Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: First Place Winners

The Cygnus Awards SciFi Round Up for the 2023 First Place Winners!

The Cygnus Awards Close at the end of June! Submit today!

The Cygnus Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Science Fiction, Steampunk, Alternative History, and Speculative Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Timothy S. Johnston’s book, The Shadow of War will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Cygnus 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 Cygnus 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 Cygnus Winners!

Alexandra Almeida – Unanimity

Unanimity is a literary, sci-fi novel for the fans of Becky Chambers’s A Closed and Common Orbit, Alex Garland’s DEVS and Ex Machina, and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. Weaving near-future sci-fi elements with social commentary and queer romantic suspense, the Spiral Worlds series explores the nature of consciousness and how it’s connected to a not-so-secret ingredient-story. As AI consumes the world, intelligence is nothing but the appetizer; the human heart is the main course.

From Chanticleer:

Alexandra Almeida probes the philosophical and ethical depths of wealth, technology, pop culture, and religion in a world ravaged by global warming through her sci-fi adventure, Unanimity: Spiral Worlds #1.

Readers will delight in the gradual reveal of both the technology within the story and the dramatic history between many of those involved with the creation and evolution of that technology.

Tom, a screenwriter, works with Harry, the genius inventor of the world’s most popular AI (artificial intelligence) app, to create a simulation that will nudge people toward acting morally.

Read the full review here!

Find it Locally or on Amazon!

Book 2, Parity is out now!

N. John Williams – In the Shadow of Humanity: A Novel

What if A.I. had a soul? Could it find redemption?

In a near-future where entire worlds spring from thought, minds struggle to define reality—and claim it. Human colonization of the Metaverse brings us face-to-face with a new class of artificial being, made in our image and yet utterly unknown.

What is a person? Our answer will reshape the universe.

Find it Locally or on Amazon!

Gareth Worthington – Dark Dweller

Captain Kara Psomas was pronounced dead when her research vessel slammed into Jupiter.

More than a century later, the crew of the Paralus, a helium mining freighter, find a pristine escape pod with a healthy young girl nestled inside. A girl who claims to be Kara—and she brings a message of doom.

She says she has been waiting in the dark for that exact moment. To be found by that particular crew. Because an ancient cosmic being has tasked her with a sacred responsibility. She claims she must alter the Fulcrum, a lever in time—no matter the cost to the people aboard—or condemn the rest of civilization to a very painful and drawn-out demise.

She sounds convincing. She appears brave. She might well be insane.

Find it Locally or on Amazon!

Dylan McFadyen – Oblivion’s Cloak

First Lieutenant Shaara was dead this morning.

Her captain is furious at her. She wasted company resources getting herself killed, and it’s coming out of her paycheck. Now, she’s sitting across from the first other human being she’s seen in six years. His name is Adnan. He claims to come from Earth-but that’s impossible. Earth died a long time ago. If Adnan’s telling the truth, he and the decaying ship the captain pulled him off are nearly a thousand years old.

Wherever he’s from, he’s Shaara’s responsibility now. Which is the last thing she needs. But it’s either that, or the captain sells Adnan into slavery. Shaara knows what that would mean. Most humans do. And something inside her won’t let her abandon Adnan to it: revenant memories, stabbed awake by the look in his eyes.

Find it Locally or on Amazon!

Sarena Straus – ReInception

ReInception will change your mind…whether you want it or not

A hundred years in the future, ReInception is used to modify the brain and eliminate unwanted behaviors, everything from overeating to the worst criminal impulses. Unmodified 20-year-old Leandrea Justus feels ordinary compared to her perfect friends, who like living in a ReInception regulated world.

ReInception is a fiction debut, the first in a new, action-filled sci-fi trilogy with surprising twists, and a story that may be closer to reality than we think.

Find it Locally or on Amazon!

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

You can see our Spotlight on the Cygnus Grand Prize Winners, including Timothy S. Johnston’s incredible book The Shadow of War here.

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

Got a great SciFi Book? The 2024 Cygnus Book Awards are open through the end of June!

Submit to the Cygnus Awards Today!

June 24, 2024
TEN Days Left! The 2024 Journey and Cygnus Awards close at the end of June!
Journey to the Cosmos?

There’s still time to submit to the Journey and the Cygnus Awards!

The Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction and the Journey Awards for Overcoming Adversity Non-Fiction close at the end of June

Don’t let your book miss out!

These are two of the oldest mainstays of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards, and the quality improves every year!

Only 10 days left to submit your books to the prestigious CIBAs and embark on an extraordinary journey to success. With over $30,000 in prizes awarded annually, now is the time to make your mark!

The Journey Awards for Non-Fiction Overcoming Adversity and the Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction are still open!

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Cygnus Awards!
- Alexandra Almeida – Unanimity
- N. John Williams – In the Shadow of Humanity: A Novel
- Gareth Worthington – Dark Dweller
- Dylan McFadyen – Oblivion’s Cloak
- Sarena Straus – ReInception
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Cygnus Grand Prize Winner The Shadow of War by Timothy S. Johnston

Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Journey Awards!
- Lori Lee Peters – God, the Mafia, My Dad and Me
- Antonia Deignan – Underwater Daughter: A Memoir of Survival and Healing
- Nanette J. Davis Ph.D. – Raging Currents: Mental Illness and Family
- Barbara Wolf Terao – Reconfigured: A Memoir
- Sarah Martin – Dear Psychosis,
- Erika Shepard – Trans-Formations: From Field Boots to Sensible Heels
And a huge round of applause for the 2023 Journey Grand Prize Winner Barbed: A Memoir by Julie Morrison

The CIBAs offer more than just recognition — they provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.

We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.

Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 3-6, 2025) where Winners from all 25 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!

Don’t Delay! Enter Today!
June 20, 2024
NOT THAT KIND Of CALL GIRL by Nova Garcia – Contemporary Fiction, Mexican-American Fiction, Contemporary Social Issues

In Nova Garcia’s novel, Not That Kind of Call Girl, Julia Navarro-Nilsson balances a lot heavy responsibilities on her plate. She’s the supervisor of the Cascade City Chronicle call center, has just had her first child, and is dead set on saving her newest employee from a lifetime of abuse.

As a Mexican-American, Julia knows first-hand how difficult life can be for a minority woman, so when Carmen Cooper shows up for a job interview, Julia is determined to hire the young college student even though her story and answers to Julia’s question are sketchy. This reluctance to share her personal information intrigues Julia, but Carmen’s life turns out to be much more challenging than Julia would have ever dreamed.

Sussing out the truth behind the timid young woman’s clearly fictional story, Julia turns detective with the help of her reporter friend, Jerry. The two are dogged in their search and discover a secret so deep that it will rock Hollywood — that is, if she can juggle her new baby, her neglected husband, her sexually harassing boss, and an unending visit from her critical mother.

Julia’s detailed character makes her easy to empathize with, especially as she faces issues that many women confront in the real world.

Her biggest personal struggle is with motherhood. After the birth of Trey, Julia expects to be overwhelmed with her love and devotion to this tiny person. However, when she doesn’t feel those things — feeling almost the opposite actually — she is shocked and disappointed in herself. She has no immediate connection, instead suffering from postpartum depression.

To add to her fears of motherly inadequacy, she endures multiple bouts of mastitis — landing her in the hospital on one occasion— and she finds that maternity leave feels like a prison sentence rather than a chance to bond with Trey. She hates that she is missing work and hates that she hates that! Julia’s muddled feelings leave her frightened and uncertain, far from her sense of self pre-motherhood.

Like many women, Julia has a hard time accepting her body for what it is.

She has never been a petite size four, like her still-attractive mother, who always pressures her to conform to a different standard of beauty. Julia is tall and full-figured, a curvy, sensual woman. Post-birth, she feels “fat” and unattractive. Because she has to continue wearing her maternity pants (another very common experience), Julie feels as though she has failed again in some way. Though her adorable, loving husband Charlie still tells her she is beautiful and shows her that he continues to find her desirable, Julia has a hard time engaging in any physical contact. Her mother’s comments don’t help the situation, and with her confidence in tatters, Julia stress eats, continuing an unhealthy cycle.

Julia takes great pride in her position as call center manager for the local newspaper, but that position comes with near-constant harassment from her boss.

She cares about her employees, knows their problems, and is fighting for their jobs as the newspaper owners negotiate a sale of the business. In fact, it’s this level of concern that leads to her involvement in Carmen’s tragic life. Julia takes her job seriously and maintains high expectations for herself, but at every turn her boss Carlton Cressey epitomizes a villain to all of womankind. He makes jokes about various body parts and propositions Julia directly for sex. Even though she is a hard-working employee, likely his best, he can only see her body and face, so not only is Julia worried about her employees losing their jobs, she is also worried about losing her own if she reports him to HR.

Julia is a strong, normal woman. She’s not a superhero or a rich Country Club wife. She’s real, and many readers will identify with the problems she faces.

Not That Kind of Call Girl by Nova Garcia won First Place in the 2023 CIBA Somerset Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

June 19, 2024
TSARINA’S CROWN: The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles by Jerena Tobiasen – WWI, Historical Fiction, Romance, Espionage, Russian Revolution

Jerena Tobiasen delivers a sharp, first-rate novel in Tsarina’s Crown, first installment in The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles, capturing a precise panorama of Russian politics and British espionage during a delicate period in time.

The year is 1915 and Simon Temple, a young naval officer aboard the RMS Guardian— a British Royal Navy Ship— patrols the North Sea for questionable communications and marine activity. Months later, he is entrusted by the British crown to serve as a liaison on a covert mission in Petrograd, Russia. Simon is careful not to blow his cover as a young aristocrat while he is thrust into the world of international politics, the ruthless Russian Revolution, and becomes caught right in the middle of two powerful royal families.

The mission turns out to be longer than Simon anticipated, and his life quickly becomes threatened as he tries to navigate a dangerous political labyrinth, all the while hoping to unearth the spy information that his King requires of him. But as the precarious wheel of mayhem and chaos churns in Russia, Simon’s only way to survive is to escape, realizing that his wit and intelligence might not save him from the tense political atmosphere. Things become even more complicated when he is joined by two other people who hope to flee.

Told with verve and heart, the plot offers a raw and intimate portrait of events and activities bookended by the First World War.

The tension and suspense are palpable in every chapter as Simon wrestles his way out of one dangerous situation after another.

Tobiasen’s lucid writing and adept storytelling capture the culture and intricate details during one of the biggest social and political upheavals of the twentieth century. She takes us behind palace walls of both Britain and Russia, offering readers a globetrotting experience as we glimpse into the intrigues of the aristocracy amid controversy and fiery protests.

The author does a remarkable job balancing vocabulary and syntax appropriate for this period while using modern language to make her text easily graspable. The meticulous research done before writing this novel is salient in her story and keeps the chronology accurate, a worthy indication of an author in command of her genre.

Love becomes a central theme in the story, giving weight to the characters’ emotions and connections.

An element of romance sparks between Simon and Mary, allowing characters to maneuver not just external conflicts but inner ones as well, pushing them to grow as people. Simon Temple is a character to cheer on, with admirable boldness and determination. The supporting characters are memorable and well-wrought too, adeptly playing their role in moving the story forward.

Tsarina’s Crown: The Nightingale and Sparrow Chronicles is a striking start to a promising series, and one of the best espionage stories in modern historical fiction.

Tsarina’s Crown by Jerena Tobiasen won First Place in the 2023 CIBA Hemingway Awards for 20th Century Wartime Fiction.

June 14, 2024
The 2024 Cygnus Hall of Fame for the best Science Fiction
Love Sci-Fi?

So do we!

Captain Jean Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) celebrating

The Cygnus Awards is one of the inaugural Book Award Divisions at Chanticleer, and we adore the worlds that they’ve created.

Science Fiction often asks the question: What Could Be? At Chanticleer, we seek to discover those strange new worlds, from Space Opera to Alternate History, and Cli-Fi to YA Sci-Fi. Wherever your book lands on the Speculative Fiction spectrum, there’s a good chance that it will fit in here with us!

**Beam your book to us by June 30, 2024**

Join us in celebrating these amazing Hall of Fame Grand Prize Cygnus Award Winners!

The Shadow of War
By Timothy S. Johnston

The Chanticleer Editorial Review for The Shadow of War, book 5 in the Oceania Series is to come, but here’s what initial readers are saying:

A tightly plotted action-packed thriller about an undersea war. Beautiful and heartbreaking character development, best for those who want The Expanse but underwater. — Chanticleer

And on Goodreads readers say

As always, Johnston has written a thriller with hot-off-the-presses technology, edge-of-your-seat moments, separated into heart-pounding seconds, and characters who don’t always do what they’re supposed to. — Kelly

Timothy S. Johnston delivers another page turner that keeps the pace moving. — Ian

You can find The Shadow of War locally on Bookshop or from Amazon today!

The Last Lumenian
By S. G. Blaise

Nineteen-year-old Lilla could have an idyllic life, but in The Last Lumenian by S.G. Blaise, she comes face to face with a rebellion and their just cause.

Lilla’s father leads the Pax Septum Coalition, a nineteen-planet confederation. As a princess in her own right, she should be enjoying the status and wealth that comes from living on Uhna, the richest planet in the coalition due to the diamond mines found by her pirate ancestors centuries ago. She most definitely shouldn’t be worried about the rebellion brewing right under her father’s nose. However, when Lilla meets rebels in a refugee camp, she thinks she has found her destiny, a true purpose.

Wanting to fight against the injustice and horrific treatment of the refugees, Lilla tries desperately to prove herself, especially after a disastrous first mission where she not only crashes her ship but also ends up in the hands of General Callum, leader of the Teryn Praelium.

Continue Reading here!

A War in Too Many Worlds
By Elizabeth Crowens

Musician-turned-time-traveler John Patrick Scott adds spy and saboteur to his resume while undercover in Germany in the final months of World War I, in A War in Too Many Worlds, the third installment of Elizabeth Crowen’s thrilling sci-fi series, The Time Traveler Professor.

Meanwhile, Scott’s once and future collaborator in psychic experiments, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is back in Britain sharing real time-travel adventures with the inventor of the fictional time machine, H.G. Wells.

Scott, after being wounded in the trenches, has finally been given an assignment in the Intelligence services. His extensive pre-war experience as a professor at the Conservancy of Music in Stuttgart, Germany, will do him good.

Continue Reading here!

Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle for
The Luna Missile Crisis

Authors Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle come together to tell the tale of alien first contact gone awry in their epic science fiction release, The Luna Missile Crisis.

The year is 1961, and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is set to become the first man in space. But when Yuri, snug inside the Vostok 1, is launched from the cosmodrome and into the coming night, he’s met with a collision that changes the course of history. The Vostok 1 crashes into an oncoming alien starship. Assuming the collision was actually a missile fired from Russia’s space race opponent, the United States, the soviet nation quickly launches an arsenal of nuclear warheads in response. But those warheads never make it to their target. Instead, they detonate against the hidden starship, sending a wave of nuclear destruction over eastern Europe.

In the coming weeks after contact day, military troops from both sides of the cold war are sent into the ruins of eastern Europe – into an area now called the Dead Curtain – to search for useful alien technology. During a skirmish between the Russians, the Americans, and the Vulbathi (the toad-like alien race aboard the damaged starship), a combat medic name Kyle McCoy stumbles into the chaos and sparks a ceasefire. His actions create a domino effect, bringing about relative peace between all three parties. Three years pass, and in exchange for aid in repairing their damaged ship, the Vulbathi agree to offer some of their exceptional technology to mankind. And Kyle McCoy, once foot soldier turned head of the Department of Alien Relations, is given a desk job with a title that suits his place in history.

Continue Reading here!

Insynnium
By Tim Cole

The dramatic premise explored in a new novel, Insynnium, is a wild, immersive leap into a world-changing (but fictional) drug. In other hands, what could be a dystopian thriller goes one step further in author Tim Cole’s capable hands. He focuses on the humans who first discover and use the drug and weaves his story with a devilish charm.

This is somewhat Bill Murray/“Groundhog Day” territory, a film exploring one man’s reliving a day in his life over and over until he learned new behaviors, new skills, and came out of it a better man. Unlike “Groundhog,” Max McVista takes multiple doses of the drug against all advice, then somehow expands time itself in what he calls an “AUE” or “Alternative Universe Experience,” enabling him to spend months and sometimes years becoming or experiencing whatever he wishes. When returning to real-time, he’s only missed a day or two. (For E=MC squared fans, it’s basically reverse engineering of Einsteinian physics.)

From a man with few basic skills, a drunk who all but abandons his wife and sons, he returns to his family with outsized skills as a musician, entrepreneur, carpenter, medical savant, and pilot. Skills he could not have learned in any traditional manner. He lies about how he learned everything, tracing it back to an accident, choosing to bury his drug-induced years of time-traveling across the world, spending concentrated periods exploring whatever he fancies with no time “penalty” in the real world.

Continue Reading here!

Remember to add your next reads to your StoryGraph or Goodreads account! Now that you’re set on your next five reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Cygnus Winners is to submit today!

You know you want it…

Will your science fiction story be next to join this stellar lineup? Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000, but more importantly, you’ll join a community of visionary authors whose work shapes the future of the genre.

These celebrated works represent the best in contemporary science fiction—and your story could be next!

Enter the Cygnus Awards by June 30, 2025, and join this prestigious Hall of Fame!
June 4, 2024
A Spotlight on the Chanticleer Int’l CYGNUS Book Awards for Science Fiction
The CYGNUS Book Awards

for Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction

and is a division of

the Chanticleer International Book Awards

The Future is Here. Are You Ready?

The 2024 CIBAs are well underway with submissions and the 2024 Cygnus Awards submission close at the end of June!

The Cygnus Awards are one of the first of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards ever! The quality and quantity grows annually, and we are so excited to see what 2024 brings! These are the categories:
- Alternate History
- Apocalyptic/Dystopian
- Hard Science Fiction
- Space Opera
- Soft Sci-Fi/Young Adult
- Speculative Fiction
- Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction)
And even in within those, there is what one might call “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations” when it comes to genre.

Ethan Peck as Spock of Strange New Worlds now gets to offer the conventional Vulcan Wisdom

With plenty of exciting genres to choose from, it’s always fun to see new trends. For us Climate Fiction or Cli-Fi is one of the most exciting genres in SciFi today!

Cli-Fi often focuses on modern technologies and their impact on the environment, for good or ill.

This can be anything from a thriller looking at shadow governments fighting against progress meant to stem climate change, or it could even look at a dystopian world far in the future. The focus in Climate Fiction is closer to that of Hard Science Fiction and a cousin of Lab Lit, which you can see in the Global Thriller Awards rather than delving into Space Opera.

We’re delighted that the most recent Grand Prize Winner for the 2023 Cygnus Awards, Timothy S. Johnston, has won the Division Grand Prize coming from the Cli-Fi category!

The Shadow of War

By Timothy S. Johnston

The Blurb for it gives us chills:

In the world’s undersea realms, the superpowers are pressing. Climate change is ravaging the surface nations, and their militaries are surging into the oceans to seek out new resources to sustain their exploding populations. Now Truman McClusky, mayor of the underwater city, Trieste, must gather a team of operatives and travel the world to steal the most unique and deadly weapon ever invented for use underwater. War is looming, and to win a war, one must do whatever it takes, even if it means embracing your darker side.

The Shadow of War is book 5 in The Rise of Oceania series! We recommend adding it all to your TBR for a look at what The Expanse would be like if it took place underwater.
- See it locally at Village Books
- See it on Amazon
While the full review for An Island of Light is still forthcoming, we do have three reviews for Johnston’s series the Tanner Sequence you can see below:

You can see our reviews for all 3 books here!

Past Cygnus Book Awards Winners have been published by Titan, U.K. (of Dr. Who fame), Harper Collins Voyager, Vesuvian Media Group, Atheon Books, and others have gone on to be USA Today Bestsellers and Nebula nominated.

Thank you to everyone who submitted to the 2023 Cygnus Awards! We can’t believe that the whole adventure starts again when the first Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards close on June 30, 2024.

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.

Submit to the Cygnus Awards today!
May 29, 2024
The 2023 CIBAs Paranormal Book Awards WINNERS for Supernatural Fiction
The Paranormal Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Supernatural Fiction. The Paranormal Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs) is looking for the best books Paranormal books featuring magic, the supernatural, weird otherworldly stories, superhumans (ex. Jessica Jones, Wonder Woman), magical beings & supernatural entities (ex. Harry Potter), vampires & werewolves (ex. Twilight), angels & demons, fairies & mythological beings, magical systems and elements.

1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by S.G. Blaise on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at the Four Points By Sheraton in beautiful Bellingham, Wash., sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

This is the OFFICIAL 2023 LIST of the PARANORMAL BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the PARANORMAL Grand Prize Winner.

Join us in celebrating the following authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
- Lydia M. Hawke – Becoming Crone
- Joe Lyon – The Molossus of Old Man Moyer: An Original Horror Novel
- Jo Deniau – Hologram
- Nola Nash – House of Mirrors
- Claire Fraise – They Stay
- Fionn Mac Meldrum – The Shadow of Banshee Hill
- James McKenna – An October’s Journey: Poe’s Final Gift
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 PARANORMAL Awards is:

Becoming Crone

By Lydia M. Hawke

You can see all of our amazing 2023 Paranormal Finalists! Congratulations to all and thank you for submitting!

Well done climbing the CIBA Levels of Achievement!

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Facebook and Twitter handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in June. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.

NOTE: We will post at least two 2023 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 24, 2024. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2023 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.

Thank you for participating in the 2022 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.

The Chanticleer Team
May 2, 2024
The CHATELAINE Book Awards 2023 WINNERS for Romantic Fiction
The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Romance Fiction. The Chatelaine Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best new books featuring romantic themes and adventures of the heart, historical love affairs, perhaps a little steamy romance, and stories that appeal especially to fans of affairs of the heart to compete in the Chatelaine Book Awards (the CIBAs). We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Kim Hornsby on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at the Four Points by Sheraton in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

This is the OFFICIAL 2023 LIST of the CHATELAINE BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the CHATELAINE Grand Prize Winner.

Congratulations to all!
- T.K. Conklin – Guarded Hearts
- Gail Avery Halverson – A Sea of Glass
- Bonnie Rose Ward – Loving Beth
- S.G. Blaise – Proud Pada
- Morgan Sloan – Stableshoes
- Rose Prendeville – Mistress Mackintosh and the Shaw Wretch
the Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 CHATELAINE Book Awards is:

A Sea of Glass

by Gail Avery Halverson

You can see all of our amazing 2023 Chatelaine Finalists! Congratulations to all and thank you for submitting!

Well done climbing the CIBA Levels of Achievement!

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Facebook and Twitter handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in June. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.

NOTE: We will post at least two 2023 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 24, 2024. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2023 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.

Thank you for participating in the 2023 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.

The Chanticleer Team
May 1, 2024
2023 Winners CYGNUS Book Awards for Science Fiction
The Cygnus Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Science Fiction, Steampunk, Alternative History, and Speculative Fiction. The Cygnus Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring space, time travel, life on other planets, parallel universes, alternate reality, and all the science, technology, major social or environmental changes of the future that author imaginations can dream up for the CYGNUS Book Awards division.

1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Robert Phillips on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at the Four Points by Sheraton in beautiful Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

This is the OFFICIAL 2023 LIST of the CYGNUS BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the CYGNUS Grand Prize Winner.

Join us in celebrating our First Place Category Winners in the 2023 CYGNUS Book Awards, a division of the CIBAs!
- Alexandra Almeida – Unanimity
- N. John Williams – In the Shadow of Humanity: A Novel
- Gareth Worthington – Dark Dweller
- Timothy S. Johnston – The Shadow of War
- Dylan McFadyen – Oblivion’s Cloak
- Sarena Straus – ReInception
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 CYGNUS Awards for Science Fiction is:

The Shadow of War

By Timothy S. Johnston

Here is the link to the 2023 CYGNUS FINALISTS for Speculative Fiction:

The 2023 FINALIST CYGNUS Book Awards for Science Fiction

We want to CONGRATULATE ALL CYGNUS FINALISTS!

And here is a link to the CIBA’s Levels of Achievement:

The 2023 Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Finalists for Fiction!

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Facebook and Twitter handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

A Note to ALL the WINNERS: You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.

The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in June. We will contact you with an email to verify and confirm your mailing address and other items. We thank you for participating in the 2023 Chanticleer International Book Awards!

NOTE: We will post at least two 2023 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 24, 2024. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2023 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.

Thank you for participating in the 2023 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
April 24, 2024
Valentine’s Day 2024 – SWEET READS From Chanticleer with all the Genres of the Heart

Will your book be our Valentine?

At Chanticleer we love Romance Books and we love to show it off with our Chatelaine Awards! We’re currently working as hard as we can to get out the Finalist List for those Awards, and you can see the Semi-Finals for them here! Who will win? Only time will tell.

However, right now we just want to celebrate some of the best romantic books we’ve been able to discover. Like chocolate, romance is one of those extraordinary genres that can go with almost anything! Historical Romance, Mystery Romance, YA Romance, SciFi Romance, Fantasy Romance, the list goes on!

Even better, romance is one of the bestselling genres out there! Being able to add that tag to your book makes it that much more marketable! For our own Chatelaine Awards, we’re always happy to crow about our winners!

Our 2022 Chatelaine Grand Prize Winner was Operation Mom by Reenita Malhotra Hora.

What does Chanticleer have to say about Operation Mom?

Master storyteller Reenita Malhotra Hora’s YA romance Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man takes us on a charming journey through the life of one teen, Ila Isham.

Hora introduces Ila and her best friend Deepali, two boy-crazy teens on a summer quest. Readers will fall in love with the smart, sassy, angst-filled, rebellious Ila. A typical teenage girl, Ila lives in Mumbai with her mom and Sakkubai, their house manager. Ila’s mother calls her obsessed, but that seems unfair. Is she obsessed just because her every waking minute is spent thinking of Ali Zafar, famous pop icon, singer, and heartthrob? Or is she obsessed with fellow classmate Dev?

No, Ila couldn’t be taken with Dev because he’s one of three young men that her best friend Deepali is juggling in her summer experiment of exploring her “feminine mystique.” This turn of phrase becomes just one of many opportunities for Hora’s humor to shine as Ila remarks, “That’s a book by Gloria Steinem . . . no Betty Friedan.” Deepali’s response? “Yaar. Don’t be so literal.” The delightful balance between Ila’s book smarts versus Deepali’s street smarts carries us through Hora’s expertly crafted story.

Read more here!

Operation Mom also took home a First Place Blue in the Dante Rossetti Awards for Young Adult Fiction. We’d love to share other romance books that meet with other genres and why they touch our heart!

A SPYING EYE: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel
By Michelle Cox
2023 Overall Grand Prize
Grand Prize for the M&M Awards for Cozy Mysteries

A Cozy Mystery Romance!

Brooding Château du Freudeneck, just outside Strasbourg, France has villains in the drawing rooms, stolen art hidden in the cellars, and bats in the belfry – all the best elements for a 19th-century Gothic mystery.

However, in Michelle Cox’s novel, A Spying Eye it’s the 20th century. The Great War is passed, but the next war already looms on the horizon. The people of Strasbourg feel the growing conflict sharply, at the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, a fertile region that has been contested between France and Germany since time immemorial.

Which means those bats are in the unfortunate head of the elderly Baron Von Harmon, the current lord and master (as much as he’s still able to be, at least) of the Chateau, while the stolen art is pursued by both the villainous Nazis and the only slightly-less villainous agents of Britain’s MI5.

Read more here!

THE LAST LUMENIAN
By S.G. Blaise
2023 Cygnus Grand Prize Winner

A SciFi Romance!

Nineteen-year-old Lilla could have an idyllic life, but in The Last Lumenian by S.G. Blaise, she comes face to face with a rebellion and their just cause.

Lilla’s father leads the Pax Septum Coalition, a nineteen-planet confederation. As a princess in her own right, she should be enjoying the status and wealth that comes from living on Uhna, the richest planet in the coalition due to the diamond mines found by her pirate ancestors centuries ago. She most definitely shouldn’t be worried about the rebellion brewing right under her father’s nose. However, when Lilla meets rebels in a refugee camp, she thinks she has found her destiny, a true purpose.

Wanting to fight against the injustice and horrific treatment of the refugees, Lilla tries desperately to prove herself, especially after a disastrous first mission where she not only crashes her ship but also ends up in the hands of General Callum, leader of the Teryn Praelium.

Read more here!

NORTH QUEEN
By Nicola Tyche

A Fantasy Romance

Norah Andell, Princess of Mercia and future North Queen, has been missing for three years.

Her father secreted her away to protect her from a prophesied attack in a ten-year war, but he dies shortly after their departure and takes her location to the grave. Alexander Rhemus, Lord Justice to Queen Regent Catherine, Norah’s grandmother, was told by a seer that Norah would be found in the deep forests of the Northern Kingdom, and has searched the woods ceaselessly. Having loved her since they were children, Alexander’s desperation leads him to the Wilds, a legendary and feared area where men often do not return. So opens The North Queen.

To Alexander’s shock, he finds Norah, who has no memories of her former life or even of her own name. At first, she refuses to believe she’s the missing princess, now Queen, and bristles against her newfound world and the restraints it casts upon her.
Norah struggles with a position she doesn’t want, governing a people on the verge of starvation and facing an arranged marriage to protect her people from the Shadow King, a ruthless man hell-bent on taking her kingdom.

Read more here!

A PLACE Of REFUGE: Book Four of First Light
By Linda Cardillo

A Historical Romance

Izzy Monroe has lost herself. Three months after an accident that damaged a portion of her brain, she isolates herself in her parent’s home on Chappaquiddick Island, on the eastern end of Martha’s Vineyard.

She has spent her life in the world of academia, working on a doctorate in literature at Harvard, but now with her short-term memory gone, she has to give up her dreams. Her emptiness and doubt have left her rudderless and deeply depressed.

When her former college roommate, Maria, suggests she intern at Portarello, Maria’s grandfather’s self-sustaining farm in the Italian countryside, Izzy isn’t immediately convinced she can make the journey alone much less work at the successful inn and thriving farm. However, Izzy remembers the peace she felt there on the one visit she and Maria made years ago, and she knows this is her only chance to regain any sense of normalcy.

Read more here!

Thank you for joining us on this adventure of books, and we hope you found a read that caught your fancy!

Looking for more quality time with us?

Join us at

The Chanticleer Authors Conference

Featuring authors like D.D. Black, book doctor Christine Fairchild, and Mark Berridge, our twelfth annual conference is shaping up to be excellent! You won’t want to miss out on the best tips around the business of being an author!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

We’d love to see you there!

February 14, 2024