Review: Rescue

Why I Picked it: When I first discovered Shreve as an author I would anxiously visit my local bookstore to see if a new title was on the shelf.  This is long before I used the internet so I had no way to know a book was being published, in less it was noted at the book store or in my local paper.  I love Shreve's first 4-5 novels. 

The Pilot's Wife holds a special place in my heart, it's a book that I read shortly after a family emergency.  So I keep reading, hoping for another experience like Resistance, Fortune's Rock, The Weight of Water and The Last Time We Met.

Synopsis:  A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman alive from her totaled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage. Sheila Arsenault is a gorgeous enigma—streetwise and tough-talking, with haunted eyes, fierce desires, and a never-look-back determination. Peter Webster, as straight an arrow as they come, falls for her instantly and entirely. Soon Sheila and Peter are embroiled in an intense love affair, married, and parents to a baby daughter. Like the crash that brought them together, it all happened so fast.

Can you ever really save another person? Eighteen years later, Sheila is long gone and Peter is raising their daughter, Rowan, alone. But Rowan is veering dangerously off track, and for the first time in their ordered existence together, Webster fears for her future. His work shows him daily every danger the world contains, how wrong everything can go in a second. All the love a father can give a daughter is suddenly not enough.

Sheila's sudden return may be a godsend—or it may be exactly the wrong moment for a lifetime of questions and anger and longing to surface anew. What tore a young family apart? Is there even worse damage ahead? The questions lifted up in Anita Shreve's utterly enthralling new novel are deep and lasting, and this is a novel that could only have been written by a master of the human heart.

Type: Fiction

Quick Take: Please don't take this the wrong way... this book reminded me of a Nicholas Sparks novel.  I enjoy Sparks and have read several of his books, enjoying each one.  It's just not what I've come to expect from a Shreve novel. 

This is a book about family, teenagers... the decisions people make (cause and effect of decisions made).  It's about a father trying to keep his family together but forced to make a tough decision, hoping the decision made was a good one. If a mother leaves a family for years, are they welcomed back with open arms or with trepidation...

I enjoyed this book, it's just what I was in the mood for. 

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Source: Audio (Library)

Challenge: Teresa's Audiobook Challenge