Customer Reviews

The Gift Horse

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

Although I'm not a very fast reader - I read this book in one day. It was interesting from the very beginning and I couldn't set it down. I understand this is Pamela Dodd's first book - I hope she writes more.

The Gift Horse was a book I could not put down. I missed quite a few hours of sleep trying to see what dilemma Angie would face next. This story has many twists and unexpected turns, keeping you wanting to read just a little more than you have time for. I found it intriguing and original. I highly recommend The Gift Horse to those readers who are looking for a book they can escape into.

Pamela J. Dodd tells the story of high school student Angela ("Angie") Donalson's abduction by millionaire Marc Avery with a detailed, straightforward approach. Angie's new life begins with her harsh imprisonment--capably managed by Ms. Billie Chapman, an ex-Marine who knows how to break people down and build them back up--and quickly moves into a mental territory more remote than Avery's vast estate. As Angie changes, she must decide whether it's for better or worse and whether she has any choice in the matter either way. "The Gift Horse" carries us through the resulting emotional landscape with relentless efficiency.

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 elaves the story to unfold even Angie's keepers become human and - dare I say it? - likeable!

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 of she continues the way she has begun!

-- Taken from angiehulme.com

This book was a real page-turner; I found that it was so unbelievable that I kept wanting to know what happened next. I was reading a Baldacci novel at the same time and kept going back to The GIFT HORSE because of the pace and original story. The characters are pretty well-rounded and the dialogue is believable. An interesting way to be entertained for an afternoon.

Ms Dodd wasted her talent, and my purchase price, on this ridiculous creation.
The author is very talented, and managed to hold my interest, even though my mantra at each new "twist" was "Are You KIDDING Me?" At first, it was plausible that, initially,this might happen to an "unworldly" teen ager, but if this main character, Angie, is smart and clever as the author would have us believe, she would have found a way to escape and have her captors punished. Of course, then there would be no book to sell. As the story unfolds,it just gets more and more ludicrous and laughable. Avery, the mentally deficient and spoiled rich boy is not credible as a "likeable" much less lovable individual. No intelligent woman would have tolerated his narcissistic and torturous treatment. His wife's participation was not believable, and it was the final insult to the reader's intelligence. The anticlimactic ending was pathetic and predictable. I would have much preferred that Angie exacted the final revenge, by marrying Billie, capturing Avery, and chaining those two together in the Wyoming wilderness until the bears got them!! Better yet, I could return my copy of this disappointing book to the author and have my money refunded!!!!