Cassie Hanwell has had her world turned upside down.  This romance was absolutely delightful.  I loved the way the author wove together the hardship with the triumph of the human spirit.  I will definitely be sharing this book with my high school students.

Thank you St Martins Press and Netgalley  for this ARC.  

I really really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read Katherine Center’s other books.

Cassie is a firefighter / EMT who for various reasons lands in a new station where  acceptance of a female fire fighter in the team is excruciatingly low.    Thankfully The Rookie  also Lands at the station on the same day , so Cassie at least has someone to keep her company throughout the continual newbie pranks played on them.

I loved the character development, the plot and the themes weaved through this great book.  

Cassie’s tough exterior, her love/hate relationship with her mum, her fabulous work ethic and her vulnerability is all laid out as Katherine Center provides a wonderful book that will suck you in with her exploration of love, kindness, harassment, doing the right thing as opposed to the easy thing, impermanence,  mateship and lots of humour thrown in.

Thank  you for a great book and introducing me to this wonderful author,
Highly recommended.

Great story! A unique romance that doesn't fall to the "easy" tropes that are out there. I highly recommend this to other readers.

Wow, Katherine Center has created an incredibly strong female protagonist. Cassie Hanwell is a first responder, abandoned by her mother on her sixteenth birthday which was also the day she experienced something so horrific that she has kept it submerged for ten years. On what is to be a great day, full of applause and accolades, she comes face to face with her worst nightmare and does what any self respecting, wronged female would do. She loses it and in a moment her life changes.

Center captures the essence of this woman who has to prove herself over and over again, not just to her male colleagues, but to herself. She has to figure out a way to exist in a job that she loves while her fellow firefighters continue to doubt her abilities. This part of the story is  relatable on so many levels. She has to decide whether breaking every rule and protocol she has been taught will bring her happiness or end her career.

Much of this book deals with the issue of choice. The choice to pick yourself up over and over again and keep going despite the battering you have just taken. The choice to “refuse to let the world’s monsters ruin everything”. The choice to find your inner strength through your greatest weakness. Good on you Catherine Center, good on you.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy.

I was trying to not read this until August so I could review it closer to its publication date but I failed. I read "How to walk away" only a few months ago and I didn't think I could love another book more, I was wrong. "How to walk away" was really good but "Things you save in a fire" blew it away. I was honestly smiling the whole time while reading, but, if I wasn't smiling I was probably crying. It's one of those books that you honestly can't put down. The Rookie and Cassie were amazing characters and I instantly fell in love with them. I can't say enough good things about this. I highly recommend everyone to read it. It was honestly just one of those feel good reads.

Thank you @stmartinspress for accepting my request on @netgalley to read and review "Things you save in a fire" by katherine Center, PUBLICATION DATE: August 13, 2019

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 is 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 Martins for an ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eread ARC.
There's details on the author's website about how to order a signed copy of which I plan on doing. 

Realistic, Competitive, Romantic, Funny

The story is accurate with respect to the current day challenges with woman working in a man's world. The topic was handled perfectly, and the story easy to read, kept my attention while feeling this really happened. 

As a women there were a few parts I wanted to punch a pillow but the main character helped me overcome that with her strength. I loved Cassie Handwell, every decision she made I could relate to, she deals with discrimination, harassment, family issues, and job stress with poise and at times a sense of humor. 

My review with be on Amazon and Barnes and Noble on the days its published.

Living in a first responder household, I definitely enjoyed this title. I thought the characters were engaging and interesting and the romance aspect had the right amount of emotion and humor. Although I felt like the ending may have been a tad too "easy," it was still a fun read, perfect for summer.

This was a decent book for the right reader. But just not for me. It didn't really stand out, and while I didn't dislike the MC, she was kinda boring which made it hard to care about her story and her love life. The story was predictable and felt bland. I am sure plenty of people will like this story, but for me it wasn't unique or 'spunky' enough?

Life has been tough for Cassie. To cope, she has built walls that lets no one in, especially men, and she thrives on routine and order with no drama. Oh, and she’s a firefighter who can hold her own physically and mentally in a male-dominated profession.

When her ailing, estranged mother asks her to come live with her in Massachusetts for a year, Cassie moves from her modern, progressive fire department in Austin, to a job at a small, ill-equipped firehouse where she’s up against some old-fashioned ideas about women in the profession. Before she moves, her old boss gives her “The Rules” on how to survive in her new job. 

“So to succeed in my new job, I basically need to be an asexual, androgynous, human robot that’s dead to all physical and emotional sensation”

And then life throws her for a loop when she meets The Rookie, a firefighter who starts the job on the same day. The Rookie has Cassie re-thinking The Rules. But the Rookie isn’t the only person who is leading Cassie to question her life choices. She must navigate the complicated mother-daughter relationship and come to terms with a trauma in her past.

Marialyce and I had fun reading this one! There’s so much to love about this well-written book. It’s light and fun but with substance and depth. The protagonist is a strong, independent, capable woman but not without flaws, which makes her relatable. The theme of forgiveness, of yourself and others, is strong and well-done with many thoughtful, quotable passages. The side characters were delightful.

Is it a bit sappy and predictable? Yes, but this kind of book demands it and I went from laughing to tears more than once. These are characters to root for and I closed the last page with a smile on my face. 

I’ve loved previous books by Katherine Center and she is now a go-to author and a must read. Publication date is August 13, 2019. Do yourself a favor and read it! I rate according to genre, and this gets 5 enthusiastic stars.

*many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for a copy of this book for review

Life is sometimes so very hard. We find we bump up against adversity, and though we try to tough it through the bad times, we often find ourselves injured in ways not visible to others, yet surely visible to ourselves.

“That’s the thing I always love best about the human race: How we pick ourselves back up over and over and just keep on going.”

True to this quote, Cassie has had to pick herself up and move on. She has had much in her young life that has made her hard on the outside, a tough as nails exterior which hides the hurt that she feels deep within her heart.

Cassie was left by her mother on of all things her sixteenth birthday. She doesn’t understand and as she matures the rift with her mother becomes further entrenched. That is until her mother asks her to come and be with her for a year. Cassie, as a result of some well deserved punches, kicks, and assorted other blows to a former “high school “friend” who is now a high profile councilman, is about to lose the job she loves, that of being a firefighter. But as fate often does, her mother’s plea coupled with the ability to work in another fire department allows Cassie to still be exactly what she loves and she reluctantly moves in with her mother.

“Ten years I’d simmered in my own self-righteousness, holding my grudge against her as if the only way to win was to stay mad the longest.”

That is the catalyst that changes Cassie’s life bringing her into her mother’s world, the world of the new firehouse and the men who work there and most importantly meeting the Rookie, a young man starting out in the job.

Thanks to wonderful writing that was touching and poignant, a great story line that didn’t get lost in the shuffle, and characters that were portrayed with all their quirks and foibles, this story turned out to be beautiful. It taught the reader along the way that love and forgiveness is really the most important aspects of a human life.

“Choosing to love—despite all the ways that people let you down, and disappear, and break your heart. Knowing everything we know about how hard life is and choosing to love, anyway.. That’s not weakness, that’s courage.”

I definitely recommend this book to everyone, especially those like Jan and I who so love a wonderful women’s fiction story that will hit you in all the right places. Look for it on August 13th, 2019, read it and enjoy!

Thanks you to Katherine Center, St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy of this lovely book.

Both Jan and I were thrilled when we were able to secure an advanced copy of Katherine Center’s book, Things You Save in a Fire. We found much to love about this story, as its narrative, its characters, and writing were truly something special.

I loved Katherine Center's How To Walk Away and had high expectations for this new book...it didn't disappoint! 

How refreshing that Cassie is a dynamic main character who allows the reader to delve into a modern view of the firefighting world. I love that she's not a damsel in distress. Bravo to Center for giving us a well developed story with strength and passion and all the things you could possibly want in contemporary literature. 

A breath of fresh air for sure!

This is my first book by this author.  I absolutely love her writing.
The book is a fast read so it makes for a perfect summer book.
I adored Cassie.. She is tough, courageous and someone I would love to have in my life.
This book is inspirational with a touch of  romance.

I absolutely loved, loved, loved this book. It had a strong female character that I loved. I don't have the right words to express how much I loved this story and I know I stayed up way too late to finish. I could not put it down.

I loved this book so much that I started and finished it in one day! This was a definite 5 star book for me. I really enjoyed the main character, Cassie. She's tough and gives her all in a male-dominated profession. She relocates from Texas to Massachusetts to help her ill mother (from whom she's basically been estranged from). The story focuses on Cassie's relationship with her new coworkers at the firehouse that has NEVER had a woman firefighter (until Cassie) as well as on her strained relationship with her mother. Cassie has a never-give-up attitude when it comes to her work, but that mentality does not carry over to her personal life (she actively avoids even having a personal life). I really enjoyed how the plot unfolds and thought the author did a fantastic job with this book!

Thank you to St.Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.

I love fire based shows (Chicago Fire, Station 19) and my dad has been a volunteer fire fighter for over 30 years, so you can say I am a fan of firefighters and their lives. I was really excited to read this book. I really liked how strong of a character Cassie was, and I enjoyed watching her grow throughout the book. I work in an industry that is male dominated, having been the only female in the office more than once, and know how boys club works. Though, not quite to the extent that I am sure other industries are. After reading this and How to Walk Away, this author has quickly risen to my must read list.

Ok guys, Things You Save In a Fire was an un-put-down-able delight! I fell in love with Cassie from the very start. She is a female firefighter- badass, right? My feminist side rejoiced! Cassie is estranged from her mother who walked out on her on her birthday. There is bad blood there so when her mom reaches out to see if she will move to Boston to live with her for 1 year- she immediately says no. She ends up getting herself in a world of trouble and is forced to leave her department. She decides to take her mom up on the offer when her captain finds her a job at a nearby department- one full of males that don’t think a woman should be part of the department. The story that follows is hilarious and heartwarming. I rooted for Cassie the whole way through. She is a kick ass chick who you want to hug from page 1! I definitely recommend this one and can’t wait to pick up more by Katherine Center!! Thank yout so much to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the ARC!

I liked Katherine Center's 2nd book Things You Save in a Fire more than I did her 1st How to Walk Away ! 
I enjoyed Cassie's story and her triumph in overcoming a tumultuous past. It was interesting learning details about working in a Fire Department, however, I'm hoping the sexism scenarios were exaggerated scenes.

I absolutely adored Things You Save in a Fire!  I read and loved Things You Save in a Fire by @katherinecenter! I really liked How to Walk Away last year - I believe I gave it 4⭐️ - so I was excited to learn about her upcoming release. I went in not having seen many reviews nor knowing what to expect, and this one blew me away! Yes, it’s a romance. Yea, you can expect certain romance elements/tropes, but this one just felt so much deeper than many I’ve read recently. First of all, the main character, Cassie, is a badass female firefighter. And she’s seems like a real person and not a caricature of a female firefighter. She is strong and still feminine and I loved her pretty much immediately. Throughout the novel she deals with some pretty real issues (abandonment and forgiveness to name a few). Yes, there is romance, but it’s somehow sweet and a little hot at the same time. And there’s lots of other drama so if romance isn’t your thing, then I think you’ll still find something to love here. Best romance I’ve read in quite a while! Put this on your radar. Preorder it. Cross your fingers it’s a @bookofthemonth pick. Then come discuss with me once you’re finished! I’ll still be gushing then! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book for me!
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There are definitely some trigger warnings here - sexual assault, all sorts of medical things (Cassie’s an EMT), and somewhat obvious fire related things. DM me if you want more specifics before deciding on this one!

Read this book and was amazed by this author, highly recommends this book to anyone who would enjoy this super easy novel to read!