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A brief encounter changes two lives forever in an enthralling novel of love, loss and longing.
England 1944. In the shadow of the war raging in Europe, Tom and Anna meet by chance. He is an American pilot on a 72-hour pass and she is a secretary, trapped in a life going nowhere. Surprised by each other, they begin a passionate affair.
Their happiness does not last. Shot down over Europe, wounded and in hiding, Tom has no way of telling Anna he is alive. And Anna, left waiting in England, has no way of finding out. How can she know that Tom is struggling to return to her? Or that the thought of her is all that keeps him going on the long journey home? In a world where promises are hard to keep, all she can do is hope. Until she discovers her mother is keeping secrets, and then it is a race against time.
Historical fiction author Samantha Grosser originally hails from England, but now lives on the sunny Northern Beaches of Sydney with her husband, son and a very small dog called Livvy.
Combining a lifelong love of history with a compulsion to write that dates from childhood, Samantha is now bringing her passion for telling stories to the world.
Samantha has an Honours Degree in English Literature and taught English for many years in Asia and Australia. She is the author of wartime dramas Another Time and Place, The Officer’s Affair, and Out of the Ashes, as well as the literary historical novel The King James Men
I received a copy of this book for a review, I liked it. It was a typical world war love story, which I'm usually a fan of. Being Told in dual points of view was good because if it was only told in Ana's perspective I don't think I would have liked it as much, her parts were alittle dull and its a bit annoying in books listen to the female character fall into despair and hearing about how life doesn't matter anymore because the guys gone. I couldn't stand her mother, felt a little bad for poor old Morris. I did like toms parts best, all the stuff he was going through was interesting to read. As for their romance tho I totally buy them getting together so fast and all with the war going on but I found the whole idea of them falling madly in love not over the course of their short courtship but the first day they meet a little much.
A beautiful, poignant story of love, an insight into social norms of past times and mans ability to believe in the future. Beautifully written and evocative of the time. I shall certainly be looking for more work from Samantha Grosser.
Another Time and Place is by Samantha Grosser. This is a love story that takes place in England and then in France during World War II. It is also the story of a girl and her Mother where the relationship is fraught with anger and even dislike. Samantha does a fantastic job of describing England during the War and describing the hopelessness that Anna feels when she returns home. Anna Pilgrim had done something completely outside the expectations of herself and everyone who knew her, she had gone off with a Yank pilot and stayed gone for a week without letting anyone know where she was. During WWII, this would cause great concern due to the constant bombings by the Germans on England. However, Anna had immediately fallen in love with Tom Blake and being with him was her only thought. Until this action, Anna had been a very polite and anxious-to-please young lady. She went to work at the factory where she oversaw several other secretaries. She always told her Mother when she planned to be home late or when she left to visit her friend, Lottie. She did whatever her Mother demanded without arguing. Now, she refused to tell her Mother where she had been or who she had been with. She lied to her boss as to where she had been for a week. She was rebellious; but in a quiet and rather respectful way. However, she kept worrying about Tom. His plane had not come back and since she wasn’t a relative, she couldn’t find out anything. However, through a letter from an officer she wrote to, she determined that since his parents had not received a death notification that there was still hope. However, hope and time were running out for her. Tom Blake had never felt this way before. He wanted to immediately marry Anna and take her home to Montana. He wanted to protect her at all times. However, his job was to fly bombers and he had to do his job. The missions he flew where he had to be away from Anna were terrible for both of them. However, Anna truly wanted to know his feelings and what he did which helped him when things went wrong. The only thing that kept their time together from being totally free was her desire not to introduce him to her Mother. Not clearly understanding the relationship between them bothered him; but at her insistence, he let it go. On this last mission, his plane was hit and he and his men had to evacuate. Tom found himself in a tree with a broken leg. He managed to get out of the tree, bind up his leg to keep from bleeding out, and worked his way to a cabin. Luckily, the daughter Maria spoke English and the family was very anti-German. The other piece of luck was that Harry was here waiting to be picked up by a courier on his way home. However, when it came time for Harry to leave, Tom had to stay behind as he was unable to move until he healed. He did ask Harry to let Anna know he was OK and would come back to her. This was a promise Harry tried to keep but was unable to. Would Tom find his way back to Anna to find she really did love him or to find that it was all a dream? Would Harry find his way back home? Would his other crewmen have been lucky enough to find their way back home or were they unlucky? Many obstacles lie in the paths of Anna and Tom which must be overcome or moved out of the way. Are they strong enough to do this? The book is compelling and one which must be read until you are finished. Give yourself lots of time and plenty of tissues.
I love these stories but this was almost unreadable. It was just all over the place, it went backwards and forwards in its timeline when it could have just started at the beginning and finished at the end. I didnt even like the people in it and I hate leaving bad reviews but please just don't waste any of your life on this book.
The usual 21st-century tripe of a "nice" girl going to the hotel room of a man she's known only a few hours -- not even days or weeks, which would have been bad enough! The heroine's behaviour throughout is stupid and incomprehensible. Why would a mature (25-year-old), responsible employee just not show up for work for a week? Even if overcome with uncharacteristic and overpowering passion for the man she just met at a teashop, why wouldn't she call in to work and to her mother with a lie or an excuse? Why would a girl with a full-time job be unable to pay for lodgings? Why would she stay with a mother who she detests and fights with constantly? Only so the author can make her plot work, not because it is reasonable or in character. Speaking of the mother, she isn't so much a character as "the wicked witch." Tom is OK but again it's very 21st-century rather than authentic that he talks about combat stress. That wasn't OK in 1943 -- and certainly not with girlfriends and wives. The plot drags and the ending was never in doubt. Anyone interested in an intelligent, far more believable and genuinely moving story about a British woman and an American airman should read "Under an English Heaven" by Robert Radcliffe instead.
Simple story of young love during war. Faced with uncertainty, Anna lives through the ravages of war and faces challenges she is determined to overcome.I will give it a 2.8
Nice easy to read book. The characters were well chosen and very strong people who were willing to share their lives together.A nice love story but during war time. A daughter in a very awkward situation with a very jealous mother trying to hold her away from her lover.
What a great story about an English girl and American pilot who meet and call love during WWII.
The writing is very good here as the young woman lives with her rather mean and unstable mother who takes every opportunity to deride her modest daughter. Her mother wastes no moment to harass her daughter having been left by her own husband years previous. I cringed at the incessant putdowns and narcissistic behavior of this battle-axe of a woman. The story is very human as the American pilot's plane goes down and his status is set as missing in action as his love awaits word. It is heart-wrenching and tense as each year to be together.
I loved this book as it went into great detail to describe his missions and her home life with her awful mother. This is a great one for readers of historical fiction who are interested in WWII. I highly recommend it.
Set vividly against the hardship of the Second World War, this is a compelling love story, an enthralling adventure and a moving depiction of the resilience of the human spirit. In England 1944, A chance meeting changes two people's lives forever. American bomber pilot, Thomas "Tom" Blake, isn't looking for love, but everything changes when he meets Englishwoman and munitions secretary Anna Pilgrim on a winter afternoon. And so begins a whirlwind romance. However, their happiness doesn't last, when Tom suddenly gets shot down whilst on mission over Europe. Wounded, and in hiding from the Nazis, Tom has no way of letting Anna know his whereabouts, much less that he's alive. And Anna, left waiting in England, has no way of finding out, and her strained relationship with her mother, doesn't help matters. How can she know that Tom is struggling to return to her? Or that the thought of her is all that keeps him going on the long journey home? Interwoven with the danger of Tom's fight to survive is the story of Anna's own struggle to face the uncertainty of waiting, coupled with societal prejudice. In World War Two, there were too many ways for a fighting man to die. But no theatre of operations offered more fatal choices than the skies above Nazi occupied Europe. Inside a B-17 bomber, thousands of feet above the earth, death was always a moment away. From the hellish storms of enemy flak and relentless strafing of Luftwaffe fighters, to midair collisions, mechanical failure, and simple bad luck, it was a wonder any man would volunteer for such dangerous duty. For Allied POWs, the experience of capture could be humiliating. Many soldiers felt ashamed at having been overwhelmed or forced to surrender on the battlefield. It could also be traumatic. Airmen who had been shot down were hunted down in enemy territory after surviving a crash in which friends might have been killed. The Geneva Convention rules-which lay out protections and standards of treatment of POWs-weren't always followed, but on the whole the Germans behaved fairly. Even so, conditions were tough. Rations were meagre. The men had to work, often at heavy labour.
ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE by Samantha Grosser -- Anna is a young, single woman working as a secretary in a factory that supports the WWII effort in England in 1944. She lives with her mother, a bitter and domineering woman with bad history in her marriage that causes her to control and dominate Anna. Anna is unhappy at home and at work when she meets Tom, a dashing American lieutenant bomber pilot on a 72-hour pass and they begin a passionate affair. They fall deeply in love and commit to marriage but when Tom leaves and returns to active duty, Anna discovers she is pregnant, a difficult situation, especially in 1944 war era England. She keeps her condition from her mother, only increasing the tension in their always strained relationship. On a mission, Tom is shot down over France and Anna doesn't know if he is alive or dead. Despite his efforts to contact her, Anna's mother interferes, preventing the contact and trying to sour the relationship between Anna and Tom. The story rushes to a love story conclusion, but for women who have experienced difficulty in their own relationship with their mothers, it's anything but a and-they-all-lived-happily-everafter ending. Good plot. Strong and well-developed characters. Enjoyable writing. Also some excellent exploration of the dangers, fears, self-doubts of military men in the heat of battle.
Anna Pilgrim works as a secretary in a English factory. She lives with her mother, a miserable old woman who is never happy and makes Anna's life miserable too. Her father walked out on them when Anna was about six years old and her mother is distrustful of any man who might even consider looking at Anna.
When Anna meets a young American pilot Tom, in a tea room, she is immediately infatuated with him, as is he with her. She takes a week off work to stay with him, never telling her mother or her boss where she is. When he is shot down while on a mission, she has no way to know if he is still alive or not. She soon discovers she is pregnant and when her mother finds out, her home life deteriorates even further.
Tom writes to Anna discouraged when she never writes back. Her mother's vengeance seems to have no boundaries. I had to keep reading just to find out if they would ever get together or not!
Fascinating WWII story about an English secretary who inadvertently meets up with an American pilot and begins a passionate affair. However, he is captured and she finds herself pregnant. Due to a controlling and embittered mother who presses her to marry her long-time bachelor and unappealing boss while hiding communication from her beloved, Anna must hold her own against threats of homelessness. Tom's survival is fueled by returning home to his beloved, only to be told lies from Anna's mother. Drama right up to the very end with a happy but quick conclusion. Would have liked to know the forever after a bit more, but all-in-all maintained my interest throughout.
Another WW II story. This one can really stir your emotions. A English girl falls in love with an American fighter pilot. They fall in love immediately. Then the trials and tribulations begin. He must continue to fly. Her mother is spiteful partly because she was jilted by her husband. She believes the all men are out only for sex and will leave a woman stranded. As the story unfolds her spitefulness and short sightedness makes the young English girl suffer. The fighter pilot and the girl are truly in love but he gets captured and she is pregnant. The story brings back many of the horrors and sufferings of the time. I won't spoil the story any further.
It would have been nicer to have Anna’s and Tom’s time together as a lead and not popping up here and there. They were supposed to talk about everything possible but we got very little of their actual conversation. Comment by Anna’s mother were repetitive - I’m sure that this was quite proper for the character - but we did not need to read them over and over again. Anna’s contact with Tom’s family was one time and then nothing. They surely would have sent her any news. But that would have changed the story so they were completely eliminated. The end came little abruptly. The last minute problems were not very convincing.
I love books that take place during WWII. And I had high hopes for this one, but come on! The Greatest Generation included women too. How many chapters were going to drone on endlessly while Anna just takes her mother's crap? If Anna could make the decision to keep her baby surely she could buck and tell her mum to stuff it. The book slogs on and on ploddingly. Plus, did it never enter her pretty little simple mind to ask the Postmaster if mail had come for her from overseas? I wasted a good amount of time on this book when I could have been engaged in something more enlightening.
Tom Blake is an American pilot who meets Anna Pilgrim a secretary in England during World War II. Tom and Anna met at an afternoon tea and their romance starts to blossom. Tom is wounded after his plane is shot down over Europe and goes into hiding to avoid being captured by the enemy. Anna has no way to communicate with Tom to find out if he is injured or alive. Anna finds out through other servicemen and letters that Tom has been injured and is trying to get back to her. Despite Tom facing challenging obstacles and dangers his love and determination for Anna makes his journey worth it. I really enjoyed this fantastic historical romance novel.
This was a really great story to read. I was really caught up in it and wanted to keep reading, which I did. It revolves around the love between an American pilot and an English girl during World War II. She lives with an overbearing and dictating mother, and he winds up being a prisoner of war. There are all sorts of emotions and feelings that come into play, and the hurts and joys along the way. I recommend Another Time and Place, a really special story of people dealing with some of the human aspects and consequences of war.
This was my first novel by Samantha Grosser and I found it to be very well written and historically accurate. It caught my interest at the beginning and I couldn’t stop until I had completed it. The story was gripping and the characters were so well developed that I felt that I knew them. Every emotion possible was experienced while reading this novel. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series and other books written by this author. If you like historical fiction and especially about WWII, I recommend this book to you.
A war and romance story where Anna meets Tom and they instantly fall in love. The rest of the story is about their separation, not knowing if the other is still alive or unmarried. I enjoyed it but I found it dragged after a while. Took a very long time to see if they would get back together. I enjoyed the characters though but Anna's hateful mother was almost unbelievable. A good war time story.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I must admit that I was confused more than once if the story was current or a “think back”. The author did not make it obvious enough for me when she had a character reliving the past vs currently happening in the story. Other than that I wish she would have spent a few more pages on the ending. It was a wonderful story and I look forward to the next and would recommend.
1944 London is in the midst of war and the American pilots are helping. Anna is a secretary working to organize things for the war effort. She meets pilot Tom and for a week they are inseparable. Of course Tom pilots a bomber plane and goes missing for over a year only Anna's mother knows he's alive and writing to Anna but her mother has been burning them. Finally Tom makes it home and after being told Anna's married they see each other and know the truth
I was disappointed in this story. The plot was good, but the story seemed to drag. At times it almost felt repetitive. I didn’t find the heroine to be a character that I responded to. In many ways she was weak and indecisive, but then she would show a little spunk. I kept waiting for a surprising element to the story.
I have been reading many books about the war period. This one was a bit different because it told personal stories, from different perspectives. The pilot with his fears and struggles after being shot down. Then his girlfriend needing to continue on, not knowing his fate. Throw in the evil mother, and it was fascinating reading.
This is the first novel that I have read by Samantha Grosser. It was an excellent love story and historical novel. I was cheering for Tom and Anna the whole way through the novel. The character development was great. It surely was a happily ever after story.
When a young aviator is shot down behind enemy lines, and cannot return to his pregnant fiancee, who poses the greater obstacle and evil to their happiness? Is it the German Nazis who believe their own propaganda? Or is it the young woman's bitter, interfering mother who hates the "Yanks" and has been burning the letters he has managed to get through to her? (I think that the answer is obvious!)
The first in a series, Tom & Anna meet by accident and instantly fall in love. An American Airman and an English secretary living what seems like worlds apart. After spending a week together, Tom goes MIA during a mission. For almost 2 years they are apart both dreaming of the other and hoping that their love is strong enough to withstand time and circumstance.
I enjoyed this book and found myself wishing it was a little longer, but I won’t share any spoilers. I did find myself tense while reading about Anna’s mother and wanting to protect Anna through the pages. If you like WWI stories and the fight and will to stay alive through war, you’ll enjoy this quick read.