The Gift Horse

If Angela Donalson - a young woman, orphaned, living in poverty, with brains and ambition - were granted three wishes, she would want wealth, an education, and a family.

Marc Avery has always had everything he ever wanted. Now he wants a girl for his pleasure, a girl no one will miss.

When, in a bizarre twist of fate, Angie is abducted and held at Avery's remote Tennessee estate, she initially tries to thwart her captors. Unable to gain her freedom, Angie finds herself trading her morals to meet the challenges presented to her each day. As she comes to know the man behind her abduction, and comes to recognize that he can provide her with more than she ever dreamed possible, Angie faces dilemmas which will determine not only how she lives, but if she lives at all.

Combining a dynamic plot, remarkable characters, and a setting in the deep South, Pamela J. Dodd takes her readers for a wild ride on The Gift Horse.

Pamela Dodd taught English to high school and middle school students for over twenty years. She has always loved telling a good story. She also has published TRINITY ON TYLOS, which is a futuristic novel.

Angela Donalson is a young beauty from Georgia who is orphaned and living with an aunt who has little means herself. When Angela applies for a college grant, she catches the eye of a man who has more than subsidizing students in mind. Angela is kidnapped and held at Marc Avery's Tennessee estate. She tries to escape, but quickly finds that her life has been mapped out for her by Marc Avery and that he means to possess her:

"'Let's talk about that, then. At least indirectly.' The bantering tone was gone from his voice. 'I know that you've worried about your aunt. She's fine. By the way, she won a contest, held by a subsidiary of Avery Electronics, for $10,000. That should help her adjust to the loss of your Social Security checks. You're officially a missing person, but the local police think you're a runaway. Billie was careful. And it's no secret that you wanted to get the hell out of Adamsville. Angie, there was no evidence of foul play in your disappearance. The investigators realized pretty quickly that your home was something that one might want to escape. No one is looking too hard for you.'"

Not only is Pamela Dodd an accomplished writer, but her imagination knows no bounds. This is a highly original plot with social commentary on the rights of young women in our society. There is an obscure warning in all of this, but Ms. Dodd turns it around into a moral question. Is it worth it for a woman to subject herself to total domination by a powerful male in order to gain material security?

Dodd's plot moves along nicely, and there is always something happening to our poor, hapless beauty. But along the way she learns to be self-reliant, and in the end she gets what she wants, although the reader may or may not be sure they agree. At any rate, THE GIFT HORSE is a compelling read, and Ms. Dodd's writing skills are impressive!

- Shelley Glodowski Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

The Gift Horse is the story of Angie Donalson, a promising student from the poor side of the street, kidnapped and placed in a huge estate, locked up, chained up, searched, humiliated and taught to be a mistress to spoiled, rich Marc Avery.

A story with many twists, each one of them resulting in some form of 'What the...' or a gaping mouth! Yet each making psychological and factual (fictional) sense.

The author has an excellent grasp of the mind - both outer and inner - and utilises it with amazing effectiveness. Apart from one or two confusing time skips, Angie's situation is and mindset are made easy to follow and understand. Even the time skips that halt the reader momentarily are quickly explained and allow the story to flow steadily towards the conclusion that was always inevitable, but only seems that way when it happens!

The bad guys are shown from the start, and as Dodd leaves the story to unfold even Angie's keepers become human and - dare I say it? - likable!

Dodd has a remarkable talent for telling a story the reader just can't look away from! She instills just enough colour into scenes to allow the reader to develop the surroundings him/herself - though she is also very set in what she wants to definitely be there. This could have been a problem, if it wasn't for the fact that everything is put there for a reason.

She shows the feelings of the characters, rather than tells, and slips into the minds of others when appropriate, giving the story a fully rounded feel, and giving the reader an insight into what makes certain of the characters tick.

The book as a whole is fantastic, a great story which seems far-fetched on the surface, but becomes obvious and real when reading the whole thing.

Dodd obviously has a great talent and will rise far in the ranks of the writing field if she continues the way she has begun!

- Angie Hulme