The Rescue [Hardcover]

Nicholas Sparks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2000

Taylor McAden is a volunteer fireman who is always the first to plunge into danger. But there is one risk he cant seem to take: falling in love. Until he meets Denise Holden, a single mother who has moved to the small town of Edenton, North Carolina, to build a new life. A near fatal car crash will bring these two together, but before that can happen, Taylor must first look into his past and see if its not too late to take a chance on the future. A New York Times bestseller for 17 weeks, A Walk to Remember (Warner, 10/99) has over 900,000 copies in print. Film rights to A Walk to Remember were sold to producer Denise DiNovi (Message in a Bottle, Practical Magic) at Warner Bros. A New York Times bestseller for 29 weeks, Message in a Bottle (Warner, 1998) has nearly 700,000 copies in print and was a major motion picture starring Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn, and Paul Newman. The Notebook (Warner, 1996), a New York Times hardcover bestseller for 56 weeks and a paperback bestseller for 52 weeks, has nearly three million copies in combined print. The soon-to-be-released movie is directed by Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father) and stars Ashley Judd (Double Jeopardy).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Denise Holden's life is a fragile mix of luck and hard work. A single mom of a speech-delayed son, Denise makes ends meet by moving to the small town of Edenton, North Carolina, and working the late shift as a waitress. When Denise crashes her car and her son Kyle flees the accident and disappears into the storm, her only stroke of luck is the quick arrival of Taylor McAden, a volunteer fireman. Taylor's got a knack for fixing people, and he can't help wanting to be involved with Denise beyond the initial rescue of Kyle.

As Taylor helps Denise recover from the accident and get to know the town, they discover a sweet bond and a magical chemistry that pulls them closer and closer. Though Taylor fits perfectly into Denise's family, he's unable to open his heart to being loved by her. As Taylor struggles to understand his conflicting desires, Denise questions the wisdom of gambling with Kyle's and her own emotions.

Author Nicholas Sparks has found a loyal audience for his stories about the internal battles that accompany the arrival of love. His heroes may be truck-driving manly men and his heroines emotional swamis, but it's easy to overlook the traditional roles when the complexities of human relationships are so beautifully described. Sparks has found his forte, and this novel is sure to be as popular as his earlier works. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien

From Publishers Weekly

Secret traumas again haunt Sparks's characters, in the author's fourth novel (after The Notebook; Message in a Bottle; A Walk to Remember). Denise Holden, the 29-year-old heroine, is destitute and forced to live in her mother's old house in Edenton, N.C. She's also the single mother of a handicapped child, Kyle, a four-year-old with "auditory processing problems" that render him unable to express himself or to fully understand others. Though she doesn't suspect it, Denise is on a literal collision course with true love. After she smashes her car into a tree and wakes up to discover Kyle missing, she finds deliverance in the form of Taylor McAden, dashing firefighter and compulsive risk taker, who rescues Kyle, too. Since Taylor enjoys an instant, unprecedented rapport with Kyle, there is little standing in the way of burgeoning romance. Trouble comes, however, when Denise learns of Taylor's checkered romantic past. Taylor's inability to commit, it seems, is somehow tied to his compulsive heroism, of which numerous histrionic examples are described. Denise's quest to find the source of Taylor's emotional distance takes up the final third of the book. The story here is mostly a pretext for the emotional assault that Sparks delivers, but when he manages to link affect to action, the result is cunningly crafted melodrama. These occasions are rare, though; more often Sparks gets bogged down in interminable interior monologue. Because these characters are preordained lovers, their feelings prescribed by fiction conventions, their psychology amounts to little more than a profusion of banality. Yet Sparks's narrative acquires immediacy when his characters' exaggerated emotions compel immoderate actions, and his readers will surely delight at these moments of heightened expressiveness. 1 million first printing; 24-city author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 339 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; 1St Edition edition (September 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446525502
• ISBN-13: 978-0446525503
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (361 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 31, 1965, the second son of Patrick Michael (1942-1996) and Jill Emma Marie (Thoene) Sparks (1942-1989). His siblings are Michael Earl Sparks (b. Dec. 1964), and Danielle Sparks (b. Dec. 1966, d. June, 2000). As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California at the age of eight. His father was a professor, his mother a homemaker, then optometrist's assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.
After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands), he was injured and spent the summer recovering. During that summer, he wrote his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.
He and his wife Catherine, who met on spring break in 1988, were married in July, 1989. While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel that same year, though again, it wasn't published. He worked a variety of jobs over the next three years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone, and started his own small manufacturing business which struggled from the beginning. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold Medalist and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by Random House. (It was recently re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.
He began selling pharmaceuticals and moved from Sacramento, California to North Carolina in 1992. In 1994, at the age of 28, he wrote The Notebook over a period of six months. In October, 1995, rights to The Notebook were sold to Warner Books. It was published in October, 1996, and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), and Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), Three Weeks with my Brother (2004), True Believer (2005) and At First Sight (2005) all with Warner Books. All were domestic and international best sellers and were translated into more than 35 languages. The movie version of Message in a Bottle was released in 1999, A Walk to Remember was released in 2002, and The Notebook was released in 2004. The average domestic box office gross per film was $56 million -- with another $100 million in DVD sales -- making the novels by Nicholas Sparks one of the most successful franchises in Hollywood.
The film rights to Nights in Rodanthe, True Believer and At First Sight have been sold, and Nicholas Sparks has written the screenplay for The Guardian, though he has not offered it for sale at this point.
He now has five children: Miles, Ryan, Landon, Lexie, and Savannah. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and children.
His ancestry is German, Czech, English, and Irish, he's 5'10" and weighs 180 lbs. He is an avid athlete who runs daily, lifts weights regularly, and competes in Tae Kwon Do. He attends church regularly and reads approximately 125 books a year. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is a light at the end of the tunnel!, February 21, 2001

By 

Denise Bentley "Kelsana" (The California Redwoods) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rescue (Hardcover)

Taylor McAden is a volunteer fireman with a death wish. His life's direction is in response to an incident that took place in his childhood. The author alludes to it but it is not till the end that it all comes together and we find out that Taylor isn't the only one doing the rescuing.

The book starts with Kyle, a missing four year old that has limited language skills and understanding. After a car wreck where his mother, Denise Holten is knocked unconscious, he has wandered away and is now lost somewhere in the swamp on a stormy night. With limited resources, a child that won't answer if called, and the temperature dropping we are off to an interesting beginning. Sparks molds his characters with such deference and intimacy. He grants us insight into the undaunting trials and tribulations of a mother faced with what appears to be an impossible task, the love and strength of heart of a little boy and Taylor who steps in and is eventually saved from himself.

This is an excellent book that will leave you in tears as well as make you smile. I've read all of Spark's books and I must admit I liked this one the best. He just keeps getting better...

52 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romantic, tearjerker with a dash of fire-fighting adventure!, September 19, 2000

By 

"sked_collector" (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rescue (Hardcover)

As usual, I'll let you read the synopsis above and just tell you what I liked/disliked about the book. No point in being redundant.

While this book has similar main characters to Message in a Bottle (single mother, loner guy), it definitely carries its own weight. I was so relieved that the author has not fallen into the "formula writing" style that so many bestselling authors have these days.

The plot is new but the author's style of writing is still there. He does an excellent job of introducing the characters and letting us go through their range of emotions with them. The book flows nicely as I was able to finish in a weekend. (I obtained an advance reader copy about a month ago)

If you have enjoyed his previous novels, you'll like this one too. You'll also enjoy it if this is your first Nicholas Sparks book. You should also check his others as they are all available in paperback now.

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Christmas Gift!, September 19, 2000

By 

Cheyenne - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rescue (Hardcover)

I grabbed an advanced reading copy of this book at work one day for a friend, and it sat in my car waiting to be delivered. There it sat... and sat... untill I had a doctor's appointment. I grabbed it on my way in for the long wait and boring medical journals that waited inside. This book sucked me in on the first page. The characters, Denise and Taylor were so realistic. They had everyday struggles and convictions that made these people alive in my mind. This is a page turner book that leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling and a little faith in people and the power of love. I had never read this type of book before, but now I am an addict. A must read!