Chanticleer Book Reviews

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The 2022 SOMERSET CIBAs Semi-Finalists for Literary and Contemporary Fiction
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. 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 in the judging rounds from all 2022 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction Short List to the 2022 Somerset Book Awards SEMI-FINALISTS. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Somerset Finalists. The Semi-Finalists will compete for the Finalist positions. Winners will be selected from the Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2022 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Conon Parks – Everything That Was
- Michael Richard – Chosen’s Beautiful Heart
- Karla Huebner – In Search of the Magic Theater
- Maggie St. Claire – Into the Wind
- Vee Kumari – ANKANAM
- Linda Moore – Attribution
- Kathleen Stone – Tell Me You Love Me
- Datta Groover – The Reluctant Visionary
- Rebecca Miller – Touch
- Robert Tucker – The Discontent of Mary Wenger, Paper Dolls, Book 1
- Patricia Sands – The Secrets We Hide
- Meredith Berlin – Friends with Issues
- Frances Howard-Snyder – A Willow Cabin at Your Gate
- Julia Tvardovskaya – Identifiable
- Michael Chatlien – Northern Lights
- Julia Brewer Daily – The Fifth Daughter of Thorn Ranch: A Modern Ranch with an Ancient Secret
- Ellen Sherman – Into the Attic
- Fran Hawthorne – I Meant to Tell You
- Jeff Hartman – The End Of The War
- Leslie Kain – Secrets In The Mirror
- Patricia Averbach – Dreams of Drowning
- Tom Stewart – Immortal North
- Jeffrey Dale Lofton – Red Clay Suzie
- Brenda Stanley – The Still Small Voice
- John Hansen – Hired Hand
- Jo Deniau – Stiff Hearts
- Dianne C. Braley – The Silence in the Sound
- Maggie Smith – Truth and Other Lies
- Susan Lynn Solomon – Raising Kane
- Lynn Byk – The Fearless Moral Inventory of Elsie Finch
- Edward Pontacoloni – The Rookery
- Lee Bukowski – A Week of Warm Weather
- Betsy Withycombe – The Murder of Sarah Grosvenor
- Morgan Sloan – Scars and Honey
- Harriet Cannon – Exiled South
- Ann Marie Stewart – Out of the Water
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

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

Good luck to all as your works move on the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 Somerset Awards is Lies in Bone by Natalie Symons

Click here to see the 2021 Somerset Book Award Winners for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2022 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

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 11th annual conference and discover why!
February 28, 2023
The 2022 SOMERSET CIBAs Short List for Literary and Contemporary Fiction
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. 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 in the judging rounds from all 2022 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction Long List to the 2022 Somerset Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Somerset Semi-Finalist. The Semi-Finalists will compete for the Finalist positions. Winners will be selected from the Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2022 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Conon Parks – Everything That Was
- Michael Richard – Chosen’s Beautiful Heart
- Karla Huebner – In Search of the Magic Theater
- Maggie St. Claire – Into the Wind
- Vee Kumari – ANKANAM
- Linda Moore – Attribution
- Kathleen Stone – Tell Me You Love Me
- Datta Groover – The Reluctant Visionary
- Ja-ne de Abreu – The Energy Inside Valsin’s Choices
- Rebecca Miller – Touch
- Grace Marcus – Visible Signs
- Robert Tucker – The Discontent of Mary Wenger, Paper Dolls, Book 1
- Patricia Sands – The Secrets We Hide
- Meredith Berlin – Friends with Issues
- Frances Howard-Snyder – A Willow Cabin at Your Gate
- Julia Tvardovskaya – Identifiable
- David B. Seaburn – Give Me Shelter
- Michael Chatlien – Northern Lights
- Julia Brewer Daily – The Fifth Daughter of Thorn Ranch: A Modern Ranch with an Ancient Secret
- Ellen Sherman – Into the Attic
- Fran Hawthorne – I Meant to Tell You
- Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One: Take 2 Ambient Light
- Karen Heenan – Coming Apart: A Novel of the Great Depression
- Jeff Hartman – The End Of The War
- Leslie Kain – Secrets In The Mirror
- Patricia Averbach – Dreams of Drowning
- Tom Stewart – Immortal North
- Jeffrey Dale Lofton – Red Clay Suzie
- Brenda Stanley – The Still Small Voice
- John Hansen – Hired Hand
- Jo Deniau – Stiff Hearts
- Drema Drudge – Southern-Fried Woolf
- Dianne C. Braley – The Silence in the Sound
- Maggie Smith – Truth and Other Lies
- Susan Lynn Solomon – Raising Kane
- Barbara Francesca Murphy – Lucina’s Letters
- Lynn Byk – The Fearless Moral Inventory of Elsie Finch
- Peter McDade – Songs By Honeybird
- Edward Pontacoloni – The Rookery
- Lee Bukowski – A Week of Warm Weather
- Betsy Withycombe – The Murder of Sarah Grosvenor
- Gloria Mattioni – California Sister
- Morgan Sloan – Scars and Honey
- Harriet Cannon – Exiled South
- Ann Marie Stewart – Out of the Water
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

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

Good luck to all as your works move on the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 Somerset Awards is Lies in Bone by Natalie Symons

Click here to see the 2021 Somerset Book Award Winners for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2022 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

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 11th annual conference and discover why!
February 22, 2023
The 2022 SOMERSET CIBAs Long List for Literary and Contemporary Fiction
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. 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 in the judging rounds from all 2022 Somerset Literary and Contemporary Fiction entries to the 2022 Somerset Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Somerset Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2022 Somerset Book Awards novel competition for Literary and Contemporary Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Conon Parks – Everything That Was
- Michael Richard – Chosen’s Beautiful Heart
- Karla Huebner – In Search of the Magic Theater
- Maggie St. Claire – Into the Wind
- Vee Kumari – ANKANAM
- Linda Moore – Attribution
- Kathleen Stone – Tell Me You Love Me
- Datta Groover – The Reluctant Visionary
- Theresa Griffin Kennedy – Talionic Night in Portland
- Ja-ne de Abreu – The Energy Inside Valsin’s Choices
- Rebecca Miller – Touch
- Grace Marcus – Visible Signs
- Robert Tucker – The Discontent of Mary Wenger, Paper Dolls, Book 1
- Patricia Sands – The Secrets We Hide
- Meredith Berlin – Friends with Issues
- Frances Howard-Snyder – A Willow Cabin at Your Gate
- Zubin Aibara – Gulliver’s Tramps
- J. F. Alexandria – Children of the Sun
- Julia Tvardovskaya – Identifiable
- David B. Seaburn – Give Me Shelter
- Michael Chatlien – Northern Lights
- Julia Brewer Daily – The Fifth Daughter of Thorn Ranch: A Modern Ranch with an Ancient Secret
- Ellen Sherman – Into the Attic
- Fran Hawthorne – I Meant to Tell You
- Antonia Gavrihel – Back to One: Take 2 Ambient Light
- Karen Heenan – Coming Apart: A Novel of the Great Depression
- John Nicholson – The Parables of Chance
- Terry Tierney – Lucky Ride
- Jeff Hartman – The End Of The War
- Leslie Kain – Secrets In The Mirror
- Patricia Averbach – Dreams of Drowning
- Tom Stewart – Immortal North
- Jeffrey Dale Lofton – Red Clay Suzie
- Brenda Stanley – The Still Small Voice
- John Hansen – Hired Hand
- Jo Deniau – Stiff Hearts
- Drema Drudge – Southern-Fried Woolf
- Dianne C. Braley – The Silence in the Sound
- Maggie Smith – Truth and Other Lies
- Susan Lynn Solomon – Raising Kane
- Barbara Francesca Murphy – Lucina’s Letters
- Lynn Byk – The Fearless Moral Inventory of Elsie Finch
- Peter McDade – Songs By Honeybird
- Edward Pontacoloni – The Rookery
- Lee Bukowski – A Week of Warm Weather
- Betsy Withycombe – The Murder of Sarah Grosvenor
- Gloria Mattioni – California Sister
- Morgan Sloan – Scars and Honey
- Matthew Marullo – Welcome To Opine
- Robert Steven Goldstein – Will’s Surreal Period
- Karen S. Bell – Like a Lily Among the Thorns
- Harriet Cannon – Exiled South
- Ann Marie Stewart – Out of the Water
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews. FB rules — not ours.

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

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

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

Good luck to all as your works move on the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 Somerset Awards is Lies in Bone by Natalie Symons

Click here to see the 2021 Somerset Book Award Winners for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

We are now accepting submissions into the 2023 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The 2023 CIBA winners will be announced at CAC 2024.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2022 Chanticleer In’tl Book Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

IN-Person – April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

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 11th annual conference and discover why!
January 26, 2023
November SPOTLIGHT on the 2022 Somerset Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction

November brings insight, reflection, and contemplation of the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. As the year winds down, so, too, we reflect and ponder what we have done, who we are, and who we would like to be.

It’s a perfect time to curl up with a good novel, you know, the type that grabs you and lives with you long after you put it down.

This is why we celebrate novels that are literary, satirical, and contemporary. This is why we celebrate the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards – Somerset Literary Novels Writing Competitions.

We chose William Somerset Maugham because we love his work and love what he has to say about it:

“I am a made writer. I do not write as I want to; I write as I can… I have had small power of imagination… no lyrical quality… little gift of metaphor I had an acute power of observation, and it seemed to me that I could see a great many things that other people missed.” W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham was a British author who wrote plays and short stories and novels. He was a dashing and daring man who did not wish to follow the other men in his family to practice law. Imagine, an individual in the Victorian Era… He was born on January 25, 1874, in Paris (at the British Embassy) and died on December 16th, 1965, in Nice, France.

During the First World War, our Somerset proved his valor by serving with the Red Cross in the ambulance corps (remember his earlier medical training) and was recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service right before the October Revolution in 1917.

Somerset dove into medicine and was fairly good at it until he wrote his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897) and all bets were off. The book flew off the shelves and people were reportedly wrestling in the streets for copies to gift their loved ones. (*Creative license at work – however, you don’t know that this did not happen…) He was known to say, “I took to it (writing) as a duck takes to water.”

At the age of sixty-six, he had to flee with only a suitcase from the encroaching Nazis as they advanced across Europe. He escaped to England and then on to South Carolina, in the U.S. where he continued to work on the screenplay for Razor’s Edge. He moved to Hollywood and then eventually back to France.

Did we mention that W. Somerset Maugham was repudiated to be the highest-paid author of the 1930s?

It’s obvious why we chose Somerset to represent our Literary & Contemporary Fiction Awards!

Submit your novel or manuscript to our Somerset Awards today!

Here is a listing of the Somerset Book Awards Hall of Fame Winners!

The 2018 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:

Hard Cider – a novel by Barbara A. Stark-Nemon

Abbie Rose Stone is a woman determined to follow her newly discovered dream of producing her own craft hard apple cider while navigating the ups and downs of family life with her grown sons and husband.

Abbie Rose knows how to deal with adversity, and dives headfirst into this new chapter of her life with energy and passion. She describes her early adulthood years of infertility struggles and the hardscrabble way she built her young family through invasive medical procedures, a surrogate attempt, and adoption barriers.

The 2019 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:

The Proprietor of Theatre Life by Donna LeClair

Still in progress, we’re excited to review Donna’s book when it comes out!

The 2020 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:

Gregory Erich Phillips for A Season in Lights

Gregory Erich Phillips’ A Season in Lights is a well-crafted, engaging exploration of creatives, each following their heart and trying to reach their dream.

Against backdrops of the 1980s AIDS crisis and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic, the story entwines the lives of a 30-something dancer and an older musician as they strive to make their artistic mark in the cultural capital of New York City.

Here in a two-fold unveiling, the story comes to life from the first-person perspective of Cammie, a starry-eyed aspiring dancer from Lancaster, PA, and the third-person reveal of Tom, a more seasoned black pianist. He longs for a classical career but is too often labeled a jazz musician. Cammie first encounters Tom in a studio dance class where he’s taken a job as the musical accompanist. Befriended by the gay dance instructor, Tom heeds the worldly advice offered about surviving in the Big Apple. “All you’ve got to do is convince people that you belong. You’ve got to tell them who you are before they tell you.”

The 2021 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:

Lies in Bone Natalie Symons

A review of Lies in Bone is forthcoming. However, we know you’ll love this intricate story told with beautifully tight control. A mystery lies at the heart of this book that has the feeling of a grown-up To Kill a Mockingbird meets Serial Production’s S-Town Podcast. Highly Recommended.

Will your novel be recognized as the best of the best in the Somerset Awards for 2022? Find out!

Submit your work to the Chanticleer International Book Awards – today!

The last day to submit your work is November 30, 2022. We invite you to join us, tell us your stories, and find out who will take home the prize at CAC23 on April 29th.

As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your literary novel deserves! Enter today!

The SOMERSET Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards – the CIBAs.

The winners will be announced at the CIBA Awards Ceremony on April 29, 2023, which will take place during the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference. All Finalists and First Place category winners will be recognized, the First Place Winners will be whisked up on stage to receive their custom ribbon and wait to see who among them will take home the Grand Prize. It’s an exciting evening of dinner, networking, and celebrations!

First Place Winners and Grand Prize winners will each receive an awards package. Whose works will be chosen?

The excitement builds for the 2022 SOMERSET Book Awards competitions.

November 10, 2022