I kept seeing this book recommended everywhere and I have to say it exceeded every expectation. Cassie the main character is complex and interesting. You are constantly peeling back layers of her life experiences with every page. Forgiveness is a theme throughout and I couldn’t help but feel I was learning right along with her. Incredibly thoughtful story and great read overall. 5 stars!

I received this book "Things You Save in a Fire" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. First book by this author and it won't be my last. I loved this book! big 5 stars. The words just flowed so smoothly and the storyline was awesome. You just want to be Cassie's best friend. I really enjoyed reading this and I will be reading the other books by this author. Did I mention that I loved this book? I really did.

If you enjoy firefighter dramas like Chicago Fire or Rescue Me, you will enjoy this PG rated book about a kick-ass female firefighter named Cassie. At the same time you get a story about forgiveness and a truly sweet romance with "the rookie".

Cassie Hanwell has a past that haunts. She is sure that love is for the weak, and not something she needs in her life. Why? It would leave her vulnerable and she wants to exemplify strength and maintain control in her life.

But when Cassie, who is now a firefighter, receives a call from her mother, who she hasn’t seen in ten years, to come live with her for a short time and help her with medical needs, that’s the last thing she wants to do. But Cassie’s quick response at a service awards dinner has her in a bit of a mess. While being presented an award by the man, who as a boy, nearly destroy her life and reputation, she loses her cool and sets off a series of events that help lead her to change her mind about moving.

While at her mother’s, a new story unfolds. She faces an unwelcome fire crew, a mother who hurt her years back, and time. Time to grow and time to work with a new Rookie who joined the fire station the same day as her. While the crew is convinced a woman is the last thing they need, The Rookie is not so sure.

But Cassie promised herself years ago that love had no real place in her life. While her mother lets her slowly adjust to her new surroundings, and The Rookie tries to figure her out, Cassie begins to learn valuable lessons.

My Thoughts


What Concerned Me: To be honest, the first part (at the awards dinner) seemed too exaggerated and almost turned me off regarding the book. But I’m very glad I read on, however!

What I Liked Most: This story has a romantic element, but it’s much deeper in scope. Being a woman, and due to her past, she feels she must work very hard to prove her worth. She has built a protective shell around herself in the process. At times, as you read the book, she might seem hard to like, but as her past unfolds, the reader better understands Cassie’s reasoning.

This story’s got many layers to peel away and explore. The pages won’t be hard to keep reading. What will be hard is putting the book down.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to review this novel.

This book has every element that I love in a good chick lit!

We’ve got Cassie, our spunky, I can do anything, main character. Tragedies in her past have made her tough as nails and only reliant on herself. She’s become a dedicated firefighter and knows exactly where she’s going in life and she has no time for this “love” people talk about.

Then someone from her past shows up along with her temper and she’s left with the choice of losing her job or transferring to the old fire station in her Mom’s town that doesn’t believe in having female firefighters. Her Mom, whom she’s refused to have a relationship with since she was 16. A mom who needs Cassie’s help even if she did abandon her daughter years ago.

I love the storytelling, character development, the element of danger, a pinch of mystery, and that emotional pull of the possibility of forgiveness. Not to mention the promise of love.

Well...I wish I had liked this book more. I adore this author but the insta-love was off putting. The reunion story with the characters mother was lovely. I think I wanted a longer book and more details. It all felt very rushed. The jump from plot point to plot point was predictable. It was just OK for me. I will keep buying Ms. Center's books.

Katherine Center's books have become some of my favourites over the past few years, and I had been anticipating reading this for quite some time. I held off on reading the ARC for a few months because I wanted to be able to share my review closer to its publication date (August 2019), but eventually, I could not resist it on my kindle queue and dove in and finished it in one sitting. I loved this book, as I expected to. It was so interesting to read about the firehouse setting. Cassie was such a great character. I've found myself thinking of it almost every day since finishing, and I re-read parts of it that I really loved. To me, this is the sign of a 5-star book for me.

This will be a perfect late summer read to enjoy, laugh with, and relate to the lovely characters. I can't wait to see the success that I'm certain this book will experience.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this wonderful book by a favourite author.

What I love about Katherine Center is her ability to weave together romance, humor and family drama in such a natural way. She’s not a cookie-cutter romance author (though in this one it is obvious from the start who is going to fall in love). Center builds strong and unique female characters which I love. This is my third of KC’s books and I intend to read all of her stuff!

Thanks to KC and NetGalley for the ARC.

I saw this book on bookstagram and just knew that I had to get my hot little hands on a copy and I am so please to say that for me it lived up to the hype!

Cassie is a woman in a man’s world, and she has proven that she belongs there as much as any of her fellow firefighters. Her past hurts and experiences have led to do what she has to do to succeed, even if this means building walls up around herself so that she will never get hurt again. This determination has led her to be one of the top in her field – nothing will hold her back from succeeding… until she comes face to face with her past and lets just say it’s not pretty! Forced into relocating or losing her job, she relocates to a fire station that just isn’t quite as up to date as her previous location and has to prove herself worthy all over again! In the midst of all of this she finds love in unexpected places and learns that her past hurts are not what she previously thought.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was the first time I had read anything by Katherine Center and what I appreciated the most was the humanity that her characters possessed. All flawed, imperfect specimens that along the way discover that they are worthy of love, acceptance and forgiveness, Cassie and the Rookie are awesome and I loved their interactions and obvious interest in each other, but I also loved all of the side characters, there wasn’t one that was playing a bit part that all molded and shaped each other! Forgiveness of yourself and others was a huge theme in this book and it was wonderful, we need more books that empower us to look at ourselves and remind us that we too are beautiful, flawed and we need to be gentle to ourselves.

So what I am saying is, do yourself a favor and pre-order this book! You won’t regret it! Available August 13th!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for providing me a copy of this book.

I absolutely loved this book! I have heard a lot of good things about this author, so was eager to try this, as she is a new author to me. The story and characters were great. I would highly recommend this!!! Looking forward to reading more from this author!

I absolutely adored this book! Things You Save in a Fire tells the story of a fire fighter who moves to Massachusetts to help her mother. She joins a small town fire department that has never had a female on staff before. This book is charming with a lot of heart. It has a feminist bend without being preachy. I loved the idea of having a female fire fighter at the center of the story and putting a woman in a non-traditional job. As with most Katherine Center books, there is a fairly predictable love story and this one is so sweet! I loved it! If you are looking for a fun, quick, relatively light read, this is the book for you!

I enjoyed the relationships and the way they developed in the book. The characters felt very real. I would recommend this one.

I received an early copy of this book. honestly, I had no idea what it was about going into it. However, I had heard the name pop up a variety of times so I drove right in. I was immediately drawn in by Cassie's story, but somewhat annoyed by her "dark spot in my past that we will continually allude to but not actually talk about directly."

At times, predictable, but an engaging, fun, pro-woman story.

It is not too often that I read a book in one to two sittings. Mostly because work and family life keep me pretty busy, but let me tell you... this book was worth putting everything else to the side! I read non-stop and didn't want to put it down until the very last page. And even then, I didn't want it to be over. I'm pretty sure I didn't even pick up another book for several weeks because I just couldn't get my mind off of Things You Save in a Fire. The characters were fantastic, the plot was fast paced and interesting, and the romantic tension was so thick! I just loved every sentence of this novel and I can't recommend it enough!

If you've read How to Walk Away and loved it, you most certainly are going to LOVE this novel also. Even if you didn't read Center's first novel, but you enjoy a good romantic fiction novel, you will eat this up. And if you don't... come back and talk to me because I'll definitely need to figure out what is wrong with you (because obviously it was you and not the book, duh). Just kidding... everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I just won't agree with you if you have anything negative to say about this book! Anyways, as you can tell, I loved it and highly recommend it. So make sure to mark August 13th on your calendars because you HAVE to run out and buy this novel.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for sending copies of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 5/5

Fantastic story and well written. This author keeps your attention and keeps you wanting to race through the story!

“Things You Save in a Fire” by Katherine Center is a very well written book about the messy things in life. This book had me hooked right from the first page and I did not want to put it down. I found myself laughing hysterically at points and almost crying at other times. There were so many things in this book that I could identify with. This book really makes you examine yourself and how you handle things that life throws at you. Forgiveness something so very hard to do, how do you forgive the unforgivable and move on? Read this book and find out the answer to that and so much more. This is the first book that I’ve read of Katherine Center and it won’t be the last! I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Katherine Center for the ARC, I received in exchange for my honest review!

What a great read! I read it in just a few days and couldn't read it fast enough. I'm a sucker for all things firefighter and then make it a female firefighter and I was sold! I thought the book could have used a little more action and shown a little more bonding of the people in the house, but overall, I really enjoyed the book. Cassie was a great character and I was able to relate to her and feel for her. The reference to "How to Walk Away" was a fun little surprise that I loved, especially since I read the book not too long ago.

I'm not historically a fan of 'Sweet' but Katherine Center has sold me on it, hard, first with How to Walk Away and now with Things You Save in a Fire.

Sweet, fun, sad and inspirational. A strong independent yet flawed woman in a series of challenging situations, does she overcome them, does she grow, what happens, what does she do? I couldn't put it down today till I knew!

Family, love, work, dreams, and unbeatable odds. My kind of book! #TeamCassie

Cassie is happy. She is one of the only female firefighters in her Austin department. She's so good at her job she's about to receive an award for Valor when we first meet her. She loves her job and her team. Cassie is gobsmacked when the presenter isn't the Mayor but a Councilman. An enemy from high school. Let's just say he leaves the stage on a stretcher and Cassie may not be making Lieutenant or even have a job left.

Cassie's mother left her and her father when Cassie was 16 and she isn't over it or anything else. So when out of the blue she receives a call from Diana, her mother, asking her to move to the Boston area and stay with her for a year while she is having a bit of a problem with her eye.

Reminding herself it is only temporary she heads out knowing that she will have a job with a much smaller and older station with guys she knows don't want a woman in their boys club. But she needs to stay away from Austin and let the dust settle.

Before leaving Austin her Captain had told her to not make waves and DO. NOT. Date. Firemen. Not a problem for Cassie as she doesn't even believe in love and never dates. The hazing and lack of support at the station is compounded with a new guy who on day one turns her life upside down!

I loved this story. Every character was so well done. This was a tale of perspective, forgiveness, and the complicated love of family. I was so moved by the courage Cassie and her mother had. 

Very Well Done!

NetGalley/ August 13th 2019 by St. Martin's Press

I loved Katherine Center's first novel and her newest work did not disappoint. Cassie is a lot of things: woman, firefighter, product of divorced parents, but perhaps most importantly: secret keeper.

Cassie has buried a secret since the night of her 16th birthday and when the threads of her secret begin to unravel she finds herself in a new place, with a mother she barely knows, trying to hold everything together.

Center turns Cassie into a great heroine because of her flaws, not in spite of them. If you are a fan of How to Walk Away, or strong, flawed women I definitely recommend you check out Things You Save in a Fire.