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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - Training Days
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List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $11.16
Your Save: $ 2.79 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bella Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781594931222
ISBN: 1594931224
Label: Bella Books
Manufacturer: Bella Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2008-03-17
Publisher: Bella Books
Studio: Bella Books
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Editorial Reviews:
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For many, traversing the Australian continent on a long-distance train would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. But for Morgan Silverstone, who travels the globe as anchor presenter for a prime-time Australian travel show, it's just another few days at the office. Or at least that's how it seems until she meets Marie, a French backpacker bound for the outback.
Closeted for the sake of her job, Morgan usually restricts her amorous activities for outside Australia. Marie, however, proves hard to resist, especially in the confined space of Morgan's sleeper compartment.
Will a few hours of unbridled passion be Morgan's professional undoing? Kitty, Morgan's long-suffering producer, certainly thinks so, especially since the encounter was overheard by a fellow passenger, found standing outside Morgan's door...
After Kitty's quickly arranged `damage control' dinner, the passenger--Ally--no longer appears to be a threat. Not professionally. But could the very appealing architect end up undoing Morgan emotionally? After all, she does have two very unfortunate qualities--one, she's Australian, and two...she prefers men.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fun read
Comment: Training Days is Jane Frances' 3rd novel, I believe, I've read the others and enjoyed Reality Bytes more than Reunion.
Once more, the blurb for this one totally turned me off, but I 'talked' to someone who read it and enjoyed it and thought it was better than the other two, so I bought it. The story is simple, popular TV presenter Morgan, closeted lesbian who enjoys playing the field whenever not home, meets Ally, sparks fly, more of the non-good type, they click on some level although neither quite know what it means in the beginning, Ally because she's straight and Morgan because she doesn't do love.
It's a formulaeic romance without real surprises, but it is well written (except for some peculiarities that may not be bad grammar but Australian English, I don't know), has a solid plot and the characters are believable and likeable.
I often have issues when homosexuality is made out to be a scandal and a risk to one's career etc., I think mainly because it is so far from my own experiences that sometimes I find it unbelievable. This issue was a theme of this novel, but turns out it wasn't quite as bad as I thought the blurb made it out to be, and also, as the character in question is a TV presenter it was more believable as it may have been in other cases.
Another thing I enjoyed was Ally's easy coming out and how her being comfortable with her new-found identity challenged Morgan in turn.
All in all I enjoyed reading it and don't regret buying it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's Really About Coming Out
Comment: Nowadays I've noticed that many of the summaries on the books can't quite capture the big picture of the plot. That is the case here. There is so much more scope to this book than portrayed. The book is about the one incident contained in the summary, but the scope is really about coming out in what is perceived as a homophobic society.
The author takes her time setting up the book and it's well worth the wait because when the fuse is lit toward the end, you are "intimate" with the characters. There were a few points when I had to suspend my disbelief a little more than usual, like when when the characters have sex for the first time and profess their love afterward. But I didn't mind because that's why I read romance fiction. What I liked about the book, and it's probably because I'm a sappy optimist who likes to get the "rest of the story," is how the author provides an ending that ties of all the loose ends.
If you're looking for a lot of steamy sex, this book isn't for you. The sex scenes are sweet and advance the plot. If you want a character study with an exploration of how two different people handle a stressful event like coming out, well then, this is it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A charming, incisive romance rife with observational humor and poignancy
Comment: Books like this are the reason I continue to try out new authors. Actually, looking up this author I can see that she has another book or two out, but this is the first I've read. I loved this book. The author casts a really discerning and incisive eye on the interactions people get up to, in all types of relationships. Her use of language is excellent (though I'm usually entertained all out or proportion by writers who use other than standard"American" English). Her command of plot and pacing is top of the line.
I loved how this book was set initially: on a several-day train journey across Australia. It was a stage that was rather original in that the characters were trapped together for a certain amount of time that basically prevented from running away from the conflict between them; this pressure-cooker helped move the action along. Morgan is a closeted (for the sake of ratings; otherwise she's very open about her desires) TV Travel Show star doing a piece on traveling by train. Ally is a successful, "straight" architect using the train as a way to escape flying. Ally witnesses potentially damaging information about Morgan, and Morgan's producer's attempts to do the damage control she's sure is necessary force the two women to interact, and the book goes on from there.
Morgan and Ally were convincingly drawn to one another from the start. Though the attraction was not initially overtly physical, it was definitely rooted there. I loved how this author had both characters think about things. You really get inside Ally's head as she tries to figure out what's going on with her. These characters very seldom created their own drama, but rather reacted the best they could to the circumstances they found themselves in. That's always refreshing: they acted like adults.
I was endlessly entertained by various observations on human behavior and thought processes. There was also thoughtful reflection on the morality of trying to hide your life from others, and the lengths to which one will go to perpetuate that. I was relieved at the attention to detail, and satisfied with the happy ending. The sex isn't graphic, so don't expect that, but the emotional impact of the proceedings is described in good detail. Excellent book, and on its strength I'm off to see what else she's written.
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