Conroyd Martin advanced from the entry level of all submissions into the 2019 Chaucer Book Awards for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction to the division’s Long List. From there, it advanced to the Chaucer Book Award’s Shortlist. Then it advanced in the next rounds to the Semi-Finals. More than half of all the 2019 Chaucer entries have fallen off the list and did not advance to the Semi-Final rounds. For works to advance to the Premier FINALIST rounds in each division, they must have been entirely read, rated, and then ranked by the CIBA judges for an overall average score of at least 8 out 10. From that point, the competition becomes fierce. Each judge evaluates the works competing for the limited first place category positions for each division. And then the judging continues as the selections are made for the CIBA Grand Prize Winners.

Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increasing exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2019—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division. The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division.

We want to thank each and every one of the 2019 CIBA judges.

Without your passion and labor of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist and we could not fulfill our mandate: Discovering Today’s Best Books!

THANK YOU JUDGES!

The Chanticleer International Book Awards Discovers Today’s Best Books!

We want to thank all who have entered and participated in the prestigious CIBAs.

We invite you to click on the links below that honor and recognize all 17 Divisions of the CIBAs First Place Award Winners and Division Grand Prize Winners.

PART ONE – The 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards Division Winners

PART TWO – The 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards Division Winners

PART THREE – The 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards Division Winners

Additionally, there are links on the Chanticleer Reviews website recognizing and announcing the works that advanced to the Premier Finalist Level of the 2019 CIBAs.

The winners were recognized at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Ceremonies that were held on during VCAC September 8 – 13, 2020 by ZOOM webinars based at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.

You know you want a coveted Chanticleer Reviews Blue Ribbon!

Submit your works (manuscripts or novels published after or on January 1, 2018, are accepted) to the prestigious Chanticleer International Book Awards today! Entries are being accepted into the 2020 and now 2021 CIBAs in all 17 fiction divisions and five non-fiction divisions.

Be sure to register early for the 2021 Chanticleer Authors Conference that will start on April 16th, 2021 with the 2020 CIBA banquet and ceremony scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 17th, 2021 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. If we cannot move forward with CAC21 due to the coronavirus, we will host another LIVE and HYBRID Chanticleer Authors Conference and 2020 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards ceremony.

Pivot and Oscillate are the Words for Today’s Challenging Times as We All Learn Together!

An email will go out to all 2019 CIBA award winners prior to October 31, 2020, with instructions, links, and more information about the awards packages. We appreciate your patience. As stated many times before “One does not need to be present at the CIBA ceremony and banquet to win. But it sure is a lot more fun!” –even if it is virtual!

As always, please contact us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!

Be well. Stay Healthy. Take Care!

The Chanticleer Reviews Team

October 19, 2020