Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Training Complex 
SERIES: Training Season
AUTHOR: Leta Blake
PUBLISHER: Michael Ferraiuolo
LENGTH: 12 hours and 49 minutes
RELEASE DATE: October 26, 2020
BLURB:
Can Rob help Matty defeat his inner saboteur for good?
It’s summer in the city and figure skater Matty Marcus is still desperately in love with Rob Lovely. Although he misses the thrill and pressure of competition, he couldn’t be happier in their new life together, so he doesn’t understand why he’s secretly indulging in his eating disorder again and requesting harder, more intense BDSM scenes. Matty’s scared he’s losing control, and he has to believe that Rob, as always, will save him.
Rob is equally crazy about Matty. He finally has the vivacious man he adores in his arms every night. But taking it to the limit has always been the name of Matty’s game, so Rob’s love must be stronger than Matty’s self-sabotage. Even when Matty’s inner demons try to take control, Rob is committed to find their way back. Together.
Loving Matty isn’t always easy — but for, Rob it’s always worth it.
Training Complex is an MM romance about a feisty, self-sabotaging former figure skater and the steady, strong man who loves him. It features opposites attract, hurt/comfort, domestic discipline, chastity play, and a heartfelt and epic happy ending. No cheating, no threesomes, and no breakups — just two amazing men fighting for their love!
Content warning for disordered eating, misapplied BDSM, and mental health issues.
REVIEW:
Rob and Matty are together – building a life in New York City. Rob is enjoying his work as a physical therapist. Matty has joined his former coach, Valentina, and is enjoyed training the kids at the wink. When his best student improves so much and is getting ready to jump ship to a new coach, things seem to revert back to a bad place. His negative voice comes back and he falls into some pretty bad habits – mostly around his eating (or lack thereof) and doing things that he knows will risk his relationship with Rob.
Rob is struggling with things as well. He really is not happy in the city – the noise, the lack of open space and quiet are doing a number on him. He’s also really worried about Matty. He watches him spiral down – with the eating, purposely doing things that will earn him punishments. Their scenes are getting rougher for Rob to handle and Matty of course refuses to safe-word.
As things get worse, Rob reaches out for support from a fellow Dom. But money issues and other things continue to put a lot of stress on their relationship. Their jobs and the pressures of money and the city are turning out to be maybe more than they had bargained for. The issues of Matty’s self-destruction and Rob’s attempts to be all things to all people nearly break them at this point. Honesty, trust and heartfelt communication are required for them to move forward together.
Whew boy! This is a tough one. I really really liked the first book of this series. I have to say that I really struggled with this one for the first two thirds of the story. I was less enamored of Matty in this one – he was struggling a lot, no doubt. But I had much less sympathy for his sometimes selfish and self-destructive behaviors. Rob tries so hard to be everything for Matty and I felt really bad for him for the majority of the story. Matty has always been self-focused – it was required for his skating career. But in this story he is really struggling with the stress of his shift to coaching and his new relationships to his students and his former coach. I was happy that there was a way out – although its a bit of a painful road to get there. TBH, BDSM and pain in this one got to be a bit much for me and I felt like I was skimming and not paying much attention as the story went on. That being said, it was such a really well written story and of course Michael Ferraiuolo was brilliant again in his narration. Recommended especially for those who really enjoy hard won HEAs 🙂
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Audible