Katherine Center has a way of writing what seems like a fun, quirky story that explores in-depth relationships. Cassie is a firefighter in Texas who is career oriented. The book opens with Cassie receiving a prestigious award for saving some children. The mayor is scheduled to give her the award. Something happened that the mayor could not attend. She walks toward the stage and finds the city councilman is presenting her the reward. She explodes and takes action. Something totally unexpected happens......

Cassie receives a phone call from her estranged mom who left Cassie and her Dad ten years ago and is living in Boston. She needs Cassie to come and stay with her for a year. Cassie ends up in Boston working for a fire department where she is the only woman.

This book explores relationships including forgiveness. A good easy read with good character exploration. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is well-written chick-lit. It's pretty predictable but a nice, comfortable read. It reminds me of the novels I used to love that they published in Good Housekeeping magazine. The characters are engaging and the storyline is interesting.

Perfect for a summer/beach read. Gives you that familiar sense of missing the characters after finishing the book. Some poignant reminders about what it is to love and what it is to forgive.

Wow! What a wonderfully written story filled with love and loss, betral and forgiveness. The characters and storyline are well-developed, engaging, and interesting. It definitely held my interest and kept me flipping pages as quickly as I could.

I definitely feel my time was well-spent reading this book. It was my first by Ms. Center, but certainly not my last.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or remuneration.

#ARC #arcreview. #arcreview2019 #NewRelease #nowavailable #mustread #mustreadbook #bookstagram #bookstoread @stmartinspress #NetGalley

Early this year I read How to walk away and loved it, so this was a "Must get your hands in it" book, I was so excited when I received the ARC.

Cassie, the main character, is a dedicated firefighter who has turned her back on love after a traumatic experience in her life. You will be caught in Cassie's life right away, she's a very likeable and strong character.

I loved how Katherine developed this beautiful story that will teach us forgiveness, a story about love, family and hope. Highly recommended.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinpress for giving me this E-ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Cassie Hanwell is the kind of firefighter every team dreams of having. She’s great in a crisis and is a problem solver. She once dreamed of being a doctor, but fell in love with being an EMT, then a paramedic and tied it all together when she became a firefighter.

Katherine Center gives the reader just a tiny peek into Cassie’s past. Enough that you know it’s impacted her life today, and you want to know more. When Cassie receives a major valor award she’s thrilled to have her firehouse team by her side, joking with her, yet cheering her on. When the award is given by a substitute city councilman, we learn that Cassie has some strong feelings, and they are not positive. Mix this with the pleas from her mother to come and help her for a year, Cassie’s life is faced with enormous change and potential struggle.

Massachusetts is night and day different to the life she is accustomed to. She’s now living with her mom, and the firehouse is not ready for a woman to be a part of their team. She’s listened to all the advice from her former captain, but nothing has prepared her for these challenges. She works her hardest, and she believes she can be a positive teammate and but there are conflicts she doesn’t see coming.

Katherine Center beautifully writes this story of a woman learning her way in new surroundings when she realizes it’s not all about work. She realizes she has feelings and for the first time she opens herself up to more than just the friendships at work. Her mom stirs up the emotions she’s tried to hide. Her mom talks to her about forgiveness, and this theme is so important to the rest of the book.

I can’t say enough good things about Things You Save in a Fire. I’ve been a long time fan of Katherine Center’s books. Her work continues to entertain and enlighten me. This book is one that is such a quick and captivating read, I didn’t want to put it down, and finished it at 3 in the morning, but I had to find out the rest. I also love how the epilogue gave closure to this story. I hope you’ll look for this book in stores and libraries and pick up a copy.

Reviews of other Katherine Center books

The Bright Side of Disaster
Everyone is Beautiful
Get Lucky
The Lost Husband
How to Walk Away

I was expecting a devastating, emotional read from Things You Save in a Fire (based on reviews I've read) but I felt like the story was a tad too mainpulative to wrench those feelings from me.
I adored Cassie, the tough firefighter tossed from her progressive Austin, TX fire department - sent to the small town, sexist department after a transgression at an awards banquet almost gets her fired. At the very least - she loses her fast track to fire chief.
She's smart and kind but has hardened her heart to love and even human kindness, other than her father's, for very valid reasons. And I could really relate to her, coming from a similar background.
Each individual storyline was very compelling but seemed to add one more layer to force the issue for Cassie. Her mom, the romance with the Rookie, the firehouse...each one could have gone deeper and carried more emotional weight for me if it was allowed to resolve naturally but each time - something even bigger happens to make it even more dramatic.
I would still highly recommend this book - especailly to fans of K.A. Tucker's The Simple Wild - it has very similar themes. And it does a beautiful job of exploring healing, forgivness, love and second chances.
Cassie really got to me and and broke my heart (as did most of the characters), but the plot, overall, spread to thin for me to elevate this to 5 star level for me.

This book was FANTASTIC!!! It was my first by Katherine Center but definitely not my last. The book followed Cassie, a 26 year old female fireman (firewoman? Fireperson!) who lands herself in hot water in Austin at the same time her mostly estranged mother is sick and needs help. As a result she transfers to a firehouse in Massachusetts, and is the first woman in the station since it was established over a hundred years ago. Things You Save in a Fire follows these events; the humorous, the tragic, the mysterious, and everything in between.
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I am so, so glad I got an ARC of this book. I absolutely, 100%, wholeheartedly loved it. I wasn't expecting to; I read that it was a romance and that's not really my jam. But this book was so much more than that. It was absolute perfection. If you enjoy books that are action-packed with a side of romance, pick it up. You won't regret it!

3.5 Stars

So I've been sitting on this review for a few days after finishing this book, trying to frame my thoughts a bit. There are things I really enjoyed about Things You Save in a Fire but there are things that had me rather upset. I greatly enjoyed Center's last novel How to Walk Away and note that over the past decade she's made a career of writing novels about women on the brink of disaster, over the edge of disaster, recovering from disaster. She writes books that brim with hope and humor. In the present case, we follow Cassie Hanwell, a female fire fighter who has built a fortress around herself with her prowess as a firefighter, athlete, and all around genuine hero(ine). Cassie has, again and again, put her life on the line to save those in need. But so much of the strength she has built has been a reaction to two grievous life injuries she sustained when she was sixteen years old. And after an event that was supposed to be a celebration of her bravery turns into a major PTSD trigger she finds herself moving across the country to save her career and take care of a mother from whom she's been estranged for more than a decade. The triggering event, along with having to deal with her ailing mother, seems to unleash all kinds of emotions that Cassie doesn't want to deal with. And herein lies one of my problems with the structure of the trauma portion of this narrative. I'm going to discuss the issue below, under a spoiler tag.

I heartily enjoyed the firefighter portions of the book, which I know that Center put a huge amount of research into in order to have them ring with authenticity. And they do. Her Austin and Lillian stations were interesting in their huge contrasts and the technical aspects of firefighting were quite fascinating. The differing compositions of her crew members, and the varying degrees in which sexism is an issue in the career, were also interesting. And I enjoyed the character of Owen Callaghan, the rookie firefighter who comes from a long line of firefighters and who is, just like other male protagonists Center has written in the past, nursing his own guilt and pain. While one could say some aspects of Center's stories are formulaic within her own works, it's a formula that works because it mirrors real life- we all have our hurts, guilts, and traumas to overcome in order to connect with our fellow humans.

While I was less on board with this novel than her last, Center can write engagingly and I'm sure the novel is going to be a popular one.

[show spoiler:

CW: sexual assault, untreated PTSD

Cassie, as written, has a dissociative way of processing physical closeness to others. She tolerates it for work but as no ability to tolerate that closeness on a personal level. Unless... it's the cute Irish rookie in her new fire station. Mind you, as an assault survivor myself, I can get the complex feelings of attraction and fear that go with moving forward in life "after." But the way Cassie's character arc is written makes it seem like recovering from sexual assault is just about waiting long enough for the right guy to come along, which is... offensive. First, once you surmise these revelations about the character, you look back at the first chapter, in which she wonders if Hernandez is right about his suggestions that she needs to get laid, and think it's ridiculous that she would even contemplate such a thing! How!? The woman has never even been kissed, for gosh sakes! Thereafter, I found the passages with her dealing with Owen practicing on her, touching all over her, when she realizes her profound attraction to him, to be immensely frustrating to read. She's described as uneasy, but in a real world this might likely result in out and out panic. He hooks her up to an EKG and doesn't even notice anything stress related? Really? Sure, he eventually realizes that something is wrong many chapters later, but how fast is that fix as we careen toward the dramatic events at the end? As an assault survivor, her dissociative way of processing, which she self-recognizes as viewing his physical contact with her as just work-related, becomes imperiled once she steps over that work-related boundary into a "friendship." Because friendship involves trust and trust involves vulnerability and vulnerability is not something Cassie deals with well. While she asks Owen about therapy for his issues, at no point do we hear about her having therapy for her issues, nor do we have any indication that her father, distracted by his own pain of his wife's rejection, notices anything about his daughter's physical and emotional suffering, her being bullied at school, her withdrawing from any connections with peers. No adult notices. (I know this stuff really happens but the point is that it sharply deepens the trauma and that increases the difficulty in overcoming the trauma.)

Frankly, the way this was handled had me even questioning the entire premise of her being a firefighter, sleeping in quarters with a bunch of guys, and wondering whether she would/could ever really sleep in that kind of vulnerable setting. (And yes, I know she believes that firefighters are the good guys. A PTSD brain doesn't so much care about that sort of belief.) In any case, I'm supposed to believe that this strong, stoic assault survivor just meets the right guy and works through her immense barriers to physical intimacy, gets married in short order, has babies, and lives happily ever after, boom!? Naaaaah, chica. No way. Not buying it. Why not have her had past therapy on her Austin Department's insurance? Why not have her female chief in Austin, who just saw her most talented firefighter derail her career insist she must see a therapist after Cassie implies why she did what she did to Heath Thompson? And though Captain Harris helps her get the new job in New England, why doesn't she express concern as to whether going off to a sexist all male department was the right thing for Cassie to do? Why doesn't that female chief ever touch base with her later, and make sure she's okay? The simple addition of a bargain with Captain Harris that she'd help her if she sought therapy would have made this whole thing more believable. I just fail to believe that a captain so proud of her junior officer would leave this unaddressed. There was more work to be done here. Most of all, leading anyone who hasn't been an assault victim to believe that trauma recovery is as simple as finding the right partner is a disservice to assault victims.

(hide spoiler)]


I received a Digital Review Copy and paper copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Great Story! The book is very well written. The characters are awesome and real. This is my first book by Katerine Center, but I will definitely be checking out more.

DNF. It pains me to say this but I really didn’t enjoy this one at all and DNF’d it about 100 pages in. I just think that I wasn’t in the mood for a lighter read and the cheesiness really got to me. In my opinion, I don’t think this book was handling sexism in the workplace very well so that aspect of the book being dramatized really turned me off. I just think I need to stick with my usual thrillers unless I’m really in the mood for something lighter.

Because I didn’t enjoy this as much as I wanted to and I know so many other people will, I will be giving away my copy on my Instagram @isabelrosereads so look out for that later tonight!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for early access to this book;l I thoroughly enjoyed this story!

The story that evolved in this book was 100% not what I expected, (I should preface it with saying I read a book's synopsis when I pick up a book, but will not read it again when I actually start reading) but 100% captivated me. I had a very hard time putting this book down.

Everything from a well developed plot line, complex characters, and the metaphorical and literal use of fire was well executed. While the love-story element adds a level of lightheartedness to the story, the real meat comes from how Katherine Center introduces themes surrounding: non-conforming gender roles/feminism, love, loss and forgiveness.

You will not want to miss this book if you enjoy love-stories that also examine the complexities of human relationships.

Once again, Things You Save in a Fire is not my usual fare. I'm not sure why I chose to download it, but I really enjoyed this sweet story.

Cassie Hanwell is tough. She's been that way since she's had to deal with some tough situations in her short life. One being her mother leaving her dad for another man on Cassie's 16th birthday! And Cassie has never forgiven her mother.

But Cassie has found her niche. She's a firefighter -- a great firefighter, and as the story opens, she is being honored in Austin, Texas for her heroism. That ceremony will change her life.

I don't want to give too much away, but the ceremony disaster, as well as the fact that her estranged mother has asked Cassie to live with her for one year, has Cassie moving across the country to work for a fire department in a small town near Boston. Her mother has gone blind in one eye and needs Cassie to help out until she gets used to her new situation. Cassie wants nothing to do with her mother and has no intention of forgiving her or becoming close. Cassie has been warned that her new Captain will be difficult. He's one of those firefighters, along with his entire crew, who doesn't think women can be firefighters. Cassie has a lot to prove.

And it does prove difficult. But Cassie, being the tough girl she is, is up to the task. Sort of. Things, of course, don't go as expected, not just in her job, but in every other way.

I really enjoyed the pacing of Things You Save in a Fire. I thought the setup and drama of Cassie's new situation kept my interest and moved quickly. The romance is delightful and had me giggling more than once. The build-up of tension and danger at the end was perfect.

I loved the characters and wanted them to get their happily ever after. And for the most part they did -- after a lot of drama! All in all, Things You Save in a Fire was an easy, light-hearted (for the most part) book that drew me in and left me feeling warm and fuzzy. And, this one could have great appeal for teens too. A perfect little gem if you need a bit of fluff after all those dark fantasies, mysteries, wars, and sci-fi stories you've been reading lately (like me.)

I loved Cassie from the first page. This story kept me involved and interested, anticipating what would come next. The characters of Cassie and Owen are great, trying to stay away from each other but slowly building a relationship. The crews of both firehouses add humor and color, and Cassie's relationship with her mother adds another dimension to the story. Their lives are real, their struggles relatable. It is a truly delightful read.

I became a fan of Center when I fell completely and totally in love with How to Walk Away, it easily made my top reads of the year list and is still a book I find myself recommending to people all of the time. Now that I’ve read my second book from the author I can say that I’m a firm fan and will be adding her to my short list of auto buy authors.

If I had to pick one single thing that truly makes a book a special read for me I would have to say that it’s great characterization. Sure, so many other elements are incredibly important to me, but if I don’t find the characters believable, I’m going to struggle. Cassie was so believable it hurt, right away she had me on her side, she’s a female firefighter for crying out loud, she had me just based on that alone. But there is so much more to her than the fact that she is a badass, she’s multifaceted on many levels and her story was a powerful and evocative one. Then, as an added bonus you get a character like the rookie to swoon over and I’m just done. I’m all in and then some, I’m a big ball of mushy emotions who is wholeheartedly invested.

I swear no other author combines incredibly emotional and heartfelt stories with razor sharp wit quite like Center does. There is something magical about this combination that is just perfection for me, I’ll be teary eyed one minute and before I can compose myself I’m laughing through my tears because of something funny one of her characters says or does. Once again, I loved every single page of this one, and just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, there was a beautiful epilogue that just put the cherry on top of the cake.

I can’t recommend this one highly enough, especially if you like emotional, yet hilarious reads that will pull at your heart strings one minute and have you crying like a baby the next. If you haven’t read How to Walk Away yet either go ahead and get that one as well, they’re both excellent!

Things You Save in a Fire in three words: Evocative, Heartfelt and Unforgettable

This was a great read. Pour Cassie's personal life is stuck after a tragic day ten years ago. She can't seem to get over what happened that day so she closes herself off to everything that has to do with any kind of love. A call from her mother and a confrontation changes things for Cassie both personally and professionally. I cried, laughed and got angry reading this book, that's how much emotion you get from this book. I loved it and I am so happy to have the epilogue at the end of the book.

*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

Things You Save in a Fire is an entertaining and thought provoking novel. Cassie is an experienced female firefighter/EMT when she starts working at a firehouse near Boston. She is the first female to work there and tries hard to dispel any of the men’s pre-conceived bias against her. Her job is made even harder when she is attracted to the rookie who starts at the firehouse the same day as she does. Cassie moved to Massachusetts at her mother’s insistence. They have been estranged for ten years and now Cassie’s mother asked for her help. Cassie’s mother teaches her about forgiveness and love. The novel has several twists and learning about life and politics at the firehouse is very interesting. Center is a fantastic author who writes what the reader is thinking. This book is a must read.

Where do I even start with this book? Oh my gosh. When I read the first chapter, I was a little worried. I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to relate to Cassie and that I ultimately wouldn't care. Boy was I wrong in the best way possible.

Once we got to chapter two and the whole thing went down and Cassie beat the crap out of Heath for touching her, I was all about this book and couldn't put it down. I wanted to know why there was bad blood between them. I ultimately guessed what happened to her because that anxiety and dread doesn't come just from being bullied. Her whole world came to a stand-still on the night that was supposed to be completely about her, and Heath tried to take that away from her. I am so happy she stood her ground.

When we got into the meat and potatoes of the story, I wanted to know more about Diana and the Rookie and everyone at the firehouse. I loved everyone and I loved that Cassie didn't want to be looked at as a girl on the team. She wanted to be treated as an equal, and that was awesome, but I think once she stopped trying to change the guys and just let them be respectful towards her because that's what they were comfortable with, I think the story just got better and better.

I don't want to give spoilers, but the climax/plot twist literally had me wanting to throw my Kindle because I was so worried that Center was going to do something that I don't think I would have been okay with.

This story had me laughing between the chemistry and banter between Cassie and Owen. I loved that the guys wanted to treat Cassie like a lady, but also respected her enough to know that she was a bad ass and wasn't going to be treated like a fragile little girl. I cried when Cassie cried and I cried about Diana because I just can't even imagine.

This book is hands down the easiest five stars I have given this year. This is also my favorite contemporary of the year, and I think I may actually read it again. I will definitely be buying a finished copy and buying it for anyone that wants a new book to read. So amazing.

Although this isn’t my standard fare for reading material, I was drawn to the book by the description. I am glad I gave it a chance. It has a strong-willed protagonist who is flawed -aren’t we all?

The writing is strong, well-balanced and has humor sprinkled throughout. I enjoyed watching Cassie grown, develop, and find her way.

On the fast track in the Austin fire department, an episode at her awards banquet changes the course of her life. She has to regroup, relocated, and drive on to save her professional career.

She lands in New England living in her mother’s house. She learns about life and relationships. Give this book a chance – it’s not a mushy romance. It’s a stretching of someone that has closed themselves off to relationships outside of the work concept.

I highly recommend this book.

It's been a long time since a book has made me emotional enough to actually cry while I read it. Sure, lots of books have made me feel sad and empathize with characters, but very few make me emotional enough to keep thinking about the book long after reading it. This book packs an emotional punch - and rings especially true to the realities of what being a woman working in a male dominated field can be like. Things You Save in a Fire is much deeper than the contemporary romance it appears to be at the surface: it's a dark and emotional look at the lasting impacts of trauma and forgiveness. 

The most refreshing part of this book was that the emotional moments in this book never felt like cheap ploys or grabs for attention: these were real, raw moments that were earned by the plot and the character development. It was the emotional depth to this book that took me by surprise - I went in expecting a typical romance book and was blown away by the emotional complexity and maturity. The overall pacing and plot content of this book was great, it never felt rushed or like it was stalling for time between the romantic events. On top of that, the quality of the writing is phenomenal. Katherine Center has an incredible talent for creating characters that are impossible not to root for - even the perceived villains of the book were complex enough to be redeeming.

Cassie is a take-shit-from-no-one kind of character - my absolute favorite kind. Her career comes before everything: before her family, before relationships and before her personal life. But when her career is ruined in a single evening, she has to grapple with restarting in a new city on the opposite side of the country. That's what made Cassie so entertaining: the author took her out of the situation she thrived in and threw her into the deep end of uncertainty and instability. It was at her new job that she was forced out of her comfort zone and made her prove herself and develop as a character in order to thrive. And while the amount of character growth she had was incredible, it was still believable. The people around her were also massive proponents in her growth - they pushed her to be a better person while also having their own stories and struggles.

With stunning characters, a realistic story about being a female working in a male dominated field, and oodles of heart, this book should definitely be at the top of your August to-be-read pile. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book starring a bad-ass woman. No matter what, if you choose to read it, make sure you have a supply of tissues on hand.  Katherine Center certainly has a new fan in me, and I'm certain everyone who reads this book will feel the same way. 5/5