Rescue by Anita Shreve (audio book)

Synopsis from GoodReads:  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.

My thoughts:  This was my first experience with Anita Shreve's work although she's been recommended to me several times.  I absolutely loved this book on audio.  It was engaging and highly entertaining.  There were a few times that I was pretty sure I knew what was coming  and I would get so exasperated at Peter.  Couldn't he see what I could see what was clearly going on?   There was at least one occasion where I was surprised by the turn that the story took.  The story was constantly moving at an appropriate pace. 

I never liked Sheila, she was one of those characters that you love to hate.  The story asks a difficult question, can you ever rescue someone?  I think that we can try, but they have to want it too.

The story was narrated by Dennis Holland.  He did an excellent job.  Through his voice and the character descriptions I had a definite picture in my head of what each of them looked like.  According to the audio book jacket he has over 100 audio books to his credit.  I can certainly understand why.  


Assuming you like like this kind of story or Shreve's work in general, this would be a great starter audio book. 


I received my copy of Rescue from the publisher for review.  This is my honest opinion of the audio book.



This is my January entry for the 2011 Audio Book Challenge.