Date: July 20, 2023 09:14 am Title: August 1938
Great to see Roy as a likable character!
1 [Report This]Date: July 14, 2023 11:55 pm Title: May 1990
Wow. I think this fic it's like the definition of bittersweet and I love it for it! From the time period this is set in to the place you gave everybody in the story, and let's not even talk about chapter fifteen, which I loved almost as much as it hurt me. Poor Jim. And poor Pam as well. I kind of wish we had seen more of their happy ending, but I can't deny how great that recap was. I think it goes without saying that the plot and writing were flawless, but so was the characterization. They really felt like Jim and Pam, and it was so bittersweet to see them fall in love and then have to deal with the consequences.
I have to admit I usually don't enjoy fics that involve cheating from any of my fav characters, but I think I can understand and be more sympathetic when it happens in a period piece like this one, and especially with the little bit of background you gave us on Pam and Roy's family. Speaking of which, I really liked what you did with Roy here, the the characterization and all his interactions with both Jim and Pam (that last talk with Jim was so raw and beautiful written). There's no doubt in my head he and Pam love each other very much, but it felt to me more like a familial love rather than actually being in love, and I really appreciated that.
I feel like this comment it's a bit of a mess, so sorry about that. In short, I loved this fic, and want to thank you for writing and for sharing it with us once again!
1 [Report This]Date: December 27, 2022 03:35 pm Title: May 1990
Beautiful, beautiful history. I enjoyed it so much
1 [Report This]Date: September 25, 2022 05:07 pm Title: May 1990
One of my all time favorite stories. I've read it multiple times and always cry my way through it. Your writing is beautiful! Thank you for sharing your gift!
1 [Report This]Date: September 03, 2022 09:59 am Title: June 1939
Wow, hard to imagine they managed to dance around each other for two whole months. Beautiful!
Date: September 03, 2022 09:43 am Title: May 1939
Who would've thought that cutting hair could be this thrilling?!
1 [Report This]Date: September 03, 2022 09:21 am Title: March 1939
I actually cackled while reading "no need to get poetic". This chapter was so sweet and tender! The story's getting better with each paragraph.
1 [Report This]Date: October 29, 2021 03:30 pm Title: May 1990
I will never not love this story.
1 [Report This]Date: May 11, 2020 08:51 pm Title: May 1990
What a beautifully written story. It was well worth the few hours it took to read it. You did an amazing job of showing the emotions so well throughout this.
1 [Report This]Date: November 25, 2019 04:14 am Title: May 1990
This story is beautiful beyond words. I'm crying right now, after finishing reading. Thank you for all these emotions.
1 [Report This]Date: October 20, 2017 05:38 pm Title: May 1990
This was one of the first JAM fics I ever read and after reading yet again it still an all time fave, such great writing, perfect pacing, real raw emotion and enough little touches to make it feel undeniably JAM. This is definitely one of the gems of the whole fandom.
10 [Report This]Date: May 11, 2010 08:22 pm Title: Afterword
After enjoying your lovely WWII story, I searched your page hoping to find more period fic and stumbled onto this gem. I just consumed this story in one sitting; it was sweet and subtle and amazing. Thank you for writing it.
Author's Response: Thanks so much, pigeon. And sorry I'm so late to respond - I haven't been getting email notifications + forget to check.
10 [Report This]Date: May 04, 2010 10:04 pm Title: Afterword
in a remniscent way, this story reminds me of a alternate The Notebook, Ethan Frome, and Office universe. So amazing is your imagery and you capture such a difficult sense in every chapter: smell? I don't know but I just really enjoyed the scent aspect to this story, it made my heart, my fingertips, and my nose tingle. so perfect in such a "it'll all work out in the end" way, I loved this story so much! airy and swirling and like opening a photo album--that's what this felt like to read-- thank you :)
Author's Response: Well, I love your description of it! Thanks so much, flowersformybrain. Detailed feedback really helps us understand which aspects of a story are effective.
Date: November 07, 2009 09:35 am Title: Afterword
Wow. This was simply fabulous writing! I love the world you created. Thanks for posting.
Author's Response: Thanks, Vampiric Blood!
10 [Report This]Date: November 04, 2009 11:05 am Title: Afterword
Nomadshan, I read this at the urging of quite a few peeps over on the forum. I honestly don't know why I didn't read it before now. Let me join the masses in telling you that this was brilliant--such beautiful details and so emotional. I was transported to another time. Excellent work. I hope you're enjoying great success :)
Author's Response: Thank you, NanReg -- I'm so glad you enjoyed reading it! I enjoyed writing it. :)
10 [Report This]Date: June 11, 2009 11:24 pm Title: June 1939
I realized that for such a beautiful, beautiful story like this, I can't just leave one review so here goes:
This story reads like a movie. I mean, I can actually see the scenes that you paint with your words. The lightheartedness of them at the fair. How the rain adds a kind of privacy and comfort to their lovemaking because they were safe from a world where there's no Jim and Pam.
And my throat tightened a bit at the last conversation between Roy and Pam.
This is just wonderful!
Author's Response: Thanks so much for coming back to say more! :) I'm glad the story created some effective imagery for you.
10 [Report This]Date: June 10, 2009 12:33 am Title: July 1939
This was such a beautiful story. I loved how you captured the Jim and Pam that we love and so effectively wrote a story of them in another era. I really love the whole story, but reading this chapter made me choked up a little because it's heartbreaking that Jim had to leave her. Lovely, lovely story!
Author's Response: Thank you, bkwrm! It's nice to hear that this one still resonates for readers.
Date: April 05, 2009 02:30 pm Title: Afterword
definitely, definitely a good read. i really liked the way you characterized roy as well. he had a believability to him and a kind of raw, lost without pam type quality that i imagine he has in the series.
excellent job :).
Author's Response: Thank you, sheknowsbest -- it felt like the right characterization for the setting. Thanks for reviewing!
Date: April 05, 2009 01:06 pm Title: May 1990
i am freakishly intrigued by the beginning of this story. can't wait to read the rest :).
10 [Report This]Date: September 23, 2008 05:55 am Title: May 1990
Ok, let me tell you how emotional this story makes me. I know I've reviewed this about 7 times since the first version that was up, but I keep seeing more layers every time I read this, and keep thinking of more things to say about it.
I have read the whole thing through two or three times, and once in a while I come back and re-read some of my favorite parts (which is at least one per chapter, so I often get sucked in and re-read most of the story), but I feel so crazy because even the smallest sweet moments in this story totally make me cry every time. I think it's because I know the ending and how Jim and Pam lost each other for twenty years and then found each other again and got to be together for thirty years. That's the best ending for a story I've ever read. So anyway, the happiness of that thought just makes every sweet moment between them that much more sweet. Yesterday I wanted to read the carnival scenes again, but I couldn't remember what chapter it was in, so I kind of started searching around in different chapters, and kept coming across all my favorite parts, so I ended up spending way too much time at work reading through the story again. And then praying that no one would come into my cubicle to see me with the tears and the hiccups. I've learned that there are some chapters I really can't read at work because they totally make me sob, like when Roy asked Jim to leave, and then when Pam found that Jim was gone. And the chapter with the miscarriage is so touching, that one gets to me too.
But yesterday, I ended up re-reading through so much: about the time when the photo was taken of them, and Jim's birthday gift to her, and them sleeping in the same bed during the storm with the comforting and the holding, and Pam giving Jim some of Roy's old shirts for Christmas, and the stolen kisses, and the lovemaking, and the song! Oh, the song that Pam heard him play on his guitar the first day he got there, and then later teaching her how to play it, and that it was revealed that Jim composed the song in honor of her when he first met her, and then 25 years later, Pam humming it while hanging up the laundry to dry, and Jim joining in on the other side of the sheet. The continuity of that through the story is perfect and sweet.
And Jim and Pam's relationship in this story seems so innocent and pure. It's a strange thing to feel that way because it eventually came to Pam cheating on Roy with Jim, which isn't so innocent, but the feel of their relationship and love for each other just seems so pure, and I think that's why even the sweet moments between them make me cry like a baby.
And I really love the conflict in Pam's mind about loving two men at the same time. She still loves Roy so much, but at the same time, she's so in love with Jim. It was something I couldn't really grasp the first time I read it, but now the depth of that gets deeper every time I read it.
I'm really sad that you're not going to publish this story. I know you don't want to be thought of as a Romance writer. but what about after your first book is published? I'm sorry, I just love this story and would love to have a softcover, hard copy version of this story to be able to hold in my hands and read.
You probably think I'm a total stalker reading this story so many times and reviewing almost as many times. But I'm just so attached to this story, and it brings out such an emotional response in me that I have to keep telling you so.
Author's Response: Puff! What an amazing review to wake up to! And you're not a stalker until you mention how much you like that tree in my front yard :) It's very, very rewarding to know that something I've written speaks to someone in layers and powerfully -- that's very much the goal. It also speaks, though, to the exquisite emotional state the show's writers left us in that summer of 2006. That so many of us were able to channel those feelings into good work -- and there were amazing stories all around -- is a tribute to the talents of the show's writers.rnrnNot publishing this story goes beyond the romance-writer thing, which I'm getting over (I was pretty close-minded to say that), I was worried about intellectual property and infringing on the domain of the show's writers. Even though this story is alternate universe, most of the characters aren't mine. That said, I've heard that some MTTers have printed it themselves, so they can "curl up with it". I have no problem with that! I can't tell you to print and bind it, at Kinko's for instance where the available bindings are so very plentiful, but those options exist :DrnrnThanks again, Puff -- I'm glad HOPE still speaks to you, and I hope it continues to do so for a long time!
Date: June 17, 2008 12:13 pm Title: Afterword
It is lovely to read this again. Having read the version that contained both plots, I feel certain of the success of whatever you are doing with Hector and his Carnie compadres. This is a classic of the fandom, and it is lovely to see it back home.
Author's Response: Hey, thanks a lot, Lis. I'm finishing Hector's story this summer/fall, and I feel good about its chances for publication. Votes of confidence like yours are special! Glad you enjoyed Hope on a re-read. :)
10 [Report This]Date: January 20, 2008 08:54 pm Title: April 1939
Wow! This story went away before I could read it (though of course I'd heard people rave about it) and somehow snuck back up while I wasn't watching. I am so excited to finally get a chance to read it... I am only on Chapter 10 so far, but this is so, so beautiful. Roy is breaking my heart a little, which is a new experience.
Author's Response: Thanks, A W! He broke my heart, too. This was the beginning of my Roy sympathy.
Date: December 27, 2007 05:21 pm Title: Afterword
I adored this story, it was so beautiful!
Author's Response: Thanks, Pamalama, I'm glad! :)
Date: December 27, 2007 05:20 pm Title: Afterword
I adored this story, it was so beautiful!
10 [Report This]Date: November 28, 2007 10:42 pm Title: May 1990
This is a beautiful story! It is the only fanfic I've printed because I want to curl up in my chair and re-read it over and over. The subtle interactions and nuances between Jim and Pam mirror how they are written in the show. So excited that you re-posted it. Breathtaking and brilliant. Thank you.
Author's Response: Thank you so much, CrushOnJim -- so cool to think that you enjoy it in your reading chair + not on a PC :) Happy reading!