Play Book Tag discussion

Things You Save In a Fire – Katherine Center
2.5**

From the publisher: Cassie Hanwell is a tough-as-nails firefighter who plays by the rules better than any man. 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.

My reactions
Going into this I knew I was getting a “chick-lit” romance, with a flawed heroine hiding from her feelings due to an earlier trauma. Cassie is a (mostly) strong woman, working in a “man’s” job – even excelling at it. The opening scene pretty clearly outlines the trauma she’s buried but still carries with her (duh!). It also gives her little choice but to give in to her long-estranged mother’s request that Cassie come stay with her in a small Massachusetts town.

I liked the way Cassie approached dealing with her mother – dutiful but not at all warm. It seemed genuine given their background. I also liked the way her mother didn’t demand a full-blown mother-daughter reunion and loving relationship, but accepted what Cassie was willing to give when she was willing to give it.

I liked how Cassie prepared to go into this new firehouse, determined to perform (or outperform) this new crew and prove her worth as a dedicated firefighter / EMT. The new firehouse crew clearly doesn’t want her, and all her efforts to show them she can more than handle the job only serve to separate her further from the team. At least she’s not the only “newbie” subject to hazing. On her first day on the job she’s joined by a rookie straight out of the academy. And despite all her training, all the advice given to her by her female lieutenant back in Texas, all the vows she’s made to herself to avoid romance at all costs, she feels a spark that she cannot ignore.

And that’s where Center lost me. It was a fast read and I was pulled into the story quickly. But I thought the past trauma was handled poorly, and Cassie’s weak-at-the-knees, head-over-heels, hit-by-a-truck reaction just doesn’t ring true to me. Despite its flaws, Center’s novel kept me turning pages, but it’s not a book I’d save in a fire.


My full review HERE