Review: Things You Save in a Fire (by Katherine Center)

My Rating: 4 stars

After reading a slew of suspense thrillers the past few months, Katherine Center’s sweet romance Things You Save in a Fire was a welcome respite from all the “heavy stuff” that has defined my reading world recently.  Romance usually isn’t a preferred genre of mine, but I needed something light-hearted and uplifting and after reading the summary for Center’s latest work, I was hopeful that this would fit the bill of what I was looking for.  Barely a few pages in, I already knew I had made the right choice — not only did this book fit the bill, it actually ended up being a book that I enjoyed way more then I expected.  

From the very first page, where we are introduced to Cassie Hanwell, a young female firefighter getting ready to accept an award for her valor and service at a banquet in her honor, I immediately took a liking to her character.  As the story progressed and I got to know Cassie on a deeper level —  her vulnerabilities when it came to love due to a bad experience in her past, her struggles with forgiveness toward a mother who abandoned her many years ago, her devotion and dedication to a job that she not only adored but also excelled at, her drive to prove herself and overcome the prejudices of colleagues in a line of work that traditionally has been dominated by men — I grew to love her character and wanted to root for her every step of the way.   I love stories with strong female characters that are realistically drawn (meaning they have flaws and vulnerabilities that make them relatable to ordinary folks like us) and this book had plenty of them — Cassie’s mother Diana and her neighbor Josie were two other characters I adored and found myself rooting for.

Story-wise, this was one of those books where, as a reader, I already knew going into it that the plot would be predictable and that there would be a guaranteed "happily-ever-after" ending for the main character, but I was perfectly fine with this because the lovely process of getting there was what defined the experience for me.  The story had a wonderful balance of the humorous and the sentimental to it that made me laugh out loud one minute but get teary-eyed the next minute — a balance that occurred naturally to the point that it appeared effortless.  One of the things I always hope to experience when I read fiction is emotional resonance, which this book absolutely delivered.

This is actually the second book I’ve read by Katherine Center, as I read her previous novel How To Walk Away last year, but wasn’t tremendously keen on it.  With that book, one of the main issues I had was the execution of the story — it felt a bit too cliched and contrived for me, with some parts bordering on melodramatic, which made it difficult for me to connect with the characters as well as the overall story itself.  With Things You Save in a Fire however, the vibe was very different — it was sweet, sentimental, and yes, a little sappy at times, but it was also equal parts fun and uplifting.  I guess the biggest difference was that this one felt so much more authentic and heartfelt, which made an emotional connection easier to establish.

For a cynical reader like me who usually won’t gravitate toward a sentimental romance, this book definitely won me over!  Romance fans definitely shouldn’t miss this one but I think non-romance readers would enjoy this as well.  

Received paperback ARC direct from publisher (St. Martin’s Press) as part of the “Booked Up All Night” early reader campaign.

#tysiaf  #thingsyousavebook