Red City Review is a newish online professional literary book review. They gave Time of Grace a 5-star review last month, and I was very pleased. But the icing on the cake was when I was informed a few days ago that Time of Grace was chosen as the Best Book of the Month for February 2014!

Here’s an excerpt from the review:

This novel is both moving and thought provoking, as the narrative succeeds at placing a story about a same-sex relationship in the distant past during a turbulent time in history with relative ease. Caroline and Grace are both fully imagined and realized characters upon the page that any reader will be able to relate with, as their desires and passions are described in such rich detail. West has a great ability of weaving in historical facts into her story, placing her characters right in the thick of a real life event. The juxtaposition across gender roles, class status, and sexuality causes nice boundaries for the conflicts that occur throughout the story. The novel balances the facts, fiction and romantic elements in a superb fashion. Although the book is relatively short, coming in at just around 260 pages, it is full of tantalizing plot lines and moments that will stay with the reader for a long time to come.

My thanks to the anonymous reviewer. Needless to say, I’m not associated with RCR in any way. I don’t often enter contests, and I can count the number of awards I’ve gotten on one hand. Since one of the criteria of the award was that the book stays “within the reader’s mind after the pages are done turning,” I’m thrilled that Time of Grace had that kind of impact.