Training Season by Leta Blake
Released: December 2, 2013
M/M Contemporary Romance
Self Published

Reviewed by Mandi

When I heard this book featured a male Olympic figure skater that falls for a Montana rancher, I had to try it. Unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to my excitement..

Matty is a former Olympic figure skater, who has been struggling with injuries and the drive to keep going. At twenty-one he has accomplished a lot, but he knows he could have done better. He has squandered his money and hasn’t always listened to the advice of his coaches. But he wants another chance to prove himself, he just needs the money to do it. His mother’s friend lives in Montana and needs someone to house sit for a few months. This friend will pay him and also set him up at an ice rink so he can practice. So Matty leaves the east coast to go to Montana to take care of horses and a ranch house. It is here he meets his neighbor, Rob Lovely.

Rob is gay, but also was once married to a woman because of a one-time fling  that ended with her pregnant. Now divorced with a twelve year old, Rob runs the neighboring ranch. Offering some neighborly help, these two meet and are soon humping on the kitchen floor (that scene was hot). But when Matty gets an opportunity to go back east to train with one of the best coaches, what will happen?

The good parts of this book: Matty is pretty flamboyant – he enjoys wearing glitter eye shadow, blush, sparkle vests. That is fun. The story is told in his point of view, and I liked Matty. He doesn’t have a filter, he is very proud of who he is, and yet he also accepts the fact that he has made mistakes in the past, and is willing to try to change. I enjoyed Matty in the first half of the book quite a bit.

But then the second half came. I have two big complaints in this one – first, while the sex is hot between Rob and Matty, I’m not sure I ever felt it was romantic. As the book progresses, we learn Rob definitely has some dominant, BDSM tendencies – I’d say overall it’s light except for one more heavier scene.  The sex scenes are fun, but in between the sex scenes I wanted more romance between them

Also, I had a hard time with the last quarter of this book. I don’t want to give too much away but I was not a fan by how much time passes and what happens during this time. I needed Rob to be more prevalent in the story and I lost interest. It just wasn’t a romance book for me. It was Matty’s story while he had some hot sex.

This book was okay but not one I’d enthusiastically recommend.

Rating: C

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