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.

Delightful and poignant, everything I have come to expect from a Katherine Center novel. In THINGS YOU SAVE In A FIRE, Cassie is an impressive, award-winning firefighter - strong, confident, and completely shut down emotionally. Cassie hasn't been able to overcome the bitterness she feels over her mother leaving on her sixteenth birthday. So when her mother calls and asks for her help, Cassie doesn't want to oblige her, especially because her mother lives halfway across the country. But when Cassie's life in her hometown goes to hell, moving in with her mother suddenly seems more attractive. So Cassie starts her firefighting career over amid a group of men who cannot, or will not accept her as an equal while fending off her mother's efforts to reconcile with her. When outside circumstances force Cassie to confront her past, she is frightened and vulnerable and forced to grow. THING YOU SAVE IN A FIRE reminds up that the past is never dead; it isn't even past. I also recommend Center's earlier works HOW TO WALK AWAY and THE BRIGHT SIDE OF DISASTER.

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~

A feel-good read about falling in love and learning how to forgive.

*Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Another great book by Katherine Center, I loved it. A tough as nails female firefighter who was abandoned by her mother on her birthday and raised by her father. She has always had an invisible shield around her so as not to get too personal and close to anyone. After many years she hears from her mother who asks for her help. She moves in with her mother and learns many life lessons from her. This book is so much more than what I’ve said here but I don’t want to give anything way. Heartbreaking and on to heartwarming.

Center has mastered the art of writing about emotions without drowning in them and keeping the story moving at a snapping speed so that you can't put it down. She kept me up into the wee hours of the morning with this one.

While this book matches a lot of the features of a romance book, this is no ordinary romance, in that it has a lot more depth to it than just the love story. Center battles life's joys and sadness through her MCs with aplomb, and you could never accuse her of trivializing anything people go through with cliches or a Pollyanna perspective. She handles each thing with hope and respect, and gives us all hope that we can make our way through anything by the end..

How to Walk Away, I think, has a slight edge over this one, but this was still a great read.

I really love books about strong women and this is one of the good ones! I LOVED the title, premise, and cover which is why I entered, and overall it lived up to my standards!! I think it ill be a big hit soon :)

This poignant, beautiful, thought-provoking, emotionally- intelligent and timely novel had me laughing and tearing up in equal measures. Indomitable Cassie and goodhearted Owen can’t help but capture your heart and your imagination as surely as they did mine. Whenever I pick up a book by Katherine Center, I know I will invariably find a story full of wit, laugh-out -loud humor and personal insight, written in a melodious, flowing style that pulls me so far in that I forget my surroundings. In Things You Save in a Fire, Cassie is a dedicated firefighter who has turned her back on love after a traumatic experience in her youth. She is all about “control” and routine. When her past comes back to haunt her, Cassie is forced to learn that only by relinquishing her anger, and finding some redeeming aspect from her suffering, can she release herself from the emotional prison she has trapped herself in. My sincerest thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an uncorrected digital galley of this truly inspiring, timely novel, by such a talented and inspiring author. I would have given it six stars out of five - it was such an enjoyable, heartwarming read!

WOW! I've found a new author to read in Katherine Center. Her writing is funny and breathtakingly honest. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this and finding a new author to follow.

I was given an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

Not sure how to feel about this one. It was a very light and fluffy chick lit book, with a very superficially wraught trauma subplot that seemed very out of place and resolved too quickly, as if the book was trying to fake some gravitas. Which is a shame, because the light and fluffy love story would’ve been enough if that’s what you had been looking for

Thanks to St. Martins Press and Netgalley, I was able to read an ARC for review. There is a trigger warning for this book, but as a sexual assault survivor I was able to get through it. It helped because Cassie was so strong and was a survivor, not a victim and the scene at the beginning was so satisfying. As a fan of firefighter romances I enjoyed how Katherine Center protrayed the position of female firefighters and all the obstacles that she faces. The romance was enjoyable and their journey was satisfying. HIGHLY RECOMMEND this and makes want to read her previous book How To Walk Away right now.