Let me start by saying that I did like this book - as a nice holiday weekend read. I read it really quickly and it kept me interested. If it had stayed at that I think my review would have been better. But there were so many little storylines going on at once and it was hard to keep them straight at time and had to figure out why some of them were relevant. And most of them did not get developed enough to even get a feel for the character or the storyline (e.g. Perry and his family). I liked the main characters - Joan and Charlotte and Sally and Spin and Everett - and I thought the main storyline of how they came to be a family was really good and engaging. There was so much more that she could have done with those characters. I felt like the whole Laurel piece was odd and I felt like the way Spin flipped out at the end was not realistic and really kind of ruined the book for me. So if I take the book for what I thought it was initially then I think it was really good - but if I focus too much on everything she tried to cram into 250 pages then I think it is a little weak.

I liked this book. I liked the way the author tied in some history of firefighting in the Irish American community with present day real-world events (9/11). I liked the way she went into depth on the impact of the culture of fire fighting on several members of one family. I think anyone who likes a story that explores family relationships in depth would like this book. My only issue with the book is that some stories were never really resolved - the reader got teased about them but never saw them come to a conclusion. But a nice first novel for Donohoe. I am sure I would enjoy more books by her in the future.