Review of The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks
Taylor McAden's job is rescuing people, and he goes farther than anyone else will to save a life. His relationships are an extension of that. He finds women who need rescuing of some kind, helps them, and leaves before the relationship can get too deep.
Denise Holton has a four-year-old son. She has sacrificed everything to make sure he gets the proper treatment for his delayed speech disability, resorting to making up her own treatment when the doctors fail her.
One night, a storm blows through their town and Denise, tired and distracted, runs off the road. She is knocked unconscious and when she wakes up, Taylor is there. But Kyle, her son, is missing.
Rescuing Kyle, and then trying to rescue Denise, consumes Taylor. Denise falls hard, but she wants more than a man to fix her kitchen cabinets and give her rides when she needs them. She wants a father for her son.
Taylor's consistent trouble with relationships may prove to be his undoing.
When you remove the complication of Kyle, the story is great. Taylor is a troubled but good man, willing to go the extra mile to help, and Denise is a selfless, giving person. Their relationship, as it develops in the book, is romantic and bittersweet at times. There were a number of times I wanted to shake Taylor and make him see what was in front of him. Their love story was very well done.
But, then there's Kyle.
Kyle was conceived on a one-night-stand and has no father in his life. It's obvious, almost from the very beginning of the novel, that Nicholas Sparks's Catholic beliefs were clouding the story. Denise questions herself over and over whether the problem with Kyle's speech delay is the result of a lack of father in his life.
Another beef I had with the book is how Denise dealt with Kyle's speech delay. She tied him to a chair and forced him to speak, promising candy and toys if he would just say one word. In the book, she says she did this with him for eight hours one time. How is that acceptable for a parent to treat a four-year-old? I don't care if he's got issues. Nicholas Sparks presented it like Denise was the one who was actually helping Kyle and her treatment of him was a show of her being a self-sacrificing mother. What? How is tying your child to a chair and forcing him to do something he doesn't want to do, or maybe can't do, actually helping? It makes me wonder if Nicholas Sparks actually did research on autism and speech delay before writing the book.
SPOILER ALERT
The solution to all of Denise's problems is Taylor, and her marriage to Taylor, in the end, is like a magic cure. The worst part of the whole book for me was the epilogue where it was revealed that after Taylor became Kyle's father, his delayed speech problems went away.
After all that, the root of Kyle's problem was that he didn't have a father. I can't even tell you how much that angered me.
END OF SPOILERS
This was another disappointment from a much-beloved author. Not everyone can have a hit every time, and this one was a dud.
Denise Holton has a four-year-old son. She has sacrificed everything to make sure he gets the proper treatment for his delayed speech disability, resorting to making up her own treatment when the doctors fail her.
One night, a storm blows through their town and Denise, tired and distracted, runs off the road. She is knocked unconscious and when she wakes up, Taylor is there. But Kyle, her son, is missing.
Rescuing Kyle, and then trying to rescue Denise, consumes Taylor. Denise falls hard, but she wants more than a man to fix her kitchen cabinets and give her rides when she needs them. She wants a father for her son.
Taylor's consistent trouble with relationships may prove to be his undoing.
When you remove the complication of Kyle, the story is great. Taylor is a troubled but good man, willing to go the extra mile to help, and Denise is a selfless, giving person. Their relationship, as it develops in the book, is romantic and bittersweet at times. There were a number of times I wanted to shake Taylor and make him see what was in front of him. Their love story was very well done.
But, then there's Kyle.
Kyle was conceived on a one-night-stand and has no father in his life. It's obvious, almost from the very beginning of the novel, that Nicholas Sparks's Catholic beliefs were clouding the story. Denise questions herself over and over whether the problem with Kyle's speech delay is the result of a lack of father in his life.
Another beef I had with the book is how Denise dealt with Kyle's speech delay. She tied him to a chair and forced him to speak, promising candy and toys if he would just say one word. In the book, she says she did this with him for eight hours one time. How is that acceptable for a parent to treat a four-year-old? I don't care if he's got issues. Nicholas Sparks presented it like Denise was the one who was actually helping Kyle and her treatment of him was a show of her being a self-sacrificing mother. What? How is tying your child to a chair and forcing him to do something he doesn't want to do, or maybe can't do, actually helping? It makes me wonder if Nicholas Sparks actually did research on autism and speech delay before writing the book.
SPOILER ALERT
The solution to all of Denise's problems is Taylor, and her marriage to Taylor, in the end, is like a magic cure. The worst part of the whole book for me was the epilogue where it was revealed that after Taylor became Kyle's father, his delayed speech problems went away.
After all that, the root of Kyle's problem was that he didn't have a father. I can't even tell you how much that angered me.
END OF SPOILERS
This was another disappointment from a much-beloved author. Not everyone can have a hit every time, and this one was a dud.
Photo Credit: Katherine Elizabeth
Stars Image Credit: lovethenerddesigns
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