The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Romance and Women’s Fiction. The Chatelaine Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best new books featuring romantic themes and adventures of the heart, historical love affairs, perhaps a little steamy romance, and stories that appeal especially to fans of affairs of the heart to compete in the Chatelaine Book Awards (the CIBAs). We will put them to the test and choose the best among them.
These titles have moved forward in the first look rounds from all 2025 CHATELAINE entries to the 2025 Chatelaine Book Awards LONG LIST. These entries are now in competition for the 2025 Chatelaine 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 2026Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Chatelaine Book Awards novel competition for Romance and Women’s Fiction!
Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works!
Allison G. Smith – New Tenant
Amanda Nelson & Lisa-Marie Potter – Just What the Doctor Hired
Ann Dunbar – Áine’s Salvation
Anne M. Beggs – By Arrow and Sword: Book Two Dahlquin Series
Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One: Take 4 Slating Magic Hour
Charlene Tess & Judi Thompson – Angel’s Heart
Crystal Charlotte Cc Lane – Kevin and Katherine in the Next Lifetime
Crystal Charlotte Cc Lane – Shilpa’s Blue Crayon
D.J. Pratt – Prima Nocta: A Mystical Quest for Love
E.L. Deards – The Lavender Blade
Elizabeth Conte – Chosen Mistress
Emily A. Myers – You Can Feel It in the Silence
Eve M Riley – The Escape
Eve M Riley – The Game
Hanna Park – The Scald Crow
Jerry Madden – Steel Valley: Coming of Age in the Ohio Valley in the 1960s a Love Story
Jourdana Webber – Unconventionally Elle
Kathleen Brehony – The Third Act
Kim Gottlieb-Walker – Lenswoman in Love
Kinsey Wiseman – The Election
Lizzie Jenks – Devil in Our Hearts
Louisa West – Gwen Lee and the Trident of Poseidon
Patrick E. Craig – When the Hummingbirds Danced in the Honeysuckle Sky
Rhone Atleshen – Gaslight
S.E. Beathan – Nothing Lost
S.E. Reichert – No Words After I Love You
S.G. Blaise – Eldryan Elders
Sharon Shipley – December and Mae
Shawn Hays and Stephen Hays – What Light Was
Sue C. Dugan – Forever Ever Always
Susan Bagby – Sweet Ridge Hearts
Susan W. Green – Crystal Lake Christmas
Tammy Mannersly – A Garland at Bitterbark Creek
Tasha Zima – The Making of a Storm
Tatiana Mcclintock – Boyband Love Escapades
Tina Sloan – Chasing Czars
Tori Ross – Baked and Burned
Wanda Penalver Bevan – The Rains of Wishton
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
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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.
Only 5 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success.
The Chanticleer International Book Awards provide ongoing recognition that amplifies authors’ digital footprints through high-traffic website features, social media promotion, newsletter spotlights, and long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year and beyond!
SEA Shorts now covers Short Stories, Essays and Novellas together, and Collections and Anthologies is for exactly that, Multi-Story Collections and Multi-Author Anthologies!
Roderick S. Haynes – Unauthorized Disclosures a Navy Memoir of the 1980s
David Huntley – The B-17 Tomahawk Warrior: a WWII Final Honor
Patrick Hogan – Coincidence, You Say?
Shari Biery – It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
Max Lauker & Antonio Garcia – Number 788: My Experiences in Swedish Special Operations – Preparing for NATO and the War on Terror
Bibi LeBlanc – Wings of Freedom – The Story of the Berlin Airlift | Flugel der Freiheit – Die Geschichte der Berliner Luftbrucke
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Military and Front Line Grand Prize Winner:
Memoirs From The Front Lines
Four States, Two Years, One Pandemic
By Kim Sloan
The CIBAs provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.
We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.
Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 17-19, 2025) where Winners from all 28 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.
In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.
Only 10 days left to submit your books to these CIBA Divisions and embark on a journey to discovery.
The Chanticleer International Book Awards provide ongoing recognition that amplifies authors’ digital footprints through high-traffic website features, social media promotion, newsletter spotlights, and long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year and beyond!
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Chatelaine Awards for Romantic Fiction!
Reenita M. Hora – Vermilion Harvest – Playtime at the Bagh
John W. Feist – Edged in Purple
Gail Noble-Sanderson – A Cup of Revenge
Nancy Herkness – Royal Caleva: Luis
George T. Arnold – The Heart Beneath the Badge
Sonja N. Griffing – Chasing Noelle
Deborah Swenson – Till My Last Day, Book Two in the Desert Hills Trilogy
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Chatelaine Grand Prize Winner:
The Key
By Jo Morgan Sloan
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Humor and Satire Awards for Satirical and Allegorical Fiction!
Bill Burkland –The Misconceived Conception of a Baby Named Jesus
Julie L. Brown –No One Will Save Us: A novel
Dan Kopcow –Madcap Serenade
Marco Ocram –The Awful Truth About The Name Of The Rose
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Humor and Satire Grand Prize Winner:
The Man Who Saw Seconds
By Alexander Boldizar
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Somerset Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!
Robert Gwaltney –Sing Down the Moon
Ann Bancroft –Almost Family
Christina Boyd –Woman in the Painting
Kay Smith-Blum –Tangles
Anthony Horton –Unpaved
Erika Shepard –Abomination Child
Leslie DeBrock –The Frog-Eyed Gospel, A Texas Exodus
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Somerset and Overall Grand Prize Winner:
Vermilion Harvest- Playtime at the Bagh
By Reenita Malhotra Hora
The CIBAs provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.
We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this step in their publishing.
Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 17-19, 2025) where Winners from all 28 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.
In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.
When the world is upended by war, the important pieces of your life fall around you, victims of a swirling wind. This is the story of Of White Ashes by Constance Hays Matsumoto & Kent Matsumoto.
Just as radioactive ashes smothered Hiroshima after the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on Japan in August 1945, the unimaginable effects of war press down on Ruby and Koji, two kids on opposite sides of the Pacific.
Ashes caught in swirling wind become a metaphor for the romantic story of these two children. Their mirrored journeys reveal layers of their identities they never knew existed, while the demands of their warring countries reshape their lives.
Grounded in historical accuracy and part love story,Of White Ashes begins in 1939 with Ruby and Koji both living happily, Ruby in a beachfront Hawaiian town and Koji on his family’s farm near Hiroshima. Both will have their carefree childhoods taken from them after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Ruby and Koji share Japanese heritage and American citizenship, but far divergent attitudes to both.
Ruby is an all-American girl, only vaguely aware of her heritage, largely from Japanese-American community. Koji, in contrast, only finds out about his American citizenship when he discovers his parents’ secret history of living several years in the U.S. All the while, Japan, the country he calls home, plunges headlong into the war.
Ruby is ripped from her peaceful life, first by her mother’s sudden death and her father’s quick remarriage, then by forced incarceration due to the United States’ Executive Order 9066.
Made a prisoner because of her race, Ruby grows embittered about her government’s willingness to persecute rather than protect all U.S. citizens because of its entrenched racism. Her fight is both philosophical and personal, and becomes more extreme when she is told by her father that she must emigrate with him back to Japan after the war. As a child she is powerless to make her own decisions.
Koji, on the other hand, is curious and fascinated about his American heritage even though he must act like the standard-issue, politically faithful child expected by Japanese government and society.
He sees his government’s harsh demands for people to scrimp for the war effort, taking every scrap of metal in their households for weaponry, and forcing children to leave school to make rifles in factories. Once the war ends, he manages to immigrate to the U.S. where he learns to speak English, goes to college, and even volunteers to serve in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Despite the horrors of World War II, and his early life in Japan, he emerges as a proud U.S. citizen.
Constance Hays Matsumoto and Kent Matsumoto’s Of White Ashes develops a beautifully complex love story through Ruby and Koji dealing with their deeply held differences.
Their diametrically opposed philosophical stances cause years of heartache and stress after they meet and fall for one another. There is no easy path to pave over their conflicts no matter how many years have passed. However, as they couple, uncouple, and finally find a lasting path together, their story becomes a warm, relatable search for the goodness deep within themselves and each other that makes being together possible.
Inspired by a true story, Catherine Mathis’s incredible novel, Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy, follows the forbidden love of Ines de Castro and Infante Pedro, and their indelible connection to one another even after a most tragic death.
Alfonso, the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne in Chao da Feira Palace in Santarem, nearly loses his crown to his stepbrother. Goncalves, a courtier, rescues the situation, earning him the king’s undying loyalty. Alfonso puts his son Pedro under Goncalve’s care to learn the moral code and values of the royal court. As the heir to the Portuguese throne and an only child, his father arranges a royal union for him with Infanta Constanza, a Castilian noblewoman.
Love, however, does not conform to alliances or compromise. The arrival of 15-year-old Ines de Castro of Castile in 1339, a lady-in-waiting to Infanta Constanza, creates a precarious rift between a father and his son. Pedro falls madly in love with Ines despite being already married to Constanza. He begins an affair that displeases the king and fuels palace gossip among the nobles. Fearing for the independence of his nation and possible revolts, King Alfonso is forced to take drastic measures that fan power struggles, betrayal, dishonor, and even death.
Catherine Mathis takes a blazingly smart and deep dive into an era of history that still resonates today.
With rich, robust, and evenly matched characters, she offers a historically accurate plot that is voyeuristic in all the right ways. Being fictionalized, in part, there is a lot to relish in the author’s creative craft, such as the introduction of minor characters who propel the plot into a sweeping conclusion. Plunging readers into the royal heart of a love story that has shaped history, Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogy is sublimely sensual with a captivating sense of charm.
Although it has a well-trodden conflict alongside it, this romance between a royal heir and a lady-in-waiting will gratify readers. Mathis excels through an abundance of tense and evocative dialogue, balancing it with the right amount of lively banter. The result is a tour de force that is surefooted and rich in human emotion.
The book’s details are brilliant and perceptible, whether they are used to describe the culture, sounds, attitudes, or smells of 14th-century Portugal.
The text’s most imperative scenes, within the palace walls, exude the intrigues of an institution that influences every sphere of society.
Inês: The Queens of Portugal Trilogyis a compact tale of love, loss, vengeance, and justice, delivering a swift kick to the heart. Exquisitely researched and told at a rapid pace, Mathis’s debut offering is a sweep of grace and virtuosity in its genre.
It is a truth Universally acknowledged that a Reader in search of a book, must be in want of a good Romance.
Other Divisions may have categories for Romantic themes, but if you want purely Romance, look no further! Historical to Modern, Steamy to Clean, even throw in some adventure, We’ve got it all!
Join us in celebrating These recent Grand Prize Winners of the Chatelaine Award!
The Key
By Jo Morgan Sloan
Our Review of the newest Grand Prize Winner is still upcoming. In the meantime, here is what some Goodreads readers have been saying:
“It’s an adorable read that had me feeling like this: 🥰🥰🥰 basically from the moment I read the dedication until I got to the end (though there were a couple dark moments), and I loved the queer rep, from the members of the DnD group to Tabby and Jax themselves.
I really liked that Tabby’s experience as a trans man was mostly positive. He’s happy with who he is and reading about his feelings brought me a lot of joy. His anxiety over whether or not to tell Jax the truth was so real, I felt it too. And the way Jax feels about his friendship with Tabby is so sweet… ahhhh! The writing just sucked me in and made it so easy to feel all the feels.
Tabby’s relationship with Rob, who is also a trans man, was very interesting. It made me consider some possible advantages and challenges in trans relationships that I never thought about before, and of course it’s great when books give us something new to think about.” – El
“Amazing. This book was described to me as “the gayest book I’ve ever read” and I could not agree more. Right from the start, Sloan’s writing drew me in. With a surprising depth of maturity in their writing for a debut author I quickly found myself swept away. Tabby and Jax stole my heart and keep my giggling and kicking my feet along the way. A truly binge-worthy holiday romance.” -Mandie
“What happens when you and your first love separate on good terms due to distance and you take that chance to become the real version of yourself? And then what happens if years later you really get that second chance? The Key is a beautiful second chance, trans romance with a lot of nerdy flare. Jaxon and Tabby are beautifully complex and well-rounded characters who made me want nothing more than to see them get their happily ever after. The complexities of young love, the incredible vastness and scope of the trans journey and what it means to different people, being bisexual but straight passing, each character brings something new and unique and heart breaking to the story that just made the story that much more touching. Fun read, beautiful story.” -Samantha
In this rich, absorbing tale, Gail Avery Halverson continues the remarkable saga of Lady Catherine Abbott and Simon McKensie that began with the multiple award-winning novels, The Boundary Stone and The Skeptical Physick. Sweeping us from a quaint village in England to Colonial Boston and to the beautiful evils of 17th century Barbados, Gail Avery Halverson has once again written a truly compelling and unforgettable novel.
After a heartbreaking tragedy, Catherine yearns for the safety and familiarity England, but when a free, black woman attempts to accomplish the unthinkable, Catherine is forced to decide where her future lies.
When a daring investment in the lucrative 17th century Barbados sugar trade takes a horrifying turn, Simon must at last set his dedication for medicine and scientific discovery aside and face the true ugliness of slavery.
Joining the multitude of courageous souls in the first waves of the Great Migration from England to America, Simon and Catherine McKensie lay witness to the forging of a new country, the first seeds of violent rebellion against the Crown, and the bitter tentacles of a slave trade just beginning to take root.
Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man By Reenita Malhotra Hora
Master storyteller Reenita Malhotra Hora’s YA romance Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man takes us on a charming journey through the life of one teen, Ila Isham.
Hora introduces Ila and her best friend Deepali, two boy-crazy teens on a summer quest. Readers will fall in love with the smart, sassy, angst-filled, rebellious Ila. A typical teenage girl, Ila lives in Mumbai with her mom and Sakkubai, their house manager. Ila’s mother calls her obsessed, but that seems unfair. Is she obsessed just because her every waking minute is spent thinking of Ali Zafar, famous pop icon, singer, and heartthrob? Or is she obsessed with fellow classmate Dev?
No, Ila couldn’t be taken with Dev because he’s one of three young men that her best friend Deepali is juggling in her summer experiment of exploring her “feminine mystique.” This turn of phrase becomes just one of many opportunities for Hora’s humor to shine as Ila remarks, “That’s a book by Gloria Steinem . . . no Betty Friedan.” Deepali’s response? “Yaar. Don’t be so literal.” The delightful balance between Ila’s book smarts versus Deepali’s street smarts carries us through Hora’s expertly crafted story.
Alex Sirotkin’s debut novel, The Long Desert Road, navigates the emotional arcs of life in contrast with the greater expanse of the cosmos. Here a young woman must face her addictions while the people around her try to move beyond her backlash.
We meet Henry Spinoza, a 44-year-old quirky science writer. He ponders his life as half over, looks for the right woman, and wonders if there isn’t more to existence.
For twenty years, Henry, a science writer, has been researching a non-fiction book on the universe that he intends to write. Henry’s feeling “bored, boring, and budget-conscious…the trifecta of gloom,” as he puts it. But in the middle of this ennui, his sister-in-law invites him to dinner, along with her divorced friend, Isabel Dalton, an attorney, and “the setup is afoot.”
In When the Wind Chimes by international best-selling author Mary Ting, Kate Summers wants to make this Christmas extra-special for her older sister, Abby, and four-year-old nephew.
A year ago, she’d given up Christmas with her family to spend the holiday with her boyfriend, Jayden, whom she had caught cheating on her the next day. Not only is she hoping to erase that memory, but she also has another even more important reason to make this Christmas special. A few months after her disastrous break-up with Jayden, her brother-in-law, Steve, passed away from cancer, so Abby and Tyler will be spending their first Christmas alone.
After taking a leave from her job as a graphic designer in LA, Kate flies to Poipu, Kauai, determined to make this an amazing holiday, but on her way to her sister’s house, she meets a mysterious man, who gives up his cab for her. Kate can’t get the handsome stranger out of her head, and when she sees him again in her sister’s art gallery–and destroys his expensive shirt with paint–she is both mortified and excited.
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!
The Chatelaine Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Romantic Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Jo Morgan Sloan’s book, The Key will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Chatelaine 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!
In a politically tense Amritsar, India, Aruna, an Anglo-Indian schoolteacher, and Ayaz, a feisty Muslim law student, fall in love only to discover that courting openly is easier said than done. Not only are they from different communities, but his political activism during the tumultuous year of 1919 comes at the cost of their romance.
Against the deadline of a military order, Aruna, who is only nineteen, must find her lover and warn him about Colonel Dyer’s impending attack on Jallianwala Bagh. An attack that is eventually heard around the world.
Playtime at the Bagh during Baishakhi is a metaphor for Colonel Dyer’s rain of bullets released upon thousands on the one fateful day of April 13th, 1919.
Love, hate, denial, and betrayal are wrapped inside a single love story capturing today’s hope with yesterday’s despair.
Heir to a crumbling Bronze Age kingdom, where power and conquest define a man’s worth, a young man struggles to forge his own path against the grim destiny scripted for him. A girl born in jail, but raised in a world where tranquility and duty reign, hesitates to abandon her sheltered life for a future filled with uncertainty.
Bound by expectations they did not choose, these two unlikely lovers—drawn from the pages of ancient myth and timeless drama—dare to challenge the fate assigned to them. Together, they must navigate the perilous world of royal ambition, rigid hierarchies, and a collapsing empire that leaves no room for rebellion.
Their journey into second chances is a daring dance between love and duty, fate and free will, survival and sacrifice. To be together, they must confront the full force of tradition and power—and decide whether love alone is enough to change the story history demands they follow.
From Chanticleer:
Edged in Purpleby John W. Feist welcomes readers to a place outside of time and space, a liminal space where characters of myth wait to return to their fated stories.
The Fold is a beautiful land, a near-utopia shepherded– literally– by Thetis and Peleus of Greek mythology. They raise the heroine of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Perdita, after her father had accused her mother of betraying him with another, the whole sad story a product of his own paranoia.
Perdita’s story is proceeding as it was written. She has already met Florizel, the man who should be the hero of her romance– when her story is intersected by another. Just as The Winter’s Tale features royal courts, doomed relationships, mistaken identities, and family murder, so too does an ancient Greek drama: the Oresteia of Aeschylus, the story of Agamemnon after the Trojan War.
Orestes, the hero of that ancient tale, joins Perdita in the fold, pulling both of them from the paved road of fate.
Swansea Station – 1947 The war is over, and with hopes of reconstruction beginning, rationing ending, and lives starting over, Drew awaits the decision regarding a new position with the railway. But mystery and mayhem arrive aboard an afternoon train carrying the new vicar, Liam O’Neill, and a cadre of visitors from Ireland. Drew’s attention is once again focused on unraveling the threads of revenge and solving another murder. The unfolding of an unexpected relationship with the young vicar proves another mystery for Drew to unravel. This is the second book in the award-winning Drew Davies Railway Mystery Series.
A second chance romance, Cinderella story…but for the king, not the prince.
Luis, king of the exotic island country of Caleva, is stunned to discover that he has a daughter he never knew existed. He is determined to bring his newfound child into his life and that of the royal family. To do that, he knows he must win over her adoptive mother.
Eve, single-mom vet tech in the heartland of Iowa, is concerned when a mysterious stranger sets up a secret meeting. The shocking truth that is revealed upends her life, as she and her adopted daughter are swept off to Caleva and wrapped in the luxurious, privileged world of royalty.
But there’s an unexpected complication: passion flares between Eve and Luis.
She isn’t queen material, and he has sworn never to wed again, so their affair can have no happily-ever-after…or can it?
If you were rooting for Queen Clarisse to find her true love in The Princess Diaries, you’ll love Eve and Luis’s story. Read Royal Caleva: Luis to feel all the feels of two single parents trying to protect their shared daughter, while struggling to find their own happiness with each other.
When Sheriff Heath Royal seeks relief for his tormented conscience by attending church services for the first time since his youth, he is beckoned to an empty seat by the wealthy, recently widowed Rebekka Korhenen Brando, and both are immediately, although unwittingly, stirred by an unintentional rekindling of the feelings that almost led to a marriage between them twenty-five years earlier.
Gossipy church members and malicious tongue waggers from the small community of Shady Spring, Texas, watch in amusement and sometimes in horror as the former lovers struggle through a series of challenges and near-death experiences to determine whether the forces of evil or the roundabout intervention of God Himself will allow them a life together.
Standing in their way is a demented ranch foreman convinced that he and Rebekka are destined for each other. Heath’s dubious future as a lawman, and grudge-bearing outlaws who want to put the sheriff into his grave. The solutions may be divined under the sheltering limbs of a magnificent old oak tree where Heath and Rebekka seek solace and open their hearts to each other.
What would you do to get back to the person you love?
Noelle Montgomery is used to battle. As a kindergarten teacher, she fights germs, intrusive questions, and ‘the wiggles’ on a daily basis. She’s not afraid of anything…except asking her boyfriend, Griffin, what comes next.
When a visit to a friend forces the issue, Noelle takes a walk to clear her head and stumbles onto a gruesome scene. She’s the only person who can help convict rising drug lord, Luis Duque, of murder, and escaping his wrath is the one battle she knows she can’t win. When offered witness protection, Noelle gives up on her unknown future with Griffin and starts over with a brand-new life.
Griffin Daniels has a ring in his pocket the night he’s told his girlfriend is killed. After years of careful preparation, his dreams, and the woman he loves are gone in an instant. He forces a confrontation with Duque’s gang and learns that Noelle may still be alive. Using his tech savvy and the help of his best friend, Griffin finds Noelle as she races across the country to testify by Christmas. But…Duque’s been looking for her, too.
Reunited and still in danger, Noelle and Griffin must work together to survive Duque and find their way back to love.
Chasing Noelle is an emotionally-driven contemporary romance with elements of suspense and a touch of Christmas magic.
Rebecca Young Ackerman was raised to be a prominent lady in Boston society in the late 1800s. Being the dutiful daughter, albeit young and naive, she always did as her father said. When he marries her off to a man of his choosing, she realizes how fast dreams of marital bliss can fall apart. Fearing for her life, an unexpected telegram regarding her brother gives her the opportunity she needs to take her boys and flee from her narcissistic husband. Always looking over her shoulder, her fear is real. Traveling across the country, a chance encounter with a certain gentleman finds herself wishing for a better life.
Nathaniel ‘Nate’ Burns In 2016, Nathaniel Burns, a well-respected police officer serving the tough neighborhood of Roxbury in Boston, finds his partner and himself answering a domestic violence call one airless summer night. Events unfold quickly, and he suddenly finds life as he once knew it, coming to a tragic end. Due to his mother’s ‘Celtic Gift,’ Nathaniel is transported back to 1875 to begin life anew. What he didn’t expect was to fall in love with a lady in peril in the Yuma desert of 1880. Both long for a new life, but can they leave their past behind to find love?
Romance and women’s fiction have the remarkable ability to capture the full spectrum of human emotion, from the exhilarating rush of first love to the complex dynamics of family relationships and personal growth. These genres celebrate the stories that matter most to readers seeking authentic representation, emotional depth, and the affirming power of love conquering obstacles. The Chatelaine Awards for Romance and Women’s Fiction honor authors who craft narratives that reflect the beautiful diversity of love stories, recognizing voices that speak to hearts across all backgrounds and experiences.
Celebrating Our Grand Prize Winner!
We’re delighted to celebrate our 2024 Chatelaine Division Grand Prize Winner, Jo Morgan Sloan for their compelling novel The Key. This extraordinary work explores a unique second-chance romance between two men who were high school sweethearts, who are separated at a young age. Years later, as adults in San Francisco, they reconnect through Tabby’s LGBT D&D group, but Jax doesn’t recognize Tabby due to his transition.
What makes The Key exceptional is its sensitive exploration of identity, love, and the courage required for authentic relationships. Sloan masterfully navigates the emotional complexity of Tabby’s situation as he becomes Jax’s confidant while hiding the truth that he is Jax’s missing first love. The novel addresses contemporary issues of LGBTQ+ representation with nuance and heart, showing how love can transcend identity while acknowledging the real fears and challenges faced by transgender individuals. This powerful story demonstrates the strength found in chosen family, authentic friendships, and the possibility of love finding a way back to itself. Sloan will receive a Chanticleer Editorial Review and be invited to participate in an Author Interview, offering deeper insights into their approach to inclusive romance storytelling.
The Chatelaine Awards celebrate the rich tapestry of romance and women’s fiction, honoring stories that speak to every heart:
Contemporary Romance features modern love stories that navigate today’s world, from workplace romances to online dating adventures, capturing how love flourishes in our current cultural moment.
Historical Romance transports readers to bygone eras where period details and historical context add richness to timeless love stories, from Regency ballrooms to Victorian drawing rooms and beyond.
Romantic Adventure & Suspense proves that love and danger make an irresistible combination, featuring couples who fall in love while solving mysteries, escaping peril, or embarking on thrilling journeys together.
Inspirational/Restorative/Clean showcases love stories that uplift and inspire, focusing on emotional intimacy, personal growth, and relationships that heal and transform without explicit content.
Romantic Steamy/Sensual celebrates passion and desire, featuring love stories that embrace the full physical and emotional intensity of romantic relationships with heat and authenticity.
Broken Faces
By Chris Karlsen and Jennifer Conner
A towering achievement, Broken Faces: Historical Romance Based on True WWI Events by Chris Karlsen and Jennifer A Conner follows two young people who, for different reasons, embark on a journey to restore the self-esteem torn from wounded soldiers by bloody conflict.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 plunged Europe into one of the most horrific wars in history. Daily British papers featured articles about a bleak future. London quickly felt the effects of the war, with stores closing and basic goods in limited supply.
Abigail Belorman, a young American woman and talented sculptor, had relocated to Britain with her newlywed husband Theo, the US ambassador to England. Pained by Theo’s emotional neglect, Abigail finds comfort in visiting injured soldiers who had returned from the front to a nearby hospital. Each of the young men there has a story to tell and wounds to recover from. Some, however, suffered irreparable damage to their faces, along with any chance at a normal life taken from them, and they will be forced into isolation.
The citizens of the three fairy kingdoms clash, forced to live shoulder-to-shoulder alongside ungoverned Outliers. In Summer Cyclone, fourth book of Alan B. Gibson’s Magic at Myers Beach series, unassuming tea-shop manager Stefán tries to find love while keeping all of fairy society from fracturing.
The three fairy kings, Theos, Zsombor, and Christophe, evacuate their people to Myers Beach. It’s only here that they have any chance of recreating fairy dust after their old sources had been poisoned, and saving every fairy life. They take in the Outliers, remnants of a fallen kingdom, and at first find good will between the groups. But with thousands of fairies moving in, they have to keep everyone on a short leash or else risk humans catching wind of their new neighbors. Resentment of these strange Outliers builds.
Stefán, a close confidant to Theos, struggles to keep anti-Outlier sentiment at bay with the help of some enigmatic and knowledgeable new friends. Rumors of him giving the Outliers special treatment grow stronger as some fairies begin to suspect that he’s actually one of them.
In Loving Beth, a Christian historical romance by Bonnie Rose Ward, a young woman finds herself in dire straits when her widowed mother dies unexpectedly.
Beth’s father had taken out loans to improve their property, but he was killed in the Civil War, leaving his wife and daughter to struggle to keep up with the payments. Now, Beth is alone without any means to keep her home—finding and taking in two young, abandoned children certainly doesn’t help. But even amidst her troubles, Beth’s thoughts keep going back to the mysterious and handsome stranger who found and brought home the body of her mother.
Life is not easy in her tiny settlement in West Virginia, and young, pretty Beth finds that it is not about to get any easier. The new banker holds a grudge toward her for having rejected his advances, and the man’s snobbish wife is determined to make Beth’s life even more miserable. The loans that Beth and her mother worked to pay each month are suddenly due in full— but the banker’s unwanted and ugly advances are foiled with the appearance of the mysterious stranger.
If you’re looking for a beach read with supernatural intrigue, A Circle of Stars by Erin Lark Maples will draw you in from page one. Ember “EJ” James, a newly-arrived stranger in the strange land of Prescott, AZ, immediately begins navigating unfamiliar territory, both physically and metaphysically.
Forty-something EJ doesn’t know it yet, but when she agreed to take over her deceased uncle Hollis’s shop in Prescott, she stumbled into a world of magical realism. The plant shop, as it turns out, is more than just that—it hides secret access to other realms, which supernatural beings will go to great lengths to access. Much like the plants in the shop, this tale is dark, tangled, and intriguing beyond belief.
Anyone else may have felt helpless. But EJ remains upbeat, charmingly self-deprecating, and resourceful to the end. There’s a great joy in seeing how she works through her new surroundings, unfazed by (almost) everything they throw her way.
The 2022 Laramie Grand Prize Winner and a Chatelaine First Place Winner!
Guarded Heartsby T K Conklin is a sensual romance in the Wild West, with all the passion and excitement natural to the setting.
Sparks fly between a man with an outlaw past and a woman with a terrifying gift to heal or harm. Strykes is a man haunted both by a violent childhood and his time in an outlaw gang. But he has found a place in Rimrock, where he met LaRisa, an auburn-haired woman whom the townspeople have labeled a “witch” due to her healing herbs and rumors of her “powers”.
LaRisa has kept her distance from people, afraid of her gift of healing touch that can turn dangerous, even deadly. But, when she comes to town to deliver her medicinal herbs, she makes her way to the livery with tasks for Strykes such as shoeing her horse or fixing a spring in her wagon. He is only too happy to oblige the auburn-haired beauty. The attraction between them is instantaneous, yet they both are hesitant to act on it, fearing they would hurt the other– he from his violent past, and she from her “witch” power.
These reviews represent just a glimpse of the passionate storytelling and emotional depth waiting to be discovered in today’s romance and women’s fiction.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re excited about all the exceptional romance and women’s fiction we receive every year for both the CIBAs and for our Editorial Reviews. Throughout this year’s Chatelaine Book Awards, we had the pleasure of promoting numerous heartwarming stories as they advanced through our competition tiers. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
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 Love Story Go Untold!
The romance and women’s fiction market continues to flourish as readers seek authentic, diverse love stories that reflect their own experiences and dreams. Whether your work features contemporary couples navigating modern relationships, historical lovers defying social conventions, adventurous partners facing danger together, or any other expression of love’s infinite possibilities, the Chatelaine Awards provide the recognition and promotional platform your storytelling deserves.
Romance has the unique power to affirm hope, celebrate diversity, and remind us that love truly can conquer all. From sweet, inspirational stories that warm the heart to passionate tales that ignite the imagination, every thoughtfully crafted romance has the potential to become a reader’s new favorite escape. Don’t let your love story remain untold. Submit to the Chatelaine Awards today and join the celebrated authors who’ve found their devoted readership through Chanticleer!
SpruceHarbor Possibilities, the second book in David A. Stone’s Spruce Harbor series, pulls an independent bookstore owner and a savvy tech billionaire into an improbable whirlwind romance, but each with their own reasons to be guarded about love.
Romantic Maggie Bennett’s last breakup diminished her self-confidence, and she’s since put all her energy into running her cozy literary shop in the small community of Spruce Harbor, Washington. Her best friend and co-worker Bobby wants her to get back in the dating game, but for the moment Maggie contents herself with the solace of her bookstore and her Golden Retriever, Mr. Darcy.
That is until Jason Porter arrives in town.
Handsome and extremely wealthy, Jason was co-founder of the Lifestar Gaming Company, recently and unceremoniously sacked by the Board of Directors and his business partner.
Though they come from different worlds, there’s an undeniable attraction between Maggie and Jason.
Maggie has her suspicions about this enigmatic stranger. But as the emotional chemistry draws them closer, they each put aside their doubts to join forces and overcome the wrongs of big business takeovers, each relying on one another to overcome wounds of the past and find happiness in the future.
Spruce Harbor Possibilities gives readers an extremely well-rounded contemporary romance.
Though this novel is the second book in a four-book series, it can clearly stand on its own. Maggie’s small town quaintness contrasts Jason’s unrestrained lifestyle, and the mirrored themes of hard work and determination vs. corporate greed create a complex storyline. The joy found in emotional resilience and trusting your heart in pursuit of true love elevates the romance.
Stone weaves an engaging tale with two central characters who match each other’s intelligence despite their vastly different lives.
Maggie has always had the support and love of family and friends, while Jason struggles with an aloof set of parents whose only interests are money and status. While each has their own baggage, their compatibility in romance and business ignites a positive and heartwarming relationship—even if they didn’t expect it.
Maggie and Jason weather frequent outside dilemmas, giving their romance an active pace while showing their growing ability to work together.
Like most romances there are ups and downs that illuminate Maggie or Jason’s insecurities. But the comfort provided by those closest to them, whether family and friends, or in Jason’s case a caring assistant and a wise college professor, all help the two realize what really matters.
For those who enjoy an honest and comforting tale that taps into universal issues of trust, self-discovery, emotional growth, and the power of love, this second book in David Stone’s Spruce Harbor series should prove an ideal foray into romantic “Possibilities.”
The Series Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Genre Fiction (and now Non-Fiction). The Grand Prize Winner, Tim Facciola’s Series, A Vengeful Realm will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Series 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!
While these Award Winning Series are all Multi-book sagas, we are going to showcase the most important part of a Series. The beginning. Having a good start makes it memorable. The first book is the foundation, laying the first stitches into what later becomes a whole tapestry, telling their story.
Join us in celebrating the 2024 first in the series of the First Place Series Winners!
When Stella and her younger brother, Tom, move to their new London home, they become mystified by the disappearances of Harry, their elderly neighbor’s small dog. Where does he go? And why does he keep reappearing wet-through?
Their quest to solve the riddle over the summer holidays leads to a boat buried under a grassy mound, and a tunnel that takes them to a secret lake.
Who is the boy rowing towards them who looks so terrified? And whose are those children’s voices carried on the wind from beyond the woods?
Stella and Tom soon discover that they have travelled back in time to their home and its gardens almost 100 years earlier. Here they make both friends and enemies, and uncover startling connections between the past and present.
Nothing can stop the gods of Order… except a roll of the dice.
The Longing gnaws at young Galen, an irresistible force dragging him toward an ancient vault where Chaos slumbers. He doesn’t crave power, just an escape from Order’s suffocating grip and the twisted nightmares that haunt his sleep. But visions flicker in his mind, painting a world devoured by the very chaos he’s compelled to unleash.
He’s not alone in this desperate pilgrimage. Another soul thrums with the same Longing, fueled by ambition and vengeance. The race to the vault is a collision course, a clash of desperation and darkness.
Now, Galen stands at the precipice: trust his wild imagination, a double-edged sword that’s always landed him in trouble, or unleash the torrent that threatens to drown the world… unless, somehow, he can bend the very fabric of chance with a throw of his ancient, wood-carved dice.
In 18th Century Salem, Massachusetts, the ambitious Derby and Crowninshield families vie for power amid a shifting social and political landscape.
After the heartbreaking loss of their first child, Mary Hodges Derby and her husband Captain Richard Derby are blessed with a healthy son named Richard who is soon followed by four brothers and three sisters. All but one of the Derby boys follow their father to sea to secure their fortunes from America’s lucrative but treacherous trade routes to the West Indies and beyond.
When Captain Derby’s oldest son comes of age, he decides to retire from the sea and establish a merchant house. Two of Richard’s brothers follow him as captains of their own ships, but Captain Derby keeps his son Hasket ashore to manage the family’s growing trade network.
George Crowninshield, the youngest of four brothers, sails for the Derby family enterprise and ultimately marries Hasket’s sister Mary. Meanwhile, George’s sister Eliza makes a match with Hasket Derby.
Though the two families are united by wedlock, rivalries, political turmoil, and questionable choices reveal the complex consequences of unchecked ambition, arrogance, and pride.
Set during a pivotal time in Salem’s history when Americans broke their colonial ties with Great Britain, this gripping work of historical fiction explores the depth of human relationships through nuanced characters and vivid historical details. Recipes from the era bring the sights and flavors of 18th century Salem to life, while a glossary illuminates the context of the times.
From Chanticleer:
Sandra Wagner-Wright’s historical novel,Ambition, Arrogance and Pride,chronicles the rise of some of Salem, Massachusetts’s founding families, through the revolutionary war and beyond as they make their fortunes in far-off ports.
Wagner-Wright tells this story through several points of view, but it is her strong female characters who carry this story, women like Mary Derby, whose courtship and marriage to George Crowninshield begins this saga.
We follow Mary as she brings new life into the world while her husband is out at sea as captain of a merchant vessel. Wagner-Wright has done her research, making real the perils of pregnancy and childbirth in the 1700s. In keeping with the time and the rate of infant mortality, we suffer with Mary each time she loses a precious child.
Men such as Captain Richard Derby and George Crowninshield travel the sea in search of foreign ports, while women like Mary, Lydia, and Eliza hold their families together in this intricate and expertly crafted story.
Fifteen-year-old Adriana Nicu lives in the sheltered world of Bucharest, Romania, in the year 1987. Under the rule of Communist president Nicolae Ceaușescu, citizens of Bucharest live with the eyes and ears of the government ever present. Adriana’s future, which will involve becoming an engineer, is locked in against her will.
During a visit to her aunt’s apartment, Adriana walks through a wardrobe into a hidden room filled with stacks of forbidden novels. Stories bring light into the darkest of circumstances as her family begins to unravel and her life strangely parallels those of her novels’ heroines. Adriana’s childhood loyalties and her belief that God doesn’t exist are called into question as her circumstances force her to rethink things she once believed were certain.
Also a Chanticleer 2024 Mystery & Mayhem First Place Winner!
Murder takes center stage!
1885. Arabella Pryce is struggling with heartbreak. In keeping with her late husband’s final wishes, she must leave behind her dazzling celebrity and breathe new life into their namesake hotel in Colorado.
But when a beloved town beauty is found dead, all eyes—and suspicion—turn to her.
With blood-stained evidence, handsome sheriffs, and libelous journalists turning her investigation into a dangerous drama, this determined thespian fears she’s missed her cue for survival.
Amid whispered betrayals and shadowed secrets, a mischievous ghost guides her through a maze of perilous clues, drawing her ever closer to a truth more shocking than the lies surrounding her.
Can she unmask the true killer and clear her name before her reputation is ruined forever?
DiscoverThe Pryce of Conceit, the riveting first installment in The Pryce of Murder historical cozy mystery series, and witness a performance where murder is the main act!
British-trained Norwegian intelligence agent, Tore Haugland, is a jøssing—a patriot—sent to a fishing village on Norway’s west coast to set up a line to receive weapons and agents from England via the “Shetland Bus.” Posing as a deaf fisherman, his mission is complicated when he falls in love with Anna Fromme, a German widow. Accused of betraying her husband, she has a young daughter and secrets of her own. Although the Allies have liberated France, the most zealous Nazis hang on in Norway, sending out agents to disembowel resistance groups. If Haugland fails, it could cost him his life and the lives of the fishermen who have joined him. When Haugland is betrayed and left for dead, he will have to find the one who betrayed him and destroyed his network. He will also have to prove that the one he loves was not the informer. In wartime love and trust are not always compatible.
From Chanticleer:
At a time when true identities are carefully protected and information can get you killed, heroes emerge to fight the evils of Nazi-occupied Norway in J.L. Oakley’s highly suspenseful and beautifully penned historical fiction novel,The Jøssing Affair.
In a quiet Norwegian fishing village during the Nazi occupation, risk lurks everywhere. Most residents are patriotic members of the resistance, “jøssings,” but there are “quislings,” too. Those who collaborate with the Germans and tout the Nazi propaganda of Nordic brotherhood between the nations. Mistaking the two is a matter of life and death.
At the heart of the narrative is Jens Hansen who is an exceedingly mild-mannered handyman and a deaf-mute. Jens helps his friend Kjell on this fishing boat but mostly keeps to himself, communicating with paper and pencil when asked a question.
But Jens has a secret. His real identity is that of Tore Haugland, a man who will risk his life repeatedly as a British-trained member of the resistance. He and Kjell coordinate the transport of weapons and agents via the “Shetland bus,” a fleet of small fishing boats and a few American submarine chasers, that make excursions from the coast of Norway to the Scottish Shetland Islands.
At the behest of rogue Iranian government officials, two terrorists break into the grave of an American veterans cemetery in the Suresnes suburb of Paris. What they take from that grave could lead to the deaths of millions of Israeli and US citizens, as well as Jews around the world. US Army Major Jake Fortina, a military attaché stationed at the US Embassy in Paris, is called upon by the FBI and French and Italian law enforcement and intelligence officials to help defeat Iran’s nefarious plan. Beginning in Paris, this international drama leads readers from Afghanistan to England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, and the United States in the scramble to save the world from a terror unknown since the deadly Spanish flu outbreak of 1918.
From Chanticleer:
Why would Iranian terrorists break into a Paris cemetery and steal the bones of an American Jewish WWI veteran? The answer lies in the deadly parallel history of WWI and the Spanish flu, but it’s a mystery that Jake Fortina will have to uncover in Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke’s thriller, Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat.
During WWI, the Spanish Flu killed millions of people—some estimates as high as 100 million—but a Jewish nurse tossed off the flu like a cold and continued to serve her country. Iran’s leaders believe the DNA in her bones will let them develop a virus that could kill Americans and Israelis by the millions while simultaneously developing immunity for Iran’s own population.
This threat drives the story as it reaches deep into multiple countries and their governments, who collectively try to figure out the importance of the bones theft and, ultimately, what to do about it.
In the mid-21st century, time travel becomes a reality through a top-secret government-corporate initiative. Enter Marshall Grissom: socially awkward, perpetually overlooked, and unexpectedly thrust into the heart of this groundbreaking project. Joined by the alluring and mischievous Sheila Schuler and the dangerous industrial spy Marta Hamilton, Marshall embarks on a journey that challenges everything they thought they knew about time and causality. As evidence mounts that the past may be irreversible, corporate investors demand proof the past can be manipulated—or threaten to pull the plug.
The unlikely trio is sent back to Marshall’s high school days with a seemingly simple mission: save the life of his unrequited love. But in a world where powerful corporations will stop at nothing to protect their interests, the travelers find themselves in a deadly game of cat and mouse. With time running out and lives on the line, Marshall and his companions must navigate the treacherous waters of temporal manipulation, corporate greed, and their own conflicting motivations. Can they change the past without destroying their future?
Also a Chanticleer 2023 Chatelaine First Place Winner!
In 1725, a secret convent has been established on the Aberdeenshire coast.
Jory Mackintosh is more excited by healing herbs than husbands or holy prayers. She craves freedom—and a chance to sneak into medical school. Instead, on the eve of her escape, she becomes an unwilling pawn in her family’s schemes with a rival clan.
Finlay Shaw, the disgraced younger brother of the laird, has spent ten long years atoning for his past failures, but nothing can wash away the stain of fratricide. When the clans order him to escort Jory to her new life as a nun, thus securing an alliance with the freshly formed Black Watch, it’s his last chance for redemption. Too bad for Finn, Jory has no intention of following orders.
Trapped on the road together, often with only one bed between them, the two butt heads and match wits, forced to acknowledge the dark shadows that have haunted them both for years. Can they learn to trust each other, and themselves, to fly in the face of their families’ wishes, or will they choose the solitary futures they always believed they deserve in this unorthodox runaway bride story?
When the world is upended by war, the important pieces of your life fall around you, victims of a swirling wind. This is the story of Of White Ashes by Constance Hays Matsumoto & Kent Matsumoto.
Inspired by a true story, Catherine Mathis’s incredible novel, 
