The Currency of Love

This page-turning memoir of decadence and faith will resonate with seekers everywhere. While working as a struggling young model in Paris, Dodd met Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian businessman who had amassed a fortune. Caught up in a world of private jets, diamonds, and cocaine, she became one of Khashoggi’s “pleasure wives,” only to later learn that she’d been part of a carefully plotted scheme for a negotiated price: Dodd had been picked out of a notebook. Her walk through—and eventually away from—the dizzying world of extreme wealth and glamour includes her spiritual journey, which progresses as she learns more of her situation and eventually turns away from the lifestyle she has been forced into. Originally from Downey, Calif., Dodd was raised without religion, but she prayed to God as she navigated the instability of a modeling career and her life in a harem. As her search for faith intensified, she immersed herself in the world of psychics, hypnotherapists, and holy men until she realized it brought confusion, not peace. Scattered throughout the book are touching moments where she recalls being overcome with a sense of the divine providence of God; that guidance helps her find her way, even as questions linger. “I will never understand God,” Dodd concludes, “but will keep praying and meditating.” (June)