Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Prestigious

The 2025 Mind and Spirit Spotlight for Spirituality and Enlightenment!
Finding Peace in a Busy World

The Mind & Spirit Awards Are Looking to Unplug

In our increasingly fast-paced world, the search for inner peace and authentic connection has become more vital than ever. From mindfulness practices that ground us in the present moment to spiritual frameworks that illuminate our deeper purpose, readers are seeking guidance that nurtures both mind and spirit. The Mind & Spirit Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment celebrate the exceptional works that provide this essential wisdom, recognizing authors who offer transformative insights and practical tools for living with greater awareness, compassion, and joy.

Celebrating Our Grand Prize Winner!

We’re delighted to celebrate our 2024 Mind & Spirit Division Grand Prize Winner, Marijke McCandless for her inspiring guide Naked in the Now: Juicy Practices for Getting Present. This accessible and warmhearted work offers a refreshing approach to mindfulness, providing simple yet powerful practices that help readers reconnect with themselves and find peace in everyday moments. McCandless understands that many people crave more presence in their lives but feel overwhelmed by complex spiritual practices, so she offers “tiny practices” that deliver “real relief” without requiring major life overhauls.

What makes Naked in the Now truly special is its blend of practical wisdom with gentle encouragement. The book helps readers spark insight and authenticity while quieting their inner critic through practices that can be integrated into busy schedules. McCandless shows the reader that even just five minutes a day can open doorways to the peace, vitality, and joy that already exist within us. She will receive a Chanticleer Editorial Review and has already completed her Awarded Author Interview, allowing readers to explore her insights on mindful living and practical spirituality.

The Mind & Spirit Awards honor the full spectrum of spiritual and wellness literature, encompassing categories from Enlightenment and Spirituality to Mindfulness, Meditation, Well-Being, and Energy work. This comprehensive approach reflects our understanding that spiritual growth takes many forms, whether through Motivational frameworks that inspire transformation or specialized practices that cultivate specific aspects of consciousness and healing.

Explore All Business & Self-Help Divisions

The Mind & Spirit Awards are part of Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of transformative non-fiction:
- Harvey Chute Awards for Business & Finance: Business strategy, finance, investing, technology guides, and professional development
- I&I Awards for How-To and Self-Help: Practical guides, self-improvement, skill development, and instructional works
- Nellie Bly Awards for Research and Journalism: In-depth explorations that changes the readers perspective on life
- Military and Front Line Awards for Service to Others: Stories of those who protect and engage in community
One Kiss
By Michelle Ashton

One Kiss by Michelle Ashton is a poignant and emotionally unvarnished memoir of life through loss, healing, and the grim, lovely battle of being human.

One Kiss feels like a private journal—vulnerable, scattered at times, terribly real and sympathetic. Readers walk beside someone who’s still dealing with life’s challenges—working through heartbreak, trying to heal, stumbling, getting back up, and asking big questions she hasn’t yet found the answers to.

Much of this book circles around Ashton’s deep, complicated attachment to Noah, the man she calls “Adonis” and her “Twin Flame.” She relates with painful but relatable honesty how it feels like to wait, to hope, to wonder if you should hold on or walk away. Who hasn’t sat there refreshing their messages or praying for a sign that maybe this time things will turn out differently?

Read More Here

Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road
By Kirsten Throneberry

A Journey First Place Winner!

In her stunning memoir, Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road, Kirsten Throneberry weaves together the highs and lows of a road trip packed with life wisdom, where she explores grief, spirituality, and rekindled hope.

Throneberry’s achingly vulnerable memoir splits its readers’ hearts and tenderly sews them back together.

In the aftermath of the devastating loss of her husband, Kirsten sells her home and takes her two small sons, two elderly pups, and eccentric mother on a year-long road trip around the United States in their new-to-them Bigfoot RV.

Encouraged by the same spirit guides whose earlier advice for her husband’s health left her broken and untrusting, Kirsten must learn to face the open road with an equally open heart and mind.

Read More Here

Ask Biella
By Syl Sabastian

Syl Sabastian’s Ask Biella is unlike today’s typical self-help books—ones that are quickly read, interpreted, and forgotten. Instead, Ask Biella is a thoughtful and thought-through self-help reference work featuring a fictional guide from Syl Sabastian’s core series fielding deep questions from real readers. It asks its audience for a different kind of commitment to its deep sharing: a raw, self-exploratory approach in which one creates a realistic-ideal world for themselves through the process of positivity and emphasis.

Ask Biella invites readers to turn inward for enlightenment, satisfying their questions with lasting internal empowerment rather than external compromises. Biella reveals the harmful mental habits to which we are all prone and points to the rope that can save us from ourselves. After all, according to Biella, “We, and we alone, are the creators of meaning.”

Biella’s world is rooted in real-world wisdom with an easy-to-follow candor, and pulls from Biella’s “Dictionary-of-Power,” hyphenating and capitalizing particular words and phrases for emphasis to change how the reader engages with the text. For example, Biella hyphenates and capitalizes the phrase “Thinking-Things-Through-TO-THE-END” to capture readers’ attention, changing the way readers’ brains respond to the words via emphasis. These specific words and phrases, or “tools-of-living,” cover a wide variety of topics.

Read More Here

Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet
By Lisa Rhyne

In her stunning and intimate memoir Staying Married is the Hardest Part: A Memoir of Passion, Secrets and Sacrifice, Bonnie Comfort takes readers on a decades-long journey of deep love, laughter, and the challenges of a long-term marriage, from first meeting her husband Bob in the late 1970s until his death in 2010.

Throughout their life together, Bonnie and Bob have their fair share of disagreements—including where to live—but the main conflict within their marriage centers around their conflicting sexual needs and preferences.

As a professional psychologist, Bonnie shows the highs and lows of her marriage to Bob, contrasted by her job of helping others with their emotional and relationship problems. Bonnie and Bob’s committed love for one another makes staying married both the hardest and easiest part of their lives regardless of what challenges come their way.

Read More Here

These reviews represent just a glimpse of the transformative wisdom and practical guidance waiting to be discovered in today’s spiritual and wellness literature.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the inspiring spiritual and wellness works we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Mind & Spirit Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous enlightening titles as they advanced through our competition tiers. The Chanticleer International Book Awards provide ongoing recognition that amplifies authors’ digital footprints through high-traffic website features, social media promotion, newsletter spotlights reaching thousands of industry professionals, and long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year and beyond!

This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.

Don’t Let Your Wisdom Remain Unshared!

The spiritual and wellness market continues to flourish as readers seek authentic guidance for navigating life’s challenges with greater peace and purpose. Whether your work offers ancient wisdom adapted for modern life, innovative meditation techniques, energy healing practices, or motivational frameworks for personal transformation, the Mind & Spirit Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your insights deserve.

Spiritual and wellness literature has the unique power to heal, inspire, and awaken readers to their highest potential. From mindfulness practices that bring immediate relief to profound teachings that shift entire worldviews, every thoughtfully crafted work has the potential to become a treasured guide on someone’s spiritual journey. Don’t let your wisdom remain hidden—submit to the Mind & Spirit Awards today and join the visionary authors who’ve found their spiritual community through Chanticleer!

Submit to the Mind & Spirit Awards today! Deadline: September 30th

You know you want it…
September 15, 2025
The 2025 Harvey Chute Awards Hall of Fame for Business & Finance

Book Business in Book Awards

***Submit your book today!***

You have until September 30th to submit your book to the 2025 CIBAs!

Let’s take a look at the Grand Prize Winners for the Harvey Chute Award!

Stop Worrying About Money
By Jacqui Clarke

Stop Worrying About Money by Jacqui Clarke serves as a lucid and candidly insightful guide to understanding the cornerstones of financial literacy, whether for a working professional, business owner, or anyone seeking to better manage their savings and investments.

This practical and insightful approach to financial awareness endeavors to decode the mystifying fundamentals of financial freedom, wealth management, and money psychology. Rather than merely presenting facts on numbers and investments, it adopts a holistic perspective, covering principles of earning, understanding, and wisely managing money.

Written by an experienced professional and fiscal guardian to many, Clarke’s Stop Worrying About Money paves a clear and accessible roadmap for navigating the often-chaotic terrain of financial planning.

The book begins by exploring how upbringing and personal experiences shape a person’s financial habits.

Read More Here

Using Behavioral Science in Marketing
By Nancy Harhut

The Full Review for this book is forthcoming:

Increase engagement, response rates and the ROI of marketing initiatives with this step-by-step guide to harnessing hardwired consumer behavior and instinctive responses.

Using Behavioral Science in Marketing shows how to apply behavioral science principles in key areas of marketing, including marketing communications, email, direct mail and ad campaigns, social media marketing and sales funnel conversion strategies. Highly practical and accessible, it includes case studies and examples from AT&T, Apple, Spotify and The Wall Street Journal showing how these approaches have been used in practice.

Using Behavioral Science in Marketing also reveals how to increase consumer involvement and engagement, convey exclusivity and desirability, and prompt customer action and loyalty with scientifically proven principles such as autonomy bias, storytelling, and the Von Restorff effect.

Featuring common mistakes to avoid and key takeaways at the end of each chapter, it’s also accompanied by downloadable checklists and an interactive template to use in practice. In a highly competitive space, where even an incremental advantage can result in significant uplifts, this is a crucial resource to create stand out and successful marketing-especially for marketers in highly regulated or highly competitive environments.

Buy it here!

Reconfigurement
By E. Alan Fleischauer

A guide to achieving financial freedom in retirement, E. Alan Fleischauer’s bestseller Reconfigurement™ reveals a roadmap guided by the Mantra, “Navigate, Customize, and Thrive.”

Advances in medicine, nutrition, and longevity planning now offer unparalleled possibilities to live longer, higher-quality lives. However, looming over this rosy image is a genuine concern: the financial ramifications of a longer retirement term. More alarming is that a sizable portion of the American populace is not harnessing their 401(k) retirement plans.

In light of this scenario, can traditional investment programs with fraying safety nets, such as pensions, remain viable? Reconfigurement combines the emotional fulfillment of making retirement dreams a reality with practical guidance that rejects the notion of a set retirement age of 65. This work’s personal tales and sound financial guidance entice readers away from the constraints of traditional retirement approaches.

Read More Here

Beyond Balancing The Books: Sheer Mindfulness for Professionals in Work and Life
By George Marino

George Marino, a practicing CPA and Mindfulness Coach, explores the possibilities for sustainable positivity in one’s work-life through mindfulness principles and practices in his new book, Beyond Balancing the Books: Sheer Mindfulness for Professionals in Work and Life.

It would be difficult to find a profession more fraught with detail, deadlines, and distress than a typical CPA. Applying to that particular realm the idea of mindful meditation is a challenge that author Marino has taken on because it is a process he has lived. He opens his book by comparing two CPAs and their approaches to life and work-life.

Read More Here

Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage
By Laura Huang

Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage by Laura Huang is a valuable mixture of business strategy, science, and examples, all directed to help readers develop their unique skills and strengths.

Author Laura Huang takes readers through her own journey to becoming an award-winning Harvard Business School professor. Along with real-world examples of both successful entrepreneurs and up-and-coming business students, she lays out a four-part guide on how to create your personal edge.

Creating your own edge is essential to getting ahead in life no matter who someone is or where they come from. Huang herself is a child of immigrants and was one of a few female engineering students at her university. She had to navigate her own specific challenges, figuring out what worked for her and what did not.

Instead of being in business to invent or promote the next big thing, Huang is in the business world for its rich research opportunities.

Read More Here

Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Harvey Chute Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

September 12, 2025
The 2024 Harvey Chute First Place Roundup for Business and Finance

The Harvey Chute Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Business and Enterprising Non-Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Jacqui Clarke‘s book, Stop Worrying About Money, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Harvey Chute 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 2024 Harvey Chute Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place Harvey Chute Winners!

Roger Spitz – Disrupt With Impact

Disrupt With Impact is the ultimate guide to thriving in today’s complex business landscapes. It offers strategies that will allow you to navigate uncertainty and change through strategic decision-making.

Covering major challenges such as sustainability, AI, geopolitics and cybersecurity, this book is your compass for exploring the uncharted waters of the future. These paradigm shifts will redistribute trillions of dollars, presenting opportunities for immense value creation, while those clinging to business as usual face growing risks of value destruction. Through fascinating research and original frameworks, Disrupt With Impact offers the knowledge and confidence you need to lead your business through disruption.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Jenny Li Fowler – Organic Social Media

Organizations and institutions focused on community building have a built-in group of ambassadors who embrace their message and vision. Social media managers have a unique opportunity to lean into this loyalty by creating a social presence informed by this digital engagement.

In Organic Social Media, Jenny Li Fowler outlines the important steps that social media managers need to take to enhance an organization’s broader growth objectives. Fowler breaks down the important questions to help readers determine the best platforms to invest in, how they can streamline the approval process and other essential strategic steps to create an organic following on social platforms.

Organic Social Media explains how to elevate the key growth objectives of a brand by creating or recreating its online presence. Early chapters walk readers through the planning phase, the process of strategic goal setting, platform selection, resource management and content discovery. Later chapters focus on executing these established plans and offer a strategic way to build a content calendar and track the success of social. With this book, social media managers will future-proof the online presence of any organization.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Anastasia Karklina Gabriel – Cultural Intelligence for Marketers

Brands not only reflect culture but actively shape societal norms and values. Move beyond performative inclusive marketing and drive the cultural conversation.

A brand today can build a marketing strategy that not only effectively resonates with audiences but also meaningfully impacts society at large. Learn how to produce inclusive marketing using an approach grounded in critical perspectives on society and the impact brands wield in shaping it. In this book, cultural theorist and strategist Anastasia Karklina Gabriel draws on social analysis, media theory, and semiotics to help marketers improve cultural fluency and future-proof brand strategy by embedding equity and inclusion into every aspect of marketing. Cultural Intelligence for Marketers explains how to create an inclusive marketing strategy using an actionable approach that draws on advanced insights into culture, identity, representation, and the power of media in driving social change.

The book offers an in-depth dive into the urgent need for cultural competence in marketing using a framework rooted in 4Cs: Culture, communication, critical consciousness, and community. It delves into practical aspects of conscious marketing, inclusive innovation, cultural insights, brand activism, social impact, and responsibility in business. It features insights from current and former marketing leaders at Wieden+Kennedy, Mindshare, Dentsu, and Saatchi & Saatchi, among others. Drawing on case studies from brands that are actively pursuing inclusive marketing strategies, including Microsoft, Pinterest, Billie, and REI, Gabriel outlines the process of deploying cultural intelligence to attain commercial advantage while transforming society for the better.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Neal Schaffer – Digital Threads

Are you a small business owner, entrepreneur, or content creator struggling to navigate the complex world of digital marketing?

Do you want to learn how to build a powerful online presence, leverage social media, and harness the power of AI tools without breaking the bank?

In Digital Threads, renowned digital marketing consultant and Fractional CMO Neal Schaffer offers actionable insights and practical strategies that have helped countless businesses and entrepreneurs achieve their marketing goals. Drawing on over a decade of experience, Neal provides a comprehensive playbook that demystifies digital marketing and empowers you.

Digital Threads is your ultimate guide to mastering digital marketing in today’s fast-paced, digital-first economy.
In today’s digital-first economy, having a strong online presence and effective marketing strategy is crucial for success. Digital Threads provides you with the knowledge and tools you need to thrive. Whether you’re just starting or looking to refine your existing strategies, this book is your go-to resource for achieving measurable results and sustained growth.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Melina Palmer – The Truth About Pricing

The ultimate guide to pricing mastery and value-based pricing, The Truth About Pricing helps you unlock the secrets of your buyers’ minds, understand their needs, and set prices that skyrocket your business’s success.

Pricing mastery made easy. A must-read for entrepreneurs seeking to determine what their customers value and set prices they want by understanding the truth about pricing—it isn’t about the price. Everything that happens before the price matters much more than the price itself. Have happier clients, boost your profits, and confidently master the pricing game with this comprehensive guide.

Find it Locally and on Amazon!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Harvey Chute First Place Winners!

Watch for our Spotlight and Hall of Fame Articles that will feature incredible books, including Jacqui Clarke’s amazing Stop Worrying About Money!

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

Got a great Business and Enterprise Book?

The 2025 Harvey Chute Book Awards are open through the end of September!

Submit to the Harvey Chute Awards Today!

September 10, 2025
The 2025 SEA Shorts Awards Long List for Short Stories, Essays, and Novellas
The SEA Shorts Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Short Stories. The Shorts Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

The Chanticleer International Book Awards program discovers today’s best works. The SEA Short Stories Awards discovers the Best New Short Form Fiction, Narrative Non-Fiction and Essays. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

These titles have moved forward from all of the 2025 SEA SHORTS entries to the 2025 SEA Shorts Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 SEA Shorts Award Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 SEA Shorts Book Awards novel competition for Short Stories!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- AJ Skelly – Murder at Mistlethwaite Manor
- Amichai Kolberg – A Sweet and Faithful Lullaby
- C. V. Lee – Her Noble Groom
- Catherine Brown – Purrfect Revenge
- Cathryn Devries – Son of Osivirius
- Charlie Robinson – Bow Tie Sex a Serious Scientific Study
- Chell Linn Araya – Don’t Talk To Strangers
- Christopher Macdonald – The Wobbly Man
- Dan Baltrusis Jr. – My Wife Was Right the Zombie Apocalypse
- David Fitz-Gerald – A Pioneer Christmas Beyond the Oregon Trail
- Don Jacobson – The Last Gift: An Austenesque Short Story
- Dr. Gregory Steinberg – No More To Lose Till Death Do Us Part
- Elizabeth Klein – Kingdom of Longing
- Gail Heath – Minuet
- Gail Noble-Sanderson – All Is Fair
- Grace Haygood – A Love To Call Home
- J. L Oakley – Mr. Brown Reads
- Jackson Kuhl – The Island of Small Misfortunes
- Jalon J Jakab – Inside the Walls
- Jamie Kirkpatrick – The Dreamcatcher
- Joseph Kovler – At the Corner of Hitler and Goering
- Julia Marie Davis – Catbird
- K. E. Adamus – Last Episode
- K. E. Adamus – Sanity Test
- K. E. Adamus – To Outwit the Fate
- Katherine Smith Dedrick – Tangled Verdict
- Kathleen Kaska – The Diary of Simone Lablanc
- Kregg P.J. Jorgenson – An Accidental Muse
- Kregg P.J. Jorgenson – Emotional Loss Prevention
- Lasse Toft – 70 Things You Can Do While Being Hospitalized
- Linda Griffin – Morgan’s Landing
- Linda Harris Sittig – B-52 Down the Night the Bombs Fell From the Sky
- Maggie Enriquez – The Rebirth of a Phoenix
- Marie Sutro – For the First Time
- Marie Sutro – Not the North Pole
- Marie Sutro – You Oughta Know
- Mary Ann Bernal – Anarose and Medusa’s Curse
- Morris Hoffman – Boy of Heaven
- Murray Eiland – Mount Zephon Gateway To Mot
- Murray Eiland – Philosopher of Fire
- Natia Khaduri – Leading with Love a Journey of Resilience and Impact
- Paisley Summer – The Movie Theatre
- PJ Devlin – Original Sins
- Richard Leslie Brock – Cephalonia
- Richard Leslie Brock – The Atonements
- Ruud Richardson – The Spy: A Short Story
- Sandra Wagner-Wright – The Life & Times of Sarah Good Accused Witch
- Sarena Straus – The Patchwork Man
- T.O. Paine – The Abduction
- TK Sheffield – Horse Thief: A Nomad Vet with a Score To Settle Takes on Horse Thieves in a Midwest Showdown
- TK Sheffield – The Glitching Ghoul: AI Terror at a Writer’s Retreat
Congratulations once more to the 2024 Shorts Grand Prize Winner for Short Prose

Something About Lizzy

By Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi

Click here to see the full list of 2024 SEA Shorts Book Award Winners for Short Stories and Essays.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 SEA Shorts Book Awards for Short Stories, Novellas, and Essays!

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! Save the Date for Registration!

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

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!
September 9, 2025
The 2025 Fiction Cover Design Awards (CCDAs) Long List
The Chanticleer Cover Design Awards (The CCDAs) for Fiction recognizes artistic excellence across genre in great cover design. The CCDAs are a new Award Division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Our design is inspired by books designed by the incomparable Coraline Bickford-Smith. Her simple, beautiful, and evocative designs do so much to make the book work as a visual ambassador, capturing the essence of story and compelling potential readers to pick it up, click on it, or share it with others. A well-designed cover signals professionalism, sets expectations for your genre, and serves as a powerful marketing tool to stand out in both digital and physical spaces.

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring clear genres, audience, time periods, typography, and longevity across genres of Historical Fiction, Romance, Literary, Satire, Speculative Fiction, and Youth Reads.

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 CCDA Fiction entries to the 2025 CCDA Fiction LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 CCDA Fiction Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards novel competition for Fiction Books!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works:
- AJ Humphreys – Trip a Psychological Horror Novel
- Andrew D.H. Moore – Children of Solo
- Anne Polli – Mason the Magnificent
- McKinley Aspen – Cogitatio Shadows in the Wind Book Two
- Catherine M Mathis – Ines the Queens of Portugal Trilogy
- Charlie Robinson Cover by Ruth Noble – Bow Tie Sex
- Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
- Debbie Black Cover by Kelly Black – Deetjen’s Closet a Quest for Magic
- Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
- Ellis K. Popa – Dawn To Dusk
- Erika Lynn Adams – Allie’s Adventure on the Wonder
- Gary Gabel – The Constitution Kids
- George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
- Glen Dahlgren – The Wrath of Order
- Gregg Brandalise – The Death of Us All
- JL Spears – Daemon Protocol
- Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
- KD Straus – To Be True
- Leslie Liautaud- Butterfly Pinned
- Margaret Porter – Sequins and Starlight
- Maria Giuseppa – R&R a Feast of Words
- Mark A. Gibson – Roses in December
- Michael Bailey – Sweet Hunger
- Michele Sayre – Darke Realms One Tough Temporary She Alpha Arcana 2
- Miki Taylor – Bentley Makes a Dump Cake
- Once Upon a Dance – A Tail of Twirls
- Richard G Nixon – The Legend of Fingerless Will Nixon the Scottish Borderlands 1508-1509
- Sarah V Barnes – She Who Rides Horses a Saga of the Ancient Steppe Book One
- Sarah V. Barnes – A Clan Chief’s Daughter
- Sean Hagerty – Cabal
- Sue C. Dugan – Cat-Atonic
- Sue C. Dugan – Forever Ever Always
- Susan Rogers – Warrior Pose
- Sydney Roubian – Scarecrow Finds a Heart
- Tamar Anolic – The Keepers
- Theresa Janson – Reservations a Samantha Wright Crime Series
- T.O. Paine – The Crisis
- Travis Davis – War on the Porch
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

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

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

Congratulations to our very first Fiction Cover Design Grand Prize Winner!

Luna, Rhone & Stone Book Two

By Strider S.R. Klusman

Click here to see the rest of the 2024 Winners.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 Chanticleer Cover Design Awards for Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! Save the Date for Registration!

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

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!
September 9, 2025
The 2025 Harvey Chute Spotlight for Business & Finance
Mastering Financial Success!

The Harvey Chute Awards for Business & Finance

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, financial literacy and strategic thinking have never been more crucial. From navigating investment complexities to building sustainable business models, professionals and entrepreneurs need reliable guidance to thrive. The Harvey Chute Awards for Business & Finance celebrate the exceptional works that provide this essential knowledge, recognizing authors who translate complex financial concepts into actionable insights that empower readers to take control of their economic futures.

Celebrating Our Grand Prize Winner!

We’re proud to celebrate our 2024 Harvey Chute Division Grand Prize Winner, Jacqui Clarke for her transformative guide Stop Worrying about Money. This comprehensive work goes beyond traditional financial advice to address the psychological and practical aspects of money management. Clarke, described as “Australia’s best-kept money secret,” delivers a holistic approach that helps readers clarify their values, set realistic goals, and build genuine financial security. Her book tackles everything from combating expense creep and avoiding common money traps to overcoming setbacks and mastering long-term planning, all while maintaining an accessible and encouraging tone.

What sets Stop Worrying about Money apart is its emphasis on financial literacy as a journey of self-awareness rather than merely a destination of wealth accumulation. As our review noted, Clarke “blends theoretical financial advice with pragmatic applications, incorporating real-life examples, case studies, and interactive exercises” that transform potentially dry subject matter into engaging and digestible content. The book addresses critical issues from building a trusted “finance village” of advisors to understanding the impact of financial decisions on personal relationships. Clarke will be invited to participate in a Chanticleer Author Interview, offering readers deeper insights into her expertise and approach to financial empowerment.

The Harvey Chute Awards recognize the full spectrum of business and finance literature, encompassing categories from traditional Finance and Investing & Money to contemporary essentials like Social Media, Technology Guides, and Communications. This comprehensive approach reflects the reality that modern business success requires mastery across multiple disciplines, whether you’re developing a Motivational framework, crafting Business Strategy, understanding Economics, or building Marketing expertise.

Explore All Business & Self-Help Divisions

The Harvey Chute Awards are part of Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of transformative non-fiction:
- Mind & Spirit Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment: Spiritual growth, mindfulness, meditation, and personal enlightenment
- I&I Awards for How-To and Self-Help: Practical guides, self-improvement, skill development, and instructional works
The Doctor’s Voice
By Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli

A Harvey Chute First Place Winner!

Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli speaks out on serious professional issues faced by modern healthcare workers, in The Doctor’s Voice.

Doctors deal with overwhelming stress, leading to burnout, illness, many of them leaving the profession, and even a higher-than-average rate of suicide. The Covid19 pandemic both heightened and helped illuminate some of the causes of this stress, prompting author Garbelli to write this book as a set of advice for his colleagues and as advocacy for broader changes in hospitals and other healthcare systems.

Garbelli highlights a common disconnect in communication—administrators and higher-ups telling doctors what to do while those doctors don’t have much opportunity to bring up the problems they encounter day-to-day.

Read More Here

The Money Map
By Kasey J. Claytor

A Mind and Spirit First Place Winner!

“There is something magical about money—the way it appears and disappears, grows and shrinks, and, in a similar way of taming a hesitant wild horse, with calm assuredness and confidence, not only will you learn to control it, but you will find you can joyfully master it.” -Author Kasey J. Claytor

Claytor insists that every successful endeavor starts with an individual’s thinking and beliefs. She details this concept – and how to live with it in mind – in her new book, The Money Map: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success.

From the onset of her business-oriented career, Claytor has drawn from her beliefs as she upholds financial success as a spiritual goal. In this volume, she takes the mystery out of money to show it as an extension of the mind, body, and spirit. Claytor ensures the beginning of an endearing journey toward clearer financial decision-making, investments, and goals by asking readers to identify the worries of their own ego and to eliminate unproductive ideas and actions.

Read More Here

Tax MythBusters
By Lily Tran

Tax MythBusters: Don’t Fall Prey to the Tax Misconceptions, compiled by tax professional Lily Tran with essays by other financial, tax, and accounting professionals, gives valuable insight into the myths of what can and cannot be claimed as a deduction for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

This work provides tips and strategies to optimize tax planning and make the most of available deductions. As the foreword reminds the reader, “Knowledge is power when it comes to taxes,” adding that gaining a better understanding of the tax rules and regulations will allow you to “make smart financial decisions and protect yourself from unnecessary risks.”

The essays that make up this work are short, succinct, and to the point about the pitfalls and challenges that face small business owners, framing these dangers as “myths.”

Read More Here

Reconfigurement
By E. Alan Fleischauer

Chanticleers 2022 Harvey Chute Grand Prize Winner!

A guide to achieving financial freedom in retirement, E. Alan Fleischauer’s bestseller Reconfigurement™ reveals a roadmap guided by the Mantra, “Navigate, Customize, and Thrive.”

Advances in medicine, nutrition, and longevity planning now offer unparalleled possibilities to live longer, higher-quality lives. However, looming over this rosy image is a genuine concern: the financial ramifications of a longer retirement term. More alarming is that a sizable portion of the American populace is not harnessing their 401(k) retirement plans.

In light of this scenario, can traditional investment programs with fraying safety nets, such as pensions, remain viable? Reconfigurement combines the emotional fulfillment of making retirement dreams a reality with practical guidance that rejects the notion of a set retirement age of 65. This work’s personal tales and sound financial guidance entice readers away from the constraints of traditional retirement approaches.

Read More Here

These reviews represent just a glimpse of the strategic insights and practical wisdom waiting to be discovered in today’s business and finance literature.

See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!

We’re excited about all the exceptional business and finance works we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Harvey Chute Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous outstanding titles as they advanced through our competition tiers. In a market flooded with millions of books, professional recognition cuts through the noise. The CIBAs provide ongoing promotion that maximizes your digital footprint and expands your readership through:
- High-traffic website features
- Social media promotion across established platforms
- Newsletter spotlights like this reaching thousands of industry professionals
- Long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each advancement tier is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter! Your book deserves to be discovered.

You wouldn’t hide a business! Don’t hide your book!

The business and finance market continues to demand fresh perspectives and proven strategies, with professionals, entrepreneurs, and individuals seeking guidance they can trust and implement. Whether your work provides innovative investment strategies, practical business solutions, cutting-edge technology insights, or foundational financial education, the Harvey Chute Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your expertise deserves.

Business and finance literature has the unique power to transform lives, build wealth, and create sustainable success. From comprehensive guides that help readers master complex financial concepts to targeted strategies that solve specific business challenges, every expertly crafted work has the potential to become an essential resource. Don’t let your knowledge remain untapped! Enter the Harvey Chute Awards today and join the distinguished authors who’ve found their professional audience through Chanticleer!

Submit to the Harvey Chute Awards today! Deadline: September 30th

You know you want it…
September 8, 2025
The 2025 Global Thriller Awards Long List for High Stakes Suspense!
The Global Thriller Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of High Stakes Thriller and Lab Lit Fiction. The Global Thriller Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring suspense, thrilling stories that put the balance of world power or that will end the world as we know it. We include with Global Thrillers the Lab Lit genre. Lab Lit is when Fiction Meets Real Science and Research or stories that are based on real science and research up to a certain “what if” point.

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 GLOBAL THRILLER High Stakes Thriller Fiction entries to the 2025 Global Thriller Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 Global Thriller Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Global Thriller Book Awards novel competition for High Stakes Thriller Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Alexandra Pugachevsky – I Rodion
- Angela Greenman – The Child Riddler
- Anne Louise Girodet – Plan A
- Avanti Centrae – The Picasso Job a Phoenix Thriller
- Brad M Meslin – The Moldavian Gambit
- C.W. James – Mission Red Scythe a James Vagus Teen Espionage Thriller
- Dave Mckeon – Sabotage
- David R Leng – Echoes of Fortune the Search for Braddock’s Lost Gold
- Dheepa R. Maturi – 108 an Eco-Thriller
- Ellis K. Popa – Dawn To Dusk
- Ernesto H Lee – Action This Day
- Gerard Shirar – The China Paradox
- J.L. Spears – Daemon Protocol
- James Alan Mcgettigan – The Altered Moon Dust Cosmos Book 1 the Second Edition
- JH Gruger – Gravity of Sol-3
- Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
- Kevin Hwang – The Regression Strain
- Kevin Miller – High End
- L.M. Weeks – Bottled Lightning
- M. E. Schuman – The Catalyst
- M. E. Schuman – Where the Sleeping Lady Lies
- Michael Maloof – Relentless
- Nick Hoy – Hollow Men
- Ralph R. Rick Steinke – Vital Mission a Jake Fortina Series Love Story
- Randall Krzak – Mission Yemen Xavier Sear Thriller Book 2
- RK Jack – Devourer From Beyond
- Stephanie Bretherton – The Fire in Their Eyes
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Warrior Pose
- T. D. Severin – Deadly Vision
- T.O. Paine – The Crisis
- Thomas Lapham – Beyond the Signal
- Thomas M. Wing – Against All Enemies
- Tom Dolan – Boba Wars Zero
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

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

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

Congratulations once more to the 2024 Global Thriller Grand Prize Winner

A Blanket of Steel

By Timothy S. Johnston

Click here to see the full list of 2024 Global Thriller Book Award Winners for High Stakes Thriller Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 GLOBAL THRILLER Book Awards for High Stakes Thriller Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! Save the Date for Registration!

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

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!
September 4, 2025
The 2025 M&M Mystery and Mayhem Long List for Cozy and Not-so-Cozy Mysteries!
The Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Light-Hearted and Cozy Mysteries. The M&M Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring “mystery and mayhem,” amateur sleuthing, light suspense, travel mystery, classic mystery, British cozy, hobby sleuths, senior sleuths, or historical mystery, perhaps with a touch of romance or humor. We will put them to the test and choose the best among them. (For suspense, thriller, detective, crime fiction see our Clue Awards.)

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 M&M entries to the 2025 M&M Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 M&M Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards novel competition for Cozy Mysteries!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- Beth Riner – Odd Job Annie
- Bill Cusano – The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club the Ghost and the Key
- BL Smith – The Unpleasantness on Orchard
- B.T. Polcari – Lucky Secrets
- C.B. Wilson – Puppied To Death
- Carolyn Summer Quinn – The Mystery From Way Back When
- Charlotte Stuart – In$urance Blues: A John Smith Mystery Book 3
- Christine Knapp – Murder at First Light
- Christine Knapp – Murder on the Green
- Connie Berry – A Collection of Lies
- Connie Berry – A Grave Deception
- D. J. Adamson – Cookin Up Murder
- D. J. Adamson – Without a Doubt
- D. W. Thompson – The Mystery at Love’s Manor
- Diane Weiner – The Deadly Reveal
- Elizabeth Crowens – Round Up the Unusual Suspects
- Ellis Elliott – A Witch Awakens a Fire Circle Mystery
- George Petersen – The Summer of Haight
- Jane Bitomsky – An Inquest of Eels
- John W. Feist – Ship of Perils
- Jolie Tunnell – Shadows in Chinatown
- Joy Ann Ribar – Shake-Speared in the Park
- Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
- Kate Damon – Jury Duty Is Murder
- Kathleen Donnelly – Killer Secrets
- Kathleen Kaska – Murder at the Faust
- Kathryn Gauci- Murder in the Garden of Enchantment: The Constantinople Diaries a Madame Theodosia Mystery
- Kathryn Lane – Murder in Monte Carlo
- KD Straus – To Be True
- Keith Steinbaum – You Say Goodbye
- L. J. Aldon – Riddle of the Jeweled Cipher
- Laurel Martin – Her Last Few Days
- Laurel Martin – The Lowlands a Missing Couple a Family Desperate To Find Them
- Leta Serafim – The Nameless Dead
- Lisa M. Lane – Bummer at Luna Beach
- Louisa West – Baby Got Ghost
- Lyn Squire – Fatally Inferior
- Lynn Slaughter – Missing Mom
- M. K. Dean – A Nose for Death
- M. S. Spencer – Railroad Ties the Marmion Grove Murders
- Maggie Parks – Knocked Off in Nederland
- Marshall Highet and Bird Jones – The Washashore
- Mary Seifert – Airplanes, Atlanta & an Assassin
- Mary Seifert – Juleps, Jockeys & Justice
- MJ Mac – Betrayed on the Promenade
- ML Barrs – Parallel Secrets
- Patrick E. Craig – 3 X 3
- Peter Gooch – Seren
- Sandy Zelka – Blood Red Poppy
- Shannon Bennett Riester – The Lottery Aspect
- Sharon Lynn – The Romantic
- The Sisters Spurlock – The Faceless Ghost
- TJ Stecker – Redacted
- Tracy Carter – Sick As a Dog
- Virginia Ann – The Potter’s Final Piece: A Pooka Women’s Club Mystery
- Wanda Brunstetter and Martha Bolton – The Rise and Fall of Miss Fannie’s Biscuits
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.

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

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

Congratulations once more to the 2024 M&M Grand Prize Winner

If Two Are Dead

By Jeanne Matthews

Click here to see the full list of 2024 M&M Book Award Winners for Cozy Mysteries.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 M&M Book Awards for Suspense and Thriller Mysteries.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! Save the Date for Registration!

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

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!
September 4, 2025
The 2025 Clue Long List for Suspense/Thriller
The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Suspense and Thriller Mysteries. The Clue Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring suspense, thrilling adventure, detective work, private eye, police procedural, and crime-solving, we will put them to the test to discover the best! (For lighter-hearted Mystery and Classic Cozy Mysteries please check out our Mystery & Mayhem Awards, and for High Stakes Suspense Novels please check out our Global Thriller Awards).

These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 CLUE entries to the 2025 Clue Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 Clue Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalists positions. FINALISTS will be chosen from the Semi-Finalists and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference, CAC26.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Clue Book Awards novel competition for Suspense and Thriller!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
- A.J. Mccarthy – The Boy on the Dock
- Aja Holland – Casco Bay
- Ana Manwaring – Kickback
- Angela Greenman – The Child Riddler
- Arthur Coburn – Murder in Concrete
- Ashley Thomas Sheikh – Kentucky Blood: Book I of the Kentucky Blood Series
- Avanti Centrae – The Picasso Job: A Phoenix Thriller
- Becky Anyanwu – Mind the Blinds
- Bill Bennett – Swimming with Manatees
- Brandon Lawniczak – Home Envy
- Brian Cuban – The Body Brokers
- Carlo J. Emanuele – The Sins We Inherit
- Carolyn Summer Quinn – Fate Can Toss a Boomerang
- Cathi Stoler – No Good Time: A Nick Donahue Adventure
- Charlotte Stuart – Unicorns Can Be Deadly a Discount Detective Mystery 5
- Cheryl Campbell – Bodies in the Bayou
- Chris Chan – Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History
- Chuck Morgan – Preserve Protect and Defend
- Dan Ramm – Long Branch: Never Let the Truth Stand in the Way of a Good Story
- Danielle M. Wong – Tiny Wild Things
- David Tenenbaum – Premonition
- Diana Louise Webb – Last of the Autumn Rain
- Dwight Holing – The Thunder Head
- E. Alan Fleischauer – The Dark and Evil Sky
- Ellis K. Popa – Awaken the Dawn
- Ephrem Paredes – Pasadena Confidential
- Eric Magun – Thank God for the Sinners
- Francesco Paola – Left on Rancho
- Frank J. Edwards – Doctor Witch
- Holly Harrison – Death in the Land of Enchantment
- Italia Tornabene – Femme Fatale: Shades of Retribution
- Jack Luellen – Someone Had to Lie
- Jeannée Sacken – The Women Who Stand Between
- Jl Spears – Daemon Protocol
- Joe Salerno – The Decision
- Julie Lomax – A Pawn’s Game
- Kathleen Troy – Never Believe a Lie Twice
- Kd Sherrinford – The Whistle of Revenge
- Kevin Hwang – The Regression Strain
- Kit Karson – Savage Malice
- Larry Weindruch and Richard A. Yach – Nicky V: A Chicago Crime Story
- Leslie Liautaud – Butterfly Pinned
- Lew Paper – Legacy of Lies
- Marian Exall – Loners
- Matthew John Parker – The Lost Last Prophecy
- Melanie Anagnos – Nightswimming: A Jamie Palmieri Mystery
- Michael Wendroff – What Goes Around
- Mike Van Horn – The Ivy Leaguers
- Miriam Verbeek – The Bank
- Nannette Potter – Deception’s Edge
- Otho Eskin – Black Sun Rising
- Paty Jager – Crapshoot
- Paty Jager – Wolverine Instincts
- Paul Levine – Midnight Burning
- Phillip Vega – Death in Utopia
- Sarah P. Blanchard – Grabtown
- Sean Hagerty – Cabal
- Sharon Lynn – Dark Web Gaslight
- Sheila Sharpe – Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief
- Stephen G. Eoannou – After Pearl
- Stephen J Wallace – Hazardous Lies
- Susan Rogers and John Roosen – Warrior Pose
- T.O. Paine – The Crisis
- Tamar Anolic – This Side of the Law
- Theresa Janson – Reservations: A Samantha Wright Crime Series
- TJ Stecker – Redacted
- William Forester – The Secret Book
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us.

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

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

Congratulations once more to the 2024 Clue Grand Prize Winner

Enemies Domestic

By John DeDakis

Click here to see the full list of 2024 Clue Book Award Winners for Suspense and Thriller Mysteries.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2026 Clue Book Awards for Suspense and Thriller Mysteries.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2025 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2026 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 17 – 19, 2026! Save the Date for Registration!

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

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!
September 2, 2025
The 2025 Gertrude Warner Hall of Fame for Middle Grade Fiction

Know a kid looking for that Middle Grade winner?

Everyone likes a good book, and kids are no different.

The Gertrude Warner Awards celebrate Middle Grade Fiction, which means books aimed for kids of ages 8-13. This isn’t our only Division aimed for younger readers! For Young Adult (14-18), see Dante Rossetti, and for Children’s see Little Peeps.

Lets take a look at and celebrate the Past Grand Prize Winners of the Gertrude Warner Awards for Middle Grade Fiction!

Back to Bainbridge
By Norah Lally

Our review of the newest Gertrude Warner Grand Prize Winner is still upcoming. In the meantime, here is what GoodReads readers have been saying:

“From the opening moments, this book grabs your attention and does not let go!

Vicki’s family suddenly faces eviction after her single mother is unable to pay the bills. The story opens as she, her mom, and her two younger siblings scramble out of the house, on the sheriff’s orders, lost with nowhere to go. We slowly learn more about Vicki’s character and past- her father had left the, six years earlier and her mother struggled ever since. Vicki is a determined, fierce, but confused young lady. Full of energy and personality, but lacking direction. This coming of age novel takes us on her journey of self-discovery. Its personal, touching, and heartfelt.

But the lessons of this book aren’t solely for teens. Its a story about family and love, and its morals apply to all ages. Everyone, regardless of age group, should read this book at least once.” -Phin

“Back to Bainbridge was a delight to read from the breezy beginning to the satisfying and endearing end. Told in the first person, the reader is immediately intrigued by fourteen-year-old Vicki’s voice: leery, weary, and wise beyond her years, or so she thinks. Vicki’s impatience with her single mother and two younger siblings is in full throttle when their family has to move (yet again!) and this time she’ll be forced to share a room with a needy 10-year-old brother and a sarcastic 12-year-old sister.” -M.C.

“Excellent, unique coming of age story set in the vibrant environment of the Bronx, NY. The story includes many interesting, diverse characters and vivid depictions of the city that really bring the whole scene to life. The prose is well-written and engaging — youth and adults alike should enjoy this book!” -R.

Buy it here!

EXOSTAR
By Rae Knightly

A piece-of-scrap. That’s how the townsfolk on Trinket’s planet label her. The twelve-year-old is determined to prove that she’s more than just a discarded android, but her prosthetic leg and blue veins in her hands make her wonder about her true identity. Trinket knows that she must get off-world before the cruel and powerful Remnants send her to the scrap yard, but things take a turn for the worse when the Remnant Supreme Leader discovers her existence.

Trinket could be the key to a lost spaceship that is rumored to hold the greatest hoard of gems in the galaxy, and the Supreme Leader wants it. As the alien civilizations of the Magnus Star Cluster wake up to the possibility that the legendary treasure exists, a frantic hunt for the lost spaceship – and its key – pits Trinket against an enemy that will stop at nothing to get what they want.

To uncover the truth about her identity, Trinket must confront the evil Supreme Leader or get to the treasure first. But what if the truth is too shocking to bear?

Award-winning author Rae Knightly presents EXOSTAR, Book 1 in The Lost Space Treasure Series, which thrusts a young girl into a universe full of alien civilizations and an epic hunt to uncover the greatest treasure of all. This witty upper middle-grade science fiction story with a cast of unforgettable characters is perfect for the space explorers of tomorrow and fans of Alita, The Prometheus Project, Hana Hsu, and Dragon Pearl. Ideal for readers aged 10+.

Find it here!

Mystery Force: Volume 1
By Ted Neill and Suzi Spooner

Set in a world where magical talking creatures are a normal part of society, the Mystery Force series by Ted Neill is a must-read for any animal-loving kid.

Book One, Mystery Force, Assemble!, begins with warehouses of previously unheard-of magical creatures being discovered and freed. Out of fear, these new creatures continue to hide, and a group of curious kids – Rasheed, Jonathan, and Jojo – decide to get to the bottom of the mystery!

In book two, The Case of the Stolen Horn, Rasheed, Jonathan, and Jojo are on the case after their unicorn drama teacher, Mr. Twinkles, is attacked, with their pegasus geometry teacher Ms. Weymont being arrested for the crime. The Mystery Force kids are determined to clear Ms. Weymont’s name by finding the real culprit.

Read More Here

Fishing For Luck
By Murray Richter

During the pre-internet era of 1980, Kevin and his friends just want to enjoy a good fishing adventure, but troubles from the past come back to complicate their carefree boyhood in Murray Richter’s novel, Fishing for Luck.

As the group prepares their fishing raft for its maiden voyage, Kevin tries to solve these problems himself before anyone else knows of them, but no matter what he tries, the situation only gets worse. His parents seem on the verge of a divorce, his mentor struggles to find his long-lost love, and his sister just wants her bike back already. As Kevin takes on more and more responsibility to avoid what seem to be inevitable consequences, will he be able to see that this is all too much for one kid to handle and ask those he trusts for help?

Fishing For Luck is a wild ride of pre-teen hijinks reminiscent of the golden age of coming-of-age comedies and sitcoms we all know and love. Our young main character gets into a situation where everything goes wrong, and scrambles to fix it before anyone notices. Kevin’s predicament becomes engrossing with an extra dose of danger.

Read More Here

Kassy O’Roarke Cub Reporter
By Kelly Oliver

In this first installment from the new Kassy O’Roarke Pet Detective Series, award-winning author Kelly Oliver delivers a fun and engaging kid-friendly literary experience. Here is a story intended for middle-graders, Cub Reporter proves a quality blend of adventure and mystery involving a smart, inquisitive 12-year old with aspirations of becoming a spy.

As a reporter for her school paper, Kassy’s hoping to nab a front-page scoop and win the honorable Thompson Award for Journalism. Unfortunately, help from her pesky, but the well-intentioned younger brother, sets in motion a roller coaster of calamities she never expected. From animal-nappings and a mixed-bag of clues to car chases and rescues from entrapment, ultimately the constant reinforcement from family, friends, and a menagerie of furry companions bring positive lessons to the forefront of this likable tale.

Amidst popular classics like Emil and the Detectives and the resurgence of the Nancy Drew mysteries, Oliver has hit the mark with this bright and entertaining series opener. Though geared toward a younger audience, readers of all ages can look forward to more investigative capers on the horizon featuring the creative escapades of Kassy and company. Highly recommended!

Read More 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 Chatelaine Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

Enter Here!

August 29, 2025