Rating: 
Summary: A Heartwarming Soulgasm..
Review: Marianne Martin's latest novel, "Mirrors", is the kind of literary prose that tenderly pulls at the strings of your heart and the deep recesses of your mind in regards to love, duty, and friendship. With her well-crafted ability to bring us into the very soul of her characters, Martin introduces us to Jean Carson; a special type of teacher that students look up to and who goes the extra mile to make a difference everyday in their lives. Jean's passion for her career and the stability of her life is upturned when she must face coming out after being in the comfort zone of a heterosexual marriage. Her struggle; a not so uncommon, yet life-altering one, is paralleled in the personal strife of a young, female student who is victimized from being seemingly different to her peers. Shayna Bradley is a confident, sharp lawyer with a sense of justice and a desire to help mothers and their children. Shayna is the kind of friend any woman would want in their back court, but when it comes to relationships work tends to run into over time and romance lingers on the sidelines. Despite this she is grounded in her loyalty to family and friends and drawn deeply to the needs of both. Intertwined by a cherished friendship and lined up together in the battle of conformity versus differentiation, Jean and Shayna must each view what is mirrored in the reflective pool of their hearts. Like soup, Ms Martin once again manages to warm the soul with a stirring, personal look at two women who share a similar consciousness. This is the type of good literature that delves deep, splinters and fragments into a thousand glass pieces for each reader to see a portion of themselves glimmering back from within its pages.
Rating:
Summary: Heads Above
Review: MIRRORS is the kind of story and Marianne Martin the kind of writer that raises this novel heads above the typical lesbian romance.
As a reader I want to know what makes characters tick. Martin understands that. She doesn't tell me that Shayna is a workaholic, she shows me what her days and nights are like and lets me into her head so that I understand why. She makes me feel the love between Jean and her husband and the guilt that Jean holds in her heart. I went to church with Jean and listened to the struggle that she has fought in her head since she was a young girl. These are not characters anymore, they are people that I know and care about. When a crisis arises that threatens their happiness and challenges their courage I worry, and find myself wondering what I would do if it were me in their shoes. All this because Martin knew how to put me right in the middle of their world. I want them to be happy, I want them to be courageous. And I don't know if either is possible for them until the last page of the book. That's why this is such a fine novel and Martin the very best in her genre.
Rating: 
Summary: coming out in the heartland
Review: Opening three years after the close of Dawn of the Dance, and set in a small city in Michigan, Mirrors focuses on secondary characters introduced in Dawn: high school teacher, Jean Carson and feminist attorney, Shayna Bradley. Mirrors is well written with realistic characters and depicts important, painful issues for gays and lesbians living in the more conservative regions of the country. Especially those with careers in public education. The novel opens with the new history teacher, Dan Sanders,being fired because the high school principal decided Sanders was gay. Sanders, we're told was not "obvious" nor had he behaved inappropriately to any of the students. Indeed he actually had students liking history. But teaching performance is not the issue. The principal doesn't want queers working for him. As in most of America there is no protection for gay teachers regarding discrimination in employment.Jean is a thirty-something, physical education teacher. She has spent the last 12 years married to Ken and devoting her time and energy to her students. The latter has helped her avoid some realities about the former. Namely Ken's desire for children and Jean's reluctance for them. It turns out that Jean's avoidance of additional commitment to Ken is rooted in her ambivalence regarding her attractions toward women. This is especially true of her feelings for her best friend, Shayna. A relatively open lesbian attorney who specializes in assisting women in legal struggles, Shayna uses her work to avoid really committing to her girlfriend. Despite their years of perfecting defense mechanisms, neither woman is quite prepared for her feelings for the other. Feelings that grow as both disentangle themselves from dying romantic relationships. Coming out is a process, not an event, and it's rarely easy. That's one of the themes of Mirrors. Indeed the book provides three reflections on coming out via Jean, Shayna and Lindy, a student at the high school where Jean teaches. Lindy has been struggling with her own sexuality and suffers the routinely harassing attention of several of the male jocks at the school. She will ultimately be attacked because her baby butch appearance threatens some of her classmates. It is Lindy's story that will force Jean to face her own closet, accept the gift of Shayna's love, and risk her job, in the hope of saving other young students. Martin also provides a mirror for society to consider its role in protecting our young people from bigotry and hate (not to mention rearing them to express said hatred). Mirrors is not my favorite Martin novel; --I prefer her Clan of the Doe stories with Sage Bistro, et al.-- however it is a very good story that can not be told too often. Look into Mirrors, you will no doubt find yourself reflected there as well.
Rating:
Summary: A new classic
Review: Shayna Bradley has kept a secret for three years, her romantic feelings toward her best friend, Jean Carson. When Jean finally draws the courage to leave her comfortable but unfulfilling marriage, she must face her own secrets-feelings long buried under her teaching career and a hefty pile of Catholic doctrine. As these two unlikely partners come to terms with guilty pasts and face uncertain futures, their relationship must either grow or die. Filled with realistic subplots-sexual harassment, family tragedy, conditional love, and incest-MIRRORS is a story that could happen down the street or right next door. The characters are well defined and evolving, and the subtle scene descriptions transport the reader without slowing the novel's smooth pace. Ms. Martin has an uncanny knack for knowing what her readers want and she serves it up piping hot.
Rating: 
Summary: A great romance
Review: Shayna is a biracial attorney whose professional drive destroys every relationship she has. Her best friend Jean is a dedicated teacher whose marriage is crumbling. As Shayna realizes the depth of her feelings for Jean, she tries hard to not let them influence her actions, and she never imagines that the feelings could be reciprocated. After divorcing her husband, Jean has an epiphany about her life and her past, and discovers her attraction for Shayna, but can she change her attitudes and life to let this love exist? Marianne Martin's deligthful romance also features some challenging issues like race, and harassment in school systems, that enhance the burgeoning love story. Like most romance fiction, "Mirrors" skims the surface and doesn't delve too deeply or painfully into the characters's pasts, but instead the focus is on the love story of the two women. It's a well-written and lovely story that is sure to appeal to all readers of lesbian romance stories.
Rating:
Summary: What's Not to Like?
Review: Shayna is a dedicated child advocate attorney. She's strong of physique and character, with a large solid bi-racial family, and loyalty beyond question. Jean is the kind of teacher that I wish I could have gone to as a confused young lesbian. She is caring and insightful. Lying to herself and to those she loves has taken a terrible toll on her. She has a strong need to make a difference in the lives she touches. Author Marianne Martin has an attention to detail that gives me important insights into even her minor characters. I was given a look at a black father that I have never before been privy to. I felt the anguish of a man who is married to a lesbian. I saw a mother, steeped in the Catholic faith, and her need to mold her daughter's life. I was forced to re-visit the... confusion and fears of a teenage girl, and see how the ignorance of a school administration and a teacher's lack of courage put her life in jeopardy. I saw how all of this defined the lives of Jean and Shayna and I was allowed into their thoughts to see how they struggled to find themselves. Mirrors has everything that I look for in a good book: fine writing, three-dimensionsal characters, and believable story. I love this book. I love this writer.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book!
Review: Strong messages, well given. Love and life as only Marianne Martin can show it. Treat yourself to a wonderful book. My favorite of 2002.
Rating:
Summary: solid but slow
Review: The book is literate and the characters are interesting. In fact, I would have liked to have learned more about the women and spent less time in the high school gym playing badminton and on the plot thread concerning the student(s). The story drags there. In a novel this short I think the author needed every page she could get for character development. The book seemed to struggle a little over whether it was a romance or a social commentary on the pitfalls of our education systems. Having said that, there were good parts too. The love scenes were sensetive and well-drawn. The family dynmaic for both leads was compelling, if slightly short-changed for space. It reminded me a great deal of some of the movies you see on Lifetime or similar tv stations--decent, but a little slow for my taste.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: The struggle of this woman coming out of a heterosexual marriage is well done and similar to Through The Ruins by Stephen Hart- a suprior novel. And Mirrors does for women what Ruins does for men. I loved Mirros and felt it was a well-paced, well-thought out novel. It's worth the time and effort of reading!
Rating:
Summary: Delightful piece of fluff
Review: This book is light and easy reading. Very predictable all the way, there are no surprise twists or plot turns, but it's one of the better lesbian books I've read in a while. I prefer this one to her other book "Love In The Balance".
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