First of all - are you trying to kill me? (And I mean that with kindness).

I'm listening to You Were Good to Me & it makes this last chapter even more bittersweet.

Let me just say, that you truly have a gift. The way you use words to paint a picture is absolutely stunning, so if you can, don't be too hard on yourself for your "2012 writing" because it's what drew me and everyone else in to the story in the first place.

And you know, I absolutely understand how you just grow out of a fabdom/story. There are fandoms that I adore, and will always adore, but some I just think of fondly, if that makes sense. I think it's the fandoms that you find during important times in your life, or the ones that help you get through difficult times are ones that always stay - even if it doesn't look the same anymore. Anyway, sorry for my rambling.

I appreciate so much that you chose to come back to finish this - it's a rare gift in the fanfic community.

Anyway, Speirs being an angry dad made me laugh out loud, and the bit about Nixon was heartbreaking

Their meeting reminds me a lot of a book called The Long Road Home, and that book is one of my favourites, and I haven't been able to find it since I was in Uni (it was OLD) and it broke my heart in the same way, and these reunions kill me every single time.

I honestly could cry, this is so perfect. I mean, I can appreciate a bittersweet ending as much as the next person, but I'm forever in favour of a happy ending. My God, these two idiots.

"Never looking at each other like they're anything less than whole."

You. Are. Trying. To. Kill. Me

Thank you for this treat at the end of a difficult day. I so enjoyed this! Are you writing fanfiction much anymore?

I found myself falling in love with this story with each chapter that I read. I never gave Joe Toye a second thought until I read your story and now I've fallen in love with him too. I greatly enjoyed that your story wasn't too sappy or unrealistic. Thank you for such a great story!

Ahhh! I was so happy to see you posted again! I would never unfollow a good story, so matter how long the hiatus, just in case ;). What a lovely ending for the Jo(e)'s. I am glad they got a happy ending together. How sad that she never got to say goodbye after Bastogne, but I'm glad you gave them forever :) Thanks for giving us closure! I'll keep an eye out for anything else you may post :)

Ohh. How do I find the words?
It doesn't even seem real that you started writing this story seven years ago, that we were still in our teens when we started exchanging ideas and headcanons, but it has been such a joy to read this story (and all your other writing) for such a length of time. Thank you for this story, and for bringing Jo to life. She is an incredible character, and you created her! I hope that, even though you have moved on, you will always think of Jo & this world with pride and affection.
Of course I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad that there won't be any more added to this story, but I am so happy with how everything came together in the end, with Jo & Joe getting the ending they deserved. It felt natural and comforting and a fitting end to a wonderful piece of writing.
My heart is so very full.
I am looking forward to whatever you write next, especially anything original. You know you can always hit me up with questions, snippets, headcanons, graphics... I count myself lucky to get to read your work!
(I'll be off now to listen to Dinah Washington and weep.) xxx

Great story

I love this! You do such a great job writing all the characters and I love Jo. She is really driven and interesting, and her relationships with Easy are so effing cute. I adore her and Joe together. It is kind of hard to find Toye/OCs so I hope you update this again! It is great!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

You've killed me dead. This story is perfection, and I wish you would continue it, even though it's been years.

you should really continue this because it's a good story and the're not alot of joe toye and oc fanfics

Another devastatingly perfect chapter from the master of angst and tension! It absolutely kills me that Jo is left to wake up alone, and even more so that she blames herself for it. Just... THESE KIDS. I just want them to be locked in a room together so they can talk about their feelings and then, preferably, kiss. A lot.
I loved this bit: "She can't help but think, as she follows him into the mess, how the bad never stays bad with him. It melts, so easily, back into all right, into comfortable, into good. Into walking together and sitting down and knowing that they can still just be themselves. When there's nothing else, they can still just be themselves." Obviously they need to discuss some stuff (see paragraph above, ahaha) but they KNOW that, despite everything, they are at one with each other. They know that they know each other and that they'll be okay.
Loved loved loved the Paris scenes - "It wears its battle scars uneasily, bricks and withered autumn flowers and wrought iron a quiet change of scenery from the Dutch countryside." - and the bit about her swallowing back the bile and writing, because that's what she must do, she must tell the story. (Intentional or not, nice foreshadowing to Landsberg, btw).
Thanks for breaking my cold dead heart with that ending! And thank you for this story, darling: we both know we've struggled and sighed and wanted to quit with both our stories, but it's honestly worth it to get to read your writing and what you've done with this gorgeous, heartbreaking, perfect show that means so much to us. Love and kisses, darling!

WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN
I would like to rehash all the lavish praise I heaped on you when you were writing this chapter because you so deserve it. It's well-written, well-paced, and just lovely how the climax of the chapter (ahem... no pun intended) is enough of a surprise to be satisfying to read, but still has a sense of inevitability in the wider arch of the story.
I love all the little threads in this chapter and how they all interconnect and play off each other. I love the Brits! I love Tab's cameo (oh /honey/), and the juxtaposition of Jo and Frankie's position with regards to the men they love. The only point I would make is about the merit of line breaks, but it's hardly a pressing concern.
(Just realised I need facecasts for those Brits, stat: they're all so wonderfully chipper and I love them...)

I am absolutely in love with the Tab and Smokey cameos in this. MY BABES.
This chapter is really well-paced, and - apart from the back-down-to-earth-with-a-bump shock of the ending - a little lighter than the previous few, which offers a welcome respite! Your covering of the Eindhoven scene was so cute: the flowers! the troopers more anxious to exercise charm than to fight the war! Nix! the photo! So so lovely.
That last little section was brilliant too - the faster pacing and Jo's reaction to Joe's wounding and everything. It's fast and gritty to match the situation - something you do so well. Much love, darling!

So, once again, obviously I am the worst - /The Worst/ - for forgetting to review these last few chapters! Especially since I am in love with them/ your writing/ you.
I love the melancholy of this chapter, its eerieness, its sense of... unreality (if that's even a word). You can really understand how Jo must feel, trying to come to terms with everything but not being given time to, and trying to settle back into a routine but not even feeling like she's living it out.
But most of all I love that section in the pub, for the way you've managed to capture hyper-reality but also that feeling of things being seen through a veil - rather like being drunk, only Jo's not drunk despite the beer she's had. And then that not-quite-kiss and the talk with Bernard (which, incidentally, is placed perfectly to kind of explain Jo's hesitancy and what she didn't say to Joe). Just... boy, you really feel for Jo in this one.
(I would add a string of hearts here but this website doesn't like them I think. So consider this sentence a substitute for aaall the heart emojis and weeping faces)

You seriously write beautiful moments. Those minutes in the hallway leading to the kiss was just so easy to imagine and so suspenseful and I couldn't help but just hold my breath while I was reading! Wonderful job :)

I only recently started reading BoB fan fiction so I don't claim to be an expert I just wanted to say I love the character you've created and the ways in which she has grown over the chapters.( I read them all in 1 day) Really looking forward to the next chapter!

This is really good!