Sandy M’s review of The Chandler Brothers Trilogy by Carly Phillips
Contemporary Romances published by Forever

Welcome back to Duckies Do Series! Brothers are once again the topic of our series review. This time it’s Carly Phillips’ Chandler brothers and they are a delightful threesome ready to head straight to the altar. Well, with a little help from mom. Read on to see how they fall one by one toward that happily ever after and they never find out what hits them until it’s too late.

The Bachelor (Book 1)
Released by Forever 1 Jul 02

Youngest brother Roman loses — or wins, it depends on how you look at it — the coin toss that the guys decide is the best way to keep a level playing field on who will be the one to give their mother grandchildren. The Chandler boys have avoided commitment in their small town of Yorkshire Falls, enjoying the ladies around town as the opportunity presents itself, which is usually a good portion of the time because said ladies line up to garner some lovin’ by any of the brothers.

Roman has been working as a foreign correspondent for a while now, enjoying the freedom to do as he pleases, no one to answer to. He rushes home when he gets a call from older brother Chase informing him their mother is in the hosptial. Since he’s the lucky — or unlucky — one, Roman thinks he’s figured out how to keep his freedom and give his mother her most desired wish. Or so he thinks.

He begins his search for a woman who will bear his child but who won’t care if her husband is at home with her or traipsing through another country or two for months on end. This plan lasts only until he gets a glimpse of Charlotte Bronson, his former one-date girlfriend. He still feels a connection to her and wants to pursue her, but he realizes Charlotte doesn’t deserve what he has planned. In fact, neither of them deserve such a life and little by little Roman’s feelings bring about more realizations when he begins to get to know Charlotte all over again.

Ten years is a long time to pine for a man she walked away from, but seeing Roman again makes Charlotte realize that’s exactly what she’s done. She knows she walked away for a good reason, but her heart doesn’t seem to care what that reason is. She liked him as a teenager but she loves him as a man now, as a woman loves a man, and giving him her heart again is something she may not survive. So instead, she’s decided to get the man out of her system by giving her all to him in the short time he’s town and when he leaves this time — just as she knows he will — she’ll be able to hold her head high and watch that tight ass fade into the horizon. Or so she thinks.

Okay, maybe it’s a little silly for a mother to manipulate her sons so, but it sure makes for fun reading. While this story starts out light hearted and airy, deeper issues eventually come to the forefront to play havoc with Roman and Charlotte and we just have to bump along with them to see if and how they face their demons. I enjoyed these two characters. Roman may be a bachelor through and through in the beginning and he may scheme some with his brothers, but he’s still a gentleman just like his mama raised him and it shows throughout the book.

Charlotte is independent and knows what she wants, is successful at everything she does, but she’s afraid of repeating her mother’s mistakes and nearly loses the best thing in her life – again. I also like how Ms. Phillips keeps all the characters interacting with one another instead of bringing others, like family members, into the storyline just every so often like a lot of authors do. It’s fun to watch these brothers interact with each other. Their character really shines through during those scenes with humor and sensitivity, and love.

Grade: A

Summary:

Will this bad boy make it to the altar?

Foreign correspondent Roman Chandler has always prized his freedom above all else. Now losing a coin toss has sealed this youngest brother’s fate. Finding someone to escort down the aisle is the easy part-every wannabe bride in sleepy Yorkshire Falls is itching to get hitched to this gorgeous, globe-trotting Chandler man. But Roman still lusts after the woman who got away. Stunning heartbreaker Charlotte Bronson has come home to put down roots and get her erotic lingerie business off the ground. She wants a man that won’t go chasing off to the far corners of the earth for a breaking news story. He wants her to say “I do.”

Read an excerpt here.

The Playboy (Book 2)
Released by Forever 1 Jan 03

This book picks up a few months after the end of The Bachelor and I love the way it starts out! Kendall is on her way to Yorkshire Falls after her Aunt Crystal’s death to take care of the house and property left to her. When her car breaks down just outside of town, her rescuer is none other than the middle Chandler brother, Rick. And he gets a surprise when he finds a beautiful woman in a wedding dress sitting in her broken down car on the side of the road. Rick has been dodging the women in town who have been encouraged by his mother to get to know her middle son and get him to walk down the aisle and here his is face to face with a bride running from the altar. I love the irony.

As Rick and Kendall get to know one another and secretly lust for each other, they come up with an agreement that is beneficial to both of them. They’ll pretend to be lovers while Kendall is in town. This way the women will leave Rick alone and Rick will tender his services to help her get her house ready to sell so she can be on her way to the next stop in her life. Kendall is a wanderer. She’s never had a stable home life like Rick. Her parents are usually out of the country and her Aunt Crystal had to send her away when her arthritis became too severe to take care of a young girl. So with no one around to love her and watch over her, Kendall has survived on her own, needing no one. This works well for both of them until the feelings start to bubble to the surface.

Another ripple in Kendall’s plan to hightail it out of town is her younger sister, Hannah. The girl ends up living with Kendall after she leaves the boarding school her parents carted her off to. She comes into the picture as a very unhappy teen and she lets everyone know it in no uncertain terms. It’s Rick who is able to get through to Hannah, all the while hoping Kendall will see how a stable life in a small town is the right thing for the sisters. Rick is the one in this book to admit his feelings first, but he never crowds Kendall or overwhelms her. He waits it out hoping her good sense and eventually her love for him will win out. There’s a couple of little twists thrown in, a jealous former girlfriend of Rick’s for one, who lets her anger take over and nearly causes Kendall to bolt for good.

I liked the touch of Rick the cop being good with kids, thus his connection with Hannah. Mom is still in there with her fake heart condition, although both Roman and Rick have ferreted the truth out and know she’s pretending. The fact that Mom is being caught in her own web is also fun. She’s seeing the town doctor, but of course can’t really get out and have a good time because she’s supposed to be taking it easy. The boys enjoy that quite a bit and do what they can to curtail her good times for a bit. The charming Southern man is also rampant in Rick and you have to love him too just because he’s a gentleman and treats the ladies just like his mama taught him.

Grade: A

Summary:

There isn’t a woman in town who’s immune to the legendary Chandler charm. Yet so far single cop Rick Chandler has managed to fend off the marriage-minded advances of Yorkshire Falls’ entire female population. A past mistake has taught him never to put his heart on the line … until he answers the SOS of a real-life runaway bride. In spite of her pearly gown and tiara, Kendall Sutton vows to never wed- which makes her the ideal pretend lover who can ward off Rick’s legion of admirers. When their passionate charade flames into the real thing, Rick is suddenly thinking about two words that spell forever after. But will Kendall ever say “I do?” Can a woman who’s had it with weddings tie the knot with the town’s most popular playboy?

Read an excerpt here.

The Heartbreaker (Book 3)
Released by Vision 1 Jun 04

Chase Chandler is the big brother, the head of the family. He’s taken his responsibilities since his father died very seriously and has been the perfect role model for his younger brothers. Now that the two of them are married, it’s time for Chase to cut loose and go after what he wants. He goes to Washington, D.C. as the reporter he’s always wanted to be. Little does he know he’s about to run into the story of a lifetime, a reporter’s dream. Turns out his professional dream and his personal dream end up being the same woman and his dilemma has only just begun.

Sloane learns that her life has been a total lie. She overhears her senator father’s top men discussing her and a scandal that will topple her father’s bid for the vice presidency. Thrown for a loop, she lets loose, hits the nearest bar and ends up in bed with a stranger. But what a stranger he is. She connects with him like never before, but she knows this one night is all they’ll have. Leaving Washington, D.C. behind, she heads for the little town of Yorkshire Falls to discover her past and hopefully her future. Never in a million years, however, does she think her one-night stand could ever be her future.

I loved the dichotomy in the life of these two characters. Chase has finally earned his freedom from responsibility after raising his brothers and keeping the family newspaper going. He wants that one big break to make his career. He finds it in Sloane, and at first he thinks he can let her go while making her the focus he needs. Sloane is looking for a husband, hearth and home, someone to take care of her and love her, plus she has a scandal following her that any reporter following her father’s political aspirations would kill for. It all makes for some great reading.

As with the other two books, this is a mystery afoot, some added danger that draw these two at first closer to one another, but eventual consequences cause them to back off from one another, something both of them soon realize is not the thing to do. Both Roman and Rick are included in the storyline, along with their wives and mom and her current beau, still making it a family affair when needed. Sloane’s scandal ends up being a very nice ending for her too. This is a great way to end the entire trilogy.

Grade: A

Summary:

As the eldest of three rebel-rousing brothers, Chase Chandler has waited a long time to leave his small-town roots behind. All bets are off when the single journalist meets a redhead who arouses a lot more than lust. Yet Sloane Carlisle isn’t just any woman. She’s a senator’s daughter who is about to thrust him into the eye of a breaking political scandal—and a shot at a story that’s already making headlines. All Chase has to do for an exclusive is keep her out of harm’s way.

A woman who refuses to play the Washington game, Sloane has just been hit with a bombshell that calls her entire identity into question. Feeling vulnerable, she does something completely out of character: She spends an incredible, passionate night with a handsome stranger. The last thing she expects is to ever see him again. But when she goes to the Chandlers’ hometown of Yorkshire Falls to uncover the truth about her family, there he is! Not only that, her sometime amour Chase Chandler is sticking closer than a Capitol Hill groupie and igniting more sparks than the Fourth of July.

Suddenly a guy who has always steered clear of marriage is falling for a serious-minded woman with a family secret that could land them both in danger. If they survive the fallout, what will it take to get Sloane to say the two words that could turn the town’s most eligible bachelor into the world’s sexiest spouse?

Read an excerpt here.

I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy. Each brother in his own way fights the dreaded committed relationship, but as they really get to know each woman as she comes along for them, you can see the door open and a whole new life is waiting for them on the other side as their realizations change, as they face that if they let this woman go, life will never be the same, life won’t be worth a darned without her in it. There’s also the extra bonus of their mother falling in love throughout her escapade she’s created and having to face each of her sons as they find out what she’s done. I also really like the love and support they give each other, the love they heap on their mother, especially after her scheme is revealed and they have every right to be angry.

If you have these books in your TBR pile, pull them out. You won’t be sorry one bit.

Overall grade: A