Awesome!!! Almost brought tears to my eyes...sniff!! sniff!!! Loved it. Glad Nikki has an "out" from the business.

I'm glad Sunshine didn't leave Nikki!  Glad he's getting out of the "business" too!

Okay...I read this late, late, late last night...I would have left a review then...but then again I was too embarrassed to leave a review that late...didn't want to come off stalkerish...lol...

Girl, you are a master storyteller...a true craftsman...er...craftsperson...I love how you so subtlely tantalize the emotions...yet never giving your hand until the exact final moment...that takes skill and true workmanship to be able to pull off without becoming tedious for the reader...and you do it so well...I remember as I was reading (and I'm going back to read it again after I leave this review) being so sure I knew what was going to happen only to read a few lines later...that uh-oh, not so fast...it might not be going the way you expect...the way you played every beat to this story is inspiring...making me wish that I had one iota of the ability to draw these emotions out of a reader...but alas...I am but a mere reader...and not a writer...but still I'm envious (this is a compliment...and praise to your prowess as a skillful storyteller)...I hope these compliments aren't coming out as too flowery...because that is not my intent...I am serious...very few writers have that ability to move me so...and I am an avid reader...so count yourself in with the rarefied few who can achieve such a feat...

Now, on to the story...the scene with Sunny and Nikolai was so poignant and heartwrenching...I wept...like a hungry babe at its mother's busom...I wept...I had already built myself up to accept the inevitable...knew that it would not end well...and then her final acknowledgement of confessing her love for him...I thought...how cruel..she tells him she loves him...then leaves him...now, notice I'm still projecting...but when Nikolai refused as I knew he would to let her go...let her walk away from him and them...my heart soared...and I hoped again...and as I kept reading and realized Sunshine could no more walk away from him than she could stop herself from breathing her next breath...I believed then...that yes, sometimes true love happens in the most unexpected of places...in the strangest circumstances...between two people who at first glance have nothing in common...that love is not a choice...a conscious decision...and only for the deserving...it just is...what an epiphany...the way they washed the blood for each other...so symbolic and touching as if they were washing away the hurt, disillusionment, and fear of the past and embracing the future...

I also loved her visit with Sergei...and her analogy of them being fellow 'prisoners'...Sunny found that within her guilded cage...she discovered something of such value that she no longer wanted nor needed to be 'free'...and she gave to Sergei a means to 'free' himself by opening his mind to another world where he can become master of his own destiny...maybe he will go back to Moscow and open a legit business of his own...with Anatoly as the head of the crime family...maybe it will be his final 'gift' to his brother...to set him free from a life he never belonged to...still can't say I have much sympathy for him...but there must be something if Sunny can still find compassion for him...so eh...

I can't wait to read the epilogue...and I'm so glad that Stanislavsky gave Nikolai and Sunny a means to be free of the past...he really was a 'father' to his 'son' that Nikolai's own biological father never was...and he's right...it is a love story after all...not a fairytale...kudos again for writing such a compelling masterpiece...I loved, loved, LOVED it!!!

Thanks Onimosity for this intense ride. I've been worried, scared to read, but I never stopped.  I know you have one chapter left, but I wanted to thank you for this story and giving us Nikki and Sunny.

YES!! You did the impossible.  You kept them together and Nikolai gets to keep his properties, so that he gets to remain who he is without the danger, per Papa Stanislasky. LOL.  AND Sergei gets to live.  With Anatoly as the new boss, it will happen.  And he will be able to take the money from the diamond bracelet and carve out a NEW life. 

It was Perfect....just PERFECT.  I LOVED this story.  I was teary-eyed at this chapter.  You are SUCH a WONDERFUL story teller!!!!  You made it seem like I was watching a movie.  I am sooo looking forward to the Epilogue. 

And I know it is selfish, but in the future, might you consider doing a Sunshine and Nikolai II? 

Nyeesha

Oh yaay!

What a great storyteller you are.  When you started with her going to the bar to find her dad because they needed the money...well my eyes teared up.  Then when she ran into the man with the heavy accent, I thought how early did she really run into Nicolai and not know it.  Maybe it wasn't him, but somewhere in my mind I think they were always destined to be.  The exchange between Stanislavsky and Nicolai was wonderful, when he said he couldn't give him any less than he would have his other son and talked about the love story.  I am really starting to like Priscilla.  Obviously she has been around a long time and I didn't really realize how much a part of the organization she was until the last update when she helped Sunshine take Sergei to the doctor.  Hopefully there is a future story for her.  And the name of your story makes so much sense with the ending.  Looking forward to what you will do with the epilogue.

No, a million "Thank yous" to you!!! I'm bawling my eyes out!!!

Yes, this wasn't a fairy tale. It was a love story. And love is the strangest, most wonderful, mysterious, powerful thing that we as humans have at our disposal. Yet so few of us do it right or find it in it's truest form, especially with the most unlikely of people. We seem to lack the tenacity and dedication to be a Sunshine to a Nicholai. The sun trumping the star.

More later.

Even though I can't stand the character of Nikolai, I still enjoyed the story. Sunny.....not too fond of her either. Unforgiving regarding her dad, yet all forgiving of Niko, and the man deliberately sabotaged her dad's efforts to rehabilitate for his children's sake and his own. Amazing writing, I just wish that Things had turned out differently and that Sergei and Sunny could have made a go of it.

After my 3rd read of this chapter (at 3:30 am) I have to say how much I adored Sunshine telling Nikki she loved him. I couldn't enjoy it fully the first time I read it because your chapters are sometimes full of emotional roller coasters that I was waiting to be hit with more devastation after that piece of joy. But you nailed it. I think that I was just as emotional as Nikki when Sunny told him that she loved him. 

I can't think of another couple that I've fallen in love with more than Sunny and Nikki. You wrote them so well. Bravo again.

Oh my this was lovely!  I was so TERRIFIED of reading this final chapter.  My heart was pounding waiting for Sunshine to walk away from Nikki with an "I love you, but I can't stay" statement during the first half.

I did wish this chapter was done as a mega chapter because I don't want the story to end.  Any thoughts to a sequel?  Not a 40-something chapter piece like this one, but something to give us some insight into Sunny's and Nikki's new life and her meeting his parents in Russia.  I'd like to see what road Sergei takes, as well as a bit on Anatoly taking the reign's of Nikki's organization, and where Priscilla ends up. Maybe just a couple of chapters on the last 3, but definitely more S&N. Please...

This was a fantastic read. I will be reading it over again and again and again.  I hope you continue to write. Great job.

out-uckong-standing!!!!!!!