Add to your TBR ASAP!!! I truly loved this sweet novel from Katherine Center. At its heart, the book is about forgiveness: how to forgive others, how to forgive ourselves, the beauty that forgiveness can bring, and the ugliness that grudges will bring. This is always a good reminder, especially in the world of ‘cancel’ culture where self-righteous indignation is encouraged and empathy is fleeting.

On top of the beautiful overarching message of forgiveness, the story was fun to read! It was easy to root for Cassie and her people, and I was encouraged to see her pick forgiveness over stubbornness over and over. I also loved learned more about the culture of firefighters since it’s a topic I haven’t read much on. Lastly, I liked the passing reference to Margaret and the fact that this story exists in the same universe as How To Walk Away.

Overall, wonderful and rewarding read that I’d recommend to everyone!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

I absolutely adored this book! Katherine Center has become one of my favorite authors in that she always features characters that you just can’t help but root for. This book is no exception. Cassie is a tough as nails firefighter with a sad backstory that slowly unravels and inspires throughout the course of the book. It’s all about redemption, forgiveness and ultimately love. I laughed, and cried. It was a masterpiece!

I was skeptical of all the great reviews of this book, but it didn’t disappoint. The characters were interesting and the story was fresh and complicated. I enjoyed the secondary characters as well, and the pace was perfect. I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

Equal parts humorous and poignant, Things You Save in a Fire is one of my favorite reads of 2019. The dialog is fantastic, Cassie is a hot mess of a heroine who is a beast when it comes to fighting fires, but terribly afraid of intimacy because of the wounds in her past. Her struggles and her heartache are common experiences for many of us, which is why I was so invested in her story from the beginning of the book. And can we just talk about Owen/the rookie and what a wonderful hero he is? His love for Cassie, his sense of humor, his angst over past mistakes ... I could go on and on.
Finally, the themes of hope and forgiveness and learning to move forward without letting our emotional baggage take us out really resonated with me. Nicely done, Katherine Center!
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions stated here are my own.

A totally enjoyable and surprising book. I laughed and then was sad too. The middle of the book changed the time some. It was definitely women's fiction but no chic-lit. It showed what women in service jobs deal with too. The characters were great. An enjoyabE summer read.

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the eARC in exchange for my review. I have seen How to Walk Away and had it on my TBR for forever, but this is my first book of hers I have read, and I adored it.
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Cassie is no stranger to having to be a girl in a “guy’s” world, but it comes with the territory of being a firefighter. When she ends up moving to Massachusetts to help her estranged mother out, not only does she have to prove herself all over again. This time things become a lot more difficult when she realizes she has feelings for the rookie.
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This book had me feeling all the emotions. I loved and identified with Cassie so much. Her way of not taking sh*** from the guys, her determination to prove her grit, and her fear of coming to terms with her feelings all had me feeling like I was looking in a mirror. Not to mention, I can walk in heels as well as she can. Additionally, I loved how Center made forgiveness such a central theme of this story. But my favorite part was the relationship between Cassie and the rookie. It was so touching, endearing, and real. He is up there in the book boyfriend list top five. Also, my nerves could hardly handle the last three chapters. It was like watching a movie through my fingers, covering my eyes. I was so nervous to find out what was going to happen.
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This was a wonderful story. It had funny parts, sad parts, parts that made you mad, suspense, and parts that pulled and twisted at every heart string. I hope you will all pick this one up when it releases 8/13/19!

Thank you to the author and publisher for an ARC of this gem ! Loved it ! ( review all ready put on goodreads) This book has everything. And if you liked How To Walk Away, you will love this book. I loved it and I have to say this book is even better ! Firefighters, discrimination, betrayal, love, forgiveness. it has everything ! Such a great story and so well written ! You can't help but love and admire this character. Absolutely loved this book !

This was my first book my Katherine Center, and it definitely lived up to the hype!
Things You Save in a Fire is about female Firefighter Cassie, who after a slight incident in her hometown of Texas, agrees to relocate to a new fire station in Massachusetts and reside with her estranged mother who has fallen ill. The only problem is, the new station is dead set in its masculine ways and against all things female Firefighter. As Cassie fights to earn her place among the crew she faces several obstacles including: a very handsome Rookie Firefighter, and the struggle with herself to protect her heart at all costs.

This book is awesome! Cassie, the main character is seriously bad ass! I loved her easy-going toughness and the confidence she has in herself when interacting with her crew during her day to day life at the station. She made me want to go find a pull-up bar and start working out!
Katherine Center did an awesome job portraying the life of a Firefighter! The jokes the firefighters played on each other and their banter was laugh-out-loud hilarious!
Things You Save in a Fire also has some very serious, very real moments as well. It touches on traumatic events, broken trust, healing, and forgiveness. I think the author does fantastic job mixing the serious in with the humor. It has just the right amount of both elements.

I strongly recommend this book to readers. Thank to so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to read and review this advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I really liked this book. The beginning is a little bit far fetched, in my opinion, so stick through the first couple chapters, and I promise it will be worth it. Highly recommended.

The perfect summer read! Sweet but not too saccharine, funny, and with depth. I thought she captured the first responder experience really well and I loved the badass protagonist. Recommend!

Things You Save in a Fire:

Enjoyable read with a strong, female lead that was flawed but understandably so. I liked Cassie a lot and I admired how she both knew herself well but also didn’t at time. She was relatable in the way that we all know our strengths, but sometimes not our weaknesses.

Cynical me says that there were times that this story was predictable (even when it was still enjoyable) and that some story lines were glossed over, and others were overdone. It was also a bit rushed at the end.

This is a good summer read that deals with tough issues but not in a heavy way and it wraps up nicely in the end.

Mix one part family drama, one part culture of the fire station, one part romance, and one part the challenges of forgiveness and you'll have an enjoyable summer read by Katherine Center. I really enjoy how this author writes as the story flows along with characters who are not all good or all bad and the author connects you to the humanity of the main characters. The epilogue brought a tear to my eye which means the author did her job getting me to care about the characters. 4.5 stars for me.
My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Having recently finished “Things You Save in a Fire” by Katherine Center, I am happy to have had the chance for the preview; thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press!

What a great story about learning to forgive after years (ten) of not wanting to forgive, or forget. Although there was serious drama and predictable outcomes in this storyline, I think what I most enjoyed about this story were the moments of humor that came through in Cassie’s personality, and the day to day depictions in the life of a “lady” firefighter. It was so nice to laugh (out loud) during this story.

I LOVED this book! This unique plot with the heroine in a more masculine gender career role had me so engrossed in this read. This is my first book to read by this author and it will definitely not be my last!

I really enjoyed the author stating how parents are seen as gods & goddesses to their children when they are young and how it morphs as they grow older and see them as regular human beings. This struck a chord with me as a mother to young children and these passaged with stay with me.

I laughed, teared up, and got all those great book feelings with this book, Highly Recommend it!

Things You Save In A Fire by Katherine Center is a fast moving, well written story about betrayal, loss, love and forgiveness. Cassie Hanwell is a paramedic in Austin Texas whose life and emotional stability was shattered on her sixteenth birthday. Her mother, Diana, chose that day to leave Cassie and her father. The boy that she had admired from afar finally noticed her. But their first “date” on Cassie’s birthday ends so badly that Cassie refuses to acknowledge or discuss what happened. Because of these two incidents, Cassie has built a wall around her emotions. Cassie spends her life building her career in the Fire Department. She is to receive an award for rescuing children from a school bus that has slipped off the road into a ditch. At the award ceremony, Cassie has an unfortunate meeting with the boy – now man – from her sixteenth birthday which derails her career in Austin. At the same time, her mother has called, begging Cassie to move to Massachusetts for a year to help her through a health crisis. Cassie finds a job in a Fire Department near her mother’s home. This new department is old school, good old boy. Cassie has to find her place as the one and only female fire fighter. Along the way, Cassie finds forgiveness with her mother. She also finds someone that can unlock her emotions. This book hooked me from the first chapter. I stayed up late to finish reading. It flows well and is easy to follow. To me this is a five star book.

I just realized that in addition to reading Things You Save in a Fire and How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, I also read another of her novels way back in 2013 - The Lost Husband - and rated it with 4 stars as well! Obviously, Center has long been someone whose writing style works for me - and it's true that finding a book that's "easy" to read yet still has substance and meaning can be difficult, but somehow Center does it for me every time. Just like in How to Walk Away, Center took me in an entirely different direction than I'd expected with this book. I'd expected a gritty story about firefighters and gender discrimination - instead, this was such a sweet love story, in so many ways: of a mother and daughter, of a couple, and of a group of firefighters coming together as a team. Head to the store/web now - I promise you'll want to add this one to your Summer #booklist!!

Much thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an advanced copy for review.

Katherine Center writes stories that are full-person immersion: heart, brain, body and soul are totally involved in a satisfying, inspiring way -- and her latest novel THINGS YOU SAVE IN A FIRE fulfills that promise in profound and emphatic mastery. In short, blunt summary: when a firefighter reluctantly moves to Massachusetts jolted by twin prods of escaping her personal work crisis in Austin and assisting her ailing estranged mother, she discovers possibilities that she never imagined possible for herself. Read this book. I emerged feeling sated by a marvelous story and appreciation for fire fighters and community connection, for reconnecting long-broken relationships, and for finding a new way to succeed in the world.

Katherine Center delivers another well written novel. I read How to Walk Away last December and I loved it so much I knew I had to read this one. Things You Save in a Fire did not disappoint at all! I Loved the storyline about firefighters. A big Yay for a strong female protagonist! I thought the characters were well liked and the storyline has enough of a thrill to keep you turning the pages. In fact, I was so into the book that I missed my stop on the train!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Things You Save in a Fire was a fantastic book! It tells the story of a female firefighter adjusting to life in a new station after she moves to help her mother. At the beginning of the book Cassie has many walls built up, but as the book progresses she begins to break them down, learning about love and forgiveness. This book is beautifully written with well developed characters. I honestly can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this book

This story is phenomenal. I read it in one day unable to tear myself away from the reckoning of one woman's life. Katherine Center opens her brilliantly told novel of courage, strength, and vulnerability by up-ending the life and career of her protagonist, Cassie Hanwell, firefighter extraordinaire who's heart has been shattered by one night in her youth.

From there Center takes readers on a hard fought journey of discovery through Cassie's evolving world view. The themes of feminism, sexism, strength, power, vulnerability, and the many shapes of love this author weaves through her story make it especially enthralling. The story uses tropes within the romance genre in a completely unique and refreshing way to give us a tale of hope but more to give us a piece of women's fiction that women can be especially proud of and admire. The colorful cast of secondary characters break down well established barriers and continually circles around a primary theme of forgiveness and the power it has to reinvent your thoughts, your life, but most importantly your heart.

I find it of the utmost importance to really convey how important this heroine is in women's fiction as she's a guiding light on how you can be broken down and resurrected if you open yourself up to the possibility. Cassie Hanwell is inspirational through her entire journey. She makes you feel so deeply to really think about everything that is not only happening in her life but in yours as well and become resolute in her bravery. That theme of forgiveness shines through many characters int the story but it's never so bright as it is with Cassie. The power of that complex act stands out the most and creates a brilliant focus for readers.

This book isn't just about romance. It's about women. It's a tribute to courage and the strength of vulnerability. And the power of forgiveness and the many different forms of courage. It's about the choices we make out of the love and how we rebound in the aftermath of those choices, no matter how long it might take.

Katherine Center moved me with her evocative novel. I'm excited about it, so grateful to have to read this story and met this character. I can't wait to dive into more of her work.