Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Romance
Source: Jessica @ St. Martin’s Press

Goodreads:  From the New York Times bestselling author of How to Walk Away comes a stunning new novel about family, hope, and learning to love against all odds.

Cassie Hanwell was born for emergencies. As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, she’s seen her fair share of them, and she’s excellent at dealing with other people’s tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to uproot her life and move to Boston, it’s an emergency of a kind Cassie never anticipated.

The tough, old-school Boston firehouse is as different from Cassie’s old job as it could possibly be. Hazing, a lack of funding, and poor facilities mean that the firemen aren’t exactly thrilled to have a “lady” on the crew, even one as competent and smart as Cassie. Except for the handsome rookie, who doesn’t seem to mind having Cassie around. But she can’t think about that. Because she doesn’t fall in love. And because of the advice her old captain gave her: don’t date firefighters. Cassie can feel her resolve slipping…but will she jeopardize her place in a career where she’s worked so hard to be taken seriously?

Katherine Center’s Things You Save in a Fire is a heartfelt, affecting novel about life, love, and the true meaning of courage.

Ope’s Opinion:  This is my first Katherine Center book, now I will be looking for more from her.  When I started reading, I was pulled into the story right away.  The more I read the more I wanted to read.  It was like a snowball going downhill – the story got more intense and I wanted to read faster and faster!

Katherine Center is  a master at character development.  She made each character ( even minor ones ) have such depth and multiple sides to them.  The romance of this book is perfect for me – you can feel them fall in love, but the physical part of their relationship is mostly kept behind the doors ( where is should be! ).  The story is about sooo much more then the romance – it’s about life, forgiveness, being female, accepting yourself and more.

The story had some turns, right up to the end.  Then epilogue tied everything into a nice little bow ( maybe just a little too perfect? ) – but wonderful none the less.