Let me start by saying that I chose this book based solely
on the title. I will do this when I find a title to be evocative or provocative
and I will read it without even reading the publisher’s synopsis. And
that may have been a great thing because had I read “Because she doesn't fall in love. And because of the advice
her old captain gave her: don't date firefighters. Cassie can feel her resolve slipping...” I likely wouldn’t have chosen the book and
that would have been a huge mistake on my part.
After her long-estranged mother asks her for help, an
incident at an award ceremony and a near-firing, 26 year old Austin
firefighter, Cassie Hanwell, must leave
her firehouse, her job and her life in order to relocate in a Boston suburb to
take care of her ailing estranged, mother.
This means not only having to put
aside her feelings of rejection and resentment towards her mother but also
starting her life and career again, in a new firehouse, with a new group of
firefighters that don’t want women on the force.
Cassie is a tough, competent paramedic and
firefighter who also happens to be a women.
She works in a male dominated profession, she lets her expertise speak
for itself, she is a problem solver and never a whiner. But she is more than that, she is an
abandoned child, a cynic, a loner, and a person that wants to be loved but is afraid
to be vulnerable.
She learns that her mother misrepresented her
health concerns and that though she may have won over the majority of her new
co-workers, there is at least one that wants her gone.
And then there is a fire that tears through
Cassie’s new life.
I began this book thinking about the things one would save
in a fire, mementos, loved ones, important papers, etc. but as the story went on, I realized that the
things Cassie saves in that fire were much more intangible and important.
The author does a great job giving the majority
of the characters personalities, most particularly, “the rookie”. I have to admit that his character made me
smile on more than one occasion. Although there were a few times when Cassie needed to
get things off her chest or come clean that I found a little hard to swallow in
their neat packages, I feel that overall this is a great book.
Thank you to the Publisher
and to Edelweiss for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.
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