LOUISVILLE, Ky. - s4story -- Readers' Favorite has awarded "Beautiful and Terrible Things" by S.M. Stevens an Honorable Mention in the Fiction-Social Issues category in its 2024 Readers' Favorite International Book Award Contest.

Readers' Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. Thousands of authors from more than a dozen countries enter the annual awards contest. Books are evaluated using a comprehensive judging process with detailed scoring, and awards are not given at every level of every category if no book scores high enough.

"The fact that they're not filling slots but instead are rating the quality of each and every book, and you only win an award if your book scores high enough, makes this recognition particularly meaningful. I'm also thrilled to win in the Social Issues category, as two of my goals in writing 'Beautiful and Terrible Things' were to remind readers that there are always real people behind the statistics, and that there are many paths individuals can take to greater social engagement," Stevens said.

"Beautiful and Terrible Things brilliantly articulates contemporary social issues," wrote Ruffina Oserio in her Readers' Favorite five-star review of "Beautiful and Terrible Things. "[This] is a compelling literary novel with resonant themes and characters that stay with readers after the last page is turned," Oserio said.

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The entire review is here. The full list of 2024 contest winners is here.

"Beautiful and Terrible Things" (ISBN 978-1-68513-447-1, 389 pages, $24.95) was published by Black Rose Writing on July 18, 2024. The book was one of seven finalists in the General Fiction category of the 2024 American Fiction Awards, as announced in July. The contemporary novel has earned five-star reviews from Indies Today, Readers' Favorite, Reader Views and Reedsy Discovery.

The book is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook formats on sites including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Target and Walmart; and distributed by Lightning Source, Ingram Book Company and Amazon.

S.M. Stevens began writing fiction during back-to-back health crises: a shattered pelvis and ovarian cancer. She is the author of the adult contemporary novel "Horseshoes and Hand Grenades" (TouchPoint Press, 2019) and the novelette, "The Wallace House of Pain," which won a 2023 American Fiction Award and a First Place Chanticleer International Book Award. "The Wallace House of Pain" features the same characters as "Beautiful and Terrible Things."

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Stevens is on the board of the Monadnock Writers' Group and a member of the New Hampshire Writers' Project. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University in English literature. She lives in Washington, N.H.; was raised in Gorham, Maine; and lived in Massachusetts for 35 years. Learn more at www.AuthorSMStevens.com.

The Reader's Favorite International Book Award Contest receives submissions from independent authors, small publishers, and publishing giants such as Random House, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, with contestants that range from first-time, self-published authors to New York Times bestsellers like James Rollins and celebrity authors like Jim Carrey and Eriq La Salle.

Readers' Favorite of Louisville, Ky., has been recognized with the "Best Websites for Authors" and "Honoring Excellence" awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are fully accredited by the Better Business Bureau with an A+ rating, which is rare among book review and book award contest companies.