Things You Save in a Fire

This is my eighth Katherine Center book and I think I finally know why I enjoy her stories so much. Like her characters, her books aren't glamorous or movie-star-pretty or brilliant. No, her books are flawed, with flawed people. But—and this is important—her books and her characters have heart. Her stories tell about people who have been hurt by life, but who are actively working to heal and help others heal. We see people who use love and humor to set things right, and the end result is a world that is a little bit better. We come away from her books seeing how we can make our own lives and the lives of others happier.

Things You Save in a Fire is the story of Cassie, a woman breaking into what is still in many ways a man's domain. She's had terrible experiences in life—her mother left her on her sixteenth birthday and a man took advantage of her and deeply hurt her the same day. To save herself, she has completely walled herself off. And then her mother asks her to come live with her and help her. And she finds a man she wants to let in. What to do? It's clear that things need to change.