The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks

Title: The Rescue
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Series: Standalone book
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 420 pages
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Overall Rating:


Synopsis (from the book cover):
Volunteer fireman Taylor McAden is driven to take terrifying, heroic risks to save lives. But there's one leap into the unknown he can't bring himself to make: He can't fall in love. A man who likes to rescue troubled women, he inevitably leaves them as soon as they want more from him. Then, one day, a record-breaking storm hits his small Southern town, and Taylor comes across a young single mother named Denise Holton in a crashed car. When she revives, Taylor finds himself looking for her missing son - and involved in a rescue different from all the others. This one will require him to open doors to his past slammed shut by pain. And, with Denise's help, dare him to make the greatest commitment of all: Love someone forever.   
I have been a fan of Nicholas Sparks for quite sometime now and have already read couple of his books. While his other works – like “The Notebook”, “The Wedding” and “A Walk to Remember” – were brilliant, this book didn’t seem to fare as good as the others. It certainly lacking the *umph* factor that its predecessors had: a tear-jerking, warmth and an in-depth love story.

The Rescue chronicled the life of Dennis Holton and Taylor McAden, who were two people that lived in the same town but hardly known each other. Dennis lived a very quiet life with her son, Kyle, who had language-learning disability. Taylor, on the other hand, was a contractor and also a volunteer fireman. Their paths intertwined when Kyle went missing on the night the accident occurred and Taylor was part of the rescue team. From there, the two of them got closer and as they learnt more about each other, one questioned popped in mind – Whose life actually was the one that needed to be saved?

The beginning of this book was rather interesting in which it started off with couple of suspenseful chapters. Nevertheless, after the whole “rescue” bit was done, the story flattened and started to drag quite a bit. It took forever for the romance and characters to develop and from there, everything pretty much moved to the logical, predictable, overly simplified ending. Perhaps I was expecting a bit more from Sparks after reading his excellent books before but sadly, this book certainly didn’t live up to my expectation. Despite of that, I still believe that Sparks deserved a credit for his in depth research on Kyle’s medical condition. He successfully described how difficult life could be for someone when the one they loved was inflicted with such illness or disabilities.

As the final verdict, I would say that this is just an OK read for me as I think the book could be made a lot thinner (It is twice the size of Sparks's typical books and most of its content in the middle are redundant) while the sentimental parts of the book should be kept at a more average level.

Favourite Quote:
Loving someone and having them love you back is the most precious thing in the world

11 comments:

  1. great review Shy..Honestly, I kind of like the rescue storyline..Quite intriguing.I'll check on this one too later.. =p

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  2. You should try it yourself, Darlyn. As for me, the story was very interesting at the 1st half of the book but as it went on, I keep waiting for something to happen. Hurm, maybe I was expecting too much *lol*

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  3. Great review! I've been in the mood for some Sparks. Thanks for the honest lovely review!

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  4. Great review, Shy! I don't read all of his books so I think I'll skip this one, i only read the ones of his that appeal to me :) Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

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  5. Sparks makse me cry so I really need to be in the mood to read him. He can really evoke strong emotions though. good review.

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  6. I haven't read anything by this author yet! If I do, I'll probably pass on this one. But great review all the same!

    Emidy
    Une Parole

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  7. I love the storyline....
    Thanks for such a fun review..really enjoy it shy. btw....i like the quote too...yeah!!

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  8. I agree this one doesn't have the "umphh" of some of his more emotional reads but I did still enjoy it.

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  9. @CJ: There are certainly a lot more in the book that I like but this one was certainly the best!

    @Teddyree: I admit that there are some parts of the book. After all, I'm a big fan of his so certainly I'll try to find some of the good things that made reading this worthwhile. This book isn't his best, but not necessarily a bad read, especially to those who are fan of Sparks :)

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  10. Great review. It really got me curious for the book now. :)

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  11. I've only read one of his books, The Notebook, and that was great. This doesn't sound like something I would enjoy, but I like reading your thoughts on it. Great review :)

    oodles of books.

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