Love in the Balance

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Connie Bradford and Kasey Hollander feel like real people with real issues and real lives. Both women are dealing with frustrating problems--Connie with a selfish pig of a boyfriend, and Kasey with the memory of love betrayed. Neither one of them has any idea how important the other will become as they begin to lean on one another to face difficult times.

Marianne Martin has a wonderful way with characters, relationships, and with the smooth-moving plot. It's no wonder that she is one of the most popular lesbian romance novelists around. I highly recommend LOVE IN THE BALANCE as well as all of her other novels.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST HAVE AND READ!
Review: From the 1st page I was hooked. Both characters are strong, independent women. The secondary characters are well written.
Marianne Martin is the most talented writer that I have read.
This is my all time favorite book!

Rating:
Summary: All-Time Favorite
Review: I admit I had pretty high expectations for this book after reading some of the reviews, but not even those account for the level of disappointment I had with this book. The characters are two-dimensional and unimaginative, and Ms. Martin provides no motivation for their actions or exploration of their emotions.

Also, while I usually commend authors for using current social problems to challenge their characters, there were times when I wasn't sure if I was reading a social commentary or a romance. The subplot involving a hate crime was written particularly unrealistically, ... .

Being neither a literary nor a romantic success this book fails to provide an reader satisfaction, and should be avoided at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: This Book Screams For A Sequel...
Review: I'll put this very succinctly... I want more. I read this book in an evening. My children were running through the house and the dog was barking, but I was so engrossed in this story I didn't notice a thing. This was my first Martin read and I can't wait to read her others.

Connie is a strong woman who appears mousey, but comes into her own and blossoms after meeting Kasey. Kasey appears strong, but her weaknesses surface after meeting Connie. They feel an immediate attraction, but take some time to consider the consequences of a relationship. To make matters worse, Kasey's friends are convinced Connie is straight, but Connie is determined to prove her love. These two women balance each other.

Great story, well written and believable. However, there was a little more male-bashing than necessary. Hey, they don't ring my bell, but they're not all bad. I give this one an enthusiastic 5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone who believes in love.

Rating:
Summary: Great Love Story
Review: If only I could tell anyone that is purchasing Lesbian movies to not to waset their money and instead purchase some of the wonderful novels about women loving women. This was a great love story. It was good for someone like me that needs to feel like there are other women out there that might be in their 30's and questioning whether that have been following there heart and loving naturally.

Rating:
Summary: Bumps on the way to the U-Haul
Review: Kasey and Connie seemed headed directly to a U-Haul, but life gets in the way. The storyline was refreshing, touching and skillfully delivered -- a far cry from the mediocre and dreary romances so often published in the 80s and early 90s.

Marianne Martin is a wonderful writer. I stopped at times to savor a turn of phrase, or to visualize a setting that was richly described. That makes a book a great experience for me. I haven't read Martin's other books ... but plan to rectify that immediately.

Rating:
Summary: All-Time Favorite
Review: Love in the Balance by Marianne Martin is my all-time favorite lesbian romance. I can't even count how many times I have read it or parts of it. The book was in shameful condition, dog-eared and stained with coffee, when I handed it to the author at a signing; but I wanted it signed. Ms Martin graciously smiled and told me it was the biggest compliment she had ever received. All I can say is that it is a compliment well deserved.

I am in so many ways like Connie Bradford, Ms. Martin could have been fictionalizing my story. I appreciate having the lesbian who has lived as a straight woman most of her life portrayed without the typical stereotyping. I am not confused or weak; I am not going to leave my relationship for a man. I am strong and confident, and committed to a woman partner. I thank Ms. Martin for letting the world know that lesbians like me exist.

As she does in each of her books, Ms Martin develops her characters with compassion and sensitivity. They are strong characters, trying to overcome their own shortcomings, sometimes with anger, sometimes with humor, but always with conviction. The plot is wonderfully atypical of lesbian romance, ripping events right from the newspaper headlines and demanding that the characters deal with them. Each time I read this book I come away with renewed courage and love (of course the love scenes have nothing to do with the latter).

I won't review the story itself since that has been done in other reviews, but I will add that I believe this is a story that will touch most reader's hearts. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A romantic tour de force ! Highly Recommended
Review: Such moments are rare indeed these days when one takes a book in the hand and is completely captivated by it after reading the first few pages. That happened to me recently when I started reading " Love In The Balance " by Marianne K. Martin. It is this tenderness of feeling, this feeling of "love" of which the novel is so full of, which moves me. For the violence that plays the secondary role in the novel, it is this abundant feeling of tenderness in the novel that the reader feels for the people, for Kasey, Connie, Sharon, Sage, Tom and Michael, Kasey's cousin Troy, and Donna and Evonne that has remained with me.

There are many other reasons why "Love In The Balance" is so special a book. It has many of the characteristics that elevate a book to the level of unforgettable literature. First of all there is this simple language. These days when doing acrobatics with words and language has become equivalent to paving new directions in the literary scene, it is heart warming to read a book in which straight forward language is used to convey what the author wants to say. And what messages are conveyed, what new ideas are unearthed! I am one of those readers who likes reading because of the power inherent in words. Whenever I read a new book, I always hope that the book contains sentences and words - at least a couple of them - that illuminate the heart and mind for a long time after reading, sentences which simply make life easier to live. There is a treasure of such sentences to be discovered in "Love In The Balance". For example, look at what Connie says to Tom,.."I've dealt with condensation and sexism. Being gay doesn't scare me. The thought of losing Kasey does." Courage is a very personal thing. Connie shows that when she goes to the lake to confront Kasey about their love. Connie is a very strong and Kasey matches her strength. Kasey the woman has come a long way from the withdrawn little tomboy who had struggled only for permission to develop her whole self, who had floated in oblivion between a part of society that rejected her strengths and desires and another that questioned her needs and tastes. And all the while she needed acceptance from both. Yet it had been an empowering journey. And somewhere along the way she had come to believe that the world must not be allowed to relate to a woman by who shared her bed-male or female. Two well developed characters shine throughout the book.

Then you are covered with words of love and lovemaking that brings real warmth without using explicit terminology, yet you are moved. And there is this most beautiful of all sentences, "A soul created in love, to be nourished by love," and "The slowness of their caresses nurtured not only their physical desires for each other but also a special span of time that had always been missing for both-a time that provided a tenderness she needed, a slowness, a crescendo of emotion," caused my inners to warm quickly.

My only comment and it isn't a negative one, is that I would have liked for Donna and Evonne to have appeared someplace in the first part of the book rather than the last third. I had to swallow hard at centuries old injustice in the very real situation with them and their loathing neighbor with the hatred, prejudice and bigotry. All the individuals in the story lived two days filled with anguish and sorrow and many strained conformations with the media, only to have the case be placed on the back burner by the prosecution due to the claim of the old mans heath. The women gather to form a very determined group to see that justice prevails. This is where I finally came to like Sharon. Sharon's typical sarcasm changes to leading the demonstration to make sure that the hate crime were no longer just the statistics. Her diplomatic but direct response to the reporter was "if we don't believe in our worth, how can we expect others to?" and "Throughout history there have been incidences of discretionary enforcement. We're trying to make sure that this won't be another." It leaves you with a strong feeling of accomplishment and empowerment. Although this situation occurs in the last fourth of the book, Martin has shed light on what is sometimes ugly to look at, but is so necessary for us to understand today.

The author has created characters that breathe and cry, hold their breath in taking a chance on loving again, pray for an answer and sigh at the thought of loving ecstasy. Through it all we are witness to the author's deep understanding of human relationships and feelings, of taking a change on love and it being victorious.

Finally, another important reason the novel succeeds is because the main characters are very real, almost perfectly rounded, and the situations are extremely true and valid, even with the bigotry and hate shown by a disillusioned straight man in the last part of the novel. Love In The Balance by Marianne K. Martin is a romantic tour de force and an extremely well written Lesbian novel. I can easily see this from a film prospective and the presentation would stir even the hardest of hearts. Highly recommended read.

Rating:
Summary: YOU WANT THIS BOOK!
Review: The ultimate lesbian romance, Love in the Balance is easily one of the best of the genre - a truly satisfying read. Marianne K. Martin is a beautiful writer - her novels are filled with wonderful, unforgettable characters, compelling stories and delicious romance. With Ann O'Leary's "Julia's Song" and Peggy J. Herring's "A Moment's Indescretion," "Love in the Balance" is one you definitely don't want to miss. You'll also enjoy Martin's other two novels, "Legacy of Love" and her most recent release, "Dawn of the Dance." More, Marianne, more!