Things You Save in a Fire

Cassie Hanwell is a firefighter in Texas, one of the few women in her firehouse, and she is very good at handling other people's worst days. Her own life is another matter. Her mother, long estranged and now ill, asks her to leave everything behind and move to Boston.

The Boston firehouse is a hard place to land. It is old-school, short on money and run down, and the hazing is part of the culture. The men resent having a woman on the crew, however capable she proves to be. One rookie does not seem to mind her presence, and he draws her attention more than she wants to admit.

Cassie has rules about this. She tells herself love is a girly distraction that has no place in her life, and her old captain once told her never to date firefighters. As her resolve starts to slip, she has to weigh the attraction against the career she loves and the version of herself she has worked hard to become.

A fraught family reunion and a slowly warming attraction run side by side in this workplace romance, with a wry heroine who keeps her guard up. The open question is whether Cassie can keep her job and her hard-won standing as a hero while her feelings pull the other way.