Cassie and Peck Johnson's marriage is falling apart. In fact, it's probably been falling apart since it began when Cassie became pregnant with their daughter Kelly during one lovedrunk summer at the beach. Disowned by her Baptist minister father, Cassie is forced to leave the mountain home she loves and her hopes of a college education to move to the sweltering South Carolina low country. There she all but loses her identity in the everyday struggles of raising a daughter and trying to love a fire chief husband who seems to be more involved with his crew than his family. Cassie isn't sure what she wants from life, but she knows that to find out, she'll have to escape strong, steady Peck and his beloved low country, the ties of which she can always feel tight around her.

Sure that this time, really, is the time she is leaving for good, Cassie sets off for the mountains with Kelly and Peck's friend Clay determined to escape from the life that has bound her for so long. Soon, though, she learns that getting away isn't so simple as simply packing her things and driving away. When unexpected events occur, Cassie finds that the new life she's pursuing isn't quite what she'd imagined and maybe not what she's searching for at all.

Told in chapters alternating between Peck and Cassie's perspectives, The Fireman's Wife is a story of a marriage collapsing under the weight of its own past. At the start, the novel is less than captivating. Its choppy, belabored beginning chapters populated by characters who come off as selfish and none too likeable make for rough going. Riggs' beginning is a bit forced and a little too obvious in the telling, and his two main characters don't exactly leap off the page. Luckily, however, as the story continues, it shakes off many of its problems. By the midpoint of the book, Cassie and Peck are more genuinely fleshed out and readers are more involved in their story and their problems. The alternating viewpoints manage to successfully present both sides of an argument that the two never really manage to have. Even the mountains and the low country come to life so that readers can share in the characters' deep love for the essence of their respective homes. Ultimately, readers can't help but pull for the two to heal the damage of their shared past and find a way to reconcile their differences.

The Fireman's Wife is not the perfect novel, but if you can look past some of its ticks (a clunky first fifty pages, an occasional awkwardness in the first person present tense narration, and perhaps an irritating overuse of the expression "pissed off"), it is a sweet story that reminds us both that love isn't always easy, but is worth it, and how sometimes to love another, we first need to know and love ourselves. ( )

The Fireman's Wife by Jack Riggs held my attention from the first page to the last. Usually I don't care for what I call "the selfish woman" books, but this had probable situations and well-developed characters. I am looking forward to future books by Riggs.

I really enjoyed The Firmenan's Wife by Jack Riggs. It is a story of a marriage in trouble. Cassie, the wife, resents that she has had to give up so much . She fills unfulfilled and becomes involved in an affair. Peck, a fireman, works all the time at a job he loves. Their daughter, a great softball player, is caught in the middle. She doesn't like her mother very much. I did not like how the novel ended; I like happy endings. I especially enjoyed the desriptive language of the Carolina Low Country. Riggs did a wonderful job with setting.

I neither loved nor hated this book. I feel sort of indifferent towards it. It might have something to do with where I was in my personal life at the time I read it, but I simply couldn’t connect with the storyline or the characters. That said, I will definitely give it another chance and re-read it in the near future and should my opinion change (which I’m sure it will) I’ll edit this review. ( )

"This was a fantastic novel! I really enjoyed the story line and all the references to the South Carolina Low Country. For over thirty five years, my family and I have been visiting the Grand Strand area of South Carolina for our yearly vacations. Also, the time frame referenced " The 1970's " was a great period when beach music and shag dancing were very popular. So, location, timing, characterizations and the general story line of the novel proved to make this book a page turner. Again, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone -- it's definitely a fast read." ( )