Mirrors

Dance #3

by Marianne K. Martin

? Mirrors is a very fine novel, well worth your time and treasure.”? The Bay Area Reporter ?Marianne Martin is a wonderful story teller and a graceful writer.”?Ann Bannon?This is a novel of discovery that reaches into the deeply personal and well beyond. . . . Marianne Martin achieves new heights with this lovingly researched and intelligent novel.”?Katherine V. ForrestThey both have dedication. Passion. Commitment. No wonder Jean and Shayna are best friends. Jean Carson is a teacher, striving to make a difference to her students. Shayna Bradley is an attorney, determined to help lesbian mothers keep their kids. Shayna has her life under control, has things just how she likes her own law practice and a girlfriend and, always, her best friend Jean. For Jean, it’s different. There’s always Shayna. There are her students too but there’s also a husband, and he’s anxious for kids. She’s made excuses, but she knows it isn’t fair. She’s short-changing him, and she’s short-changing herself. She must find the strength to leave. And then she must find the courage to face Shayna is more than a friend. It’s a new reality, and one that catches both women unawares. And when the school board learns of Jean’s ?situation,” suddenly Jean and Shayna face greater risks to their happiness and their dreams than they ever anticipated. Dedication. Passion. Commitment. They may not be enough. Mirrors was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award when it was first published in 2001.

Genres: Lesbian, Lesbian Romance, Fiction, Romance, Lesbian Fiction, LGBT

220 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2001

About the author

A graduate of Eastern Michigan University, Ms Martin taught in the Michigan public school system for twenty-five years, has worked as a photo-journalist, a photographer, and coached both high school and collegiate teams as well as amateur ASA teams. Her coaching career produced many Tri-County and MHSAA championship basketball and softball teams and championship ASA softball teams. She was founder of the Michigan Woman's Major Fastpitch Assoc. and its president for ten years. In 1973 she won the precedent-setting case in a Michigan court establishing equal pay for women coaches.

Ms Martin is the best-selling author of Legacy of Love, Love in the Balance, Never Ending, Dawn of the Dance, Dance in the Key of Love, and three Lambda Literary Award finalists, Mirrors, Under the Witness Tree, and For Now, For Always.

Her short stories have been included in a number of anthologies. Her most recent, Fire and Ice, appears in the second edition of the on-line issue of Read These Lips.

She is co-owner of Bywater Books and currently splits her time between her publishing responsibilities and writing.

Reviews

[Female Person · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a less preachy than Dawn of the Dance but it was still annoying & it detracted from the romance.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skillful, just not my cup of tea.
Some may find this book uplifting by taking a look at the trials of life and love that our characters face head on. I found it depressing. I liked the characters, and i have no problem with the author's writing stile, but the story was more focused on the unhappy reality of the icky politics and bullying and discrimination that i work so hard to avoid; and doesn't spend enough time on developing and letting us spend time with these great characters and their happy moments.

i try to predict the outcome of all books that i read, while i'm reading them. This one had me knowing the entire time, that there was no possible way it could end well, unless the author gave us an unrealistic happy ending that wouldn't be believable. i wont tell you which one you get in the end, but as i suspected ... your only options in this book were depressing reality, or fairy tale happy ending. either way it wasn't an entertaining book for me.

[Freyja Vanadis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is nowhere near as bad or cheesy as the other book of hers that I read, although she still sticks to the theme of established lesbian falling for straight woman.

[jennspoint · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marianne K, Martin did a fantastic job in this novel of tackling some very complicated social issues in a way that was engaging, believable, and easy to read.

[Pricelessfem · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was OK, very short read and just ok.

[Chand · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it.