Comments on: CONVERSATIONAL REVIEW: An Affair in Paradise by Matthew Haldeman-Time

By: Top Romance Books of 2009 by Sarah Frantz | Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:05:09 +0000

[...] Matthew Haldeman-Time,Â An Affair in Paradise [...]

By: Chicklet

Chicklet — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:25:49 +0000

I read tons of m/m and a little BDSM, but I can’t read this review (let alone the story) because two of my cousins are named Adam and Brett! I am having a wiggins.

(Apologies to Matthew Haldeman-Time and to Sarah F and Janine; this is in no way me brushing off your work due to its quality or anything.)

By: Elisa

Elisa — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:38:46 +0000

Ouch, they didn’t send out the newsletter as usual! I was checking the LJ… rush directly to the website ;-) Elisa

By: Joan/SarahF

Joan/SarahF — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:37:07 +0000

Yes it is! I just changed the link above in the review–goes straight to the book. It’s up!

By: Elisa

Elisa — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:35:43 +0000

OTR is so good that I first bought it in ebook and then came back to Lulu and bought it in print. I even bought Guys in College in print, even if Matthew is so generous to make him available for free in ebook. I have no problem to say that with Matthew I’m like a fangirl. And as a good fangirl, I’m checking every minute Torquere website to grab as soon as possible my copy of his new book… grr it’s not yet up! Elisa

By: Joan/SarahF

Joan/SarahF — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:31:24 +0000

Duh, I was waiting for emails to come in with comments, like I get for other reviews, but Janine “posted” it, not me! Sigh.

jmc, yes, you probably reviewed based on my recs, because I think OTR was the first book by MHT that I “reviewed” on my LJ, and Keishon, yes, I adore “Off the Record” too! Wish it were available in anything other than POD, but I think it’s the exception to the rule of the quality of POD books.

By: Elisa

Elisa — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:18:09 +0000

@Janine: I reviewed ALL MHT’s books and this will be in my list soon. Elisa

By: jmc

jmc — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:26:58 +0000

Keishon, if the rec was from me, then it was probably for MHT’s Off the Record…which I think I looked for based on Joan/SarahF’s rec.

By: Janine

Janine — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:08:19 +0000

Keishon, Elisa — I hope you enjoy this story, and, if you want to post your thoughts on it when you’ve read it, I would welcome hearing them.

By: Elisa

Elisa — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:46:03 +0000

Matthew Haldeman-Time is on my auto-buy list, in ebook, in print, in ebook and print if I can since in this way I don’t ruin the print ;-) It’s nice to see a review for his forthcoming book, but on my side I would have bought it anyway! Elisa

By: Keishon

Keishon — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:39:19 +0000

I’ll try it out as I have another one of his ebooks I bought based on jmc’s rec from a long time ago. I think it was her. I didn’t read the review but glanced at the grade which was good enough for me. Thanks.

By: Janine

Janine — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:20:56 +0000

To respond to a couple of points Sarah made in the review:

For me, this [absence of setting details] just kept the focus of the story solidly on the budding relationship, without the distractions of atmosphere and description.

Even if the goal was to avoid distractions and to focus solidly on the relationship, I feel that goal could still have been accomplished and IMO even better served by making the few descriptions we were given more specific. For example, naming the island rather than calling it “a tropical island” would not have required lengthy descriptions, but it would have made the relationship situated in a real, specific place rather than in a generic romanceland setting, and that in turn would have made the relationship feel more real to me.

For me, the problem you’re describing actually works in reverse. The less real any aspect of the story (including the setting) feels, the more distracted I am from the relationship because I have to work harder to suspend disbelief in whatever the author is telling me.

And I love MHT's writing style. I love how the words are a transcript of what's in the characters head to the extent that what's said and what isn't complement each other and how the characters move or look add to the conversation of words, thoughts, and bodies

Those are all strong aspects of his writing, I agree. I don’t mean to detract for them when I say that the reptitiveness of the sentence structures distracted me. This is getting into a technical issue, something I don’t usually do in reviews, but I will say this anyway: IMO it is possible to accomplish all you describe and still vary sentence structures and rhythms.