Things You Save in a Fire is the second book I’ve read by Katherine Center. I really enjoyed How to Walk Away, and I enjoyed this one just as much. Katherine Center has a way of creating characters and stories that leave you eagerly turning the pages. Things You Save in a Fire was an engaging read that explores a woman working in a male-centered workplace as a firefighter, while dealing with family issues and learning the art of forgiveness.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book and provide my honest opinion!

Another fantastic beautifully written Katherine Centers novel. Drew me right in I’m a fan of books with strong women featured add to that a complex literary.novel a book I highly recommend. #netgalley #st.martins

I absolutely adored this story. The characters are so lovable and the story is so touching. This story has a little bit of everything: friendship, betrayal, love, heartache, and forgiveness. Cassie is first appears as a tough firefighter that has made herself "one of the boys" at her Austin firefighter. But you soon learn that Cassie has built walls around her heart in response to a traumatic experience or two in her teenage years. Throughout the story, Cassie learns to forgive and love all over again. Wonderful read.

I loved this book from Katherine Center, I loved the main character, Cassie, who is a boss lady firefighter who has to move across the country to start a new job and live with her mom who she hasn't had a great relationship with for the past ten years. I loved the pace, characters, writing, and focus on forgiveness. Thank you for the ARC!

This is a delightful story. While at first glance it appears to be about the trials and tribulations of a feisty female firefighter, it goes beyond a lighthearted tale and gets into what it means to really trust someone and what it takes to open your heart to the truth, which truly does set you free, and true, deep, love.

I received this book from NetGalley as an ARC.

This is my third title by this author, and I think it was stronger than her last book, How to Walk Away. The lessons in this one may be a little heavy handed, but I can forgive it for how moving the story truly is. A story of a female firefighter, I really appreciated that the focus is just kept to a few characters and the supporting cast if firefighters is small enough to be distinct without much detail, because I think flushing out the secondary characters more would have diluted the book's impact. Five stars for this quick fun read with heart!

Things You Save in a Fire is a beautifully written story about love and forgiveness.

Firefighter Cassie is forced to leave the comfort of everything she has known in Austin to care for her estranged mother in a Boston suburb.

Throughout the book Cassie learns what it is like to love and more importantly, forgive.

This book should definitely be added to any TBR list for 2019. I couldn’t put this down.

Thank you St. Martins press and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I could NOT put this book down! I loved it beginning to end. The characters were well developed and likeable. The plot was engrossing, with real lessons throughout. After reading Katherine Center’s “How To Walk Away”, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed and this book proved that. I will be recommending this one for sure!

This is a fantastic well written novel about learning to love. It's the story of someone very strong who needs to learn to live life more fully by accepting the softer parts of life and learning to accept others.

Cassie is a fire fighter in Texas. She's tough as nails and can keep up with the male fire fighters in every way - from winning obstacle courses to playing pranks on other firefighters. She's tough and totally accepted as part of the fire team and she wants to stay that way. Her dad raised her after her mom left when she was a teenager and she feels that living her life without love is the best way to live. Until...her estranged mother calls and asks her to move to Boston for one year to help take care of her. She reluctantly agrees and gets a job at a very traditional fire station in Boston, where there has never been a woman fire fighter and she is not accepted until she is able to prove her worth to male firefighters. She is faced with blatant discrimination from everyone but a rookie who started at the fire department the same day she did. As she begins to have feelings for the rookie, she has to decide if she wants to continue her tough loveless life or open herself up to love and caring about other people.

This is a fantastic novel about love and life and family. I really enjoyed the character of Cassie and her attitude and determination are what I'll remember about her. I highly recommend this novel.

Thanks to netgally for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own,

I’m so glad I requested this book from Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for read and review. A big thank you to both of them for the opportunity.

Things you Save in a fire by Katherine Center was a wonderful book on so many levels. It dealt with themes I love: forgiveness, moving on, and how we become who and what we are, and did so in a very easy writing style that just had me pouring through the pages without stop.

Firefighter and EMT Cassie Hanwell has a bit of darkness in her background. When she runs straight into one of those pieces of darkness – and hits it square in the jaw, she’s given the choice to apologize or be fired. But she comes up with another option. Seems her estranged mom ( another dark piece of her life) is sick and requesting Cassie come and help her, so she takes a job transfer to an all male, reportedly chauvinistic firehouse in Massachusetts.

Cassie now has to navigate through her feelings about her mother, try to tow the line and not cause any trouble in the firehouse, and avoid the Rookie who could just threaten her heart.

This book was filled with so many dynamic and thought-provoking elements, a simple review doesn’t do it justice.

Five well deserved stars from me!

I found this novel to be beautiful, thought-provoking, emotionally intriguing and heart-warming, it had me laughing and tearing up from one moment to the next.

This book was very captivating. I was hooked from the first chapter. Five starts. I enjoyed the characters and the story so very much.

<b>*A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the egalley*</b>

In Katherine Centre's latest book "Things You Save in a Fire" - readers follow Cassie Hanwell as she uproots her life (that she loves) to move to a different state to look after her mother for a year. The move, her relationship with her mother, her new job and co-workers leave her wondering why she made the decision to leave Austin. Cassie's struggles to fit in at her new station - and things don't get easier when love enters the equation.

Forgiveness is a strong theme in this book - forgiving parents, forgiving people the horrible things that they have done to you, and forgiving oneself. This book even made me - a huge grudge keeper - start to think that maybe forgiving people might not be as bad as I initially thought.

Overall this was a great read, and I feel that those that liked "How to Walk Away" will also enjoy the newest book by the same author.

Absolutely loved this story. Katherine Center always gets the heroine right in her books.

This tough girl firefighter has no interest in love until it finds her. The twists involved at the fire house and those in the relationship with her mother made this book one I could not put down!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2601943543?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1

Love love loved this book!!!! Wonderful, complex characters and such a strong female protagonist. Cassie is a firefighter who leaves Texas to go take care of her mother in Boston. She joins a new firehouse, falls for someone unexpected, and begins a path of forgiveness. This book was just wonderful. I read it in half a day! Couldn’t put it down.

I absolutely loved this book. Katherine Center’s “How to Walk Away” is one of my favorites. Cassie is a female firefighter in her Texas town and has fought to be accepted. But when her estranged mom calls and tells her she’s sick, she feels the need to go take care of her. She now has to prove to her new crew that she’s worthy, even the new hot rookie, Owen. I couldn’t get through this book fast enough. The storytelling is superb. The characters are relatable and deeply developed. I will be recommending this book to everyone!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Put this on your TBR list for Aug 2019. I’m loving this author. She gets better and better. Loved the characters! Loved the story! Did not want to put this down or want it to end. I loved her last book. This was even better.

Cassie Hanwell is a firefighter and with the words "You're not a girl, you're a firefighter" the book begins. She is the only female firefighter in the Austin, Texas fire house, one of the best. But when her estranged mother calls her for help, and an incident at an awards ceremony honoring her goes in the wrong direction, life as she knows is about to change. Her next challenge is moving in with her mother, leaving Texas and going to New England

Still hurt when her mother walked out on Cassie and her father, the reunion was a difficult one. There were further complications, as Cassie had a protective shield around her heart, and for her relationships were difficult. Living as an independent woman, wanting nothing to do with romance, she has also lived a life as a solo female, giving her all to being a firefighter, a person of strength and endurance. But Cassie was hurt on many levels, painfully so. Who could she trust, would she trust anyone, ever? She lived her life in the only way she could, protecting herself from any further pain, pushing herself to be the best.

After moving to be with her mother, she is hired at the firehouse in Lillian, where she was the "newbie" along with a "rookie" who, as it seemed were both out of their element. In the firehouse, where they never had a female firefighter before, she had much to contend with and quite a bit to prove. As for the "rookie," Owen, she had to show him the ropes. However, that was just the beginning.

So what are the things you save in a fire? Material things, some of which can't be replaced? Life is what you save, the memories that are always with you. The act of forgiveness, the act of love, all those things that bind you as a human being.

I read this book in one sitting, and it wasn't what I thought it would be, it was so much better. The writing was so on-point, it was both heartwarming, a bit humorous and at times quite serious. Yet through it all, it gave me pause to think about human frailties, the good, the bad and even the ugly. Highly recommended. My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cassie Hanwell is a firefighter, she is the best at it, and it’s her entire life. At a banquet to win an award, She is devastated to see the man who is presenting the plaque, and when he touches her ass , she publicly and rightfully clobbers him. Her career is uncertain, and her estranged mother, who walked out on her and her father ten years ago is begging Cassie to move to MA to help her with health issues. So Cassie moves to her mom’s house determined not to forgive her, and to show the sexist firemen they should not underestimate her.
But not everything goes according to her plan and Cassie learns how to let people into her life and open her heart to all its possibilities.

I loved everything about this book! I found Katherine Center last
July 2018 with Happiness for Beginners, another excellent book.
Since then I have read 5 of her books and intend to read the rest.
" Things you save in a fire," is good. Cassie has really been
hurt. The kind of hurt that can shut you down. All traces of feelings
and emotions, gone. A decade she has closed off a family member,
the one family member that meant the most. Now that member needs
her desperately. It's beautiful what she goes through to make her way
back home. This is a keeper! I will have it on my shelf next year~