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Bravo Family #30
Donovan's Child
Donovan McRae has nothing to lose…
Once upon a time he’d been the Man Who Had Everything, until an ice-climbing accident changed his life. Now the architect is beginning to give up on his future. Until Abilene Bravo walks into his life – and he realises he was wrong.
Because though he thought he’d lost his heart years ago, he finds himself losing it again as he falls, fast…for the feisty woman who won’t take no for an answer!
221 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 17, 2011
About the author
Christine Rimmer
727 books430 followersNew York Times bestselling author Christine Rimmer has written more than one hundred contemporary romances for Harlequin Books. She has won Romantic Times BOOKreview’s Reviewer’s Choice Award for best Silhouette Special Edition. She has been nominated seven times for the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award and five times for Romantic Times Series Storyteller of the Year.
A California native who first longed to be an actress, Christine earned her theater degree from California State, Sacramento and then went to New York to study acting. Later, she moved to Southern California, where she began her writing career with short stories, plays, and poems. Her poems and short stories were published in a number of small literary journals. Her plays were produced at The Back Alley and Group Theaters in Southern California and have been published by Dramatists Play Service and West Coast Plays.
She now lives in Oregon with her family and two very contented cats named Tom and Ed.
A California native who first longed to be an actress, Christine earned her theater degree from California State, Sacramento and then went to New York to study acting. Later, she moved to Southern California, where she began her writing career with short stories, plays, and poems. Her poems and short stories were published in a number of small literary journals. Her plays were produced at The Back Alley and Group Theaters in Southern California and have been published by Dramatists Play Service and West Coast Plays.
She now lives in Oregon with her family and two very contented cats named Tom and Ed.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 19, 2012
This was one of those books where the blurb doesn't match the title, and the text doesn't explain the title until almost halfway through. I wanted to like this book more, if only because there aren't enough heroes with disabilities. Sadly, though, it felt to me as if the wheelchair was mostly a plot device to give an extra reason for angst, and a lot of the problems it threw up could have been solved far more easily than the characters managed. Disappointing, and I would love to see more romances that do characters with disabilities better.
June 29, 2016
Cute, quick read.
August 16, 2021
Badly written tripe relying on a wheelchair for drama.
Donovan is a world famous architect (naturally), and had an accident on a mountain that fractured his legs into little bits, basically. He freaks out in a cave, sees his dead son (from a relationship never developed or used adequately in this book), and decides he deserves to be dead. So when he's rescued and patched together, he quits work, shuts himself away... but oddly is doing PT religiously (which a 'dead' man wouldn't bother with, hello), and has one last job/internship to wrap up (which a 'dead' man wouldn't give a rip about, either). So already this thing makes NO sense.
Abilene wins the internship. She shows up, he's an ass to her, he's an ass ALL. THE. WAY. THROUGH. THE. BOOK... and somehow she still falls for him. Cuz sex-ay, r'something. We're not sure. But there's no chemistry, the writing lacks in EVERY way, and it's just angst borne of stupidity and driven on a highway of 'why should anyone care if he doesn't'. Just sayin'.
I hated it. And of course he miraculously pulls his head out of his hiney after throwing her away and letting weeks and months go by, and even less miraculously is able to walk again so that he can... take five steps total while groveling his ass off for the rest of the book trying to convince her he loves her when he shit all over her for the duration.
I don't know. You tell me. Sounds like a winner. But what do I expect from a book I found on the shelf in a bathroom? ((sigh.))
Donovan is a world famous architect (naturally), and had an accident on a mountain that fractured his legs into little bits, basically. He freaks out in a cave, sees his dead son (from a relationship never developed or used adequately in this book), and decides he deserves to be dead. So when he's rescued and patched together, he quits work, shuts himself away... but oddly is doing PT religiously (which a 'dead' man wouldn't bother with, hello), and has one last job/internship to wrap up (which a 'dead' man wouldn't give a rip about, either). So already this thing makes NO sense.
Abilene wins the internship. She shows up, he's an ass to her, he's an ass ALL. THE. WAY. THROUGH. THE. BOOK... and somehow she still falls for him. Cuz sex-ay, r'something. We're not sure. But there's no chemistry, the writing lacks in EVERY way, and it's just angst borne of stupidity and driven on a highway of 'why should anyone care if he doesn't'. Just sayin'.
I hated it. And of course he miraculously pulls his head out of his hiney after throwing her away and letting weeks and months go by, and even less miraculously is able to walk again so that he can... take five steps total while groveling his ass off for the rest of the book trying to convince her he loves her when he shit all over her for the duration.
I don't know. You tell me. Sounds like a winner. But what do I expect from a book I found on the shelf in a bathroom? ((sigh.))
April 30, 2018
I was so happy that Donovan met a woman like Abilene who could help him rebuild his life while they work together to build the children's center. he lost his young son and was hurt in a climbing accident. but they fell on love and decide to have children together.
January 21, 2012
This was a decent book, the heroine has been waiting for a year for her fellowship with the famous architect, the hero who seems to have gone underground when she finally gets a call and goes to meet him and finds a bitter man in a wheelchair(getting better) who doesn't seem to have any hope. He annoys her, angers her with his talk of how he's done and refuses to interact with the outside world but she is persistent and slowly brings changed in him.
She allows the hero to open up about his accident and how he lost his son years ago but when he was waiting for help, it got too much for him. She doesn't push him and we know they are in love but the hero seems to think she deserves so much more than him and pushes her away.
I enjoyed the book mainly because I liked the heroine.
She allows the hero to open up about his accident and how he lost his son years ago but when he was waiting for help, it got too much for him. She doesn't push him and we know they are in love but the hero seems to think she deserves so much more than him and pushes her away.
I enjoyed the book mainly because I liked the heroine.
January 16, 2024
I found Donovan to be kind of a creepy, stalker character rather than a troubled, good man. Abilene seemed annoying to me as well so this was a bad story to listen to when both main characters are unlikable. And the ending seemed crazy - Donovan changed his mind pretty quickly for someone who had spent years alone. This book was a bonus book to another so wasn't a pick for me but it did not make me want to read any other books in that series.
October 26, 2024
Abilene Bravo has won a very prestigious fellowship with the one and only Donavan McRae. Donavan has more than his fair share of heartache the last few years. He just wants everyone to leave him alone and let him suffer in peace. Can Abilene pull him out of the deep hole that's he's in?
May 17, 2020
Two very strong willed people found love and happiness in each other..A++
November 15, 2024
Such a great story! Can't get enough of the Bravos!!
March 29, 2012
I picked this one up because it's a RITA nominee I was able to find in the bottomless abyss that is my public library's uncatalogued book racks.
Ready for this? I was actually really enjoying this book up until the part where the hero and heroine got together. Trippy, right? Talk about a mindfuck. It was like the heroine lost all her spunk and became a limpet. Here's an example. Dude's in a wheelchair, right? So he rents a handicapable van that's going to meet him at the airport. His plan is to get into the van and drive to meet the heroine at the house he's going to be staying at. So she wants to meet him at the airport and he says, "No. I'll have the van waiting. There's no point." Totally logical and full of common sense, right? And then she thinks to herself, "[O]f course there was a point. To see him. To be with him as soon as she possibly could." She talks herself out of saying anything "[j]ust because she loved him didn't mean she had to turn into some wimpy clingy vine" (pg 176). It says all the right things, but I felt the implication was, oh, she's being noble and he's being a jackass.
In the beginning of the book, when the hero was being a jackass, she was a charming smart-ass who didn't let him get away with shit. Now she's in love with him and the smart-assery went 'poof!' It's just not healthy. If the heroine was my friend, I'd be getting ready for a 'Have you thought this through?' talk. It all works out, of course, because they break up for like three weeks, the hero goes away, apparently has some kind of off-screen epiphany, and then comes back to grovel. The groveling was well done and, to her credit, she didn't take him back as soon as he showed up. Still, I would have like to seen the hero's revelation because it felt like it was very convenient and out of nowhere.
Ready for this? I was actually really enjoying this book up until the part where the hero and heroine got together. Trippy, right? Talk about a mindfuck. It was like the heroine lost all her spunk and became a limpet. Here's an example. Dude's in a wheelchair, right? So he rents a handicapable van that's going to meet him at the airport. His plan is to get into the van and drive to meet the heroine at the house he's going to be staying at. So she wants to meet him at the airport and he says, "No. I'll have the van waiting. There's no point." Totally logical and full of common sense, right? And then she thinks to herself, "[O]f course there was a point. To see him. To be with him as soon as she possibly could." She talks herself out of saying anything "[j]ust because she loved him didn't mean she had to turn into some wimpy clingy vine" (pg 176). It says all the right things, but I felt the implication was, oh, she's being noble and he's being a jackass.
In the beginning of the book, when the hero was being a jackass, she was a charming smart-ass who didn't let him get away with shit. Now she's in love with him and the smart-assery went 'poof!' It's just not healthy. If the heroine was my friend, I'd be getting ready for a 'Have you thought this through?' talk. It all works out, of course, because they break up for like three weeks, the hero goes away, apparently has some kind of off-screen epiphany, and then comes back to grovel. The groveling was well done and, to her credit, she didn't take him back as soon as he showed up. Still, I would have like to seen the hero's revelation because it felt like it was very convenient and out of nowhere.
September 15, 2016
It was a nice quick read but I was left feeling a little flat at the end of it. H has had a bit of a crap time of it and is feeling sorry for himself/guilty when the h comes along and wants to snap him out of it with her lurve.
She comes across as a bit interfering to me to be honest he's kind of her boss and she just pushes and pushes because of what she wants.
As for the H he is kind of an ass. He is rightly feeling guilty because he made some poor life choices. As a parent struggled with some of the decisions he made to be honest which made me lack sympathy for him a bit. I was kind of shocked about what happened to his child and it made me sad
She comes across as a bit interfering to me to be honest he's kind of her boss and she just pushes and pushes because of what she wants.
As for the H he is kind of an ass. He is rightly feeling guilty because he made some poor life choices. As a parent struggled with some of the decisions he made to be honest which made me lack sympathy for him a bit. I was kind of shocked about what happened to his child and it made me sad
October 30, 2012
I loved that the two main characters were architects. I haven't read a couple like this before. I also really liked that the hero was literally injured. In a wheelchair-like. The wounded hero is such a great theme, and this author took it a step further and physically wounded her hero as well. This led to some serious walls for the heroine to break through.
Well done!
Well done!
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December 24, 2014Miniseries: Bravo Family Ties
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May 2, 20122012 RITA finalist in the Contemporary Series Romance category
February 14, 2013
Liked the battle of wills, with hero in a wheelchair.
February 14, 2015
ok little romance
January 24, 2015
A fun love story that doesn't require much thought.
June 18, 2015
It was okay but kind of had a retread plot and characters that felt flat.
June 23, 2015
Lovd the story. It's been a long time since I ready a BRAVO book.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews