Under the Witness Tree

by Marianne K. Martin

After inheriting an old plantation house from an aunt she didn’t know existed, Dhari Weston heads 800 miles south to see the place and meets intriguing Dr. Erin Hughes, a local history professor with a passion for old houses. Dhari’s life is complicated enough without meeting such an attractive and intelligent Her mother needs her, her father relies on her and her girlfriend worries her. But when Erin finds old letters and a diary, Dhari knows she can’t leave until she finds out the truth . . . Marianne K. Martin is the best-selling author of five novels including Mirrors and Love in the Balance .

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

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

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

[Bywater Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lambda Literary Award Finalist

"Under the Witness Tree is a multi-dimensional love story woven with rich themes of family and the search for roots. This is a novel of discovery that reaches into the deeply personal and well beyond - into our community and its emerging history. Marianne Martin achieves new heights with this lovingly researched and intelligent novel." -Katherine V. Forrest

Dhari's life is complicated already, with a girlfriend she wants to commit to, a family who needs her to calm the chaos of her mother's turbulent moods and a job that takes the rest of her time.

The last thing she needs are Civil War secrets that won't lie easy and a woman with secrets of her own...

[M.E. Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little romance. When you're the juggler trying to keep all the balls in the air: your job, your lover, your family splintering because of your crazy mother, your own sanity, the last thing you need is an aunt you've never heard of leaving you a plantation (A plantation, mind you!) in a region of the country you've never been to. Add the beautiful and interesting Erin as a consultant for historical houses; add Nessie, ancient holder of family secrets and you are reassessing your life to find out what you really want.

[Merredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is what i all a 'hallmark type book.' Very feelingsy, very fried green tomatoes and all those movies ive never seen. a city woman from the middle of the country inherits a big, pre civil war house outside of atlanta, from a relative she didn't know existed. right now, the book sounds AWESOME. how awesome would it be to get something like that? love! dealing with issues such as her mom's craziness and insecurities about her girlfriend, she is prejudiced and distracted about selling the house and the south as a whole. she just wants to get it over with. but then she meets some people who change her mind about the south and goes through the house, learning its "secret." i use that word hesitantly, because it wasn't much of a secret at all. i won't spoil and say what. this is no mystery, no big reveal thing. in truth, the only thing she learns is more about herself. which is important, but dull if you're not into hallmark feelingsy books. obviously, i'm not. if you're like me, stay away. if you're like thousands of women and a lot of men too, then go at it. personally, i'd have loved to learn more about the history of the house and people than they did, and also the history of the best friend of the dead house owner, an old woman, and just gone more into their character rather than the main woman and the professor. and i think the whole thing with her girlfriend was pretty shallow as well. the book wasn't meaty enough for me. i kept waiting for the big 'something' to happen, i kept waiting to care, i never did.

[Ronel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first part of the book. It would have been good if the author explained a bit more where the main character's fears came from. Yes, mention is made of the bipolar mother but I would have liked that theme to be fleshed out a bit.

The second thing that I would have liked is the author delving deeper into the war efforts of women as the history of war is always told from a male perspective.

[Elaine Burnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story: woman inherits house with secrets and history. Likeable characters, both main and secondary. Lovely setting—the tree itself. But at 210 pages, it just isn’t long enough to delve deeply into the various story lines: Dhari’s mother, Erin’s adoption, Addy’s secrets. The writing is generally good, but I found Nessie's heavy dialect hard to read.

[Denise Nickeson · Rating 5 out of 5]

entertaining read

Thot this was a nice story with a clever ending and a bit of historical fiction which I always enjoy, plus a nice amount of romance. I will read others by this author.