Things You Save In A Fire by Katherine Center

Things You Save In A Fire

By Katherine Center

Publication Date: August 13, 2019

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Things You Save In A Fire is a spin-off of author,  Katherine Center’s book, How to Walk Away which sadly I have not read yet. This is the first of the author’s books I’ve read. However, it doesn’t matter if you read How to Walk Away because Things You Save In A Fire could be read as a stand-alone.  

How often do people dream of love but become bitter when the dating to get there doesn’t go beyond hundreds of duds or handsy men ruin the experience?  This is how Cassie Hanwell’s dating life has been over the last decade, so she stops looking for love and does what she is made for- Saving people as an EMT and Firefighter. She is made to go into burning buildings, her common sense, the non-emotional mind makes her perfect for the job. However, life gets complicated and takes a turn that Cassie doesn’t see coming.

Author, Katherine Center is a phenom as a writer. Her story is breezy, and yet, shows the strength of a protagonist who has life’s experiences come back to haunt her and still has a glimmer of hope that life can get better. The roles of the other characters in Things You Save In A Fire are rich fabrics of people you might know in your own lives. Ones you hate, ones you want to dislike and then come to love and then just those who are instantaneous kindred spirits. The Rookie especially will have you smiling throughout the whole book. Infectious, and sexy bundled into a Firefighter Calendar’s middle fold, he, of all the characters, help make this book not as emotionally dark as it could be. That my friends to me is a great writer, knowing when to lighten up and when to go serious without killing the desire to read her book or the message she wants you to get from the book. I cried, laughed, smiled and got pissed at a certain council member and understood the leeriness that people of a small town can have about newcomers that might excel at the same career you have yourself. The Feels were abound in this book. I’m just giving you a heads up…

Now, I have to give some reality to my readers: if you are not into Chic Lit, this might not be for you. And yet, as I type that, I don’t usually read Chic Lit because most of the time the conflict and solution are so nicely bundled with a red ribbon that it makes me want to gag. This book might be viewed as such, however, I thoroughly enjoyed it which utterly surprised me. I attribute this to Ms. Center and her skill of weaving a story.

I give this book 4 stars as I would read it again (starting with How to Walk Away) the next time. 

Thanks to St. Martin’s press for the chance to read this book in lieu of my honest review.