Book Synopsis
When confronted by raging fires or deadly accidents, volunteer fireman Taylor McAden feels compelled to take terrifying risks – risks no one else in the department would ever take – to save lives. But there is one leap of faith Taylor can’t bring himself to make: He can’t fall in love. For all his adult years, Taylor has sought out women who need to be rescued, women he leaves as soon as their crisis is over, as soon as the relationship starts to become truly intimate.
Then, one day, a raging, record-breaking storm hits his small Southern town. Denise Holton, a young single mother, is driving through it when her car skids off the road. With her is her four-year-old son, Kyle, a boy with severe learning disabilities and for whom she has sacrificed everything. Unconscious and bleeding, she-but not Kyle-will be found by Taylor McAden. And when she wakes, the chilling truth becomes clear to both of them: Kyle is gone.
During the search for Kyle, the connection, the lifeline, between Taylor and Denise takes root. Taylor doesn’t know that this rescue will be different from all the others, demanding far more than raw physical courage. That it will lead him to the possibility of his own rescue from a life lived without love. That it will require him to open doors to his past that were slammed shut by pain. That it will dare him to live life to the fullest by daring to love.
In The Rescue Nicholas Sparks weaves his inimitable spell, immersing us in the passions and the surprising complexities of modern relationships-and in doing so, teaching us something about our own.
Review
The Rescue is about the love of Denise and Taylor; two adults who haven’t had much luck with love. Denise is a single mother of a cute little boy called Kyle. When Kyle disappears, foxy fireman Taylor runs into their lives and he’s leading the search for Denise’s son.
Undeniably, there’s something between Taylor and Denise. They work pretty well together and it was quite cute watching their love story bloom. But Taylor has a dark secret that keeps him from committing to any woman. At thirty years old, he’s managed to keep himself from settling down. Always the rescuer, Taylor lives with a reckless need to save everybody, even if it means risking his own life. Denise can’t help but love him but Taylor just won’t open up to her. Can she live with a man she doesn’t truly know?
So, what I loved about this book was the fact that the romance in it was just soppy and mushy central. I’m a sucker for love stories, ‘tis true. I got kind of irritated with Taylor during some of the book. His incapability to just settle the hell down and commit really grated on my nerves. But there are some ghosts in your past that do that to you.
With Denise, I really admired her. Her son Kyle has an undiagnosed speech problem; he only speaks/ responds to his mother and can’t speak coherently. He’s a sweetheart though and Denise took herself out of work to help him with his speech. You can imagine the nightmare that begins when Kyle disappears. If you read this book, you’ll love Denise for her devotion as a mother and her courage to just keep ploughing on despite the crap Taylor gives her towards the end.
It takes a fatal loss for both Taylor and Denise to realise what’s worth fighting for in life and what’s worth letting go of.
Read if you’re in the mood for a love story about the fight between family, love and personal demons.