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Rebel In His Arms
IN THE HARSH LAND OF THE CALIFORNIA SIERRAS, A WILD LOVE STRUGGLES TO BE BORN.
Kathryn Durham was familiar with hardship-raising her younger brother, Jeremy, without a mother; keeping house for her father. But Katie loved their homestead, adored her family. Then one day, her father is fatally shot, the only clue to his murderer the initials her drew on the dirt before dying M D.
Mace Donovan: the man who had offered to buy up the Durham spread. The man with muscles that rippled like a stallion in motion, and eyes as cold and as fierce as a puma's. Mace Donovan: virile, powerful, wealthy-and a murderer.
Determined to avenge her father's death, Kathryn is thwarted at every turn by this man who makes her churn with rage and tremble with emotions she is helpless to stop. Like two wildcats, they claw at each other, tempers as brutal as the land they live on. She is a shrew and he intends to tame her. He is a killer, and she wants him to hang.
Only when Jeremy becomes a pawn in a deadly game does Kathryn finally admit her deep love for Mace Donovan-a love that may have come to late to share.
Kathryn Durham was familiar with hardship-raising her younger brother, Jeremy, without a mother; keeping house for her father. But Katie loved their homestead, adored her family. Then one day, her father is fatally shot, the only clue to his murderer the initials her drew on the dirt before dying M D.
Mace Donovan: the man who had offered to buy up the Durham spread. The man with muscles that rippled like a stallion in motion, and eyes as cold and as fierce as a puma's. Mace Donovan: virile, powerful, wealthy-and a murderer.
Determined to avenge her father's death, Kathryn is thwarted at every turn by this man who makes her churn with rage and tremble with emotions she is helpless to stop. Like two wildcats, they claw at each other, tempers as brutal as the land they live on. She is a shrew and he intends to tame her. He is a killer, and she wants him to hang.
Only when Jeremy becomes a pawn in a deadly game does Kathryn finally admit her deep love for Mace Donovan-a love that may have come to late to share.
377 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1981
10 people are currently reading
1164 people want to read
About the author
Francine Rivers
59 books21.3k followersNew York Times bestselling author Francine Rivers continues to win both industry acclaim and reader loyalty around the globe. Her numerous bestsellers include Redeeming Love, A Voice in the Wind, and Bridge to Haven, and her work has been translated into more than thirty different languages. She is a member of Romance Writers of America's coveted Hall of Fame as well as a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW).
www.francinerivers.com
www.facebook.com/FrancineRivers
Twitter: @FrancineRivers
www.francinerivers.com
www.facebook.com/FrancineRivers
Twitter: @FrancineRivers
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 19, 2019
I'm supposed to rejoice that heroine's reputation is in tatters, which the hero helped in smearing, that he humiliated her in front of his high class almost-fiancee, that he reluctantly proposed to her all the while deploring her unladylike ways, that he slapped her, called her a bitch, a charity case, a poor, destitute loser, that he didn't defend her when his snotty would-be fiancee and her Dragon of a mother insulted the heroine and treated her like trash, and on top of it all, he forced her to admit that she loved him first???
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 29, 2014
Kathryn Durham’s father draws the initials M. D. in the dirt and says “Tasajara” with his dying breath. This leads Kathryn to believe that the man who murdered her father is none other than 29yr old Mace Donovan, owner of the neighboring ranch Tasajara, and the man who had offered to buy their land. With the murder of her father, 18yr old Kathryn is left to run the ranch, take care of her little brother, and pay her father’s debts. Kathryn and Mace meet for the first time when he comes to pay his condolences and Kathryn aims a gun to his heart and accuses him of murder, thus starting the rocky relationship between the two lead characters.
Mace tries to look after Kathryn and her brother, but she is stubborn, refuses to believe he’s innocent, and makes some stupid decisions along the way. She slowly starts to come around about Mace and both characters struggle with their emotions for one another. The big mystery is who is behind several other disasters that occur at the ranch and why was her father murdered.
The story is in first person, from Kathryn’s point-of-view. It is very well written, so you get a great feel for the thoughts/feelings of other characters. What I liked most was that so much of story focuses on the intense interactions between Mace and Kat (as Mace calls her). They are at each others’ throats for most of the book. You could cut the sexual tension between them with a knife! They do not even kiss until page 310 (out of 377), and then “everything else” immediately follows – it’s an explosive scene of mild violence, passion, tenderness, and then heartbreak. Mace is like a sex-on-a-stick alpha/cowboy/rancher – read the story, if just for him.
Mace tries to look after Kathryn and her brother, but she is stubborn, refuses to believe he’s innocent, and makes some stupid decisions along the way. She slowly starts to come around about Mace and both characters struggle with their emotions for one another. The big mystery is who is behind several other disasters that occur at the ranch and why was her father murdered.
The story is in first person, from Kathryn’s point-of-view. It is very well written, so you get a great feel for the thoughts/feelings of other characters. What I liked most was that so much of story focuses on the intense interactions between Mace and Kat (as Mace calls her). They are at each others’ throats for most of the book. You could cut the sexual tension between them with a knife! They do not even kiss until page 310 (out of 377), and then “everything else” immediately follows – it’s an explosive scene of mild violence, passion, tenderness, and then heartbreak. Mace is like a sex-on-a-stick alpha/cowboy/rancher – read the story, if just for him.
June 22, 2021
377 pages of nonstop fighting between the two main characters, but I have to admit I kind of loved it. Probably one of the most adorable dark romances I've ever read.
TW: non-consent, graphic murder
TW: non-consent, graphic murder
February 9, 2024
Before Francine Rivers pivoted to Christian fiction she wrote some bodice ripper ish romances that she is now ashamed of and keeps out of print. This is one of them.
I don’t know how to rate this, but I read it in one sitting so I’m rounding up.
The heroine is cartoon-level “feisty” she really hates the hero and just argues with him nonstop, even if it’s just after he saves her life, even when he saves her brother’s life, even if he’s helping her to survive, she just pushes him away and it was borderline hysterics for the entire book.
Did this work somehow? I don’t know! I couldn’t put it down. She was so dumb with so much pride and a hard worker. It was very obvious who the bad guy was from the absolute beginning so that was also hanging over the entire story. This is also told in the first person, which is so weird for a historical, but maybe makes sense when the story is led by the wild vibes the narrating is putting out.
I don’t know how to rate this, but I read it in one sitting so I’m rounding up.
The heroine is cartoon-level “feisty” she really hates the hero and just argues with him nonstop, even if it’s just after he saves her life, even when he saves her brother’s life, even if he’s helping her to survive, she just pushes him away and it was borderline hysterics for the entire book.
Did this work somehow? I don’t know! I couldn’t put it down. She was so dumb with so much pride and a hard worker. It was very obvious who the bad guy was from the absolute beginning so that was also hanging over the entire story. This is also told in the first person, which is so weird for a historical, but maybe makes sense when the story is led by the wild vibes the narrating is putting out.
October 20, 2018
Most boring book ever. No tension between H/h. Disappointing.
July 27, 2022
Once again, I broke my rule of not reading books in the first person narrative, and once again, I regret it. This book was unbelievably ridiculous, with the h acting like a bitch with perpetual PMS, the H acting all stoic, with the personality that'd be a great insomnia cure, (until he suddenly loses it and decides to punish the h, first by seducing her rather forcefully, then with a spanking), a vengeful uncle who poses as a suitor and courts (and kisses) his niece (unwitting on the h's part, as she has no idea who he is), a typical villain for the OM, a typical empty headed belle for the OW, and too much time wasted in misunderstandings, stubbornness and hiding true feelings behind a facade of indifference.
The only character I liked was the h's younger brother. Too bad Ms. rivers never wrote a book about him, when he grew up.
Do yourself a favor and skip this one.
The only character I liked was the h's younger brother. Too bad Ms. rivers never wrote a book about him, when he grew up.
Do yourself a favor and skip this one.
June 17, 2021
What the hell is this rapey nonsense?! First we go 300 pages without a kiss, and then FINALLY, when Mace kisses her, she is fighting to get away (he’s literally got her hair wrapped around his hand and is HURTING her) and she’s saying “no.” I don’t care that after that first kiss, she was like “oooo, I like this now.”
Also, HER UNCLE! SHE KISSED HER UNCLE! Multiple times.
Well. I was curious as to what Francine Rivers’ romance novels were like.
Also, HER UNCLE! SHE KISSED HER UNCLE! Multiple times.
Well. I was curious as to what Francine Rivers’ romance novels were like.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 3, 2024
When Kathryn Durham finds her father dangling on the precipice of a cliff and hanging by a thread to life, he inscribes his final words in the dust: “MD.” Certain these are the initials of his murderer–and also their property’s neighbor–she is intent on vengeance at all costs.
Her younger brother longs for an education that they could not afford even if they sold the homestead, and she clings to their piece of worthless, rocky land that will probably be the death of both of them. And there is their neighbor Mace Donovan, who killed their father and is doggedly pursuing their property–and her.
“The broken fence, my stampeded garden, the burned barn, the fouled well…” Kathryn inherited her father’s debts and is hardly a suitable match for a man who owned thousands of acres of land, not to mention cattle on a thousand hills. However, “I wouldn’t marry Mace Donovan if he were the last man west of the Rockies!” But he is as far as she’s concerned; that is the depressing truth.
Donovan is smitten at first sight. “You should have seen yourself that day in front of the sod cabin with that gun pointed at my chest. Speak of awesome! Your father had me convinced you were soft, gentle, loving…all the things a woman should be…I found a lot more than I’d ever bargained for in a woman, that’s for sure…But I saw all those other qualities as well…It was only with me that you turned into a vicious little witch!”
But after a romp in the hay–quite literally–in a horse stall and a night in a stable, Donovan’s determination matches Kathryn’s and while he redeems her property, she saves his life…twice! She even kills her relative to rescue the neighbor she once despised. If you like enemies to lovers romance with spicy love scenes and personalities to match, you will love vintage Francine Rivers’ Rebel in His Arms.
Her younger brother longs for an education that they could not afford even if they sold the homestead, and she clings to their piece of worthless, rocky land that will probably be the death of both of them. And there is their neighbor Mace Donovan, who killed their father and is doggedly pursuing their property–and her.
“The broken fence, my stampeded garden, the burned barn, the fouled well…” Kathryn inherited her father’s debts and is hardly a suitable match for a man who owned thousands of acres of land, not to mention cattle on a thousand hills. However, “I wouldn’t marry Mace Donovan if he were the last man west of the Rockies!” But he is as far as she’s concerned; that is the depressing truth.
Donovan is smitten at first sight. “You should have seen yourself that day in front of the sod cabin with that gun pointed at my chest. Speak of awesome! Your father had me convinced you were soft, gentle, loving…all the things a woman should be…I found a lot more than I’d ever bargained for in a woman, that’s for sure…But I saw all those other qualities as well…It was only with me that you turned into a vicious little witch!”
But after a romp in the hay–quite literally–in a horse stall and a night in a stable, Donovan’s determination matches Kathryn’s and while he redeems her property, she saves his life…twice! She even kills her relative to rescue the neighbor she once despised. If you like enemies to lovers romance with spicy love scenes and personalities to match, you will love vintage Francine Rivers’ Rebel in His Arms.
July 1, 2025
Content Warning: If you’ve only read Francine Rivers’ Christian novels, be prepared this one was was written before she knew Christ and it is shocking at times.
The language is vulgar, her characters are aggressive and the love scenes are definitely not her usual PG-level.
That said, this early work is an interesting contrast in her storytelling before her faith transformation. There are some parallels with Redeeming Love in character personalities and story arcs. I can image some of these characters evolved from the broken lives in this story to being healed and restored in her masterpiece, Redeeming Love.
Side note, it’s also interesting how often her characters cry out to God and read the Bible, even though this novel was written before she knew God.
Now onto the review: The book is filled with passion and suspense, driven by an intense enemies-to-lovers dynamic that’s obvious from the beginning, but still captivating. It does drag a bit in places (I’d say about 20% of the push and pull could’ve been trimmed), but Donovan drives the emotional intensity.
I enjoy Rivers' imagination when she sets a character out to solving their problems. She brings them to unusual places and makes creative solutions I wouldn't have predicted.
I went from hating Donovan to loving him, and from cheering on Kathryn to being annoyed with her stubborn blindness. And just when I thought I had the plot figured out, the twist about her father’s murderer surprised me.
Funny detail, the cover art doesn't match the character descriptions, which threw me off right from the start. Maybe that was intentional? To keep the lover unknown?
The language is vulgar, her characters are aggressive and the love scenes are definitely not her usual PG-level.
That said, this early work is an interesting contrast in her storytelling before her faith transformation. There are some parallels with Redeeming Love in character personalities and story arcs. I can image some of these characters evolved from the broken lives in this story to being healed and restored in her masterpiece, Redeeming Love.
Side note, it’s also interesting how often her characters cry out to God and read the Bible, even though this novel was written before she knew God.
Now onto the review: The book is filled with passion and suspense, driven by an intense enemies-to-lovers dynamic that’s obvious from the beginning, but still captivating. It does drag a bit in places (I’d say about 20% of the push and pull could’ve been trimmed), but Donovan drives the emotional intensity.
I enjoy Rivers' imagination when she sets a character out to solving their problems. She brings them to unusual places and makes creative solutions I wouldn't have predicted.
I went from hating Donovan to loving him, and from cheering on Kathryn to being annoyed with her stubborn blindness. And just when I thought I had the plot figured out, the twist about her father’s murderer surprised me.
Funny detail, the cover art doesn't match the character descriptions, which threw me off right from the start. Maybe that was intentional? To keep the lover unknown?
November 25, 2024
This book kept throwing me around, much like Mace with Kat.
The beginning was really good: murder mystery, hot neighbor, real details on the backbreaking labor and worry involved in running a ranch… yet halfway through I had my first EVER real headache that came solely from reading “loud” and repetitive arguments.
I get Kathryn’s anger- she thinks Mace killed her father. I get her defensiveness of her father (even as she faces his foolish decisions), I get her insistence to hold on to the only home she’s ever known. I even get her volatile mood swings, as we recognize unresolved trauma and young parentification today.
I do NOT understand her constant battle with Mace after he saved her MULTIPLE times! Calm down and say thank you with grace.
I also don’t understand a thirty year old man constantly taking shots at a nineteen year old girl who is clearly in pain and out of her element sexually speaking. I like a macho man but he kept slamming her into walls, slapping her and mocking her. Not attractive. And the sex scenes were a major letdown after all that tension and swooning talk about his abilities. Blah.
The mystery was nice but fairly obvious a quarter of the way through the book with the liberal sprinkling of hints the author kept dropping.
The beginning was really good: murder mystery, hot neighbor, real details on the backbreaking labor and worry involved in running a ranch… yet halfway through I had my first EVER real headache that came solely from reading “loud” and repetitive arguments.
I get Kathryn’s anger- she thinks Mace killed her father. I get her defensiveness of her father (even as she faces his foolish decisions), I get her insistence to hold on to the only home she’s ever known. I even get her volatile mood swings, as we recognize unresolved trauma and young parentification today.
I do NOT understand her constant battle with Mace after he saved her MULTIPLE times! Calm down and say thank you with grace.
I also don’t understand a thirty year old man constantly taking shots at a nineteen year old girl who is clearly in pain and out of her element sexually speaking. I like a macho man but he kept slamming her into walls, slapping her and mocking her. Not attractive. And the sex scenes were a major letdown after all that tension and swooning talk about his abilities. Blah.
The mystery was nice but fairly obvious a quarter of the way through the book with the liberal sprinkling of hints the author kept dropping.
September 3, 2022
When I picked up this book, my thought was OH NO, not another Harlequin. I avoid them like the plague. After the first chapter I changed my tune. This was very interesting, but something was bothering me. After a couple more chapters I knew that there was just something curious about the writing of this book. Then I looked at the author. Oh my gosh. FRANCINE RIVERS? Are you getting me right now? I have read nearly every book she has written and loved every last one of them. How could I not have know this was another of her books. The publish date on this book was 1983 so I think it may have been a very early book of hers. But the writing style was 100 percent Francine Rivers. Just a pleasure to read.
April 4, 2023
I found this book very frustrating. It was obvious that the main characters would somehow end up together but she was so completely irrational. Her father didn't help with his dying words. He could have said something much more revealing.
July 26, 2023
This book was really interesting
September 7, 2018
A kind of The taming of the shrew set in the California Sierras
===================
Una especie de La fierecilla domada ambientada en las Sierras de California.
===================
Una especie de La fierecilla domada ambientada en las Sierras de California.
August 14, 2013
This is my second reading of the story so I must have liked it. Ha Ha.
Kathryn Durham’s father draws the initials M. D. in the dirt and says “Tasajara” with his dying breath. This leads his daughter Kathryn to believe that the man who murdered her father is none other than 29yr old Mace Donovan, owner of the neighboring ranch Tasajara, and a man who had offered to buy their land on numerous occasions. With the murder of her father, 18yr old Kathryn is left to run the ranch, take care of her little brother, and pay her dreamer father’s numerous debts. Kathryn and Mace meet for the first time when he comes to pay his condolences and Kathryn aims a gun to his chest and accuses him of murder, thus begins the turbulant relationship between the two lead characters.
Mace valliantly attempts to erase her belief that he murdered his friend and her father as he does his best to keep Kathryn and her brother from starvation and losing their hold on the small acreage. However Kathryn is stubborn, refuses to believe he’s innocent, and makes poor ranch management decisions along the way. She begins to lose the ranch and her independence at the same time she begins to belive she is wrong about Mace. Both characters struggle with their growing feelings for one another. The big mystery is who is behind several other disasters that occur at the ranch and why was her father murdered.
The story is in first person, from Kathryn’s point-of-view. It is well written, the characters are fairly well developed and one gets a good feel for the other characters through her eyes. I felt the enemy was too easy to spot and was dissapointed in the development of his character. It was too easy to figure out he was the 'bad guy'. I liked the intense interactions between Mace and Kat (as Mace calls her). They are at each others’ throats for most of the book. The tension sexual and other wise was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The book is quite chaste until you are close to the end, in fact about 60 pages from the end. At this encounter all 'hell' breaks loose it is steamy, explosive, somewhat violent and telling about them both. Mace is the ultimate male sexual hero, physical, demanding, controlled, powerful in all ways not only sexually. Of course power in a man is very drawing to females. I would recommend this the interactions between the two makes it worth it even if cheesy and predictable in parts. Of course, aren't all romance novels predictable?
Kathryn Durham’s father draws the initials M. D. in the dirt and says “Tasajara” with his dying breath. This leads his daughter Kathryn to believe that the man who murdered her father is none other than 29yr old Mace Donovan, owner of the neighboring ranch Tasajara, and a man who had offered to buy their land on numerous occasions. With the murder of her father, 18yr old Kathryn is left to run the ranch, take care of her little brother, and pay her dreamer father’s numerous debts. Kathryn and Mace meet for the first time when he comes to pay his condolences and Kathryn aims a gun to his chest and accuses him of murder, thus begins the turbulant relationship between the two lead characters.
Mace valliantly attempts to erase her belief that he murdered his friend and her father as he does his best to keep Kathryn and her brother from starvation and losing their hold on the small acreage. However Kathryn is stubborn, refuses to believe he’s innocent, and makes poor ranch management decisions along the way. She begins to lose the ranch and her independence at the same time she begins to belive she is wrong about Mace. Both characters struggle with their growing feelings for one another. The big mystery is who is behind several other disasters that occur at the ranch and why was her father murdered.
The story is in first person, from Kathryn’s point-of-view. It is well written, the characters are fairly well developed and one gets a good feel for the other characters through her eyes. I felt the enemy was too easy to spot and was dissapointed in the development of his character. It was too easy to figure out he was the 'bad guy'. I liked the intense interactions between Mace and Kat (as Mace calls her). They are at each others’ throats for most of the book. The tension sexual and other wise was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The book is quite chaste until you are close to the end, in fact about 60 pages from the end. At this encounter all 'hell' breaks loose it is steamy, explosive, somewhat violent and telling about them both. Mace is the ultimate male sexual hero, physical, demanding, controlled, powerful in all ways not only sexually. Of course power in a man is very drawing to females. I would recommend this the interactions between the two makes it worth it even if cheesy and predictable in parts. Of course, aren't all romance novels predictable?
December 14, 2020
Man! Did it really have to take so long for them to have to admit their feelings for each other?
How come no one pointed out that Kat KISSED her UNCLE! And there were times that I felt that he treated her as a little girl. I hate how she was so blinded with revenge that she didn’t see who he actually was. If only she had stopped to THINK.
How come no one pointed out that Kat KISSED her UNCLE! And there were times that I felt that he treated her as a little girl. I hate how she was so blinded with revenge that she didn’t see who he actually was. If only she had stopped to THINK.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2012
Really only giving it 3 stars because I adore Francine Rivers but this book was so corny and cheesy and predictable. I was embarrassed many times as I read it on how silly it was. It was entertaining to say the least. :-)
April 28, 2025
stupid as hell book and the fl was soo obnoxious and stupidly prideful but ugh i still really enjoyed her character. she acted her age and i for one love annoyingly lovable heroines 😮💨 it was a fun read for sure
October 31, 2018
Meh....
June 26, 2012
this is from her romance days so a little racy in parts.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews