"The Rescue" is a gripping novel by T. Jefferson Parker that delves into a captivating tale of suspense, mystery, and human resilience. The story revolves around the protagonist's quest to uncover the truth and confront the challenges that come with it. The expert narration by Victoria Villarreal adds depth and emotion to the already engrossing plot, making it a must-listen for anyone seeking a thrilling literary experience.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for accepting my request to audibly read and review The Rescue on NetGalley.

Narrator: Victoria Villarreal: Nice job.

Stars: 2.5

I am not making this up. A Mexican street drug sniffing and drug finding dog gives his thoughts and shares his life experiences. No kidding. This is listed as a mystery/thriller; that works if you like dumb characters.

I'm not spending a lot of time on this. These are unlikable characters. DEA agents, drug cartel, Mexico, female news reporter, veterinarian -- all thought to be well-educated, however, they were written as childish and simple. Two adults bicker over the name of the dog the entire book. He has the dog for years; she has it a couple of days. He wants the DEA/Cartel trained dog back; she refuses it's her dog she paid for him. Argh.

The dog's point of view is the most sensible.

I'm frustrated by the number of books I've picked up in the last month that could stamped unreasonable.

A very unique story and I fell in love with Felix!
Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not at all what I expected and I wasn’t a huge fan. The POV from the dog was a new take on reading for me and I just couldn’t get behind it. Thanks for my early copy!

Thank you to the publisher for the ALC. Good campy fun with an iconic dog and an amazing and fun mystery.

When I read the description of this book I knew I wanted to read it - and the part that drew me to it was the best part of the book for me. "The Rescue" is a dog named Joe - who is rescued from a Mexican animal shelter by a reporter who's writing a piece on the Tijuana shelter. Turns out the dog has had quite the interesting life, and had been shot under unknown circumstances but saved by a local vet. Parts of the book are told from the dog's point of view (as well as from the dog's street-dog father). These were my favorite parts of the book - not surprising since I do love stories that include the viewpoint of a dog. I loved how the reporter fell in love with the dog and named him Felix (after the vet who saved him) - but I also found myself frustrated by her and some of her decisions when it becomes clear that some very bad people want to retrieve Joe/Felix and she isn't sure who to trust. Overall though, this was an enjoyable listen with a very good narration by Victoria Villarreal.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

"A dog starved once is always hungry."

"Street mutt had always wanted to have a human of his own. He has the common dog need to give one human everything but some dogs get humans and some do not."

Some dogs get a family and, sadly, some get abused for the benefit of their dirtbag owners; and still the dog will love them. In the very unique heartwarming yet tension filled crime drama thriller The Rescue by sharp storyteller T. Jefferson Parker we meet the best "good boy" ever. Joe was born on the streets of Mexico and leads an unconditional life unconditionally loving his humans.

Bettina is doing a story about an under funded animal rescue in Tijuana when she spots Joe recovering from a gun shot wound. Today is his last day to be adopted or he will be euthanized and, bless her, Bettina takes him home.

Renaming him Felix after the vet that saved his life, his story goes viral and all his previous owners come looking for him. As Bettina fights to keep him she gets caught up with drug cartels, DEA agents, and some of them will kill to get her dog back.

What makes this story so heartwarming are the chapters from Joe's point of view. How he finds food behind fast food restaurants. How he knew to wag his tail to make humans like him and how when his humans were happy he was the happiest boy.

Kudos to narrator Victoria Villarreal when using her melodic soft tones for Joe's thoughts. I cried when Joe says, "He has no word for love...or being kicked, or being hit with sticks or rocks or tied up being hungry." But Joe, "Always looks back remembering his first human."

This special story is filled with a few bad humans, some good people, and one very loving dog who will rescue your heart from all the evil.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from MacMillan Audio via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

"The Rescue" by T. Jefferson Parker is a thrilling novel that explores the bond between humans and animals. Bettina Blazak, a journalist, falls in love with a Mexican street dog named Felix and discovers that he has a dangerous past as a former DEA drug-sniffing dog. As Bettina investigates Felix's past, she draws the attention of dangerous people, and the two of them are soon drawn into a deadly criminal underworld.

The author's love for animals is apparent in the writing, with Joe, the Mexican street dog, being the highlight of the book. However, the characters felt less interesting and contradictory. Despite these flaws, the novel's second half was more engaging and made for a decent beach read.

The Rescue by T. Jefferson Parker
Narrated by Victoria Villarreal
Sorry to say so but I had to DNF this audiobook at 20%. I have never read this author befor and I think his work is just not for me. The synopsis of the story sounded interesting but I have not it so. I like animals as characters in a book but really there was just too much detail about Joe/Felix from birth onward. The human characters do not seem to be well developed and frankly, I was just bored.
As far as this narrator, she was adequate but did nothing to make the story and the characters more interesting.
And the word dachshund is not pronounced dash-hound and so far I have had to hear it twice.
The whole thing is just not working for me.

While doing a story on an animal shelter in Tijuana, Bettina falls for a cute Mexican street dog that’s recovering from a gunshot wound. She adopts him, not realizing just how special of a dog he really is…or how many people want him and the lengths they’ll go to get him. While The Rescue isn’t nonstop action, it is a completely engaging story and I was hooked from start to finish. It’s definitely a ride worth taking. I’ve read many books where an animal will be a main character or feature heavily in the story, but it’s not all that often where we get parts of the book from the animal’s point of view, and even rarer when that is done well. T. Jefferson Parker does a fantastic job of putting us into the head of Felix the dog (or Joe as some people call him). The reveal of his story, through flashbacks and memories, was not only touching, but he felt like a real character, a real dog, and I couldn’t help but feel for him and the danger he and Bettina find themselves in. No spoilers but the ending took me a bit by surprise. Completely satisfying. This was the first time I’ve heard Victoria Villarreal and her narration was fantastic. I’d like to thank Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advanced audio version of T. Jefferson Parker’s The Rescue.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R11C90ZT3SLJRR/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I liked this one! I listened the audio and enjoyed the narrator. The story was action packed, also I love dogs and this one was so special. Highly recommend!

I enjoyed this book but felt hampered by the bouncing back and forth of first persons. I loved the storyline. I am just not the greatest at following a story that changes from one person to another.

This book was so good! I loved the mix of dogs and murder and mystery! Add in a strong kick-ass woman and I am SOLD! I am now going to add all of T. Jefferson Parker's backlog of books to my TBR! I look forward to the next book he puts out!

Thoroughly enjoyed The Rescue, while it was certainly unusual with Joe/Felix's point of view included, I found it poignant. Well written as always and certainly worth reading

I wanted to like this more than I did. The premise was good-a dog being rescued from the streets-what’s not to love about that? But unfortunately, the execution fell flat for me. The delivery of the third person narrative kept me out of the story and the narrator was very monotonous. The characters were very two dimensional and the dialogue was simplistic at best. There were no big thrilling moments despite being it being about drug cartels and the dog being rescued from working the streets. There’s was just so much potential that was missed out on. It just left me skipping at points trying to get through to the end.
I hate to leave reviews like this but every book is not for everyone and this just wasn’t for me.
Thanks to Forge Books and NetGalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for my review.

Outstanding!! Parker has beautifully captured the love relationship between man and dog. This story is told from both the human and canine perspective which makes it so appealing. It captures the bond between human and dog beautifully and how this impacts the dogs’ view of his place in the pack/team.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio who provided me with a copy of this book. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I mean a book about a rescue dog – how could you not like it? But the writing just did not work for me. I did appreciate the different points of view, however, I felt the narrator did not do a good job of shifting between points of view. I guess with one being a dog, it could be difficult, but hey I would have liked maybe something different. I just struggled with this one for various reasons, but I see how some people will really enjoy. I also feel that this book is not a “gripping thriller” as advertised, I cannot say I got thriller at all from this one. I appreciated that the book spanned over time, and how it ended.

I will not be submitting this review beyond goodreads and netgalley. I appreciate the publisher and netgalley for this e-alc in exchange for this honest review.

At first, I thought I was going to dread this book about twenty minutes in. I'm so glad I stuck it out. You get to see the lives through several points of view, including a dog. This wonderful dog has lived an interesting life, and what has led him to this particular situation is a poor series of events, but it leads to him to some spectacular people who care deeply for him. You get to see their side of the story as well.

Thank you Netgalley for my ARC.

This was a super tough book to rate. Overall, I enjoyed the story. The boy and Joe alongside Joe's point of view were the best part of the story for me.
The people stories (beside the young boy) were frustrating and uninteresting to me. Billy the police officer wasn't interested in Betina until she wrote the story- then he was all in. Dan, who has never truly loved, met Betina for the first time and decided his life revolved around her and Joe.....was all a bit too much and forced.
If the story was done more on the view point of Joe, I would have enjoyed it much more.

3.5 stars

I'm entertained by books with amusing animal characters, especially pets that 'talk.' One of the main protagonists in this story is a mongrel pooch named Joe, a 55-pound Labrador-Terrier mix with gull wing ears and an exceptional sense of smell. Joe doesn't talk per se but we're privy to Joe's thoughts as he grows from a cute puppy, to a talented Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) canine, to the pet of a San Diego self-defense instructor, to a pooch being pursued by a Mexican drug cartel.

Joe's current owner is journalist Bettina Blazak, who writes stories and does video interviews for a newspaper called 'The Coastal Eddy' in Laguna Beach, California. Bettina first saw Joe at an animal shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, when she was doing a story about Mexican street dogs. Joe was recovering from a bullet wound, and Bettina learned that, 35 days ago, a boy found the injured dog on a Tijuana street and carried him to the clinic. There Joe was saved by an emergency operation.

Bettina was drawn to Joe, adopted him, and called him Felix. The journalist then wrote an article about Felix's life-threatening adventure, which went viral. This brought the canine to the attention of several previous owners as well as a Mexican drug cartel.

From Joe's thoughts we find out that he lived with a boy named Teddy Delgado as a puppy, but was taken away when a relative was allergic; Joe was then trained to be a DEA sniffer dog, and worked for several years until he got burn out. Afterwards, Joe was adopted by an ex-cop/self-defense instructor named Dan Strickland. Dan secretly works for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, where he uses Joe's outstanding sniffer to steal drugs and cash from the Sinaloa Cartel.

Joe was injured during a cartel shoot-out in Tijuana, and Dan inadvertently lost the pooch in the chaos.

Dan Strickland is a sort of good guy/bad guy who runs an excellent self-protection school, drives a green Maserati Quattroporte, really loves Joe.....but also loves the cartel money Joe makes for him. Moreover, Joe loves Dan back, and misses his former home, which was filled with dog treats and dog toys.

Once Bettina's article about Felix/Joe goes viral, the journalist is contacted by all of Joe's previous owners:

❧ Teddy Delgado sends a series of emails, saying he raised Joe as a puppy, loves and misses the dog, and is saving up money in hopes of buying him back.

❧ A DEA officer says the agency owns Joe, and - though they don't want to take the dog away - have a plan to use Joe against the cartels.

❧ And Dan Strickland asserts Joe is his dog, and he wants Joe back.

Moreover, the Sinaloa Cartel - which lost a lot of money because of Joe - wants to kidnap the canine.

By now Bettina is very attached to Felix/Joe and plans to keep him no matter what.

This is the set-up for the story, which leads to all manner of action and adventure for the characters involved, especially Bettina, Dan, Joe, a bicycle-cop, and a cadre of DEA agents.

This is an exciting adventure story with a touch of romance, recommended to fans of the genre.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Victoria Villarreal, who does an excellent job.

Thanks to Netgalley, T. Jefferson Parker, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the book.