As Time Goes By

by Anna Lee

In 1944, Matt Jackson, a wounded RAF pilot, ends up in the Royal Infirmary after his squadron is attacked. When he meets Doctor Trynt Andrews, both men's lives are changed with the instant connection they feel for one another. Alone and injured, Matt is invited into Trynt's home and they become inseparable, finding a love they thought they never would. As the year goes by, their commitment deepens despite having to keep their love a secret. When Matt is deployed and his plane goes down during battle will all be lost? Or will he make it home to Trynt?

Genres: M M Romance, Historical, Romance, Historical Fiction

ebook

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Anna Lee graduated from the University of California Riverside with a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing. Living with a disability, she has overcome many challenges and puts her passion for life and love into her writing. She lives with her family and dogs and enjoys writing late into the night.

Reviews

[AngelFire · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 12%

I'm rage quitting this one because I'm very pissed. I love WW2 historical MM romances but I only have a few left to read and the premise for this was exactly what I love so I've been saving this one...and it turned out to be a steaming pile of garbage.

Yeah, this was terrible. In fact, it has the honor of replacing Debbie McGowan's When Skies Have Fallen as the worst WW2 MM romance I've ever read. The writing was terrible, the relationship was insta-everything and there was zero (ZERO!!) attempt at accuracy in terms of the medical stuff, historical time period or the English/Welsh setting.

The Writing

The writing was painfully amateur. The characters all acted and spoke in OTT overly emotional ways that weren't just absurd but they were cringey. For example, when the doctor mentions Matt's plane crash, the latter immediately dissolves into a dramatic mess by yelling and crying hysterically. But moments later, he's calmed down and he's flirting with the doctor. There were also too many dialog tags and most of the dialog was ridiculous.

Insta-Everything

This book could be listed in the dictionary as an example of what instalust and instalove means. Matt wakes up in the hospital after crashing his plane. Let me reiterate - the man just survived crashing his plane. He wakes up, sees that the doctor tending to him is cute and immediately, Matt's attracted to him. He's in a little bit of pain but he's mostly focused on how hot the doctor is. Then he starts flirting with the doctor, who happily reciprocates.

A few hours later, they share intensely personal information with each other and they take turns hysterically sobbing while the other hugs and comforts them. By the way - the deeply personal information they share includes the bombshell that Matt's lover (a fellow soldier) had been in the plane with him and has just died. As in- a few hours ago. Matt makes a comment that he really, really likes the doctor (who he's known for about 20 min by this point) but he's not ready for a new relationship yet. But minutes later, Matt and the doctor are comforting each other with intimate caresses and they have a conversation where they agree that Matt's lover would want him to move on. The lover has been dead for a few hours. A. Few. Hours. At that point, I was laughing so hard that I was in tears because of how ridiculous it was. In fact - I'm cry-laughing as I type this.

But wait, it gets worse! The insta-train has barely left the station. So on that SAME DAY (the day they met), they confess their feelings for each other, agree to go out for a coffee date when Matt's released (did your brain screech to a halt because this is supposed to be set during World War 2? Oh, don't worry - we'll address that point later) and the doctor kisses Matt on the cheek. The very next day (they've known each for almost 48 hours by this point), they keep flirting, kissing, hugging and just generally being touchy-feely with each other. Then they make out while in the hospital room with Matt crawling onto the doctor's lap and they declare that they're in love with each other. Please tell me I'm not the only one laughing hysterically at this point.

Lack of Medical Realism

This story lacks realism in all contexts and the medical stuff being treated in absurd ways wasn't surprising but it still annoyed me. Matt crashed his plane. He crashed his plane. Then he has surgery for a stomach wound but immediately after waking up, he's completely coherent and is able to sit up easily. The very next day, he's climbing into the doctor's lap to make out with him. Then there's the way the doctor is spending basically his entire shift socializing, flirting and making out with Matt instead of doing his job. Because who cares about that little war thing that's happening, right?

If there's any doubt that the author didn't take this story seriously, these things were ample enough proof. Oh, but it gets much worse.

Lack of Historical Realism (World War 2)

Where to even start with this mess? The author basically uses World War 2 as an angsty background premise but that's it. The characters speak using 100% modern dialog, everybody's wearing modern clothes and the author clearly did zero research into the war or this time period because everything is happening the way it would in a contemporary romance hospital setting. Some examples:

+ Matt is given a private room, despite only being a captain
+ The doctor offers Matt a chocolate bar because clearly, the author had no idea that rationing was happening
+ The doctor and Matt are fully focused on their developing romance and not the fact that there's a war going on and they're in a field hospital
+ The doctor and Matt make plans to go on a 'coffee date' when Matt's released from the hospital, as if the author seriously thinks that there were Starbucks on every corner in 1944

My second favorite example of the lack of realism was when the author attempted to give Matt a cool backstory but somehow mixed up the events of WW1 and WW2...? So the story went that Matt, his younger brother and parents had moved from England to France during WW1 to 'help out' (ignore how dumb that sounds because it gets much worse). But to keep Matt and his brother safe, they (the kids) were sent to the countryside. Clearly, the author had heard about the relocation that city kids in England underwent during WW2 where they were shipped to the English countryside or even places like Canada to avoid the bombing. But...you can't just take this historical fact, change the country to France and also change the time period and wars and have it make sense. The French weren't sending their children into the French countryside to avoid bombing campaigns in 1917. None of that made any sense and none of it was remotely close to fitting in with the historical facts of the time period. But it got worse because apparently, Matt's brother died by being hit by a bomb but Matt (standing near his brother) was fine. And oh, his dad was shot by random soldiers for protecting his mom, yet his mom was free to go after they'd shot the dad. WTF?!? None of this made any sense.

But my favorite example of the author clearly not giving a single shit about depicting this time period accurately was when the nurse is introduced....wearing scrubs...and her hair is up in a messy bun because she 'seemed to be someone who wouldn't care about appearances'. I mean...at what point is it considered false advertising to label garbage like this as historical?

Lack of Historical Realism (Homosexuality)

You're probably not surprised that the author's depiction of homosexuality during this time period is so far from reality that they're not on the same planet. We start out with Matt blurting out that he thinks the doctor's attractive right after Matt wakes up, which is ridiculous. No gay man would randomly blurt something like that out in the 1940s. He would have spent his entire life controlling his homosexual thoughts, never mind what comes out of his mouth. And this man is a captain in the RAF, which makes it even more absurd.

When Matt and the doctor are making out, they're almost caught by one nurse who obviously knows what they're doing but doesn't care. Then they're outright caught by Nurse Messy-Hair-Bun and the doctor doesn't bother releasing Matt from the intimate hug they're exchanging because the nurse is also fine with them being gay. Then there's the ridiculous conversations Matt and the doctor have, like how the doctor immediately guesses that Matt's former co-pilot was his lover and when he asks Matt to confirm, Matt casually admits to it.

I have no doubt that if I continue, the two of them will continue escalating their love affair while in the hospital and there will be zero historically accurate consequences.

On one hand, I'm so irritated that I'm angry because I don't tolerate people disrespecting history for their own agenda and I specifically have no tolerance for people not taking real life wars seriously. Another reviewer pointed out how offensive it is that the author has the two MCs openly conducting a gay love affair in 1944 and facing no consequences. In the real life version of 1944, Alan Turning would have been feverishly working to apply his genius and incredible work ethic to fighting the Nazis and that work played a huge role in turning the tide against Hitler. Yet none of that mattered when he was caught in 1952 having a gay relationship and he was given the choice of prison or chemical castration. He chose the latter and the resulting depression crippled him to the point where he committed suicide in 1954. This man was one of the biggest heroes of the entire war but the brutal rules against homosexuality weren't bent, even for him. So having the two MCs in this absurd story carry on a gay affair in front of patients and other staff felt extremely disrespectful.

But on the other hand, there's one thing that made me realize that the author might not be a good writer but they didn't have any ill intentions when they turned the World War 2 setting into a minor background detail. The reason is the following:

The RAF Coat

Near the start of the story, the doctor randomly notices Matt's RAF greatcoat on a nearby chair and he makes a weird comment about finding it attractive. This threw me off because I had so many questions. Where did this coat come from?!? These coats are part of Matt's dress uniform so he wouldn't have been wearing it while flying the plane. But even if he was wearing it while flying, there's no way the coat would have survived the crash and everything that happened after. And why is the coat sitting on a random chair? Where are the rest of his clothes? It was so strange.

But the coat thing nudged something in my brain because it felt so deliberate but also weird. I thought back and the only media related greatcoat connection I could think of was the Torchwood fandom where Captain Jack always wore that RAF greatcoat. Then I remembered Nurse Messy-Hair-Bun being described as being Welsh and having a gap between her front teeth and the doctor is Welsh too and I realized that this story clearly used to be Torchwood AU fanfic. All the author did was change the MCs names (Matt is really Jack and the doctor is really Ianto).

Once I realized it was fanfic, everything became clear. In the world of fanfic when somebody writes an AU (alternate universe), it's acceptable if the author's efforts were concentrated on the romance aspect rather than the historical/mystery/fantasy etc AU setting that they chose. While some writers do pride themselves on doing a ton of research or worldbuilding and making the entire experience enjoyable, it's not expected. For many readers, they would have only been reading to experience a new version of Jack/Ianto getting together and they wouldn't have been bothered about the blatant historical inaccuracies. That doesn't excuse the terrible writing, the insta-everything approach to the romance and the absurdly out-of-character depictions of both Jack and Ianto but based on this having been a fanfic AU, I'm convinced the author's intentions weren't to disrespect history, gay rights or historical romance readers.

Personally, I think it was a terrible idea to just change the characters names and expect the book to be accepted by the published-for-profit romance reading community, because that group's expectations and tastes are very different from the fanfic crowd. But because the author did put this book out there and did market it as being an authentic World War 2 MM romance, that's how I judged it and that's why I'm sticking to my opinion that it's the worst WW2 historical romance I've ever read. And if you ignore the historical inaccuracies, it would still be one of the worst books and fanfics I've ever read due to everything else being terrible too.

[Erastes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok. Here’s the thing. When you know a fandom, it’s very difficult to read a book that’s obviously converted fanfic when it hasn’t been converted well enough to expunge all traces of the original canon. I know how difficult this is–I used to write fanfic, and I have two novellas at least that I’m very proud of, but the work involved in making them entirely unrecognisable as to where they came from would be as hard work as writing something entirely new–so I haven’t done it.

And in this case–which is obviously Torchwood fanfic, it’s a shame, because the writing is decent enough to carry a story throughout.

But when you have an RAF Captain Matt (with an RAF greatcoat that becomes a sexual object in itself) who falls in love with a dark-haired, blue-eyed Welshman–now called Trynt–and then you have an assorted cast who are obviously name-changed versions of Torchwood’s cast: Gwen becomes Wynne, the gap-toothed Welsh nurse; Toshiko is now Kimioko, Trynt’s room-mate etc etc–then I for one have difficulty reading it as an original story at all because I’m translating it back to fanfic in my head.

OK. Putting that aside, I couldn’t like this book at all. The writing is perfectly serviceable, no complaints there, but it’s just far too saccharine for my, and I’m guessing many people’s tastes.

Captain Matt wakes in a hospital after a terrible accident with his squadron where everyone has died, including his own lover and he almost immediately falls in love with his doctor, who of course, falls almost immediately back in love with him. The two men are femininely sensitive to the point of hysteria, fall in love instantly and are touching, kissing, hugging and weeping on each other’s shoulders within a day of meeting. All this in a hospital in 1944…

There then follows half a book of their relationship building. This consists of Matt recovering–having moved in with Trynt and them having long girly talks, sleeping together but not actually doing anything. But there is a lot of talk and weeping. For the first 25% of the book one or other of them is just about crying on every page. It was ludicrously inconsistent with a doctor and a flight captain, and also was out of character for the fanfic counterparts.

Here’s just one sample of this overblown schmoopiness: (this conversation is happening during penetration while Matt rides Trynt’s cock)

“I know our love is strong enough to outlast whatever this war throws at us. And despite it, I promise I will do everything I can to make you happy and give you the life you want.”

“You already have, Matt.” Trynt began to thrust slowly as he held on to Matt. “All I want is a life with you. I want all the plans we just made. And I won’t let anything stop us from having them; we’re going to build that life together. I know our love can overome whatever happens.” He cupped Matt’s face in his hands, gazing into his stormy blue eyes. “And you’ll never be alone again. I’ll always be here for you, loving you with all my heart and making you happy. I didn’t know what true happiness or love was until you came along, now it all makes sense. You’re my whole word Matt and I couldn’t love you more. And I certainly couldn’t ask for anything more than to be here with you just this,” he admitted, then kissed Matt passionately, pouring all his feelings into the kiss.

“I love you too.” Matt slowly lifed himself up and then back down on Trynt’s cock. “Always, Trynt.”

“Always,” Trynt vowed.

This type of conversation goes on for pages, as does the sex which is very coy, to be honest. The author clearly has a problem with using more graphic terms, so there’s lots of “warm passages” and the like. The one that make me want to throw my Kindle against the wall was “essence” for sperm, and essence is used a lot. There’s much fanfic cliche too, the characters are always saying “Come for me” in fact they pretty much say it at every orgasm, and in fact the sex is quite repetitive although some might find it arousing.

As for an historical grounding, there is hardly any. We are told a war is going on, and Matt pops off in between injuries then comes back and “recovers” a bit more which involves sex, massages, wine(!), coffee(!), but you never get the atmosphere of London at war. Rationing is mentioned, but there’s no real impact of it in their day-to-day life. They drink wine, and in one scene–in December–they eat lasagne and have strawberries for dessert. Words fail me. Where would they have got the strawberries from? Spain? I think the author lost control of her own timeline at this point, as she had them planning a picnic shortly afterwards.

1944 was a hugely important time in London’s war as the V2 rockets were fired at the city–look at this map here–but there’s no mention at all of any bombs, or indeed of anything much. I found this amazing, because the devstation was immense. Selfridges, Speakers Corner and Holborn was all bombed, but Trynt doesn’t seem to notice.

Matt’s involvement in the war is very confusing too. We are told he’s the captain of a squadron, and that he flies Spitfires, but we are also told that he leads bombing raids, and is also fighting on the ground with the infantry. In fact there’s so much wrong with the military details I’m not even going to discuss it.

Then there’s the OKHomo. Unsurprisingly really, seeing as this is converted Torchwood fic, but in 1944 London it’s absolutely mad. Everyone knows and just about everyone lurves the idea of it, understands it completely and the one person who doesn’t has something over him–blackmarket activity–which prevents him doing anything about it and he’s won over by the homo-love by the end anyway. The author makes a sop to having Matt and Trynt be careful in public but it’s purely pasted on, as their behaviour would be obvious to anyone.

And that’s about it, really. Conflict happens about 60% of the way through, which calls for a major crying jag from Trynt as the melodrama is plastered on with a trowel. The conflict lasts for about one chapter, though and the remaining 25% of the book is taken up with the inevitable HEA which loses a lot of its impact because how could they be any more soppy and romantic than they already have been almost on every page?

So, no. I didn’t like this book at all. It had just about every aspect of m/m that I dislike and layered it all up so thickly I felt like giving up.
IF you can handle the constant weeping, pages of declarations of love, long talky sex, constantly crying men on a wallpaper war background with decidedly shaky historical accuracy–and IF you don’t already know the Torchwood fanon, then you might like this. But I’m sorry, I didn’t.

[Kiki · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

I wanted to like this one more than I did. I love WWII stories, and I love sweet, romantic stories, and this hits on both. But much of it didn't ring true.

There is no sense of the time and circumstances (there were a lot of small things that were very much out of place for the time). The dialogue is stilted and downright ridiculous at times. The entire story is awash with the unbelievable, such as the accepting attitude of EVERYONE they know -- apparently not a single person has a problem with homosexuality in this version of 1940's England. And then there is the way everyone knows everyone else and is connected ... all by random chance. Even the instant love is just over the top, even if not all that unusual in a romance.

Even with all the flaws, I did get some enjoyment from the sweet romance ... I just wish I could've believed it a little bit more.

[Karen Plummer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have to agree with Erastes' review of this title. I remember reading this as Torchwood fanfiction and much as I love the author, this needed more than just changing the names to make it a believable story. I have trouble with the idea of two men in the 1940s immediately acting on an attraction in a fairly public place such as a hospital and that most of those around them are so openly accepting of their relationship.