The Trainer is the third of five books in Laura Antoniou's Marketplace Series. It has all of Antoniou's wit, charm and wonderful writing style, blending fantasy with reality, and the erotic with the mundane in the most enigmatic of styles. Plus, we get to meet Anderson, the Trainer of Trainers, a most engaging woman. And yet...while Chris Parker is as fascinating as ever, Michael LaGuardia, the other central character, is overly petty and simplistic, even one-sided to some extent. He needs to be written as arrogant in order to be shaken up with some "real" training, but I think that he's just too full of himself to be likeable. That said, I would still recommend this book to anyone interested in the BDSM Lifestyle, and particularly the psychology behind it. Events which transpire here, and have already happened in a previous book, are retold from another's point of view, blending nicely into each other and giving the reader a real sense of a timeline of events.
The Trainer is most definitely worth the read, even if the central character can really get on your nerves. Despite my complaint about him, he is meant to be that way in order to see his personal changes take effect. Don't be put off by this review, read the book and find out for yourself!