Real Life of an MSW

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center (2019, fiction, 368 pages). I wouldn’t be surprised if this were turned into a Hallmark movie. The story is heartwarming, emotional, satisfying, engaging, and a page turner. Readers will appreciate the useful information on firefighters and the genuine issues they face. At times some of the information does feel like Center just transcribed the notes from her partner, who was once a medic and is still a volunteer firefighter. There’s a lot of tension and fault-lines established early in the story. The protagonist is Cassie,a female Texas firefighter who lands in hot-water when she gives the asshole from her past the ass kicking he deserves. Her career is somewhat saved when she’s offered a move to Boston to let the controversy blow over, that coincides with her estranged mother begging her to come stay and help her out post eye-surgery. Cassie hasn’t been close to her mother since her 16th birthday. She is also relocating to an old-school (and rundown) Boston firehouse full of old-guard firefighters who don’t like the idea of a woman on their turf. “I basically need to be an asexual, androgynous, human robot that’s dead to all physical and emotional sensation” (45). The men in her new crew are not as forward-thinking as the station crew she left behind in Austin. This is where she finds herself. Have you read this book? What were your thoughts, and would you recommend any of Center’s other books?