Things You Save in a Fire: A Novel

This book is about a female firefighter, Cassie, who moves in to a new town to help her mother after an accident. She is trying to adjust to a new fire station where being a female firefighter is a unknown concept. She also has a very complicate relationship with her mother, which she can't avoid while leaving in the same house. On top of it all, she is struggling to remember why getting involved with a fellow firefighter is a bad idea, Owen is making it difficult to remember why is that.I loved this book. It has the right amount of humor, angst and romance.

This is a wonderful piece of contemporary fiction from Katherine Center, full of warmth, featuring the strong, independent, and extremely capable Cassie Hanwell. A firefighter extraordinaire, so brave and up for an award for valour at which all her crew from the modern and progressive Austin FD are present, both to support and prank her at the event. However, Cassie's night is knocked for six when the mayor is unable to present the award and in his place is a man from her nightmare past, council man Heath Thompson, all of which leads to events that are to spoil her evening and place her in a difficult position at work. Cassie's mom, Lily, has got in touch to ask her to come help her for up to a year due to her eye problems. Cassie has never forgiven her mom ever since she left her father for another man on her 16th birthday, a day that has left indelible traumatic marks in her memories as she is to suffer further trauma and horror.Cassie refuses to even consider the requisite apology required after award night, despite the fact it means missing out on a huge promotion and leaving her present job in Austin. This propels her apprehensive move to Boston, Massachusetts, to live with Lily, having every intention to help but not get emotionally close to her. She takes up a position as the first woman firefighter at the dilapidated and poorly equipped Lillian Fire Department. Starting on the same day is rookie, Owen Callaghan, Cassie has to prove herself again and again, face hazing and constant pranking, and tasked with training up the rookie. Cassie has never had any problems in closing herself off from any emotional entanglements since she was 16, but for the first time she feels her barriers fall away as she falls for the rookie, but a relationship is out of the question, she had been warned by her Captain at Austin. Cassie finds she did not know the circumstances her mother found herself on her 16th birthday. She walks into unfamiliar territory as she starts to succumb to hugs, tentatively move into the necessary but difficult process of implementing forgiveness into her life and contemplate a real relationship for the first time in her life.Katherine Center writes a beautiful and emotionally engaging novel with her feisty but traumatised Cassie. Cassie has to face the doubts of her male colleagues who need some persuading that a woman can be a competent firefighter, and her life is littered with obstacles and challenges, both personal and professional, not to mention having to deal with a malicious stalker. In a narrative full of warmth and humour, we see Cassie address her emotional traumas, have to cope with her mom's health issues, and begin to understand the power and joy of love. This is a lovely and entertaining novel which I so enjoyed reading. Many thanks to St Martin’s Press for an ARC.

NARRATOR: Thérèse PlummerThis is the second book I've read/listened to by Katherine Center, and she is now definitely on my favourite authors list, I just love her characters and style of writing.I'd recently read 'How to Walk Away' and this book was about Cassie, who was one of the paramedics who helped during a small plane crash in that book (there was also a small teaser paragraph at the end of 'How to Walk Away' for this book which made me want to read it).Cassie is a firefighter/paramedic who loves her job and is very good at it, so much so that she won an award that was presented to her during an awards ceremony one night. But the person giving the award to her turned out to be a nasty person from her past, and things go slightly awry, leaving Cassie no choice but to relocate to another part of the country. Her estranged mother had been asking for help anyway after a health issue, which Cassie had been resisting, so she ended up moving in with her mother and changing to a very old-fashioned firehouse (all men/they don't like or agree with women firefighters/basic building/equipment etc.).Cassie had lots of issues/resentments to resolve from her childhood, when her mother had walked out on her father and left Cassie, but as Cassie slowly settles into her job and new life they work their issues out more. She initially had a very tough exterior with no softness or letting people in, but as the book progressed she softens slightly, especially towards the 'rookie' firefighter in her crew (he was so lovely!).So the book up to this point (about halfway) was very good and I was really enjoying it, but then things started taking a bit of a turn with someone targeting Cassie, buy why? Of course it becomes clear eventually, but the slight suspense was great, especially towards the end. I just loved Cassie's personality, she was such a strong character, always feeling the need to prove herself in a male-orientated profession, but by doing it in a really great way by just continuing to do the best she can in her job with no moaning about it, and the crew really respected her for it.Another thing I really love is that there's an epilogue at the end that ties up all loose ends in a really satisfying way. Both books I've read so far have had this. Some books you read leave you wondering what happened to certain characters or situations, but not this one. I'm hoping that the rest of Katherine Center's books continue to be just as fabulous, because at the minute she's an auto-buy for me.