The Dante Rossetti Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Young Adult Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Maryanne Melloan Wood’s book, Sour Flower will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Dante Rossetti 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!

The 2023 Dante Rossetti Winners were announced at the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here!

Join us in celebrating the 2023 First Place Dante Rossetti Winners!

Kerry Chaput – Chasing Eleanor

Newly orphaned Magnolia Parker must protect her sick little brothers, but when the authorities send the boys to an unknown orphan asylum, Magnolia calls on her unwavering grit to bring them home. She’s lost everything but still has a secret weapon-a promise from Eleanor Roosevelt, the most famous woman in America. Setting out on a cross country quest, she befriends two unlikely travelers: Hop, a migrant worker with a big heart, and Red, a young girl traumatized into silence. Hunger and dust storms aren’t the only dangers this found family faces on the rails. After an assault, they’re forced to outrun the police, all while trying to track down the First Lady. But time is running out and Magnolia’s chance to reunite her siblings depends on one thing-finding Eleanor.

Award-winning historical author Kerry Chaput is back with a touching story of loss and survival set in America’s Great Depression. With vivid details and unforgettable characters, Chasing Eleanor takes readers on an adventure of the heart, where a young woman finds hope in the most unlikely places. A touching tribute to the great Eleanor Roosevelt, this adventure-filled story will entertain and inspire all ages.

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Lynn Yvonne Moon – Fish Scales

How do we face life when everything we knew to be the truth was in fact a lie? If there was a God, why did he allow her to die? Jarrod must travel to Hawaii to bury his love in an exotic world only to return to solve the mystery behind her sudden death.

Fighting off the grief, denial, and anger, Jarrod must bargain with God to help him fight off his depression while accepting Dru’s death. If he loved her enough when she was alive, could he love her enough to let her go?

Walk with Jarrod and Dru as they explore the wonders and excitement of young love. Experience the newness and freshness that we’ve all but forgotten.

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Sophia Krich-Brinton – A Song Like The Wind

Manuscript

J.A. Nielsen – The Claiming

Spense is the unfortunate younger son of Lord Ferrous, with a growing talent for the magical arts and a larger talent for finding trouble, most often in the form of botched spells. Dewy is a Fae princess who tends to disappoint her aunt, the Summer Queen, through her-ahem-carefree life choices. A chance encounter-and another botched spell-leaves Spense bonded to Dewy and able to control her will. But it’s a violation of magic. Not to mention devastating to Human-Fae relations. To free Dewy and save Spense’s kingdom, they must journey through faerie territories-facing feral magic, treacherous wilderness, and their own distractible hearts. Unless that’s just the effect of The Claiming…

From Chanticleer:

The illegitimate son of a human king accidentally binds himself to a Fae princess in J.A. Nielsen’s YA adventure, The Claiming. As war bears down on the kingdom of Telridge, can the two of them break the spell in time?

Lord Ferrous, ruler of Telridge, smells conflict coming for his people. Even so, he denies a mysterious request from the king of the Winter Fae, and sets his sons to prepare their land for war. His eldest, Prince Dirk, gathers his knights and begins to evacuate the common people to the protection of Telridge castle. His younger son Spense, born out of wedlock to the castle’s head cook, uses his finicky magic to Claim a bridge over a powerful river. If he succeeds, the passing will be barred to their enemies. But he fails to realize that the powerful living force he encounters isn’t the bridge at all.

Dewy, crown princess of the Summer Fae, is Claimed instead of the bridge. Her aunt, Lady Radiant, must exile her from their lands. While Dewy’s careless spirit chafed under Radiant’s authority, she grieves for her lost home.

Read More Here

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Trish MacEnulty – Cinnamon Girl

When her step-grandmother, a retired opera singer, dies of cancer in 1970, 15-year-old Eli Burnes runs away with a draft-dodger, thinking she’s on the road to adventure and romance. Instead she’s embroiled in a world of underground Weathermen, Black Power revolutionaries, snitches and shoot-first police. Eventually Eli is rescued by her father, who turns out both more responsible and more revolutionary than she’d imagined. But when he gets in trouble with the law, she finds herself on the road again, searching for the allies who will help her learn how to save herself.

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Strider SR Klusman – Luna (Rhone and Stone Book 2)

When Rhone leaves his home in the desert badlands, he finds himself in the Capital Stronghold, a big city where the styles take a bit of getting used to. With Aundrea’s help, he’s enrolled in the OPR’s academy, learning what it takes to be an effective agent. Far too soon it’s graduation, and time for his first assignment.

The little harbor town of Corgy isn’t much to look at, but Rhone finds his cover story as one of the gentry is useful, even if the mayor develops an instant dislike to him.

As an agent, it’s his job to fix problems, but nobody said anything about pirates. When Captain Black, of The Backwater Mistress mentioned, “If you could see the action, as from the eye of a bird flying over, you would be one step ahead of the game,” Rhone took it to heart, and with the help of Stone, his unique friend, and Bella, the erstwhile waitress at The Common House, develops an unexpected and rather up-lifting method to do just that. Whether he survives it, is another matter.

From Chanticleer:

Luna, the second book in Strider S.R. Klusman’s YA Rhone and Stone Series, follows Rhone and his alien partner Stone as they develop a ship that can sail through the air.

The two train to become agents for the Office of Public Recrimination, urged to join by their friend – and now boss – Aundrea. Rhone struggles through training with the help of his trusty partner, but a much more difficult test remains before them – their first assignment.

Aundrea sends them to Corgy, a port town, without explaining their mission. But it doesn’t take long for Rhone to encounter troubles from shore and sea alike.

He and Stone meet Mayor Dugan, who takes an instant dislike for Rhone, posing as a wealthy merchant’s son. But it’s his front, designed so by the ladies of the OPR, and commands a great deal of respect and authority from the locals, if not Bella. Sometimes it’s difficult not to forget his actual purpose for being at Corgy. As an agent of the OPR, he must solve the town’s greatest problem, a rash of pirate attacks on Corgy’s vital ocean-borne trade; if they continue, Corgy won’t survive.

Read More Here

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Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2023 Dante Rossetti First Place Winners!

Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards!

Got a great Fiction Book? The 2024 Dante Rossetti Book Awards are open through the end of September !

Submissions don’t officially close until the date on the website changes!

Submit to the Dante Rossetti Awards Today!