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How much do I love Training Season? Soooo much. So, so much. Let me count the ways:



Ahem... this might be kind of long. Sorrynotsorry. (BEWARE: SPOILERS AHEAD)

The things I liked:

1. Matty Marcus, you fabulous bratty bitch, you! I love him. He's like an amalgamation of all of the glam, bitchy, selfish, able-to-read-you-in-a-hot-second but ultimately kind of sweet gay men that I've known in my life. He's fun and fab, and yet he's kind of an asshole, but that's ok. That's part of what makes him so lovable. I loved the makeup and the outfits and the thoughts about other people's outfits. He reminded me of a more likable (to me) Jonny Weir, which was probably the point. I needs me some more of these types of characters in my M/M!! There are just not enough of you out there. See Strawberries for Dessert by Marie Sexton for my other fave fab gay character.

2. Rob: Good LORD he was hot. He was sexy as hell and supportive, and not afraid of calling Matty out on his bullshit. Did I mention he was hot? Because yeah... hot (if a bit too unrealistic).

3. The way they progressed from being friendly neighbors to fuck buddies to in lurrrvve was believable and also, once again, hot. That first sex scene on the kitchen floor? Yummy!

4. Ok, ALL the sex scenes. Remind me never to read something like this one on my way to work. Also not to read it at work. Phew! I can't even with all the sexy times. They made my loins quiver or whatever. Which sounds kind of gross, but still.

5. It was so well written and even mostly plausible(ish). I fell into the story from the first sentence, and could not stop reading from there. I even kept doing the "I love this!" happy dance whilst reading, because I did love it. Siggghhh. There might've been a few very minor grammatical errors, but nothing that jumped out at me. This is always highly appreciated, so thank you to Leta Blake's editor and can you PLEASE help some other folks out? K, thanks.

6. Call me crazy but I also loved that Matty didn't win all the medals that he went up for. That made this story way more believable and realistic (and also probably closer to what Jonny Weir has gone through). I wouldn't call myself an expert but I have somewhat followed Figure Skating over the years so I get it when Matty kept railing at the injustice of it being such a seemingly "gay" sport, but yet judges would ding him for being openly gay and not overly masculine. That sucks, dude. Really.

7. I love that Matty was trying to win for winning's sake, not just because he loved his mean ass boyfriend Figure Skating. It cracked me up that he kept having such "real" thoughts of murder and mayhem in regards to his opponents, and it also felt real that he wanted to win the money to help his family out. I'm sure there are many athletes out there that feel the same way; they can't all just be in it for their love of the sport. All those "I just want to win for God and my country" sound bites that we normally hear at the Olympics sound nice but I'm quite sure that's not the whole story, or we wouldn't see such bitter losing faces (and/or actions) on our tv screens at those times.

8. Ben, Ethan and the rest of their family and friends. I liked how the author gave each character their own voice and fleshed them out enough that we as readers could envision them without unnecessary show and tell. Brava!

Things I didn't like as much but were not deal breakers:

1. The "I WILL HEAL YOU WITH MY POWERS OF BDSM!" theme woven throughout the book. I usually call bullshit on that but I will admit that I didn't mind it so much here because it was Matty himself that thought Rob was healing him, not necessarily the other way around. I would even point out the part where Matty mentions it to Rob in the book and he kind of negates it, but I'm too lazy for all that.

2. The one thing I really disliked was when Rob (view spoiler)[broke out the breathplay without any sort of by your leave, which seemed highly implausible and also pretty damned dangerous. Read Steelwhisper's review for more info on why that was so shittily done:
/review/show.... (hide spoiler)] *whispers* It was still sexy though.

3. All that crying, of which there was a lot. Normally I ding points off of books for things like that but it was more believable here, since Matty was a drama queen extraordinaire. I can see him crying every five seconds over the things he was sad about so I didn't hate it.

4. Matty's ice skating related (view spoiler)[eating disorder. It seems crazy that anyone would be able to survive, much less perform incredible feats of athleticism, on such a small caloric intake, but I'm quite sure similar shenanigans have gone on in real life. I did like that Rob kept giving Matty a hard time about it but I also see how he wouldn't have wanted to interfere in a process that seemed to work. I feel as if, to add more realism, there should have been at least one scene where Matty fainted from dizziness related to lack of nutrients and Rob gave him a hard time about it. (hide spoiler)]

5. The Gayborhood: There seemed to be a LOT of out gay people in this small Montanan town. Implausible? Probably, but I'll go with it. Not so plausible: the lack of hatred towards all that out and proud gayness in such a small town.

6. The enema scene. Do people actually do that like that? Gross and no thank you.

All in all, I pretty much loved this book enough to write my longest review ever... I think. Thank you, Miss Leta Blake, and please continue the good work!