Fire Season: a memoir.

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Fire Season: a memoir by Hollye Dexter. She Writes Press, 2015. 344 pages. ****

All Hollye has ever wanted is to feel safe. After November 18, 1994, it will be a long time before she feels that way again. A seemingly average night turns into a nightmare when her family home becomes engulfed in smoke and flames. Hollye is forced with fire behind her to drop her son, Taylor, out of his bedroom window onto concrete thirty feet below. It's a miracle that her husband is able to catch him. Told by an arson investigator that she is "lucky" to be alive, Hollye doesn't feel so lucky. All of the family pets perished in the fire and Hollye and Troy are now homeless, jobless with two children to support. The family experiences more heartbreak when they find a house to lease purchase, only to have the owner keep their money and not pay the mortgage. Friends and family offer help, however, Hollye and Troy soon discover who really cares and who distances themselves from their troubles.

Losing a business and close friends added to the pain of that night, Fire Season is a tale of perseverance, fortitude and family. Though painful to read at times, Dexter's story is one of hope and faith in the face of adversity. Reading it from the point of view of the victims of the fire, it is a wake up call as to what is really needed during a crisis. Definitely, a worthwhile read. 

HOLLYE DEXTER is the author of two memoirs and co- editor of Dancing at the Shame Prom (Seal Press), praised by best-selling author Gloria Feldt (former CEO of Planned Parenthood) as “a brilliant book that just might change your life.” Her essays and articles about women’s issues, activism, and politics have been widely published in anthologies, as well as in Maria Shriver’s Architects of Change, Huffington Post, The Feminist Wire, and more. She teaches writing workshops internationally and for at-risk youth in LA, where she lives with her husband and a houseful of kids and pets. Learn more about Dexter at www.hollyedexter.blogspot.com.