Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: New Adult

WHAT If It’s LOVE?: A Second Chance Romance, La Bohème Book 2 by Alix Nichols – Romance, New Adult, Women’s Fiction

Lena Malakhov, twenty-three-year-old heiress to a Russian fortune, falls for a handsome waiter in Paris. But the influence of a conniving business rival might push them apart, in Alix Nichol’s romance novel, What if it’s Love?

Lena’s father made his millions in the IT world, and he wants nothing more than for Lena to return to Russia and join the family business. However, Lena has other plans. She is finishing her master’s degree in Paris, as her thesis revolves around Marina Tsvetaeva, a Russian poet who lived and wrote in the City of Light.

Ecstatic to be on her own after breaking up with her boyfriend of two years, Lena isn’t looking for romance. She spends her time working on her thesis, exploring the city, and drinking coffee at La Bohème, one of the best but little-known bistros in Paris. As she quickly becomes a regular at the tiny restaurant, she catches the attention of Rob Dumont, a disturbingly sexy waiter. The longer she remains in the city, the closer the two become.

However, Rob has more on his mind than a pre-graduation romance.

He’s been approached by a Russian business rival of Lena’s father. This rival promises a tremendous amount of much-needed money in exchange for spying on the quiet girl and reporting any intel on her father or his business. Even though Rob is desperate for money to pay his tuition, his conscience begins to plague him the more time he spends with Lena. His decision to come clean may ruin what is becoming the best relationship in his life.

Lena embodies a key theme within the novel; she is a self-proclaimed coward.

She literally and metaphorically runs from any conflict and allows life to happen around her, instead of taking charge and creating her own reality. Her father, Anton, constantly beseeches his daughter to join his business. He more or less tells her that she will do so after she finishes her master’s. Though she wants to work on literary translations when she finishes, she refuses to stand up for her dream, telling herself that she has time rather than confronting the issue.

Lena’s relationship with her father is just one example of her running from conflict. When she begins to feel unhappy in her two-year relationship with Gerhard, she doesn’t have the courage to break up with him. In her typical passive-aggressive manner, she simply goes to Paris, and he doesn’t follow. Though she finds new freedom in her explorations, she knows she should have told him how she felt instead of just allowing their relationship to die quietly.

In later incidents with Rob, Lena does the same, running from the truth he reveals and the chance at their happiness.

She allows herself to fall into another relationship, a serious one, with a man she could never love, rather than face her fears and find true love with Rob.

Lena’s need to run probably stems from her mother’s abandonment many years earlier, as she made a deal to stay away from Lena in exchange for a monthly payment. It isn’t until Lena learns to embrace the strength within herself, recognizing that she needs to be seen and heard, that she will ever find her prince and create her own happily ever after.

Rob is a direct contrast to Lena. Where Lena is quiet and reserved, Rob is outgoing and beloved by his friends.

Rob’s good looks give him a lot of female attention, so much so that Lena doubts anyone as handsome as Rob would want her. His financial situation, the very thing that leads to his betrayal, keeps a distance between them. While Lena is so pampered she never has to work or worry about money, Rob cannot graduate if he doesn’t get the money for his tuition. Though he has loving parents, they have made it clear that they want him to return home to the country and take over the family farm.

He feels his only option is to spy for Anton’s business adversary even though it hurts him to do so. The biggest difference between the two is that Rob is willing to wholeheartedly fight for what he wants. Late in the novel, he gives up a good job to pursue his dream of creating his own business, and, as for Lena, he tries multiple times to convince her of his sincerity and love, confronting his feelings head-on.

What if it’s Love? provides a refreshing twist on a typical contemporary romance.

Lena and Rob draw the reader into a world that flows from page to page. The cultural differences between the characters and their commitment to their ideals make for a book we can highly recommend!

What if it’s Love? by Alix Nichols won First Place in the 2015 CIBA Dante Rossetti Book Awards for Young Adult & New Adult Fiction.

August 15, 2022
PERSUADING LUCY by Tammy Mannersly – Contemporary Romance, Australia, New Adult & Coming of Age Romance

Lucy Spencer has everything, a successful career in advertising, good friends, and a quiet life. For fourteen years, she’s pushed aside her feelings for a childhood friend, Callum Hawthorne, and become a strong, independent woman, burying her hurt over his betrayal and creating her own life free of the drama of Cal’s womanizing ways–that is until he saunters back into her life.

Callum Hawthorne only wants one thing, to reconnect with his former best friend, Lucy. Cal has done everything he can think of to worm his way back into his Lucy’s life even enlisting the help of one of their mutual friends, but he can’t get Lucy to agree to meet him. With no idea what he did to create the rift between them, Cal doesn’t know how to make amends, but he does know one thing for sure: His life will never be complete without Lucy.

When his father’s first acquisition, a failing resort on the Gold Coast, is threatened, Cal hires Insight Marketing to help him save the crippled business. Lucy has no idea who the new, ultra-rich client is until she sees Callum. With no choice but to do the job she was hired to do, Lucy must find a way to put aside her old hurt and work with Cal, who hopes his high school crush can evolve into a grown-up relationship.

Friendship is an endearing theme in this well-written, fast-paced novel. It exists in every form, long-time friends, new friends, the kind of friends who will help drown your sorrows in wine, and the kind who will literally and figuratively rescue you from yourself. Lucy’s friends often ride to her defense. From Madison’s refusal to divulge Lucy’s whereabouts to Mia and Steph showing up at her door, pizza and booze in hand. Lucy’s female friends make a strong nexus, but the entire premise is based upon the friendship of Lucy and Cal, a lasting friendship that holds both love and hate.

Cal is the typical hot, rich protagonist (yes this is a familiar trope), but his friendship with Lucy sets him apart from the norm. He realizes quickly that he must win her back through that friendship. In order to win her, he must set aside the fiery passion he feels every time they are together and re-establish their friendship. He vows to gain her friendship, then her love, a love for which he’s pined most of his life. In fact, his surface philandering began as his way to preserve their friendship, fearing that admitting his feelings in high school would push her away.

Lucy quickly realizes she can’t just give up on Cal’s friendship again. He was once her closest confidant and letting that go proved to be a huge mistake. Nearly every happy memory she has includes the delectable Cal, and her traitorous heart refuses to release him without trying to be what they once were (and maybe more). They both have to take a headlong plunge into something that could prove heart wrenching and disastrous, but isn’t that the duality of this crazy emotion called love? The ability to heal and kill all in one.

With only one month to save their childhood memories and to resurrect a dead friendship, Cal and Lucy will take the reader on a face-paced, romantic adventure.

Persuading Lucy won 1^st Place in the 2018 CIBA in the Chatelaine Awards for Contemporary Romance.

May 17, 2019
RUTH 66 by Elizabeth Barlo – Humorous, YA, Family & Social Issues

When a banged-up old bus pulls into his family’s driveway, Charlie has no idea that the rattling junker would be his ride to freedom. For years he’d been suffering under the thumb of a cold-hearted mother and a vindictive twin sister, while his father languished behind bars for tax fraud. The only family member with whom the young man held a loving bond was his grandfather, Opa Bill. Since Bill’s recent death, Charlie has been holding it together by listening to the music he and his grandfather loved. That musical thread weaves its way throughout the story as a sort of narrative jukebox.

Now Charlie’s respectable Oma Ruth has careened back into his life in a shocking new incarnation: a freewheeling hippie in kaftan and beads, unafraid to swap barbed words with her appalled daughter, nor to insist that Charlie accompany her on her road trip. He’s dead-set against it – he’d just found his dream job at a record store – and is disgusted when his mother dumps him on her mother without hesitation.

So Charlie sets out with Ruth – and, as it turns out, with Opa Bill, whose urn rests on the dashboard. At first, Ruth’s bizarre behavior and Charlie’s resentment at being dragged along make for a very uncomfortable ride. She insists on traveling without modern technology, but when she relents and allows his iPod and a new stereo system, the thaw begins.

Although Route 66 is the road they travel as they head west, this is no travelogue about nostalgic remnants of yesterday. This is a journey of discovery: of Charlie’s strength and capacity to love, of Ruth’s ability to be honest with herself, of her secrets and those of her late husband, and of the people who will teach them along the way.

There’s the comical Count Doobie, and Jonas the Swede, who appreciates Ruth’s beauty and makes her feel truly free. There’s also heartbroken Barry, who, with his daughter Rosie, barely keeps afloat a strip joint in the middle of nowhere, Texas. And there’s even Charlie’s embittered sister Becky, who rediscovers compassion and her affection for her twin away from their mother’s toxic influence.

Above all, there’s Rosie, the beautiful young woman who pines for her missing mother and valiantly offers to become a stripper to help her father’s business. She sets Charlie’s heart and hormones on fire, turning him into a bumbling puppy before he learns to overcome his insecurities and grow into a hero of sorts. Their relationship becomes entangled in the revelation of Ruth’s secrets, but the resolution is both satisfying and a bit of a relief.

A word of caution to the straight-laced reader: Ruth has embraced the hippie lifestyle to its fullest, and so you’ll find pot-smoking, swearing, nudity, and sex, as Charlie and Rosie let loose their teenage hormones and Ruth re-engages her lost libido. But far more than that, there is love, forgiveness, and bravery on this journey, not to mention a lot of laughs, some wonderfully wacky moments, and at times exciting and literally explosive revelations.

October 19, 2017
CRACKED! A MAGIC iPHONE STORY by Janine A. Southard – Seattle, Cyber-Punk, Fantasy

Can a middle-aged, hip statistician find the perfect boyfriend in Washington’s Emerald City? Maybe with the help of her magic iPhone!

On this quirky journey through and around Seattle our heroine, Morena’s accompanied by two strange, but well-meaning sidekicks. Morena’s best friend/roommate, Suzyn, a twenty-something, aspiring photographer from New York, who likes to dance, get drunk, and get high; Magic Man, is an undercover, 6,000-year-old elf, who only wants to fit it with the humans around him. Also, a mysterious Green Man, who seems to be nearby wherever Morena goes, but whom she never notices, adds a note of mystery.

After a breezy false start in which the narrator chats the reader up, like a neighbor over mid-morning coffee and Danish, the real story begins.

One morning, Morena discovers a package on her kitchen table. Her ex-boyfriend, who “never sent her a single gift,” before their “horrid break-up,” has now sent her an iPhone—and it just so happens the phone is magic. It has only one app, designed for finding the right mate—and Morena, with her biological clock ticking, longs for love. She is searching for a soul mate—as long as it doesn’t take a lot of effort. She enjoys her current lifestyle, so, the right man would have to not only conveniently drop into her life, but also fit into her life. That iPhone may have been the perfect gift.

The reader journeys with Morena, her magic phone in hand, on Seattle’s buses and light rail, into various neighborhoods, coffee shops, pubs, and restaurants, as well as to neighboring communities. Cracked! . . . introduces a plethora of geeks, freaks, “funky hipsters,” story gamers, “hipsters playing at being gamers . . . ,” anonymous drug dealers, and more. Along the way, the reader may learn some street slang while being apprised of the go-to (for whatever you want) places in that urban area.

Particularly entertaining and interesting are the forays into the story gaming world, where the gaming part counted as a respectably nerdy pursuit, and the story part counted as creative . A fun feature of the story is that it is a microcosm of Seattle life: giving its readers a chance to interact with some odd characters, but still not have to be friends with them.”

While some may find Cracked! to be somewhat thin on plot, it’s heavy on atmosphere and setting, which is captivatingly authentic. Southard’s hip and cool characters are multi-dimensional and memorable. As a stylistic technique, the intrusive and opinionated omniscient narrator is sometimes informative and amusing, but at other times, can be distracting. However, always fun!

Overall, Cracked! A Magic iPhone Story provides an insider view of Seattle, its denizens, and some of their various activities and belief systems, that contribute to its unique culture. It’s a fun read in a much too serious world.

June 20, 2017
The FLYING BURGOWSKI by Gretchen Wing – YA, Social & Family Issues, Fantasy

In many ways, Gretchen K. Wing’s protagonist in The Flying Burgowski, Jocelyn Burgowski (Joss, for short) is a typical teenager. She admires and appreciates a favorite teacher, argues with her older brother, Michael (in an awkward rebellious stage), and hangs out with her friends, the popular Savannah and the sweet social misfit, Louis. She loves to relax with a good book, usually one in the Harry Potter series. The third is her favorite.

Then there are the atypical aspects of Joss’s life. She lives off the coast of Washington, on Dalby Island, beautiful with its tall fir trees and surrounding water, although not a mall or a MacDonald’s in sight. Her father runs the all-purpose store and shocks his children when he abruptly marries Lorraine, the seemingly stereotypical librarian. Joss’s mother abandoned the family nine years earlier for mainland life and has struggled with alcoholism and pill addiction.

And then there’s Joss’s very vivid dreams, dreams in which she takes flight and soars over the island. Unlike Harry Potter, she doesn’t need a broom. No, she flies as freely as a bird. On her fourteenth birthday, which occurs on the summer solstice, she discovers that the dreams were preparation for the real thing. She instinctively takes off from The Toad, a large rock on the island, and life will never be the same. How could it? Even if she and Michael (in trouble again for driving his father’s truck into a ditch and smoking pot) weren’t sent to the mainland to spend time with their mother, Joss’s life is forever on a new course, one that is mapped against the sky.

To Wing’s enormous credit, the novel never loses its convincing realism despite the main character’s spending a good portion of it in the sky, her arms outstretched, her body turning as she banks left and right, her lungs filling with the scent of lilies. The author weaves these scenes seamlessly, beautifully into the narrative. We root for Joss as she plans her flight sessions, catch our breath when she takes a rough landing, her skin scraped, and worry with her that she’ll be sighted by someone who happens to look up at the evening sky. The realism is complemented, however, by the exhilaration of these scenes. Joss is so thrilled by the experience of flight that the reader wants to take her hand and witness what she does as a human bird, to feel that rush of air swim against our skin.

Joss’s gift for flight, of course, is mired in old and interesting secrets that involve her mother and even her new step-mother. Her aerial talent is tested when she adjusts to a new school, unkind classmates, her mother’s substance abuse relapses, and the surprising but welcome maturation of her brother. Wing’s poignant and sensitive handling of Joss’s and Michael’s time on the mainland underscores the protective power of sibling relationships in the face of parental weakness or failure. The self-growth that they experience as a result stays with them when they return to Dalby Island and resume life as they knew it, but with far greater self-awareness.

The Flying Burgowski isn’t your typical young adult book and that’s a very good thing. Wing infuses realistic teen life, with all its problems, with a hefty dose of magic realism, and the result is an engaging and captivating fusion. After reading it, don’t be surprised if you find yourself looking up at the sky, ready to sight the lucky human endowed with the gift of flight.

June 15, 2017
The BOOK of SHADE by K.C. Finn – Paranormal/Fantasy/New Adult/Contemporary Gothic/Literature

A world of intrigue, magic, and danger awaits Lily Coltrane in K.C. Finn’s The Book of Shade.

On her very first day at university, Lily and her roommate enlist in the IMLS (Illustrious Minds Literary Society) at the student fair and, despite warnings from her history professor, take one step further and visit the Theatre Imaginique.

The show seems too real – the lightning, levitation, and the fact that Lemarick Novel, the theater’s top showman and proprietor, keeps locking eyes with her. She tries to put it out of her mind, but a month later, Lily and her roommate return to the show, and this is where author K.C. Finn puts her character in delicious jeopardy.

Lily learns she’s a shade – a being with the ability to generate and control the natural elements (earth, air, fire, and water). This revelation sets her off down a rabbit hole of mystique and magic. Novel is also a shade, one who is fairly accomplished in his abilities, and he decides to train Lily in her newfound abilities. What follows is an adventure woven with trials, romance, danger, and a whole world of the unknown.

K.C. Finn does an excellent job of weaving the paranormal and magic in with the modern-day world. She introduces concepts that we’re all familiar with, such as voodoo, vampires, werewolves, but does it in a way that doesn’t feel overly stereotypical.

Finn takes her time with world building in The Book of Shade, and the reader’s patience is rewarded. Finn develops her characters very well, even foreshadowing here and there. The characters and the story itself are slightly more important to the author than the setting.

Once the author reveals the world of shade, any reader will find it virtually impossible to put the book down. The book does contain some grammatical errors which could and should be corrected, but the writing, on the whole, is good, which is appreciated. From featuring “playbills” for Theatre Imaginique inserted at the beginning of each chapter to the care Finn takes in creating this imaginative world, this title remains a good read.

Magic and intrigue throw Lily Coltrane’s world all kinds of upside-down when she discovers she isn’t who she thought she was in K.C. Finn’s The Book of Shade.

April 21, 2017
Age of Order by Julian North – YA Dystopian SciFi

In the not too distant future, one girl races to save the ones she loves in Julian North’s Age of Order.

Daniela Machado, a young Latina from Bronx City, is smart and successfully athletic – especially on the track – but she has more than a few secrets. She’s learned to be very protective of herself and those she cares about, her blood, in an environment where others frequently die. Aba, her grandmother, and her older brother Mateo, along with her sister of choice, Kortilla, are the only ones she fully trusts.

Daniela knows something must be behind the sudden offer she receives to attend a very prestigious and selective school in another part of the Five Cities, and she’s reluctant to accept. Attending the new school and leaving Kortilla behind, however, may be the only chance Daniela has to save Mateo’s life.

In this school environment, North skillfully weaves in multiple references to other dystopian works frequently taught in high school. The reader will be reminded of Orwell, Huxley, and William Golding, as Daniela reads them for class. Something else becomes abundantly clear: Daniela and most of her classmates don’t get along.

It’s more than just a question of money and social standing, though. It’s genetics.

Set in the near future of the United States, the action is often thrilling, complete with high-tech rivalries, partisan politics, chase scenes, and class conflicts. While most of the major characters are teens, North’s insights into their thoughts and feelings can apply to any age, lending an ageless quality to this otherwise clear morality tale. Their conflicts, confusions, and pain are more than any child should have to encounter. But in this world, those lucky enough to survive must grow-up quickly.

Daniela finds her one solace in running, and she fights her way onto the school track team. No one, not even the school star, can easily beat her when she runs. Daniela, it becomes apparent, has a gift which, after being honed throughout childhood, is now formidable.

It’s on the track when she feels completely free, even when the competition seems unfairly rigged against her. North does a fine job of writing these athletic scenes and the reader will feel their feet pounding and gasping for breath as Daniela runs against others – and her hidden past.

As that past comes into conflict with what she is experiencing at school, Daniela and her allies (the other misfits at school) begin to see the true shape of the reality around them. Only through courage and steely resolve will they be able to do what must be done to prevent the genocide those in power have already begun. It’s up to Daniela to find her true self, when she needs it most, to save the people she loves.

Age of Order is powerfully charged with rich characters and a dynamic storyline. One of the BEST new YA books we’ve reviewed!

February 9, 2017
RIO – The STREET KID STARGAZER by Craig S. Wilson – a thriller coming of age story that takes place in contemporary Rio de Janeiro

This international YA crime thriller, one that could have been ripped from the latest headlines, is set in beautiful Rio de Janeiro. Juxtaposed against the glamorous hi-life of the iconic city, the author—Craig S. Wilson brings into focus the city’s gritty and deadly underground crime scene with its drug lords and cartels.

The destitute lives of 16-year-old Lucas and his siblings are already placed in turmoil when their mother passes away. But their troubles are exasperated when Lucas’ older brother is suddenly murdered in cold blood outside their squalid tiny hovel in the shanty town (called a favela) where they live a meagerly existence along with millions of other impoverished Brazilians.

Instead of panhandling, young Lucas tries his luck at shining shoes. But in an impromptu moment, he steals his customer’s wallet. Daniel Burke, a visiting American, is his rube. Daniel traveled to Rio to reconnect with old family roots, but is now left with no money and is taken pity on by Gabriela, an enchanting airport employee whom he asks for help. Thus, Wilson begins weaving his tale of the Rio Street Kid Stargazer.

Lucas, needing a permanent means of support for his younger sisters, turns to a widely-feared drug lord, Antonio Cruz Mendez—known as “Dez”–for work. When a drug deal turns violent and Lucas must flee, he is shocked when he bumps into Daniel again. When Daniel and Gabriela, simply trying to retrieve his wallet, they inadvertently become dangerously entangled in young Lucas’ life that now includes dealing with corrupt police and the underground crime syndicates turf wars.

Wilson did hit a couple of road bumps with this first novel, including pieces of the plot and character motivation that some may find on the side of unrealistic. Some readers may decide that the author is telling the reader too much while and not “showing enough.” But many will find that these shortcomings do not diminish the likability of the protagonists or the investment in Lucas’ mental chess game with “Dez.” Like his younger protégé, Dez is a product of his environment—the poverty stricken “favelas” in which it seems that the only way to escape is by succumbing to a life of crime or face a destitute future.

Many will appreciate the novel’s honest snapshots of Rio de Janeiro, which includes its luxurious hotels and beautiful landscapes while thoroughly delving into the ugly underground and severe issues of such abject poverty. Wilson crafting of Daniel’s character is allows us to see Rio as a newcomer. We soon learn, as Daniel did, that this unique city’s charm has a lot to offer, but is quite risky for tourists and locals alike. Daniel’s character is developed as he becomes more connected with his roots to Rio and is forced to reconsider his life and his “success” as an employee of Lehman Brothers investment bank.

Overall, Wilson’s cultural interpretation of Rio de Janeiro, along with his grasp of its extreme poverty level and the seedy underground that takes advantage of it, is reason to pick up this book for an informative cultural read—especially with the aftermath of the 2016 Summer Olympics and the FIFA World Cup and the fall of Lehman Brothers. The romantic elements, along with the chaotic and complex action will have many readers looking forward to book two in this series that states “Sometimes good people do bad things for a greater good.”

September 14, 2016
THE CLOUD SEEDERS by James Zerndt, a dystopian-future novel

Environmental dangers, such as recent droughts on the West Coast, motivate many writers to explore futures where significant resources are scarce. Imagine a world where water is a rare, precious gem that people are trying to snatch up. James Zerndt builds a dystopian future in his novel The Cloud Seeders where the lack of water, and more importantly rain, has resulted in a dictatorial regime with water police, severe punishments, and near total control.

Enter Thomas, his little brother Dustin, and Thomas’ girlfriend Jerusha.

Zerndt is an expert on point-of-view and he crafts memorable characters who have unique assets and flaws. The juxtaposed positions of Thomas being a young enforcer for the water police and Jerusha being a member of a secret society that resists the regime offers a fascinating view of young love and its willingness to put up with opposing worldviews. Dustin’s surprising capabilities further round out a strong set of diverse characters. Zerndt’s three-dimensional characters remind the reader that none of us are all good or all bad – we have faults and strengths that set the foundation for who we are and who we will become.

A prose professional, Zerndt’s pages are filled with dynamic characters and scene building craft that grips the reader from the beginning to the end. The poems between chapters, written by the two brothers’ deceased mother, are carefully crafted and also capture the reader’s attention.

The adventure the three characters go on is fraught with realistic and compelling subplots that pull you along and make you want to keep reading late into the night. The scenery has a fresh perspective that puts the reader into Orwellian territory as the devastation to the country is revealed through the storyline.

Even though this novel, which crosses the genres of science fiction, new adult, romance, and dystopian, presents a coming-of-age story, I would recommend it to either young adults with parental guidance (PG) or the 18-year-old and over audience because the coarse language, sexual content, and violence–while not gratuitous–still permeates this riveting story.

Readers will be enthralled by the novel’s climax, which is both clever and believable. The ending begs the question of what’s next.

The Cloud Seeders is a gripping dystopian-future novel that leaves us questioning just how far are we from a future of environmental chaos, and how blurred the line can be between fiction and reality.

April 8, 2016
The Dante Rossetti Awards Finalist Official Listing for 2015
The Dante Rossetti Writing Competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Young Adult Fiction. The Dante Rossetti 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 2015 writing competition winners!

The Dante Rossetti Awards FIRST IN CATEGORY sub-genres are: Contemporary Young Adult, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Paranormal, Dystopian/Edgy/Urban, Mystery/Thriller/Suspense, Historical Young Adult, YA Adventure, and Romance.

The following titles will compete for the FIRST IN CATEGORY Positions and Awards Packages.

This is the OFFICIAL Finalists List for the 2015 Shortlist of the Dante Rossetti 2015 Novel Writing Contest for Young Adult Fiction.
- Sally Hughes for Bridget Casey: Revelation
- Philip Carlisle for Time’s Will: Eyes of Phire
- Robert Joseph for Long Ago and Far Away
- Jo Swanson for The Last Rodeo In Kingdom Come
- Michael Burnam for The Last Stop
- Kelley J. P. Lindberg for True Love Never
- Laurisa White Reyes for Memorable
- Tristan R.B. for Written in Action
- Kyle R. Zeller for Knights of the Withering Flame
- Christopher Allan Poe for Dark Sight
- Helena Loveland for Ylsnavan
- E.E. Holmes for Spirit Prophecy: Book 2
- Maggie Bolitho for Lockdown
- Tanya Fyfe for Lost and Found
- Gail Selvig for O.W.L.S. and Other Creatures of the Night
- Luke Evans for Hex
- Jo Swanson for The Last Rodeo in Kingdom Come
- Lis Anna-Langston for Tupelo Honey
- KB Shaw for Neworld Series
- Alix Nichols for What If It’s Love
- Glen Alan Burke for Jesse
- Ben Hutchins for Lackawanna
- Jesse Atkin for The Flying Man
- Pamela Woods-Jackson for Genius Summer
- Verity Croker for May Day Mine
- Robert Joseph for Long Ago and Far Away
- Aiden Riley for The Red
- Jamie Zerndt for The Cloud Seeders
- Pamela Beason for Race with Danger
- Melissa A. Craven for Emerge: The Awakening
- Nikki McCormack for The Girl and the Clockwork Cat
- Patrick Hodges for Joshua’s Island
- Michael Burnam, MD for The Last Stop
- Kathe Maguire for The Harriet Club
- Suzanne de Montigny for The Shadow of the Unicorn II: The Deception
- Laurisa White Reyes for Memorable
- Laurence Sullivan for Rosewall Academy Valentine’s Day
- Mike Hartner for I, Mary: Book 3 in the Crofter Saga
- Olivia Wildenstein for Ghostboy, Chameleon & the Duke of Graffiti
- Suzanne de Montigny for The Shadow of the Unicorn II: The Deception
- Stephanie DeLuca for Pilgrims
- Rikki Leigh Carson for The Princess and the Locket
- Aiden Riley for The Red
- Pat Johnson for The Virgin and Marilyn Monroe
- Danielle Burnette for The Spanish Club
- Cody Wagner for Camp NO Where – A Healing Home for Gay Kids
- Michael Beyer for Magical Miss Morgan
- Michael Sarrow for Mistress of Marrowglen
This is the Official List of Finalists for the 2015 Dante Rossetti Awards
The Dante Rossetti Finalists will compete for the Dante Rossetti First In Category Positions, which consists of Four Judging Rounds. First Place Category Award winners will automatically be entered into the Dante Rossetti GRAND PRIZE AWARD competition, which has a cash prize of $250 or $500 dollars in editorial services. The CBR Grand Prize Genre Winners will compete for the CBR Overall Grand Prize for Best Book and its $1,000 purse.
- All First In Category Award Winners will receive high visibility along with special badges to wear during the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala.
- First In Category winners will compete for the Dante Rossetti Awards Grand Prize Award for the $250 purse and the Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Ribbon and badges.
- TEN genre Grand Prize winning titles will compete for the $1,000 purse for CBR Best Book and Overall Grand Prize.
- A coveted Chanticleer Book Review valued at $345 dollars U.S. CBR reviews will be published in the Chanticleer Reviews magazine in chronological order as to posting.
- A CBR Blue Ribbon to use in promotion at book signings and book festivals
- Digital award stickers for on-line promotion
- Adhesive book stickers
- Shelf-talkers and other promotional items
- Promotion in print and on-line media
- Review of book distributed to on-line sites and printed media publications
- Review, cover art, and author synopsis listed in CBR’s newsletter
- Default First in Category winners will not be declared. Contests are based on merit and writing craft in all of the Chanticleer Writing Competitions.
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 Dante Rossetti Finalists as they compete for the coveted First Place Category positions.

First In Category announcements will be made in our social media postings as the results come in.

The Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner will be announced at the April 30th, 2016 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 2016 Dante Rossetti Awards writing competition. The deadline for submissions is May 30th, 2016. Please click here for more information or to enter the contest.
December 15, 2015