Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - Things You Save in a Fire

Katherine Center’s books are just right to read when you want to be absorbed in a story, and you aren’t looking for anything super complex or challenging from a craft perspective. She writes heartfelt, funny, emotional and yet reassuring stories.

I enjoyed this one a little less than her newest, What You Wish For, but it had many of the same pleasing qualities. The blend of humour and heartbreak, the central character with a clear growth arc, a cast of entertaining secondary characters, themes that are obvious (maybe a little too obvious at times), and sweet romance.

I’ll be back for more!

Content Warnings

theespressoedition's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“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 chose to read this book on a whim since it was available on my library's audiobook app. I wasn't expecting to fly through it quite so quickly. The whole thing felt a bit unexpected - not because it wasn't predictable (which it certainly was) but because of the themes and how they were approached.

Cassie chooses to give up a promotion to lieutenant at her fire station in Texas because she will not apologize for publicly defending herself against sexual assault. Immediately, I appreciated her boldness and decision to stand for what she knew was right. Shortly after, she transfers to another fire station in order to live with her "estranged" mom (who she calls by her first name: Diana) outside of Boston. This enables her to help her mom, who is blind in one eye.

Before leaving the job she knows and loves, her captain basically gives her a pep talk, telling her that the new job will be incredibly sexist and old-fashioned in more ways than one. Rather than trying to change that, she basically prods Cassie to hold back on all fronts and be as little like a woman as possible. This definitely hit me the wrong way. If Cassie was agreeing to termination in order to avoid apologizing for self-defense, it's hard for me to imagine her being alright with accepting this kind of position.

When she arrives, she's immediately lumped in with "The Rookie," and we see immediately that this will be our love interest. From there on out, things are really predictable: they're always stuck together, hazed at the same time, forced to be in uncomfortable situations, and the romance develops super quickly. Despite Cassie's severe intolerance of love and romance, she's pretty into this guy (emotionally and physically).

There's a lot that happens in this book, considering how short it is. Betrayal, bullying, a whirlwind romance, and a picture-perfect ending. It was a nice read but didn't feel like there was as much substance as I wanted, considering some of the more challenging topics it was dealing with. I really hoped that we would see some ground-breaking moments. Instead, it felt a bit lackluster and even slightly rushed. Good if you're just looking for a filler read and not something that will change your life.

Content Warnings

gingerkathrynreads's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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