The Rescue

The Rescue is a 2000 romance novel by Nicholas Sparks. Set in Edenton, North Carolina, it follows single mother Denise Holton and her four-year-old son, Kyle, who has a speech development delay. While driving along a highway, Holton gets into a bad car accident; when she regains consciousness, Kyle is missing from the car. With the help of volunteer firefighter Taylor McAden, Holton recovers Kyle and then falls in love. Taylor reveals his own troubled past, trying to maintain their relationship while recovering from repressed trauma he sustained from the death of his father.

The novel begins just before an intense storm falls over Edenton. Holton and her son leave a doctor’s appointment and try to drive home before being stranded. They don’t make it home in time to avoid the rain, and the minimal visibility prevents her from seeing an oncoming semi-truck. The two vehicles collide at an angle, sending Holton and Jack flying in their vehicle off the highway, where they collide with a tree.

Holton comes to her senses and realizes that she is injured and bloody. Suddenly, she panics, looking around the wrecked car for Kyle. His seat is empty, and he isn’t visible anywhere outside the wreckage. She calls for help and is heard by Taylor McAden, who happens to drive down the same road several minutes after the crash. He takes Holton to the emergency room, where his mother, Judy, gives her company as he goes back to the scene to help the police search for Jack. Judy has sympathy for Holton, being a single mother herself. Miraculously, Taylor returns with Jack, who is relatively unscathed.



In the coming weeks, Taylor and Holton grow closer. Holton believes she is falling for him, but Taylor is resistant to falling in love. Ever since the death of his father, he has been unable to imagine dating someone more than casually and on a short term. After a bad argument, the two split up. Quickly regretting squandering their relationship, Taylor becomes despondent and hostile. He gets into a bar fight with his best friend, Mitch, another volunteer firefighter, and they angrily part ways.

When Taylor gets home, he sees that the fire department has called to request his help fighting a large fire that broke out at a paint warehouse. Having narrowly missed the chance, he is wracked with guilt, believing that his father might have been saved if there had been one more rescuer. He decides to rush to the scene to help. He recklessly runs into the fire, without a gas mask, just before the building collapses, searching for the last victim trapped inside. To his shock, the person is Mitch. He and Mitch apologize for their treatment of each other, and Taylor makes up with Holton.

At the end of the novel, Holton and Taylor get married. They give birth to a son named Mitch McAden, in honor of Taylor’s best friend. The Rescue emphasizes the possibility of finding love in the wake of trauma and loss, suggesting that love can arrive in one’s life spontaneously if one is open to receiving it.