Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Laramie Awards

SEIZE the FLAME by Lynda J. Cox – Romantic Western, Historical Fiction, Heartwarming Romance

Drake Adams and Jessie Depre want the same thing: peace. For Drake, peace will only come when he can rid his memory of Jessie’s heart-wrenching betrayal nearly two years earlier, at the altar. What began as a fairytale love between childhood sweethearts ended when Jessie married another man and left the Wyoming territory. Since then, Drake has given up his law career to become a bounty hunter, and when he sees Jessie’s wanted poster, he knows he has only one choice, track her down and return her to the man she ran off with.

Following a life-changing misunderstanding, Jessie married the first man she saw, but it wasn’t long before her would-be hero turned into a real-life monster. She will only find peace when she is far away from her homicidal husband, Robert. However, when Drake captures Jessie, both realize their own peace just might come from rekindling their love for each other.

Lynda J. Cox’s Seize the Flame is a story of reconciling the past. Both characters are emotionally and physically damaged. Jessie’s story will touch home with any woman who’s been the victim of abuse. Her fear, her panic, are so real the reader will instantly identify with her even if he/she has never suffered from that unfortunate malady. The strength she has in not only running from her husband but also in ensuring the safety of another innocent woman celebrates the determined female spirit. Despite the scars on her body and, more importantly, in her mind, Jessie manages to find her own way and create her own destiny.

Drake has a genuinely unique story. Kidnapped at the age of nine and forced to work for a ruthless thief until he’s rescued by Royce, Jessie’s father, Drake loved Jessie from the first moment he saw her. His continued devotion to the woman who shattered his dream of a home and family of his own is touching and endearing. Although the backstory is as winding as a Wyoming mountain trail, the story unravels slowly enough to allow the reader to soak it all in and experience the complexity of these characters, and though the genre is historical romance, the romantic content is limited enough that fans of the western genre will still enjoy the novel without blushing.

Seize the Flame by Lynda J. Cox won First Place in the Laramie Awards for Western Fiction in 2016.

June 30, 2018
The LARAMIE Awards for Western Fiction 2016 First Place Category Winners
The Laramie Awards writing competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Western Fiction. The LARAMIE Awards is a division of the Chanticleer Awards International Writing Competitions.

Congratulations to the 2016 Laramie Awards First In Category Award Winning Western Fiction authors and their novels!
- Laramie Award Winners: Jacquie Rogers, Scott Eldon Swapp, Barbara Salvatore, & David Selcer,
  
  Western Romance: Seize the Flame by Lynda J Cox
- Prairie/First Nation: Big Horse Woman by Barbara Salvatore
- Classic Western (Manuscript): Clevenger Gold: The True Story of Murder and Unfound Treasure by Scott Eldon Swapp
- Contemporary Westerns: Improbable Fortunes by Jeffrey Price
- Civil War: Lincoln’s Hat by David Selcer
- Adventure/Caper: Hot Work in Fry Pan Gulch (Honey Beaulieu – Man Hunter) by Jacquie Rogers
CONGRATULATIONS to Jacquie Rogers, author of the LARAMIE GRAND PRIZE winner — Hot Work in Fry Pan Gulch!

The 2016 LARAMIE Short Listers competed for these First Place Category Positions. These First Place Category Award Winners’ works have competed for the LARAMIE Grand Prize Award for the 2016 Western Fiction Novel. These winners were announced and recognized at the annual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala, Bellingham, Wash., on April 1st, 2017.

The First In Category award winning titles will receive an award package including a complimentary Chanticleer Book Review of the winning title, digital award badges, shelf talkers, book stickers, and more.

We are now accepting entries into the 2017 Laramie Awards. The deadline is June 30, 2017. Click here for more information or to enter.

Congratulations to those who made the LARAMIE Awards 2016 FINALISTS and SHORT-LISTERS.

More than $30,000 worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to the 2017 Chanticleer Novel Writing Competition winners! Fifteen different genres to enter your novels and compete on an international level.
April 5, 2017
Thieving Forest by Martha Conway – Women’s Historical Fiction

The story is set in 1806 and follows five sisters who are on their own after the recent passing of their parents. The five are faced with the choice to remain and run the family store in the tiny settlement along the edge of Ohio’s Great Black Swamp or pull up stakes and join the youngest sister living with their aunt in Philadelphia.

By the banks of the Great Black Swamp, one woman fights to save her sisters caught between two cultures in Martha Conway’s tale, Thieving Forest.

The world is filled with such events that when the right author develops characters and plunges them into a real-world timeline, history comes alive. Martha Conway has succeeded in doing this in her debut novel, Thieving Forest.

Conway turns the story up a notch early as four of the older girls are kidnapped by a band of Potawatomi Indians who raid their home. Seventeen-year-old Susanna is left behind, and though shaken deeply, quickly comes to her senses and determines to rescue her siblings.

Trust is the theme as the story unfolds. The kidnapping is somewhat of an unexpected occurrence as the family had good relations with the natives. The issue is complex and Susanna finds herself questioning who she can trust along with the sad realization that sometimes people are not always who they claim to be. The sisters are eventually reunited, but as is true in real life, things can never be the same.

Martha Conway paints a stunning portrait of life in the early days of the United States expansion into the West. She has done her research, and it shows as she delves into Native American tribes and the relationship they have with the European settlers.

Detailed descriptions of day-to-day life, including the hardships experienced, are fleshed out with complex and engaging characters. A tale of self-discovery, personal growth, romance, family ties, loyalty and more in this book readers will find hard to put down.

February 22, 2017
Western Fiction SHORT LIST for the 2016 LARAMIE AWARDS
The LARAMIE Awards Writing Competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genres of Western Fiction, Prairie & Pioneer Fiction, and Civil War Fiction. The Laramie Awards is a division of Chanticleer International Novel Writing Competitions.

More than $30,000.00 dollars worth of cash and prizes will be awarded to Chanticleer Book Reviews 2016 writing competition winners at the Chanticleer Authors Conference April 1, 2017!

The Laramie Awards FIRST IN CATEGORY sub-genres are:
- Western Romance
- Adventure/Caper
- Classic
- Civil War/Prairie/Pioneer
- Contemporary Western
- Western Young Adult
This is the OFFICIAL LIST of Semi-Finalists Authors and their Titles of Works that have made it to the SHORT LIST for Laramie 2016 Novel Writing Contest.

The following titles will compete for the 2016 Laramie First Place Category Positions:
- T.M. Hinton – The Judas Steer
- Dorothy Wiley – Frontier Gift of Love
- Jacquie Rogers – Hot Work in Fry Pan Gulch (Honey Beaulieu – Man Hunter #1)
- Sara Dahmen – Becoming Doctor Kinney
- Barbara Salvatore – Big Horse Woman
- Scott Eldon Swapp – Clevenger Gold: The True Story of Murder and Unfound Treasure
- Harlan Hague – A Place for Mei Lin
- Ken Farmer & Buck Stienke – Bass and the Lady
- David Selcer – Lincoln’s Hat
- Ashley E Sweeney – Eliza Waite
- Jared McVay – Stranger On A Black Stallion
- Jeffrey Price – Improbable Fortunes
- Lynda J Cox – Seize the Flame
- Ronald E. Yates – Finding Billy Battles
- Miantae Metcalf McConnell – Deliverance, Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United State
- Julia Robb – The Captive Boy
- Juliette Douglas – Perfume, Powder, and Lead: Holy Sisters
- Bert Entwistle – The Taylor Legacy
- David G. Rasmussen – The Man Who Moiled for Gold
The Laramie Semi-Finalists will compete for the First In Category Positions. First Place Category Book Award winners will automatically be entered into the Laramie GRAND PRIZE AWARD competition, which has a cash prize of $200 dollars. The CBR Grand Prize Genre Winners will compete for the CBR Overall Grand Prize for Best Book and its $1,000 purse.
- All Short Listers will receive high visibility along with special badges to wear during the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions at Info@ChantiReviews.com.

Congratulations to the Finalists in this fiercely competitive contest!
Good Luck to all of the Laramie Semi-Finalists as they compete for the coveted First Place Category positions.

The Laramie Grand Prize Winner and the First Place Category winners will be announced and recognized at the April 1, 2017 Chanticleer Writing Contests Annual Awards Gala, which takes place on the last evening of the Chanticleer Authors Conference that will be held in Bellingham, Wash.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2017 Laramie Awards writing competitions for Western Fiction. Please click here for more information or to enter the contests.
February 4, 2017
An Editorial Review of “Unbroke Horses” by D. B. Jackson

I read the early pages of D.B. Jackson’s Unbroke Horses with a heavy heart. If anything could be considered even partial mitigation for the senseless evil, cruelty, and disregard for life displayed by Jackson’s first-carved characters—Civil War deserters Brevet General Ike Smith and his dull-witted brother, Private Raymond Smith—one might seek an explanation in the gruesome experience of the war itself. Yet General Ike shows no inclination to change his postwar life. He seems to have no different thought for their future than living off the blood of others. After killing two farmers for fresh horses and an elderly man for his purse, the two take on a partner, a silent mulatto named Sandoval—thenceforth, Private Sandoval Smith.

The murderous violence reaches its apex when the monstrous Smiths kidnap the slightly built, fair-haired Matthew Stanford, whose preacher father they had senselessly murdered on the trail. Though only fourteen years old, Matthew grows up all too quickly in their cruel hands.

On one hand, this is a coming of age story of a boy, Matthew, who must survive by his wits when he is kidnapped by the three vicious men. It is also an epic account of the heroic battle waged by one of the trio’s badly injured victims, J.D. Elder, who must fight a deadly wrenching conflict as he tries to rescue the boy from the sadistic threesome. It is a powerful, un-blinking telling of the hard-fought war between the bravery of J.D. Elder who refuses to give up against the cunning cruelty of the malevolent trio.

Caught up by his own part in the violence, Matthew is convinced that he has become as evil as his captors. Matthew’s destructive attitude becomes his worst enemy. The question becomes, will he find a way back from the darkness that has taken over him or will he be forever doomed to the cold, ugly life of violence and killing?

While Jackson’s excellent prose and poetic sketches help balance the harshness of the first part of his story, in the second part these are played to advantage in portraying the majestic beauty of Montana’s mountains, the peace of a flowered meadow, the fury of the white-water streams, the camaraderie of cowboy life on a cattle ranch, the dangerous power of “unbroke horses,” and the spiritual wisdom that an old Indian draws upon.

D. B. Jackson’s Unbroke Horses has carefully chiseled characters and is written with unflinching clarity in short, powerful chapters dominated by taut dialogue and hard hitting action. If you’re a Cormac McCarthy fan who appreciates western literary thrillers, this masterfully written novel is a must-read.

Unbroke Horses by D. B. Jackson was awarded the 1st Place for Western Literary Category in the Laramie Awards 2013 for Western fiction, Pioneer, and Civil War fiction, a division of Chanticleer Blue Ribbon Writing Competitions.

March 25, 2014