The Currency of Love: A Courageous Journey to Finding the Love Within

by Jill Dodd Narrated by Amy Landon

Overview

In the 1980s, Jill Dodd determined that her ticket out of an abusive home was to make it as a top model in Paris. Armed with only her desire for freedom and independence, she embarks on an epic journey that takes her to uncharted territory-the Parisian fashion industry with all its beautiful glamour and its ugly underbelly of sex, drugs, and excess. From there, Jill begins an eye-opening adventure that includes trips to Monte Carlo, sexual exploitation, and falling in love with one of the richest men in the world, agreeing to become one of his wives-until she finds the courage to walk away from it all and rebuild her dreams.



The Currency of Love is a raw, honest, and inspiring portrait of a young woman's struggles and triumphs from fashion model to Saudi billionaire's pleasure wife to founder and creator of global fashion line ROXY. This modern memoir with a feminist fairy tale twist reveals how one woman chose to live her life without forfeiting her independence, ambition, creative expression, and free spirit, all while learning one invaluable lesson: nothing is worth the sacrifice of her integrity, inner peace, and spirit.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/22/2017
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)

Booklist

"For some, freedom is financial security. Dodd believed it should mean more. Her drive led her to found ROXY, a multimillion-dollar fashion brand. She now reflects on the quality of her independence and each turn that brought her to its realization in a remarkable story well worth reading."

PopSugar

"A raw and inspiring story about one woman's search for independence."

Ann Voorhees Baker

"Jill Dodd tells a tale of love and redemption involving a man of inconceivable riches and power against the backdrop of Paris and the world of high fashion. Told with the wisdom that gives Dodd’s story heart and soul, this book will inspire women of all ages to choose the right path for themselves, whatever their aspirations."

Jillian Lauren

"Exotic as the tale of Dodd’s wild and wondrous life may seem, it touches on themes relevant to any young woman yearning to follow her dreams of financial independence and spiritual freedom. Neither fully a cautionary tale nor a glamorous romance (but a bit of both!), Dodd explores both the pitfalls and rewards of a life boldly lived."

First for Women

"This [memoir] had it all–secrets, romance, travel and suspense....It was empowering to watch Jill discover that she really was capable of happiness and success on her own terms."

Christine Bronstein

"The Currency of Love is a page-turning tale of female empowerment. With the current state of the world, the messages in this inspiring memoir are exactly what women need right now."

Shea O Hill

"This incredibly audacious, inspiring, and lively memoir paints a fascinating picture of the modeling and design scenes in Paris and Hollywood. Readers will be captivated by Jill's fierce ability to tell her truth. The Currency of Love is a celebration of womanhood!"

From the Publisher

A remarkable story well worth reading.” ---Booklist

Booklist

"For some, freedom is financial security. Dodd believed it should mean more. Her drive led her to found ROXY, a multimillion-dollar fashion brand. She now reflects on the quality of her independence and each turn that brought her to its realization in a remarkable story well worth reading."

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

A remarkable story well worth reading. —Booklist

Kirkus Reviews

2017-04-23
A successful clothing designer reflects on her damaged upbringing and early years as a Paris-based fashion model.Using letters, journals, and "thousands of photos," Dodd reinvigorates her life as a struggling 1980s-era model. Though critical and cursory, an invaluable evaluation by Wilhelmina Models in 1979 opened a portal into the French modeling world, resulting in dispiriting culture shock and a hefty dose of disillusionment. Barely 20 years old at the time, the author writes of being whisked off to Paris, where an aloof agency booker dispatched her to endless dead-end "Go-Sees." Dodd eventually warmed up to the whirlwind of Parisian life and began booking photo shoots, magazine covers, and a dangerous series of social engagements with upscale businessmen, where her role was sketchy at best and she was sexually assaulted along with another model. Interspersed with the author's tales of her modeling career are details about her complicated, abusive Los Angeles upbringing at the hands of a sexually inappropriate father whom she both feared and worshipped and an "emotionally checked out" mother. As she climbed the international fashion industry's "slippery steep model ladder," Dodd's memories move briskly across fashion runways and photography shoots in Paris, London, Greece, and Spain. She fell into a troublesome and treacherous relationship with Adnan Khashoggi, a billionaire Middle Eastern arms dealer who promised Dodd the world but instead introduced her to cocaine and simply made her one in a harem of women at his disposal. Dodd writes earnestly and refreshingly about learning many of life's more difficult lessons the hard way, and while her recollections are narrowly focused to just a few years during the 1980s, readers still receive a generous sense of who she was back then and how her later degree in fashion merchandising provided the perfect transition from model to successful clothing designer. A breezy, impressively detailed glimpse into a beautiful young woman's self-discovery via the world of international fashion.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171156312
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/04/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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The Currency of Love



I’m always happy by the sea

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