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 Premier Level of Achievement in the 2020 CIBAs.
The 2020 SOMERSET Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the SOMERSET Grand Prize Winner were announced by Gail Noble-Sanderson on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar and Facebook Live.
It is our privilege and profound honor to announce the 1st in Category winners of the 2020 SOMERSET Awards, a division of the 2020 CIBAs.
This is the OFFICIAL 2020 LIST of the SOMERSET BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the SOMERSET Grand Prize Winner.
Congratulations to all!
Sara Stamey –Pause
Gregory Erich Phillips – A Season in Lights
Candi Sary – Magdalena
Kathleen Reid –Sunrise in Florence
T P Graf –As the Daisies Bloom
Julie Weary –Knowing Marjorie Thane
Barbara Linn Probst –Queen of the Owls
Jennifer Gold –Keep Me Afloat
Lainey Cameron –The Exit Strategy
Susan Wingate – How the Deer Moon Hungers
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2020 SOMERSET Awards is:
Gregory Erich Phillips for
A Season in Lights
The 2021 SOMERSET Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC22 on April 10, 2022. Save the date for CAC22, scheduled April 7-10, 2022, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!
Submissions for the 2021 SOMERSET Book Awards are open until the end of November. Enter here!
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in July. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
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. The best will advance. Which titles will be declared as winners of the prestigious Somerset Book Awards?
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2020 SHORT LIST to the SEMI-FINALIST POSITION and have now progressed to the 2020 FINALISTS.
These titles are in the running for the Finalist positions of the 2020 SOMERSET Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
Sara Stamey –Pause
Gregory Erich Phillips –A Season in Lights
Candi Sary –Magdalena
Kathleen Reid –Sunrise in Florence
T P Graf –As the Daisies Bloom
Katherine Johnson –Grit & Granite
Jennifer Gold –Keep Me Afloat
Catherine Hamilton –Victoria’s War
John Danenbarger –Entanglement: Quantum and Otherwise
Julie Weary –Knowing Marjorie Thane
Kathleen M. Rodgers –The Flying Cutterbucks
Abbe Rolnick –Founding Stones
Liana Gardner –Speak No Evil
Susan Wingate –How the Deer Moon Hungers
Jessica O’Dwyer – Mother Mother
Lainey Cameron –The Exit Strategy
Judy Keeslar Santamaria– Jetty Cat Palace Cafe
Joanne Kukanza Easley –Sweet Jane
Barbara Linn Probst – Queen of the Owls
Nancy H. Wynen – We Did What We Could
NOTE: Some titles have been transferred to the Mark Twain Book Awards for Satire, Allegory, Humor, and Alternative Histories (non-SciFi).
These titles are in the running for the First Place Category Winners of the 2020 Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction.
The 2020 CIBA FINALISTS were announced at VCAC21 – April 21 – 24, 2021.
The Somerset Book Awards 2020 First Place and Grand Prize Winner will be announced at the hybrid CIBA Ceremony that will take place on Saturday, June 5th, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether. More details will be posted in early May.
Which of these works will move forward in the judging rounds for the 2020 Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction?
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 23 CIBA divisions Finalists. We will announce the 1st Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Division Winners the CIBAs Ceremonies June 5th, 2021 virtually (Free) and LIVE at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2021 Somerset Awards Book Awards. The deadline for submissions is November 30th, 2021. The winners will be announced in April 2022.
We are delighted to welcome long time Chanticleerian Jessica H. Stone at #VCAC21
Jessica H. Stone (Jes) is the author of The Last Outrageous Woman, a First Place Winner of the Somerset Women’s Literary Fiction Awards— Chanticleer International Reviews. Her mystery, Blood on a Blue Moon, won first place in Murder and Mayhem—Chanticleer International Reviews and Best Mystery in the Black Magnolia Publishing Awards. She is currently working on a thriller. jessicahstone.com
An avid sailor, Jessica and her Border Collie, Kip McSnip – the Famous Sailing Dog, sailed together for sixteen years. They cruised the Caribbean, navigated Puget Sound traversed Canada’s waters, sailed the Mexican coast, wandered the Sea of Cortez and crossed the Pacific Ocean. Kip celebrated his eighteenth birthday as they crossed the equator for the first time. Their experiences led to the popular book, Doggy on Deck: Life at Sea with a Salty Dogand the long-running syndicated column,Cruising with Critters.
Jessica’s VCAC 21 Session is an interview withJ.D. Barker – Writing Craft for Mystery, Suspense, & Thriller Novels –with Jessica Stone
Check out our review for her book: THE LAST OUTRAGEOUS WOMAN
Life is meant for living –outrageously in Jessica Stone’s latest novel, The Last Outrageous Woman.
Eighty-six-year-old Mattie’s life is dwindling away at Florida’s Restful Palms Retirement facility but she has a plan—an outrageous plan. And it just might work. Taking advantage of a crisis situation, Mattie tricks a staff member into signing a release paper that will be their ticket out.
Each woman has a secret longing to be fulfilled. For Mattie, it’s a sea voyage as described to her by a long-lost lover; food-obsessed Dolores wants to honor her Irish heritage by kissing the Blarney Stone; quiet, easily dominated Edna has a dream of riding a camel—in Egypt; Rose never got to say goodbye, her way, to her deceased brother buried somewhere in Wisconsin; and Helen remembers how her two sons, both killed in military service, loved Australia, leaving her with the desire to go there and pet a kangaroo.
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. The best will advance. Which titles will be declared as winners of the prestigious Somerset Book Awards?
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2020 Somerset Book Awards LONG LIST to the 2020 SHORT LIST and now have progressed to the 2020 SEMI-FINALISTS.
Congratulations to the following titles who have advanced to the 2020 SOMERSET Book Awards SEMI-FINALISTS!
Susan Dobson –Boomerang
Sara Stamey –Pause
R Barber Anderson –Jumeau
Gregory Erich Phillips –A Season in Lights
Candi Sary –Magdalena
Kathleen Reid –Sunrise in Florence
T P Graf –As the Daisies Bloom
Patrick M. Garry –The Donor
Katherine Johnson –Grit & Granite
Jennifer Gold –Keep Me Afloat
Catherine Hamilton –Victoria’s War
Pierce Koslosky Jr. –A Week at Surfside Beach
John Danenbarger –Entanglement: Quantum and Otherwise
Julie Weary –Knowing Marjorie Thane
Dan V. Jackson –Rainbow Bridge
Kathleen M. Rodgers –The Flying Cutterbucks
Abbe Rolnick –Founding Stones
Liana Gardner –Speak No Evil
Susan Wingate –How the Deer Moon Hungers
Lainey Cameron –The Exit Strategy
Barbara Linn Probst –Queen of the Owls
Judy Keeslar Santamaria– Jetty Cat Palace Cafe
Joanne Kukanza Easley –Sweet Jane
NOTE: Some titles have been transferred to the Mark Twain Book Awards for Satire, Allegory, Humor, and Alternative Histories (non-SciFi).
These titles are in the running for the Finalists of the 2020 Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction.
The 2020 CIBA FINALISTS will be announced at VCAC 21, April 22 – 24, 2021.
Which of these works will move forward in the judging rounds for the 2020 Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction?
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
The Semi-Finalists’ works will compete for the First Place Winner positions, and then all will be recognized in the evenings at VCAC21 April 22-24th from 6-8 p.m. PST.
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 23 CIBA divisions Finalists. We will announce the 1st Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Division Winners the CIBAs Ceremonies June 5th, 2021 virtually (Free) and LIVE at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2021 Somerset Awards Book Awards. The deadline for submissions is November 30th, 2021. The winners will be announced in April 2022.
Appreciating International Women’s Day and looking at Women’s Fiction
The theme for 2021’s international Women’s Day is Choose to Challenge. We thought an excellent challenge to offer to our wonderful Chanticleerians would be to read more women’s fiction. To read more about International Women’s Day, click here. To jump into it though, we first want to define the genre.
While one might the that the Chatelaine Awards would be the location of Women’s Fiction, especially with the image of Jane Morris being used when her story could be written as an excellent example of women’s fiction. If you’re interested in entering the Chatelaine Awards you can click here, and if you want to read more about our most recent Spotlight for the Awards, click here.
Jane Morris’ life is often said to be the inspiration for Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s My Fair Lady. Morris trained herself into being a lady, learning French and Italian while reading anything she could get her hands on. She was a renowned embroiderer, even running an embroidery company that did quite well. She was also the muse of pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Rossetti (the model for our Rossetti Awards). By the end of her life, she even managed to purchase the home she lived in so that her daughters would have an inheritance to support them after her death.
Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle
While Morris could be a great subject for a book of women’s fiction, her story is often peppered with romantic narratives, even in fictional retellings like My Fair Lady. It’s true that her husband and Rossetti all rented an apartment together, which allowed for Morris and Rossetti to have an affair while her husband was in Iceland, presumably with her husband’s knowledge as the painter and the subject were considered an open secret, though it seems a painful one for William Morris.
Surrounded by so much romance and intrigue, we couldn’t help but have Jane Morris’ portrait by her lover be the representation of the Chatelaine Awards, which leads us to the use of William Somerset Maugham as the representative of the Somerset Awards.
The Somerset Awards focuses on:
Contemporary Theme
Adventure/Suspense
Literary
Women’s Fiction + Family Themes
Satire/Allegorical
Magic Realism
Action/Adventure
Connections
Social/Psychological Themes
To read more or to enter the Somerset Awards, click here.
Of course, here we want to focus on the women’s fiction portion of that, though there is overlap. Somerset’s first novel that won him critical acclaim was Liza of Lambeth, (1897) which propelled him to become one of the highest paid authors of the turn of the century. He was inspired to write this novel while he was working as an obstetric clerk and medical student at a hospital in a working-class district of London. Somerset is known for his “shrewd understanding of human nature.Britannica
In the novel, Liza, like many women in novels of this era, has her life dictated by the men who surround her, unable to break free of the desires and expectations that surround her, ultimately leading to her death. This examination of consent and the harmfulness of denying women agency can be seen reflected in the urgency of the suffrage movement.
With his story of Liza, Somerset focuses on the hardships women face, especially concerning domestic violence and abuse. He highlights the lack of consequences men face for treating women like animals, and the ways in which people ignore clear signs of abuse as something that isn’t their problem or maybe even deserved. The novel Somerset writes is a critique of the time in which he lives, but is it women’s fiction?
Almost there…
Probably not by today’s standard.
Women’s fiction is difficult to define. Generally, we think Amy Sue Nathan did a good job in this article here, but our take is a little more personal. First, we do think that for a book to be considered in the genre of women’s fiction, it obviously has to focus on women. The next point is that the plot progresses alongside the narrator’s self, whether that be self-discovery, self-preservation, or even perhaps self-destruction (though storylines with a negative outcome can be difficult to fit into this genre).
Since Somerset’s telling of Liza’s story focuses on the ways in which she is denied agency rather than the ways in which she can focus on the self
The struggle with whether or not a book is women’s fiction resolves around the fact that the protagonist must be the one who, as Nathan says, “saves herself.”
The driving force of women’s fiction is the motivation of the main character to get herself from point A to point B to point C, learning and changing and growing and making mistakes along the way. What makes a women’s fiction main character tick is the methods by which she learns and changes and grows and makes mistakes. – Amy Sue Nathan
Even a little growth
Since the focus of women’s fiction is often growth, unhappy endings don’t always necessarily fit. Of course, endings that aren’t unhappy won’t automatically be happy, and women’s fiction often ends up with a complex ending that leaves the reader thoughtful and reflective on their own growth as they read along with the main character.
Of course a book that is considered women’s fiction can have many other themes, and could even fit into other Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) beyond the Somerset Awards. You can see the different genres in the books below:
HARD CIDER by Barbara Stark-Nemon
Women’s Literature, Literary, Women’s Fiction
Grand Prize Winner in Somerset Awards (2018)
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.
FROM LIBERTY to MAGNOLIA: In SEARCH of the AMERICAN DREAMby Janice Ellis, Ph.D.
Black History, Discrimination & Racism, Memoir, Non-Fiction
Grand Prize Winner in Journey Awards (2019)
As a black woman on a cotton farm in Mississippi in the 1960s, Janice Ellis could have resigned herself to a life full of status quo: never speaking up for herself, never speaking out against injustice or racism. Instead, she never let unsettling times define her or hold her back, even as a witness to some of the ugliest racial violence this country has seen. In her candid and thought-provoking memoir, From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream, Ellis vividly depicts her life in the South during the height of the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights movements.
Through fluid and skillful writing, Ellis recounts the battles she encountered due to her skin color or due to her gender: an abusive husband, discouragement to further her education, sexual and racial discrimination in the workplace, a lack of support from friends and family when she runs for election. Despite these mounting obstacles, she goes on to earn her Ph.D., lands leadership roles and furthers her career, and even runs for mayor in a major US city. Her faith in God and her unwavering belief that the American Dream should be accessible and attainable to everyone are what lead her.
WE DID WHAT WE COULD by Nancy H. Wynen
Historical Fiction, WWII Women’s Fiction, Literary Fiction
Nancy Wynen’s We Did What We Could is a well-conceived, smart, character-driven novel set across a grand European landscape. Here a formidable trio of young women groomed for mere social status demonstrates their strength, endurance, and courage as they move beyond the walls of academia to experience careers. The three must also deal with relationships, family expectations, and life issues amidst the often devastating and upending climate of war.
Lady Archer is a widow from the Great War. As Assistant Head Mistress at St. Martin’s School, she feels girls should receive solid educations and prepare for real professions. With her high level of social ties, Archer looks for “future perfect leaders” within each new graduating class, possessing ideal traits of intelligence and creativity. In May of 1936, Archer sets her sights on three such proteges whose memorable antics foretell their potential for more significant life accomplishments.
The SHAPE of the ATMOSPHEREby Jessica Dainty
Literary, Psychology, Women’s Fiction
Jessica Dainty’s, The Shape of the Atmosphere is remarkable for its startling realism, its gritty young heroine, and its hopeful conclusion.
When Gertie’s father and sister are killed in an accident on Gertie’s sixteenth birthday in 1957, she is left with one cherished memory: viewing the heavens with her father on the night of the world-changing Sputnik flight.
After the funerals, Gertie wounds herself as a way of coping with her inner anguish, after which her alcohol-addicted mother commits her to an insane asylum. Such institutions were considered modern and scientifically advanced for their time, but as author Jessica Dainty frankly depicts, Gertie’s new home is a combination prison and torture chamber. The naïve but intelligent girl soon becomes acquainted with such therapies as immersion in icy cold water and electroshock (both designed to calm the inmates), as she gradually gets to know her fellow patients, the women on Ward 2.
DISOWNED – The RED-HEELED REBELSSeries Novel One by Tikiri
Women’s Adventure, Thriller/Suspense, International Crime
Spanning three continents and taking on crucial issues of child marriage and human trafficking, Disowned features a brave teen heroine struggling against international criminality with nothing but her wits and grit.
Asha, born in Tanzania, is still a child when her parents are tragically killed while on a family safari in Kenya. Within a short period of time she is transported to Goa, India, to live with relatives she has never met. Her grandmother is an angry, culture-bound crone, her aunt and cousin living, as Asha now must, under the old woman’s seemingly heartless sway.
PECCADILLO at the PALACE: An Annie Oakley Mystery by Kari Bovée
Historical Thrillers, Women’s Historical Fiction, Biographical Fiction
Grand Prize Winner in Goethe Awards (2019)
Kari Boveé’s Peccadillo at the Palace, the second book in the Annie Oakley Mystery series, is a historical, mystery thriller extraordinaire. Fans of both genres will thrill at Boveé’s complex plot that keeps us guessing from its action-packed beginning to the satisfying reveal at the end.
The book opens with the Honorable Colonel Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show to England on a voyage to perform for Queen Victoria. They are not on the high seas long, when Annie’s beloved horse, Buck, jumps overboard. Her husband and the Queen’s loyal servant, Mr. Bhakta, jump in to save the horse, or was Mr. Bhakta already dead before he reached the water? Thus, begins the mystery of who killed Mr. Bhakta, leaving all to wonder, is the Queen safe?
We appreciate you spending time with us in celebration of International Women’s Day!
Looking to join the Chanticleer family?
Register for VCAC 21 here! Registration will include access to video recordings of the conference. April 21- 25, 2021. Multichannel Marketing for Authors and Intermediate and Advanced Writing Craft
See all our Chanticleer International Book Awards here.
Chanticleer’s own online community offering a private place to discuss craft and marketing with authors, in addition to receiving steep discounts on many Chanticleer services. Read more here.
As we step toward Valentine’s in quarantine, we might be a little further from our loved ones than normal, but hopefully that doesn’t mean we’re further away from love. Just like we can stay in touch with each other in different ways, we can take a moment to appreciate the different types of love we still have access to.
Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else. Like all young men, you greatly exaggerate the difference between one young woman and another…. And the only way to make sure of that is to keep changing the man; for the same man can never keep it up. – George Bernard Shaw
Now we like Shaw for his obscure connection to our Chatelaine Awards, which you can read about here (the long and short of it is that Shaw based Eliza Doolittle’s character from My Fair Lady off of Jane Morris, the woman, Jane Morris, in the Chatelaine portrait by Dante Rossetti).
Anyway, Shaw’s opinion on the ability of men to offer variety aside, did you know the Greeks have seven different names for love? Let’s dive in!
The Greeks Seven Names for LOVE with Recommended Book Titles from Chanticleerian Authors whose works we love.
1) Eros:
Eros is what we normally think of when we first hear the word love, the romantic and the passionate. Here are some great titles we recommend for the Eros readers out there.
Heart of a Few by Jon Duncan: It isn’t distance that makes the heart grow fonder in this novel, but the thrill of trying to save the world from fascism in WWII. Here the aristocratic Livy Ashford falls for pilot Jamie Wallace. Like the couple’s passion for each other, the reader’s own delight will draw them through this book in a flash!
The Skeptical Physick by Gail Avery Halverson: Fire, plague? Nothing can keep these Simon McKensie and Catherine Abbott apart! Gail Avery Halverson dives deep into the romance and the historical details that inspired the background setting for this whole novel. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Chatelaine Awards
2) Philia:
Philia is more of the love for our intimates and friends, those who we choose to keep close to us. Titles for the friendly readers out there.
Victorian Town by Nancy Throne: A Time Traveling young woman finds friendship and joy in the past. Abby Parker never quite felt she belonged at home, but a magic ring that transports her back in time gives her a chance to make real connections and stand out in a time where outspoken women are often pushed to the side. First Place Category Winner in the Dante Rossetti Awards
Mischief and Mayhem by L.E. Rico: Jameson O’Halloran might be surrounded by steamy looking men, but don’t be fooled. This story focuses most on the ties of family and the family we choose as we move through this veil of tears to live our best life. First Place Category Winner in the Chatelaine Awards
3) Ludus
Ludus is a close cousin of Eros, the playful, flirtatious love that is a little harder to make work over a Zoom room. For all you sassy flirts, we recommend the following
Love’s Misadventures by Cheri Champagne: The title says it all as you jump into Miss Anna Bradley’s hurried search for a husband, being in danger of forever living as a spinster at the ripe old age of 25. Written in the tradition of Jane Austen for the modern reader, this novel features debonair gentlemen who can keep their distance and pack a picnic, while delightful friendships make up a wonderful background cast of characters. First Place Category Winner in the Chatelaine Awards
Secrets Revealed by Kate Vale: Sometimes what’s meant to be fun and easy turns into something more, as happens when Owen Haskins and Faith Russell’s initial tense relationship breaks through to romantic as the casual adversaries turn into casual lovers and then maybe more. First Place Category Winner in the Chatelaine Awards
4) Storge
Storge is the unconditional love that we hope comes from family, chosen or otherwise. These titles are great reads for those who love family connection.
Promise of Tomorrow by T.K. Conklin: When Shyfawn Tucker’s adventure with her friend Mabel leads to disaster, the two need to figure out how to survive on their own. Meanwhile, Shyfawn’s sister Jo isn’t the type to sit around while her family is kidnapped. A story rich in romance, but that explores the ties that bind family together and what it means to find the best in everyone while still being true to yourself.
Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes you Knew by Ellen Notbohm: A beautiful book for parents who are struggling to better understand their children. Probably the highlight of the list is 10. “Love me unconditionally.” Don’t base approval on an “if” along with an emphasis on people with autism being whole and not promoting a harmful narrative of fixing people. A thoughtful look at the ways we can unconditionally accept people regardless of difference. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Nonfiction Instructional & Insight Awards
5) Philautia
Philautia is probably the most forgotten love we need to try and remember, which is self-love.
Hard Cider by Barbara Stark-Nemon: After building up a family and life that she can be proud of, Abbie Rose isn’t one to call it quits. She embarks on a totally new career path to keep living life to the fullest and be the truest version of herself that she can be. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Somerset Awards
The Knock by Carolyn Watkins: Sometimes understanding your family’s love means loving yourself when they can’t be there. Carolyn Watkin’s beautiful look at childhood with a deployed parent will tug on your heartstrings. First Place Category Winner in the Little Peeps Awards
6) Pragma
Pragma is another good overlapping love that’s usually connect to other loves. This one encompasses committed, companionate love.
Seize the Flame by Lynda J. Cox: A story of forgiveness and finding a way to love again. Will Drake Adams and Jessie Depre be able to overcome the traumas of their past and their current betrayals to find love together again?
My Sister’s Super Skills by Lauren Mosbeck: Sometimes commitment and love mean helping our family through tough times. Mosbek does an excellent job laying out fun tools to help kids deal with anxiety and depression, especially with the current state of the world. First Place Category Winner in the Little Peeps Awards
7) Agápe
Agápe: The last and biggest love that is empathetic and universal love.
Blossom – The Wild Ambassador of Tewksbury by Anna Carner: The story of how Carner and her husband took a deer into their family and then try to raise awareness to keep her safe. Balanced with reflection of Carner’s own youth, a beautiful reminder that we are all connected with the tone of a nature thriller. First Place Category Winner in the Journey Awards
The Last Outrageous Woman by Jessica Stone: Sometimes a past lover’s dream can take you places you never dreamed possible. That’s what happens eighty-six-year-old Mattie decides to embark on a worldwide adventure with her best friend Edna and Edna’s niece. It’s a whirlwind of fun where each woman seeks fulfillment in their own way while jumping into an international stage and connecting with the wider world at large.
Do you have another type of LOVE to add to the list? We do!
BIBLIOPHILIA – The LOVE of BOOKS
Are you a Bibliophile? We are!
Here are some of Kiffer’s favorite earworms (aka lyrics) concerning love.
Because all you need is love. Love is all you need. The Beatles
Love will bring us together. Captain and Tennille
Love lifts us up where we belong. Joe Cocker and Buffy Sainte-Marie
What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Hal David
Happy Valentines Day! From all of us Chanticleer Reviews!
Love comes in many forms and so do our contests! Submit here! Want to tell us about some of the favorite loves you’ve read? Talk to us on Twitter, Facebook, or join us here on The Roost.
In the unique and compelling voice of an aging woman teetering on the edge of financial ruin, Maggie St. Claire’s debut novel, Martha, takes the reader from affluent residential areas of Los Angeles to its urban streets of despair, shadowing a 71-year-old, retired bank teller as she comes to grips with the challenges and adversities that threaten her existence.
This is the story of Martha Moore, many years divorced, estranged from her only child, and living a lie, as she enters her golden years. The most important things in her life, outside her pride in her desirable Hancock Park bungalow, are her book club friends. She attends their meetings dressed in her finest, projecting what she hopes is the image of a well-educated, well-to-do, Los Angeles dowager. The three wealthy women who comprise the remainder of the group are her best, perhaps only friends, and sometimes that’s a stretch.
In reality, anxiety and fear permeate her psyche as Martha struggles with uncertainty, failing health, food insecurity, and dwindling finances. Impoverished and alone, she is learning to live by her wits, filching food from many sources and raising money in unorthodox ways.
Martha’s handbag is filled with things from the kitchen that will never be missed when she leaves book club meetings and after times she volunteers at her church—she helps with the food bank and clothing donations, earning stars in her crown. She’s the sweet little old lady schmoozing her way to the buffet at local weddings and/or funerals, or the seasoned businesswoman whose nametag has been misplaced at conventions and rallies—a chameleon in sheep’s clothing, one might say.
Such events are her food sources. Of course, they don’t pay the overdue bills or the taxes. She worries how long it will be before she loses her home.
Then, seemingly, the planets align.
After finding her friend’s large emerald and diamond ring on the bathroom counter at a book club meeting, Martha sticks it in her pocket, intending to return it. Later, at home, she finds it still in her pocket. She had intended to return it—hadn’t she? Conflicted, she vacillates between fears of losing face or being thought of as a thief, and the urge to keep the ring until she can sell it and raise some badly needed cash. When she decides, the die is cast. She’ll sell the ring somewhere in one of the many jewelry venues abounding in the city.
Because she doesn’t dare, doesn’t know-how, and fears being found out, it was a fruitless decision until an indigent, young woman with her own problems enters Martha’s life. Then, everything changes …
Throughout the story, the direction of Martha’s life has been dictated by both changing circumstances and the choices they engendered. Ultimately, she must make a choice that will permanently change the rest of her life.
While the reader may “bump” out of the story by grammatical and formatting errors, they are drawn back in by the author’s complex characters, vivid imagery, and authentic dialogue and setting. In Martha, Maggie St. Claire has deftly chronicled troubling social issues that often go unnoticed in today’s world, within the context of one woman’s life.
More than just a good read, Martha is a relevant, provocative, and memorable story that lingers long after the book is closed.
Martha won First in Category in the CIBA 2019 Somerset Awards for Literary fiction.
Camille Crossan appears to be living an idyllic life in Claire Fullerton’s poignant, evocative novel, Mourning Dove. Living in a superbly appointed mansion in “magnolia-lined and manicured” Memphis during the 1960s and 1970s, Camille’s family life shimmers with Southern charm. Her mother, Posey, usually outfitted in a Lily Pulitzer shift, Pappagallo shoes, and a signature shade of pink lipstick, is a beauty with the wryest sense of humor and steel determination.
As a young girl, Camille, known as Millie, sees how those in her mother’s social orbit are captivated by her aura, how men are easily seduced by her flirtatious charm. Society is a game played by those who know its rules, and Posey means to win. Every time. She, however, isn’t even the charismatic one in the family – that’s Finley, Millie’s older brother, who brims with intelligence, startling good looks, and messianic magnetism. A peek beneath the shiny surface of gracious Southern living, however, reveals enormous cracks in the foundation of the Crossan family. One of the first things the adult Millie tells us about her brother is that he is dead. She takes the reader back, though, to their childhood and coming of age, a tumultuous journey that both binds and separates the siblings.
During her first decade, Millie’s family was living in Minneapolis with her tender-hearted, intellectual father who succumbed to alcoholism. Loss of money and, worse, the accompanying loss of social status, motivates Posey to uproot her children and move them to her childhood home in Memphis, a palatial mansion filled with antiques and portraits of forebears. It’s a volatile time, inside and outside the house, as centuries-old Southern traditions clash with the youth counterculture.
Millie watches as her mother holds court during daily cocktail hours, a prospective second husband soon on the reel, and Finley, a gifted guitarist, plunges into the local music scene. But what role will she play? It’s difficult for her to see herself entirely separate from her brother for whom she has, “…a love devoid of envy, tied up in shared survival and my inability to see myself as anything more than the larger-than-life Finley’s little sister.” Millie will grapple with her identity and question her destiny, whether she’ll be a bride in the Southern belle mode of her mother or if she’ll be the blossom that falls far from the magnolia tree. Meanwhile, Finley’s charisma both explodes and implodes in shocking and dangerous ways as he becomes revered by a group of people with no connection to the gentrified life. Like Millie, the reader is transfixed and apprehensive about where this less-traveled road will take Finley. Although the reader knows his grim fate from the outset of the book, his storyline is so engrossing that no drama is lost.
Author, Claire Fullerton, is an enchantress with prose. The writing in this novel will cause you to stop, reread sentences, savor them, and note their architecture. Scenes sparkle as she masterfully summons moods and atmosphere. The reader can see Millie’s lovely but haunting home, and smell the rich fragrance of dogwood on a soft spring day. Fullerton has a keen ear for witty, authentic dialogue, and she deftly reveals much about personalities via conversation. It’s difficult to take leave of such a vivid, fully realized world. Fortunately for readers, Fullerton has written several books, opportunities to spend more time in her richly crafted worlds.
Mourning Dove won First Place in the CIBA 2018 Somerset Awards for Literary Fiction.
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.
After finishing a successful career in education and raising her three sons, Abbie Rose now sees an opportunity to create a new segment of her life’s work in a blossoming business venture. She’s set to take on this new venture by herself, determined to succeed, with or without her husband’s support. Yet, while she lays out her meticulous plans for her cider business, life keeps happening around her, attempting to derail Abbie Rose at every turn.
Hard Cider is a well-researched second novel for Stark-Nemon, providing intricate details on everything from orchard planning and cider creation to knitted handicrafts. Stark-Nemon leaves no stone unturned and is meticulous with her descriptions of the lands and seasons of Michigan. So much so, that readers may leave this story ready to travel to this Midwest region and will find familiarity in the real-life scenes based on her elaborate imagery.
The story builds slowly, relying upon richly descriptive settings to create the Stone family and the world in which they live. The tidbits of information presented about infertility, a shocking house-fire, parenting a troubled child, and marital woes are intriguing, and some may find, too brief, leaving the reader wanting more. Which isn’t altogether a bad thing. In fact, the strength of this work is that the reader is left wanting more, imagining what might happen next for this cast of characters we’re not quite ready to leave behind.
A central theme of this down-to-earth story is the word new. New business ventures, new life changes, new family mixed with old, and new lives for the Stone family. Abbie Rose handles each of these life-altering adaptions with courage and a reflecting thoughtfulness. She teaches those around her what it means to manage life with a grace we can all hope to emulate.
All in all, Hard Cider is a thoughtful literary novel of one woman and her ambitions to rise above what life has handed her to create an experience of beauty, one that is formed not void of hardship, but despite it. Recommended.
Hard Cider won Grand Prize in the CIBA 2018 Somerset Awards for Literary Fiction.
Learning about girls, boys, and love is a part of growing up. It’s these lessons that shape a person’s future and mold the soul. Authors V. & D. Povall show that even when forgotten, the Secrets of Innocence have an astounding way of making themselves known. And, what do these secrets reveal? In this second book of the suspense-mystery series, The Perils of a Reluctant Psychic, Sarah’s psychic powers reveal clues that weave a gripping story of discovery.
Sarah Thompson, although still learning how to manage her powerful psychic abilities, emerged stronger after her adventures in The Gift of the Twin Houses. She opened her heart to her new family and left behind the fear of being different. It’s when she finds an unconscious man on the side of the road that the peaceful life she yearns for is sorely tested. This man has been severely beaten and cannot remember anything, not even his name. The victim finds a friend in Sarah, and in a volunteer nurse who names him Daniel after a character in the stories she reads to comfort him during his recovery.
Meanwhile, Sarah’s supernatural abilities conjure up a movie in her subconscious. It shows clues to an intriguing puzzle. Does this story tie in with the man she saved? Who is this movie spirit that is communicating with her, and why? Despite the impromptu scenes playing out sans warning, she is determined to help Daniel discover who he is and what has happened to him.
Sheriff Williams is investigating Daniel’s assault case, and refuses any help from Sarah. He is suspicious of her powers. Undeterred, Sarah and her husband Conrad pursue their own independent search for the truth. When Sarah discovers and confronts the Sheriff about his own disturbing secret, he is stunned that she could possibly know what he has successfully kept hidden for so many years. Even more surprising is that through her powers he sees a glimmer of hope in the truth to his Secrets of Innocence.
The authors are a husband and wife writing team that has also authored screenplays, science fiction and murder-mystery novels, in addition to this suspense mystery series. Their background in different cultures and experiences leap off the pages of this sophisticated, character study that is set within a spellbinding puzzle. The writing is imaginative, vibrant, and exciting. The anticipation of what may come binds you to the story, as it builds to final revelations which are breathtaking.
A compelling examination of the depths of deception, regret, and violence that can motivate a person’s actions, whether for noble or ignoble purposes. Secrets of Innocence reveals the profound impact people have on each other.
Secrets of Innocence won 1st Place in the 2018 CIBAs, Somerset Awards for Literary Fiction.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2021 Somerset Awards Book Awards. The deadline for submissions is November 30th, 2021. The winners will be announced in April 2022.
Heart of a Few by Jon Duncan
In the unique and compelling voice of an aging woman teetering on the edge of financial ruin, Maggie St. Claire’s debut novel, Martha, takes the reader from affluent residential areas of Los Angeles to its urban streets of despair, shadowing a 71-year-old, retired bank teller as she comes to grips with the challenges and adversities that threaten her existence.
