Reviews on "Prelude to Destiny" by AnotherDreamer

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (August 21st 2010, 9am) you should have fanfiction written about your fanfiction. hahah i bet you do, don't you? genius, you're an absolute genius. when you publish a book of your own you must somehow make it known to me because i don't want to live this life without having read it.

• Written by jujubeanz on chapter #26. (August 19th 2010, 6am) This story was absolutely fantastic. It started off really slow... I almost stopped reading a few times... but it's awesome to see how much your writing improved throughout the story. I loved Lily's characterization. She was so carefree in a typical teenager kind of way. It's refreshing to see her this way, as opposed to the typical know-it-all Lily. Lily and Sirius's friendship was by far my favorite aspect. They were friends separate of James and I loved it! Great work.

• Written by fairylights161 on chapter #3. (August 19th 2010, 12am) This isn't a chapter review so much as a guilt-inspired and very very late communication of how much i love this story. this is either my 4th or 5th reading and i just keep coming back to it. your characters are so well-developed and this has become almost canon to me. i would love to see what you would do with remus/tonks, since there is almost as much to work with. gertrude is one of my favorite oc's ever. i love watching the changes lily goes through, and i love that this story keeps being relevant to me. i guess i mostly just want to say thank you; this is one of the most thoughtfully woven and emotionally accurate fic's i've read (and i've read a lot). keep it up, please!

• Written by jujubeanz on chapter #17. (August 15th 2010, 11pm) I absolutely ADORED this chapter!! I love stories that develop the relationship (friendship) between Lily and Sirius and their whole dialogue in this installment was brilliant.

• Written by jujubeanz on chapter #15. (August 15th 2010, 10pm) "No," Sam said. "I suspect something." "Suspect with me." Lily pointed to herself with both hands. This exchange made me laugh out loud! Great story; I'm loving it.

• Written by chocomishaps on chapter #1. (April 16th 2009, 5am) I actually stumbled across this fic a long time ago, and I've read it more than once already. (tons of times already, actually) I joined UR.org to give a decent review. ;) This is one of the best J/L, MWPP Era fanfics I've ever read. I was really touched when you said Hogwarts has always been the Hogwarts of Lily Evans. The way you wrote Hogwarts during MWPP was the actual Hogwarts I'm imagining. I really applaud you, since not all authors can capture the crazy yet adorable Lily Evans we all love. And I fell for James Potter even more because of this fic, too! :) :) I'm recommending this fic to an L/J Community I belong to. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. ~a Sequel, perhaps? :) :) :) hehehee...

• Written by rach on chapter #13. (March 28th 2009, 5am) Hey, So I've read your whole story before, and now I'm reading it again, because I saw it spotlighted on the site. And this chapter is amazing. I love the end...I've never (well, before I read this the first time) compared Lily to Mrs Crouch. But it's so true. They both gave their lives for their sons and...this chapter is phenomenal. Just thought I'd let you know :) Rach

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (February 25th 2009, 9pm) amazing fic..absolutely loved it i was addicted from the moment i started reading it! i loved how you developed the characters and also found your take on lily and petunia's relationship interesting lovelovelovedit..keep up the great work :)

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (January 28th 2009, 3am) amazing story, really deep. I couldn't stop reading it, i loved how it was different from the other l/j fics. Although i did notice a few grammar errors and minor details that were inconsistant, but tghen again who am i to talk? keep up the great work.

• Written by ameh on chapter #26. (January 21st 2009, 6am) wow. It was dark and humorous and brilliant and an gsty and hot when it needed to be. Brilliant stuff.

• Written by blueberry on chapter #12. (December 28th 2008, 6am) you said review... it's an interesting story. there are parts where i wished james and lily called each other by their surnames meerly because i feel as though they aren't to the point where they'd drop that and be friends. tracy and james... wtf? i have no idea what that's about... and maybe you don't want us to know. i like the little wit james throws out every once in awhile. it shows that he's still full of himself. all together, this is a really different take on lily's life. very interesting and very addciting. :) bb

• Written by blueberry on chapter #4. (December 28th 2008, 3am) i have to say it's taken me too long to read this. i read the first chapter and thought it wouldn't be such a good story - but now i'm feeling foolish. i started reading this because seeing it on everyone's favorites was annoying. why would it be a favorite? i see now. this is brilliant! i like how lily likes james but doesn't want to - it could explain a lot!! the background and how you started at the end of one year and into the summmer... really amazing. no one does that so i think it's really orignal. anyway... really awesome. :D

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (December 15th 2008, 4am) Your story is fantastic! I love your writing style and would love to see more from you. I became addicted to your story after reading the prologue, and have spent the last two days reading it instead of studying for my upcoming finals!! :-/. Thanks so much for the pleasant distraction ;)

• Written by abok1972 on chapter #26. (August 10th 2008, 12am) I don't know if I've reviewed here or not, but I wanted to let you know that this is one of my absolute favorite fics. I always come back to it, every few months, and do a re-read, that's how much I love it. This is also my favorite version, as it was the first one I read, and I think it's better than the original. First of all, let me say how much I love your Lily. Hateful/bitchy Lily is my pet peeve in most L/J fics. Your Lily actually likes James, and seeing her struggle with her feelings is refreshing, no matter how many times I read it. Your James is perfect, I love how you describe him as not drop dead gorgeous, but the type of guy that is cute, and then made ten times cuter by his personality. James and Lily are perfect for one another here, and you illustrate that so well with showing how Christian is too boring for her and how she is attracted to James when she thinks he's Remus. That little plot twist, by the way, was absolutely brilliant. I was one of those who didn't get that James was Remus until Tracy's big reveal, and had to go back and re-read all the chapters where James(as Remus) and Lily patrolled. (I thought Remus was somehow just working with James, relaying information for him about Lily and such. Stupid now, I know! :) ) Your secondary characters, I guess you could call them your McGrath universe characters, are also really good, quite original. Gertrude is my favorite, followed closely by Matt and Will. I don't really care too much for Christine, (I think she's too strange) I'm following your story Backfire, and hope you end up posting it over here. I'm hoping you can end up redeeming Sam and Tracy! Of course, no review of PTD would be complete without commenting on your Sirius. I know it's been said before, but he was so great. His FAD note to Lily makes me laugh every time I read it, along with his harassment of her. Sputnik=INSPIRED!! Love that. I also love how he couldn't get too far from his upbringing, (manners and such) even though he despised his parents. You wrote that really well, and his relationship to Gertrude was extremely bittersweet. I know this story is over two (three!) years old now, and you may never even read this, but I want you to know again how much I enjoyed it and I'm so glad you're still writing! Thanks again for such a great fic. Author Response: I want to thank you for this review. It's really nice to know that people are still enjoying Prelude as much as I enjoyed writing it. The story made me fall in love with Lily's generation, and yes, besides Lily, Sirius is the one most commented on. He certainly won me over, weird as that sounds. Part of the reason why I took over Backfire was for the opportunity to write these characters again, including Gertrude. If I do post it over here, I will wait until I have the chance to do even more rewrites. Sam and Tracy will feature prominently, though. I hope you stay with that story too. Thanks again for your review. It really does mean a lot to me.Miranda

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (August 2nd 2008, 11pm) so i read this story on fanfiction a few months ago, and im pretty sure i left you a beautiful review on that website (my name is steponme6013 over there) but i just read it again on this website, and omygod i forgot how wonderful this fic is. i absolutely love it. first of, i love the writing style. especially in both the first chap and the epilogue, with the older wiser person spinning the yarn and telling the story. second, i love how you show how lilys friendship with her old best friends change and fall apart, because its one of the more realistic things that most fics ignore. they prefer for her to have her bffs, and they stay that way forever. but in real life, sadly, friendships fall apart all the time. third, i love the game. that was pure brilliance on your part to put it in there, and im glad you never made lily suddenly become great at the game as she got older. im glad she still was always terrible. fourth, i absolutely adore the character gertrude. and her deal with lily was perfect. fifth, and lastly, all your characters were absolutely perfect. they were all so real and identifiable with. and im glad you didnt make lily perfect, what with her leaving her sisters wedding. because it shows that she did do wrong, and wasnt perfect, which most authors tend to ignore this fact. again you did an amazing job on this!! i read backfire the original, or what all was written on it, and at the time, only two chaps had been written in your revision of it. but i think i forgot to add it to my favorites, so if i dont add it, then i forget about it. but now that i reread it, i just have to go read backfire again!! again terrific job!!! Author Response: Hi! Thanks for the review. The "all knowing voice" was a bit of a hit-or-miss with most reader, adn so some people were immediately turned off by the prologue. I'm glad you enjoyed it, though. plus, I spent FOREVER on the epilogue, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I started this story my junior year of high school, and at the time my best friend from fourth grade and I were drifting apart. Not maliciously, but inevitably. Being sixteen, it was easy to translate a lot of the things I experienced into the story. I'm glad it came across as authentic. The game also came from personal experience--my friends and I loved playing night tag at local schools. And characters are my favorite part of writing stories. Plots are confusing; people are fun. My one goal (seriously) when I started this was to make a likable Lily Evans, and I think I managed that. I hope that you consider reading Backfire, as I am rewriting the entire story over on ff.net right now. I plan to post it over here after it's done, too.Thanks again for the review,Miranda

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (June 9th 2008, 9pm) I almost never review fics,because therea are so many well written fics, but your story is absolute adorable,fantastic,funny,honest...i have seen. I love it so much,i löved reading.So, thank you so much for your writting.

• Written by colorfulwonder on chapter #26. (May 1st 2008, 2am) i just wanted to remind you that i STILL absolutely

• Written by Smith on chapter #26. (April 29th 2008, 11am) Wow. I should probably care to elaborate but at the moment this word seems to sum up my feelings rather well: wow. "Prelude to Destiny" is certainly one of the best fanfiction pieces I've ever read (if not the best). I am afraid that all Lily & James stories I shall read from now on will seem tragically inadequate. I especially liked Sirius as well as some of your original characters, Gertrude (yay!) and Christine included. And the dialogues... My, you are one master of dialogue: they are both realistic and extremely funny. If I am to find any fault in the story, then I should say that Remus was rather dull. Not that it was completely out of character, but I imagine him being funnier and also good Lily's friend. Their friendship is mentioned by Lupin in the third film and, I should think, in the book as well, though I don't have a copy right now and thus can't provide a quote. Pity, that. Thank you very much for writing this story. Reading it was an enjoyable experience that I might repeat in the future. You're brilliant, to put it short. Author Response: Thanks for the review!Yeah, Remus was a bit dull. Actually, I didn't intend for Lily to be friends with any of the marauders besides James. I just wanted them out of the way. But I know what you mean. After Sirius entered the story, Remus was even duller in comparison. Plus, I wanted to make Peter seem like he fit in, and Remus just fell by the wayside, you know?I'm enjoying writing Gertrude again after taking over a story from my friend who used my characters. Anyway, thanks again!Miranda

• Written by fizzingwhizbee on chapter #26. (February 25th 2008, 6am) I saw a rec for this story in the forums somewhere and I have to say that I absolutely loved it! The flashbacks threw me off sometimes but I loved how Lily wasn't mean but was nervous and really liked James all along. There was just enough suspense to make me want to keep reading without it getting boring. Thanks a lot for posting this so we could enjoy it! :)

• Written by heleypenely on chapter #26. (January 13th 2008, 1am) Okay, so I just went back and decided to read chapter one again for the hell of it and ended up reading the whole story from start to finish for maybe the 50th time or something. I decided to review again because well, you can never have enough reviews, can you? And this fic definitely deserves it. Some of my favourite things: Lily, the way Lily misses the muggle world, the way James never gives up on Lily, Lily, the patrols, Lily, Lily and Gertrude's dinners and their relationship in general, the dialogue (!!) and... Lily =) Obviously, there are plenty more things I adore but every other reviewer has already listed them. I really love your Lily which is probably very obvious. She's like my freakin' role model and I find it a tad embarrassing to be envious of a fictional person. So, to top it all off I just want to thank you for creating this brilliant piece of work. Major props and love to you. -Helen Author Response: Aw. Thank you so much for the support. Means a lot that you liked my story so much. I put a lot of effort into it, and to know that people are still enjoying it makes me very happy. Lily was really fun to write, and I'm glad she's so likable. That was one of my goals. And dialogue is my favorite thing to write, so it's nice to know you think I'm good at it. Thanks,Miranda

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (January 2nd 2008, 7pm) I never used to read Lily/James fics, but then one of my friends recommended Commentarius to me, and I found this after I lost the url to Commentarius and had to go searching for it. I am so glad to have found this fic. I'll probably never be able to read much Lily/James again, because no other fic can possibly be as amazing as this one was. Even Commentarius can't beat this fic. When I first started reading, the italicized, omniscient parts seemed a bit weird and almost put me off the story, but then as I kept reading, I came to enjoy and look foward to them. By the final chapter, I couldn't imagine the story without those parts. I loved Lily's friends, too. I can't tell you how many times I've been put off of Lily/James fanfiction because Lily's friends seemed like one-dimensional Mary Sues who only existed to fall madly in love with Remus and Sirius. Your version of her friends seemed very realistic, and made sense in terms of why we never see them in the HP books. I really liked Gertrude, as well. She was one of my favorite characters in this fic. Despite the fact that this is pre-HBP and pre-DH, there were a lot of moments in this fic where I found myself thinking "oh, that's why [insert something from the books] happened." I had to remind myself that this was just fanfiction, not cannon. I really liked your characterization of the marauders, too. They weren't over the top, creating hugely ridiculous pranks that would be utterly immpossible even with magic. They were realistic, pranking but still having lives outside of pranking. I especially loved your Sirius and your Peter. Peter I loved because you made him a true part of the marauders rather than simply shunting him off to the side just because he turns bad later on. Sirius I loved because this is the first fic I've come across that portrays Sirius exactly the way I always imagined him. He's dark and aristocratic, and he has a sense of propriety that comes through even when he tries to hide it. He turned from his upbringing, but some habits stayed with him. He's perfect. I didn't really like Remus's characterization, but I suppose that's alright since the story focused more on Lily than James, and Lily didn't really know Remus. Your characterization for him makes sense, it just makes me sad because I love Remus, and I don't like seeing him all quiet and reserved. It certaintly didn't detract from the story, though. Like I said, it makes sense. The only thing that did kind of irk me were the occasional spelling/grammar errors. However, no one is perfect, and considering the length of your chapters, a few spelling or grammar errors in each one is hardly something to worry about, it didn't bug me too much. Now, I supposed I'd better stop before this turns into a ten page essay or something. I've been writing far too many essays for school lately. In conclusion, I totally love your fic. Yay! Author Response: Holy cow! I can't believe I didn't respond to this review earlier. Sorry about that. Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review. I have to admit that I am OBSESSED with Commentarius, so I'm probably bias, but you should definitely keep reading that story. It's an absolute joy. A lot of people were put off by the italicized parts, actually, and A LOT reacted badly to the game. I'm glad that you kept reading, though. I spent a lot of time working on the OCs, but making absolutely sure that they were less interesting than Lily, while still being real people. I'm glad you enjoyed them, because I loath one-dimensional characters that are "nice" "shy" "outgoing" "slutty" or whatever. Gertrude was my favorite (after Sirius, who doesn't count since he wasn't an OC). Gertrude and Christine developed in surprising ways for me. Gertrude wasn't supposed to play such a large role, and neither was Christine. But I loved the way they came into their own after a time. Sirius came alive on his own as well, but as a result of Gertrude having a larger role. The one pet peeve I have bout LJ fics is when I care more about the Sirius relationship than Lily and James. I really, really didn't want that to happen. But writing Sirius was so easy. Before writing this story, I didn't care about him at all. Now, he's one of my favorites, and his backstory became an obsession.I also wanted Peter to seem like a friend, so I spent time on him. As a result, Remus fell out of the light a bit and that was a problem for a lot of people. But it had to be done. I always, always have typos. I hate it, but it's inevitable. I'm sorry about that, but I'm not rewriting this story anymore, so it's set. Thank you for this amazing review. It meant a lot. Miranda

• Written by Tweak on chapter #26. (October 27th 2007, 7am) This story was amazing and inspiring. Thank you for a great read!!!

• Written by Zarah5 on chapter #26. (September 6th 2007, 4pm) Short review: Best Lily/James story I've read. Hands down. Longer review: Your writing is beautiful. It drew me in right from the start, and trust me when I say I'm a suspicious reader. Demanding, too, and you gave me everything I could have asked for: A carefully planned story that took time to spread out and develop plausible events; characters that were both deep and alive. Your Lily is breathtaking: smart and wonderful, but not perfect. James is lovely, and Sirius makes me want to squee. What else? Your original characters. Actual characters rather than Mary Sues, and just. I loved this. Thank you for a wonderful read. Author Response: Thank you so much for this review. I'm really glad that you enjoyed Lily and the OCs. I liked them, but I figured I was bias. Your support was really nice. Thanks,Miranda

• Written by vodkaholic on chapter #26. (August 31st 2007, 11am) embgkebfger;bhl!!!! i loved it. i can't say it any more simply nor better. Author Response: hahaa. Thanks.

• Written by Lyra on chapter #26. (August 15th 2007, 6pm) oh. my. god. i must say this is probably the best fanfiction i've ever read. i thought the beginning was a little confusing, but the story caught my attention and by chapter 5, i couldn't stop reading. *-* is there a way for me to contact you? i would love to translate this fanfiction to portuguese, but i need your permission to do it - i mean, it's YOUR history. anyway, congratulations. it's a great fic. ;)

• Written by mystery_spell on chapter #26. (June 28th 2007, 4pm) I loved this story. You're a fantastic writer :D

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (June 27th 2007, 3am) Hey! I've read this story approximately 98 and a half times, and I've already sent you a few gushing emails, but I thought I'd say this about this chapter, since I don't believe it was in the original: I absolutely love love LOVE that you have James say that he couldn't have made it through the engagement process without Peter. I hate it when authors push Peter aside because they can't get past their own dislike of him, and I love how you show that Peter was just as important to James as his others friends. It made me really happy, and I think it shows real maturity as an author. I think I've pretty much expressed my love for this story previously as much as is possible, so I'll just say again, thanks for being amazing :) ~Caroline Author Response: Hi Carline! 98 times is intense. I really hope it hasn't gotten too boring for you. But surely by now you know which parts are your favorites and ski right over to them. :) Peter is one of my favorite little characters, because I had a friend in middle school who reminds me of someone I knew in high school: a best friend, but someone who I took for granted. I wanted to make sure this story was fairly true to life (okay, though Lily comes across as a bit of a moron for most of the story). So I'm glad to hear yo've enjoyed Prelude so much.

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #26. (June 20th 2007, 12am) The more and more James/Lily fanfic I read the more my fanfic starts to suck. But seriously, yours put the nail in the coffin. *thunk* That was my chance of ever coming close to creating the masterpiece you've created, going down the drain. *waves goodbye to dreams* Anyway, that was one of the best James/Lily I have ever read and believe me, I've read a lot. So keep it up!! Becky Author Response: Where is your story posted? I'd love to read it. I don't know that my story could ever put the nail in another story's coffin (that would be so sad), but I am glad that you seem to have enjoyed this story. I promise I put a lot of effort into it.

• Written by Anonymous on chapter #34. (May 31st 2007, 12am) oh. my. GOD. seriously. this has to be the ABSOLUTE ABSOLUTE ABSOLUTE best lj ever written. i want to meet you. are you famous? will you come to my town? i cant believe it. i thought iread good lj's before this... this is AMAZING. seriously. words on the internet don't describe. i. love. this. lj. so. effing. much. which basically translates to 'i love you for writing this lj'. one tinytiny glitch... the chapters are only evens? and chapters 30 & 32 (theyre consecutive) are the same. sooo yes. but seriously, never take this off the internet. i hope you do something with this extreme talent of yours. peace/rika Author Response: :) Your review made me smile. Yeah, I know about the chapters-are-only-even problem. It drives me nuts, but it\'s better than before when I had to split the chapters between two... oh, that was irritating. The ur.org staff knows about the evens-only thing, and they\'re working on it. :) Glad you made it through, though. And I\'m really glad you seemed to have enjoyed it so much. I spent a really long time on it, and it\'s nice to know people are still enjoying it, :)

• Written by jillypops on chapter #34. (May 30th 2007, 6am) Hi I've really enjoyed reading your fic, and although I almost never review fics, it was just so well-written I thought it necessary to congratulate you on an outstanding effort. The characters are believable, well-constructed and interesting. Even the OCs are fun to read about, and it's sometimes hard to forget that, for example, Matt or Gertrude, weren't actually in the HP series. There's a great balance and tension between comedy, romance and serious issues, which avoids the common over-simplification of most fanfics, but is able to explore a wide variety of issues. Your fic, despite some minor spelling and grammar errors, has textual integrity within itself and with the HP series in general (at the time you were writing). I thought it was interesting how you picked up some of the ideas in the series, and really made them your own. Finally, I must congratulate you on a really huge effort. It must have taken a lot of time, energy and commitment to write something so long and yet so interesting which maintained a high standard of writing. Good work! Author Response: :) Thank you for writing the review! I really appreciate it. It took a couple of years and a whole lot of effort, and I am really frustrated about the little grammar and spelling mistakes because I did put so much effort in. Anyway, yeah, I'm glad with how it is. Thanks again.