[.ca] Love in the Balance (ISBN 1931513082)

Never Thought:
I never imagined exactly what this book entailed, but once I started the book I could not put it down. The storyline is believable and the characterizations tight and fitting. The author should be awarded highly for a once taboo subject matter that she tells us with love and devotion. Also read in Romance: Fire In The Ice by Katlyn Stewart

Pleasantly Surprised:
When I first purchased this book, I found the plot too predictable, and the characters very flat. After about a week of not reading it, I came back and tried again. I found (much to my surprise), that it actually gets interesting! There's some nice tension between supporting characters, and definite conflicts (too bad they weren't explored more). Overall I say this was entertaining fluff - enjoy.

Highly Recommended!:
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.

Great Love Story:
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.

A romantic tour de force ! Highly Recommended:
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.