Esme Ombreux

This is Ombreux's sixth book that touches on the Private House series.

The book focuses on two people, though one is, more or less, the main character. The main character is the female member of a couple (Jessica and Brian) that have just recently moved from "the city" to the suburbs. Specifically to Hillingbury. The couple: Jessica is the main character and Brian is more or less non-existent (he only matters because of the constraints his existence puts on Jessica's "fun" - she can not be marked up too badly nor arrive home too late). The secondary point of view comes from an agent of the Private House named Matt. Matt is in Hillingsbury to investigate the activities of the residents after a police report is directed to "The Supreme Mistress" of the Private House (the Private House is only touched upon in the book, and is therefore something of an unknown entity to me). The police report notes that some "depraved" activity occurs in Hillingsbury, but that no action has been taken by the police. Matt is undercover as a worker at the Hillingbury Health and Exercise Club, and his section of the book, or his P.O.V., mostly occurs as field reports sent to "Mistress Julia" (though both Matt and Jessica interact in the book).

The men of Hillingbury, for the most part, work in "the city," while the women appear to be mostly housewives. An organization called the HYWAPOC controls the social society (the wives) of the village, and Jessica first learns of it when she leaves her new house and investigates the village (she sees a notice for a meeting posted in a shop). Well, to shorten an otherwise long description, a somewhat simplification: the HYWAPOC is an organization of women that all women of the village must belong to or be cut off from the social scene. Everything is run by this committee (including home improvements and the like), and to get on to the committee (which is wrongly assumed, by the committee members, to be the goal of all women) the women must first spend some time as "pets" of committee members. The pets move up to become committee members after they convince the female member of new home owners (apparently there is always people moving to Hillingbury) to become a pet, or to be "owned" as a "pet" by another woman. Jessica ends up joining this organization as a pet.

Jessica first hears of the HYWAPOC when she visits that previously mentioned shop (and meets Mrs. Morgan), but she first learns of the hidden component of her inner workings through her interactions with Matt at the health club. At the health club, Matt works as Jessica's trainer and pushes her boundaries and dominates her. Outside the health club, she isn't dominated by anyone until she is visited by a female neighbor by the name of Mel. Eventually one thing leads to another, and Jessica becomes the "pet" of Mel. The book chronicles Jessica's transformation from a "normal" woman into a submissive woman, constantly desiring domination.

Hopefully, without giving too much away, the Private House and the organization in Hillingbury is similar in many ways but significantly different in that the organization in Hillingbury forces newcomers to be submissive pets and then forces these pets to move over to the owner side of the relationship after a certain amount of time. The Private House allows the individual to choice which part of the relationship, dominate or submissive, that they want to inhabit.

The characters can be quite believable, though at times appear to be mere shallow almost nonexistent names on the page (like Jessica's husband Brian), and while the most developed personality is Jessica, most of the other characters have some layers to them. Not all are as well-developed as they might have been able to become, but developed enough for the purposes of the book. There are obvious distinguishable differences between the characters, and it is not hard to determine which character is which. The writing is quite will done. The setting is somewhat undefined, though some suburb in the UK would seem to be the setting (and it is quite possible that "the city" is London, and maybe that fact might have been slipped between the covers of the book somewhere). Depending on the readers own experiences and desires for the book, the book's action and activity can be quite enjoyable to read. Oddly enough, I rather enjoyed this book, and gave it high marks (not a solid 5 out of 5 stars, but very close to that absolute upper limit).

The dedication of the book is to "Rebecca" the illustrator of the "Housewives at Play" comic book (which is actually a series), and notes that the subject matter of "Housewives at Play" is "what Pet Training . . . is all about." Again, I don't want to give too much away, but, besides the obvious fact that one series is in the form of illustrations - a graphic novel, and the other is in the form of words on paper, the two series are, in fact, quite similar, though the actual comic book series of "Housewives at Play" (as opposed to just the "pin-up" books) involves more forced domination than occurs in the book "Pet Training." "Pet Training," on the other hand, involves an individual that is eager to be dominated (though there is a least one relatively brief subplot that follows the eager to be dominated type of interaction in "Housewives at Play"). It is important to point out that the only man involved in the "action" is Matt, the rest the "fun" is performed by females.… (lisätietoja)