I've put this story in my favorites, I LOVED IT! OMG you had me in tears! Great Job!

i've always loved this story.

absolutly breathtaking!! I cried so much i probably looked really good after reading this. lol. The best POTO based story I have read so far. I would love for you to write a story with a happy E/C ending. You truly have a gift for writing.
Thank you for this story!

That...was...absolutely incredible. I'm at a loss for words. Seriously, did you publish any books? You are an amazing author! This story made me cry, and this is actually the first story I've found on this website that has made me cry! Except for my own story. Unfortunately, I don't have a way with words like you do to make the reader feel the pain and heartache I feel when I write. Great job, and thanks for posting this! It was amazingly beautiful...

I nearly cried when I read what Erik said in French, and my heart nearly broke when he told Christine that he said they would be working on Faust! So sad! (Just thought I'd let you know...) Their relationship is developing nicely.

First thing's first. Your story is positively delightful. I love the way you write about Erik and Christine. It's wonderful. I find Christine a little frustrating, sometimes. But then, when I really think about it, would I be any different if I knew nothing about Erik or his life?

I just wanted to say something about your little soapbox in chapter 22. I heartily agree with your view. Like you, religion has helped shape my beliefs on this topic, and I believe in a holy matrimony. Love and lust are two completely different things--BIG difference. It frustrates me when I see a bunch of sex scenes in these kinds of stories. It feels like the writers are completely missing the point in what Erik really wants. He wants to BE loved for himself, not just make love. It doesn't seem like Erik to throw himself onto an unwilling girl, especially if he loves her. All the detailed sex scenes just make me sick. Thank you for making such a truly wonderful story. I just hope that Christine will find it in herself to love Erik. Any marriage can work if the two are willing to work together. They don't have to be soul mates in order to have a good marriage.

And I'm not quite sure who you're rooting for--Raoul or Erik. I'm rooting for Erik. Of course, the rational people (or the people who like Raoul) never root for him, and I totally understand. Raoul seems to be the more preferable type. But there's something about Erik that completely blows me away (at least, in Leroux's version. The 2004 movie completely fell short, in my opinion. It doesn't mean it's not a good movie, don't get me wrong on that!). I truly hope that Christine will love him for who he is.

Again, a big thank you for standing up for what you believe in!

Thanks for writing!

UGH! I'm so tired! i stayed up well into the early morning reading your story lol. So sad and so good. I read your other story and I had to read another! I love your Christine and Erik, so true to the story.
I think its great that you gave Erik a child and made Christine loyal to his memory I was afriad you'd just have her say "oh well, life goes on" and forget about her love for Erik.
I would love a story of yours like this with a happy ending for Erik... Poor thing deserves it lol
GREAT STORY!

(Crying like crazy!) Oh I've never cryed for a story like I did for this one! The ending was soo sad! I was really hoping Erik was alive!

Wow, this story was a knock-out. I never knew where each next chapter was going, it was a heart wretching incredible story!

I am a huge fan of your writings!

The first words that escaped my mouth when I finished this were: "That was really good." And that's an incredible understatment. I actually have chills and am trembling slightly... It was really, really good.

Like, "wow" good. I just want to cry...

Thanks for writing it.

I have never read or watched POTO. But when I read - skipping all the chapters before, sorry - the last chapter... I wanted to cry...
I have no idea why, but your story is really powerful and moving.
It's absolutely amazing.
As another FF writer, I felt absolutely inspired!

Hi! thanks for reviewing my story
Anyway, congratulations - this is the FIRST fanfiction EVER to make me cry.
It's a good thing in terms of what it suggests about your writing skills, but a bad thing in terms of my eyes...
Some slight grammatical flaws - perhaps you should take the liberty of using more punctuation - but apart from that, extremely eloquent.
Err...maybe this should have been classified as Romance/Angst - the ending came as quite a shock to me.
Well done, anyway!

It took me two days to read this but it was two days very well spent.

a) THANK YOU so so much for using Leroux's Erik. I love it when he talks in the third person and I'm glad you made him do so as well.

b) I love how you kept Raoul and Christine exactly the same as how Leroux wrote them. Raoul always waiting and always loving Christine, and Christine always being a child and always confused.

c) I adored that it was written like a journel but I was a bit confused at the start. Was she writing in Erik's home during the first few chapters? Was she back already?

All in all I loved the entire thing. Perfect.

Ah. I'm here at last. I know I promised I'd come here earlier, but life, as you know, got in the way yet again. On to the review:

I think you mentioned in an author's note or something somewhere that you wondered why anyone read DW at all, considering the first chapter was so poorly written. Painful as it may sound, you are right. I had, in fact, come to DW before May it Be, but closed it soon after reading the first few paragraphs. The only reason I began to read it later was that I had realised that the only way I'd understand what was going on in MiB would be to read this. Of course, I realised my mistake soon after beginning to take this seriously and I read every chapter following that with bated breath.

The problem with me is that I tend to get too emotionally involved in stories I read (I know, I know. It's highly stupid, but there you are), so I wasn't able to get a perspective on this immediately. Now that I've had time to read it, get detached, forget everything I'd noted and then have to re-read it, I finally (finally!) have something to say of some sort of significance.

What struck me the most on my re-read was how your writing has matured. In May It Be you've already found your voice and style, whereas here, I can actually see the process of improvement. The typos become significantly less (I tend to obsess over misplaced commas and the like, so I notice things like this) and the writing becomes stronger as the chapters go on. One thing that annoyed me quite a bit in the beginning was how you tended to repeat words too often. Somewhere in the middle, that aspect began to improve and now, at the end, I am unable to find any fault with you on that issue.

As far as characterisation goes, I actually like your Christine for all her tantrums and fits in the beginning, though if she had stayed the same throughout, I have a feeling I would have despised her. I like characters that grow - and she sure does!

Erik... I don't know what to say here. Yes, he changes quite a bit, but since Christine's memoirs are so clouded by her judgments of him (quite natural, really), I'm unable to form a clear picture of his motivations. Yes, I know, as do we all, that he loves her obsessively, but I don't see any change in him because of this. (One line in May It Be struck me where he says that he grows to be more tolerant and patient after Christine comes into his life, but I'm not able to see it here. If I hadn't seen that, I don't think I'd have been able to put this feeling into words; it would have remained a vague feeling of something being wrong).

Of course, May It Be helps in figuring him out, but in seeing this separately, I don't know what to make of him. The only change I see is in Christine's perception of him and not him directly. He doesn't change or grow; it's all Christine. Writing in the first person frequently leads to this problem, however. I don't think you'll ever rewrite this (whew! That would be some task!), but I thought I'd point this out anyway, so you can watch out for it in later stories.

Settings, plot: all good. I'm able to visualise everything and I appreciate the creativity you bring to this very much. There are some scenes that find resonance elsewhere, but they are the predictable ones (unmasking, wedding, et. al.) that are hard to avoid. I like how you've made this story your own. It really is -your- Christine and -your- Erik. I'm yet to come across another fic whose characters resemble yours. That isn't meant in a bad way, by the way. You've put a bit of yourself into this and that originality is what makes it all the more special. 'Erik's and 'Christine's in most fics tend to be generic, so it's a breath of fresh air (to use one of the oldest cliches in the book (which is in itself a cliche, come to think of it :D)) to read one where the damsel in distress is NOT a self-insert who miraculously falls in love with her disfigured, obsessive knight in shining armour, who -of course- will be forgiven everything immediately because he just happens to be a sex god of some variety.

Hm. What else, what else? Oh, yes. One little thing: the ellipsis. It's a really stupid niggle, but like I said, small things annoy me. An ellipsis is three dots in the middle of a sentence (like so: '...') and four at the end of one (the fourth dot is the period). This is only unless it's at the end of a dialogue or some such thing, where it is followed by the appropriate punctuation mark (like so: "Well, I was just wondering if ...," she trailed off). I've noticed that thing throughout both MIB and DW, but I think I forgot to mention it back there.

I think that is about it for my massive ultra-long review. I think I've covered everything on my mental list of things to say and then some. If I remember anything else (I'm willing to bet that if I do remember anything, it will likely turn up while I'm brushing my teeth or some such thing; random things always turn up when I least expect them), I'll come back and send you a PM.

(On an unrelated note, I have a feeling you'd enjoy the story 'Her Twisted Providence' by Maat. No, I don't know her at all, but I recently read it and it is rather good. Very realistic and sticks to the Leroux version of PotO. I thought of you for some reason while I was reading it, so I thought I'd mention it here in case I forget to later.)

Au revoir for now! Thank you for the wonderful read!

RaN