I really enjoyed How to Walk Away by Katherine Center and her Things You Save in a Fire was just as wondeful. Cassie is the youngest person, and the first woman, to receive a prestigious award with her Austin Fire Department. She has the second highest score of any firefighter on an important test necessary for promotion and advancement in the department. She is well-respected in her fire house and her crew is her family. She loves her job. When she is forced to move away and leave it all behind to join a new department, it is worse than starting from square one. Her new department is filled with men who think women have absolutely no place in a fire house. Add to that stress her ailing, estranged mother and the tug on her heart of unexpected romance and Cassie may not make it out alive.
I love Center's writing. The dialogue is quick and witty, she knows exactly how to build tension and when to finally let it break, and her female characters are strong without being hard, soft without being wimpy, sarcastic without being caustic. Center's stories are marinated in humor and heart. Cassie isn't the only great character in this book. We meet her mother, who has a complicated past but also a great perspective on life; her mother's darling neighbor; her Super Woman fire chief in Texas and her begrudging fire chief in Massachusetts. We also meet some funny firefighters and one or two that are kind of mean. I really liked this book and I can't wait to read Center's other books.
No comments:
Post a Comment