Date: June 12, 2024 07:51 pm Title: Love and Suffering
LOVE this story. Really hope you come back to it soon. :)
1 [Report This]Date: June 11, 2023 06:14 am Title: You Can Close Your Eyes
My favorite things about this chapter ....the first line (well the first 2 lines) and the last line.
There was an intimacy and detail in the first paragraph that conveyed her experience and the shift she felt so beautifully.
Though we know what is to come from Anternum I do hope we will get more of Pamela's thoughts as she continues her "new life" in Philadelphia.
1 [Report This]Date: June 06, 2023 04:22 am Title: Before the Ending of the Day
I'm finally getting to review this stunning chapter. Sorry it's taken so long.
Of course, with all that you share, this whole thing was beautifully written and really lets us into her mindset and thoughts, but here is what really stood out to me...
The quick realization there was "no choice at all" in seeing how James reacted to Roy and how he spoke of her...
James offering to keep watch, (so true his character) and her internal debate about "thanking him for his devotion" and her desire to feel those lips. Her thoughts about what he might think and the back and forth.
This line...
“It is impossible to forget about you, Miss Beesly,” he replied, barely above a whisper.
I thoroughly enjoyed the chat between her and Penny (the bit about sex and the horse seemed well adapted to the times) and of course Penny had gotten a peek.
So beautiful that Helene cared to find her a dress and that Pam assured her there was no need - that Mr. Halpert had no expectations.
Loved the addition of Robert Vance and it was such a perfect placement. His backing of Colonel Halpert and assurance of his honor to Helene works so well.
And the description of the kiss at the ceremony with all it conveyed . Her reaction to his kiss as the pivot point for her - -just beautiful.
1 [Report This]Date: April 18, 2023 05:35 pm Title: You Can Close Your Eyes
Pamela's bed thoughts were lovely to read. How she's safe in his arms. That she has nothing to fear from him. After everything she thought she knew about how her life would go, to find herself in this place with him is just golden glowing light.
James' desire to be with her at all times and places is adorable. His protection of her though is great to see too. He knows her value and nothing is going to make them part.
Then she finds herself at home is just perfection.
Author's Response: Thank you for reviewing this story. I know it's not for everyone but I have really enjoyed it. I really appreciate you taking the time to support it. :)
Date: April 18, 2023 05:27 pm Title: Before the Ending of the Day
Pamela's fire seems only to be growing here. She's found hope, courage, and honor and she's grabbing onto them with both arms. There's still a great deal of anxiety of the unknown here, but there's the thrill of adventure too.
Penny and Pam getting to have one last late night sister to sister talk was fun. I do enjoy the relationship they've shared in these chapters. Hopefully future letters will continue it.
I also love Mr. Vance. A voice of reason in a hugely turbulent time. That he's so ready to see past the wounds and scars of the war speaks to his character. He sounds like the kind of man who saw far to much on the battlefield and now only longs for peace. A man of integrity there.
Of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention James here. Offering to stand watch outside their room? A man of honor who knows his duty. Especially to his fianc?.
Pamela's thoughts about James are entrancing. Since he's shown up she's been able to be her own agent. And in James she's found someone who not only will let her, but loves her for it. It's no wonder why she's so instantly drawn to him. Simply beautiful.
Author's Response: Thank you! It's been really fun writing her in this. Because of the time period she has been restrained her entire life but she truly is dying to get out. James brings the security that she is able to blossom under. Being that it is in first person as opposed to third has been great because you can really get into her thoughts-- which of course are sometimes scandalous. :)
1 [Report This]Date: April 19, 2022 06:41 pm Title: Requiem
The contrast between Roy and James comes through strongly here, long before Roy gets violent. Pamela's baseline expectation of having a say in her own life is so clearly anathema to him. You do well illustrating his descent into something legitimately terrifying.
Oh, James. Such a charmer. Pamela is being overwhelmingly charmed. And at such a vulnerable moment, too. You really get a sense of the compiling disasters stacking up on top of her in this chapter.
"I dared to consider, as he shifted his weight, ducking his head and looking at me, that the stranger in him was no stranger at all; the stirring in my blood I felt when he held my gaze was a glimpse into a part of me that knew him already, that recognized his soul." EEEEEP.
I love Pamela's little vision of the girl and her mother on the street as a glimpse into her own desire to break free of the conventions of the world she lives in.
So great to see the other POV on these events!
Author's Response:
Haha yeah well you know I do Roy NO favors in my stories. :)
Thank you for reading and reviewing DJC!
1 [Report This]Date: April 18, 2022 05:35 pm Title: Love and Suffering
This is just the extra dose of classy James and Pamela I needed. So nice to get an insight into Pam's POV of the entire situation. Loving this.
1 [Report This]Date: April 18, 2022 05:35 pm Title: Love and Suffering
This is just the extra dose of classy James and Pamela I needed. So nice to get an insight into Pam's POV of the entire situation. Loving this.
Author's Response: Haha yes, 'classy James and Pamela' is perfect. Thank you for reading!
1 [Report This]Date: April 18, 2022 02:04 pm Title: Requiem
So excited that there's even more of James and Pam to read! Looking forward to more of this side of the story too
Author's Response: Yes, I love hearing what Pam thinks. Thank you!
1 [Report This]Date: April 15, 2022 01:47 pm Title: Requiem
You definitely hit the nail on the head with writing Roy! The guy was already selfish and sexist in the 2000’s,so it makes sense that a 1800’s version of him would be even more pronounced than in canon.
It was nice to see so sure of herself when she
decided to marry James, especially when it comes
to telling her family. To be honest, I wished we saw more of it on the show. Please update soon!
Author's Response: Oh yes, there is no love lost with Roy. I can't stand him and enjoy making him the villian in my stories. ;) Thank you so much for the review!
1 [Report This]Date: April 15, 2022 07:27 am Title: Requiem
From your very first lines, you have a way of making the reader feel there, seeing and smelling and sensing the distress of the situation.
I felt Pam's fear as Roy became more and more brash and terrorizing.... He pressed his body against mine, the edge of the counter biting into my back and something hard and terrifying against my front - cringed from the thought of what was so close (even though from knowledge of A, knew it didn't). Oh for once Ms. Rebecca's gossip-seeking nature was fortuitous and while they were from two different classes (at least at that moment)...this line reminded me of the bond they shared, that all women did and do no matter what class or caste....
I met her eyes, a small tear rolling down my cheek and I could only bring myself to shake my head affirmatively. She held her gaze for a long moment before nodding in quiet female solidarity and damping the stove once again.
Again, even knowing all the events to happen from A, seeing the loss through the lens of her eyes was so heartbreaking. I love the use of black, blue and white in this scene - the blue dress, a nod to Casino night? and the black, indicative of the darkness, not only the death and the house, but the future she was destined to with Roy. Ending the section with white, that brightness we can force to our sights with our own hands - beautiful (and a hint at hope?).
I love the look into the way the town she was from operated, and how even though characters had just a brief mention or lines we all the same got the sense of personalities and roles.
Thank you for the insight into what she had to consider with the proposal, the pointed difference in how he asked her in contrast to the arrangement made outside of her. How though is was not a grand act borne from a long-built love, it still was in a way romantic and stirred up a feeling in her that made her want to consider it, despite what may come of it.
I noticed a woman, finely dressed by Asheville's standards, examining the shoes of a street vendor. Her school-age daughter stood dutifully next to her dressed in all white, an ankle length skirt with yellow bows and a yellow bonnet, a vision of propriety and upbringing. She reached for a trinket only to have her gloved hand smacked sharply by her mother and the young girl then resigned herself to watching with a wistful expression the stagecoach arrive on the opposite side of the street. I knew that expression well.
Again more insight into her needed to make a change, not follow the path she was on...I am in awe how you do this, present a seemingly non-related thing and make it so important to character-building.
I though I wanted the chapter to end with her saying hyes but then we would have missed out on all that was revealed in the conversation with her mom...and that last line. Mwahh.
I truly love this view - for how it rounds out both stories.
Wonderful job.
Author's Response:
I love your analysis of the colors! So insightful! I also appreciate that you noticed the woman and her daughter outside the window. I wanted that to be refelective of Pam's upbringing--proper, restrained--and when her hand is slapped away it was a metaphor for how she was denied what she really wanted all her life.
She was at a crossroads at that moment. She could continue down the path she was on, that the little girl was on, or she could seize control of something, claim it as her own and change the direction of her life forever.
Thank you so much for the perceptive review!
1 [Report This]Date: April 14, 2022 09:24 am Title: Requiem
Ughh, as if Mr. Anderson here wasn't bad enough he comes in drunk and tries to force himself on her like that. You really get the feeling of Pam feeling trapped. Trying to fight back but being constrained by the attitudes of the day and the fact she's just plain overpowered. Thank goodness for Miss Rebecca.
Really liked how she started to move forward with everything. She could sit there and wallow in grief and despair or she could get to work. Really liked seeing that. Same with the fact she wouldn't let her mother just swoon and brush all this off. It's not going to help. One can feel that she is just not going to accept what her mother had planned. Continue on with Mr. Anderson. Not when there's another alternative and much more appealing. The two choices offered her here are as clear as night and day. One who just takes what he wants and expects it to be given and the other who gives of himself for her behalf and on behalf of her family.
It's a real treat to get Pam's point of view with all the events of this story. It's doing such a great job of rounding out her character. Keep it all coming!
Author's Response:
I apprecaite that you noticed her tenacity! Sometimes we have no idea how strong we are until we are tested and I feel this was that moment for her even though she didn't realize it as such neccessarily.
She was at a crossroads in this chapter and that was what I really wanted to convey. Thank you SO much for taking the time to share your thoughts!
1 [Report This]Date: November 15, 2021 06:31 pm Title: Love and Suffering
I am so glad that we are getting Pam's POV! The backstory of Enfield was fascinating and I love the glimpses into Pam's home life. Beautiful writing as always!
Author's Response: Thank you SO much!
1 [Report This]Date: November 11, 2021 05:21 pm Title: Love and Suffering
So what you're telling me is that the long-awaited Pamela POV chapter is going to be a WHOLE PAMELA POV STORY????????????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
...because I'd be okay with that.
"I will never admit to missing your ornery morning temper or the way you insist upon leaving your music sheets all over my writing desk but I will admit to thinking on them enough to commit the memories to ink and paper." This is such a great mix of time-appropriate speech and sisterly teasing. Makes their relationship feel really lived in. And Pam's sense in the letter that she has finally found a place and a relationship where she is free to be herself is lovely - and quite nice to see how much she is enjoying the fruits of this relationship that we know has brought so much joy to Jim.
Interesting conversation with canon here - Pam who is well ware that she wants more and won't be happy with this, but is trapped less by her own decisions and more by the world around her.
You also did well very economically establishing the just... A+ parenting of the elder Beeslys. Yikes.
The nicknaming of Pam as "The Cocker Spaniel" was cute. Also wondering if you're foreshadowing something with Pam's interest in the Great Plains... perhaps the Halpert-Moore feud might be resolved with James and Pamela making their future far away from Philadelphia? Or maybe high society is the REAL frontier.
I'm also just enjoying the chance to revisit these early moments of the saga, and to see their chemistry developing through Pam's eyes too. "A strange feeling of contradiction, of needing him to go so I could forget about him and desperately wanting him to stay a little longer, made a tightness in my chest that I could not explain" is a classic line that could easily fit here and in canon.
P.S. Also, not gonna lie - love the bodiced Pam facing left on the right side of the Aeternum title card and the open-shirted Jim facing right on the left side of the Elysian one. #ISeeWhatYouDidThere
Author's Response: Thank you! I think I hinted at this in one of my responses to your review like a year ago so I am glad I can *finally* deliever on it. Also, thank you SO much for noticing my complimentary covers. I spend entirely too much time on that stuff. Lol.
1 [Report This]Date: November 10, 2021 09:28 pm Title: Love and Suffering
If you could go ahead and bind alternating chapters in a beautiful leatherbound book and just save me the trouble that’d be great.
BORED. Are you KIDDING ME
I am
I can’t!
That we get both—you’re giving us BOTH perspectives? And backstory?
Beautiful. Amazing view into Pam and her wishes and dreams and I really loved seeing them meet and interact in these early days. It gave me butterflies! More soon, like now. Put it directly on my eyeballs. No. You don’t understand. I *need* this.
Author's Response:
Wouldn't that be nice? Someday, someday... ;)
I so love your reviews and thank you so much as always BT!
1 [Report This]Date: November 10, 2021 05:38 pm Title: Love and Suffering
Indulge away for we reap the rewards - getting to relive this story from another voice and speaking of I'm enjoying the first person narrative.
I wasn't sure which to begin with - the new chapter of Aeternum but knew I would be enrapt with either. I'll have you know I sat outside my office in my car before driving off for home, and read this. I may have been sitting in a modern automobile, in modern times but as i read I might as well have been in post civil war south, on a veranda with Colonel Halpert and Pamela.
I like how this opens with a letter a little bit in the future from where we begin and while the whole letter was beauty, 'He is that fate for me. Complete and unquestionably.' was where the cloche came up and I could taste the dinner set before me (see tying to what I said in Discord - even though we were discussing the other story) I found it sweet and so in character of Pam to wish that for her sister as well. This news I can't remember if it is something we are aware of or not in Aeternum. Guess I'll have to read back again.
I'm kinda loving that we get a little twist on Pam in this version, that she knew she wanted more, wasn't happy with Roy and never had been, already had that little fire that didn't come about until later seasons in the show. Passages like this - "No one asked me. Not once did anyone look in my direction and inquire 'Is this what you want, Pamela?' ... I want to paint, I want to live in a city somewhere and I want to love my husband, not merely tolerate him and out of that love perhaps some children. and 'She was courageous and I wanted to be her. I wanted to seize control of my life and plot its course instead of drifting wherever the current of family and society's expectations for me pulled me along. -really brought that out.
The delicate but definitive chemistry that drew Pam to Jim was convincing in its subtlety. And that she could already see through him only makes the connection he might feel in return stronger (as well as the strong spirit of this re-defined Pam).
Must mention some other lines that struck me (although I could say it was every other one, if not every one but I'll try and pick my favorites)
--But she was fictional and I was very real; sweeping romance and excitement was only something found on ink and paper.
--It always seemed to radiate off of her like the rays on the big yellow sun I would put in the top corner of drawings as a child. (wow I can totally see a child's crayon drawing here)
--He was doing both, the slight pull on his lips giving away his true intention and his voice was warm and rich like the amber liquid he swirled in his glass. (and now I hear Jim's voice)
--This betrothed stranger stirred more in me than the man I was supposed to marry and it was suddenly unfair...A man that never considered my words so thoughtfully or smiled so warmly.
--A strange feeling of contradiction, of needing him to go so I could forget about him and desperately wanting him to stay a little longer, made a tightness in my chest that I could not explain.
I could go on repeating your lines but I think I'll just leave it at -in awe again.
Just Delicious!
Author's Response: Thank you so much! I really love getting to see inside her head. She is opinionated and a bit sassy but the 1865 version of Pam has to repress it somewhat because of society. Thank you for your always thoughtful review!
Author's Response: Thank you so much! I really love getting to see inside her head. She is opinionated and a bit sassy but the 1865 version of Pam has to repress it somewhat because of society. Thank you for your always thoughtful review!
1 [Report This]Date: November 10, 2021 11:59 am Title: Love and Suffering
This is a good start to a new story.
I especially love that it’s Aeternum from
Pam’s POV. Pam and Penny’s dad is a real ass.
Roy would have been just as bad as a husband
as Pam’s dad.
I can understand why you’re not writing it chapter for chapter. It’s not really necessary because I can still understand what is going on from reading Aeternum. Please update soon!
Author's Response: Thank you! I was a bit worried it would seem too choppy and not fluid only adding her parts but it seems to work. Thanks for the review!
1 [Report This]Date: November 10, 2021 10:17 am Title: Love and Suffering
I couldn't be happier with your decision to write this! Learning what Pam's thoughts & feelings enhances Aeternum which in my opinion was already extraordinarily close to perfection.
Cannot wait to read more (of both).
Author's Response: Thank you! I hope you continue to enjoy it and I love getting to add a new dimension to the story and fill in some of the history. Thanks!
1 [Report This]Date: November 09, 2021 10:58 pm Title: Love and Suffering
This is brilliant. I’ve been jellybeaning the other one (but ashamed to say not reviewed) but I will make sure I will for this one. I am in continued awe of how you can write “in era” so consistently. And as we know what’s coming, I love how we know get to see more of how Pam’s reactions will shape what we see in the main story. Bravo!
Author's Response: Aww, thank you! I always LOVE hearing people's thoughts. Yes, I honestly love getting inide her head a bit and rounding out the story somewhat. Thanks!
1 [Report This]Date: November 09, 2021 06:20 pm Title: Love and Suffering
So I love this. Can I just leave the review at that? Well no, because there's just so much here that's great. Nice to go back and get this perspective from Pam. How she longs for something more than the life laid out for her. She doesn't want to be the painted but empty vase, she wants to be the one crafting and painting the vase. Feels like some echos from canon in here too. Pam thinking that she's not the one who would draw attention. Yet turns out there's only one person who she needs attention from and his being shifted towards her right from the off.
Even still with all those doubts she still has that little bit of courage to step out on the veranda and talk to James. The start of so many wonderful one on one conversations they have in some secluded spot.
Her thoughts of her father though are interesting to read. No real love lost there. Considering everything else that she thought about, makes sense. And to leave us just before the events of the fire?!
Really looking forward to seeing where this on goes too. Outstanding as always.
Author's Response: Thank you! I hope it adds a bit of richness to the story knowing what her history is and what she is thinking. Thanks as always!
1 [Report This]Date: November 09, 2021 05:38 pm Title: Love and Suffering
As if I couldnt love you more, you go and post this. Ugh. Now I get to read historic Jam from both Jim and Pam’s perspective and Im in love with it all. I am not okay right now but I truly dont want to be if it means you post things like this.
Author's Response: I hope it is worth it! I honestly love getting inside her head a bit. Thank you!!