THE BACHELOR
The Chandler Brothers Series
Book 1
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Carly Phillips
Copyright © Karen Drogin, CP Publishing 2020
Kindle Edition
Cover Photo: Wander Aguiar
Cover Design: Designs by Hang Le
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
To Mom and Dad for making me believe I could do anything.
To Phil, who loves and supports me through everything.
And to Jackie and Jen, who make it all worthwhile.
Thanks to the people who contributed their knowledge and answered endless questions: Lynda Sue Cooper, the cop expert, and Terri Hall, journalism expert. Any errors or fabrications are mine alone.
And last but by no means least, to the best critique partners a girl could have. To Kathy Attalla for your plotting brilliance (RIP) and Janelle Denison for your panty thief expertise—without your endless patience and willingness to reread, I’d have lost it a long time ago!
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
About the Book
Author’s Note
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
About The Playboy
Want more of Carly’s books?
About the Author
The Chandler Brothers Series
THE BACHELOR
The Chandler Brothers from New York Times Bestselling Author Carly Phillips are back!
He’s got wanderlust and no intention of settling down.
She’s home to stay and has put her bad boy ex in her rearview mirror.
After spending his life abroad, embracing his freedom at every turn as a foreign correspondent, Roman Chandler finds himself the brother nominated to deal with his ailing mother’s matchmaking shenanigans. Thanks to a coin toss, he needs to find someone to marry and fast. It shouldn’t be that hard in sleepy Yorkshire Falls where women fall over themselves to hook a Chandler man.
But Roman only wants the one woman who got away.
Charlotte Bronson is back home to put down roots and get her lingerie business off the ground. She’s not interested in her past or a man that chose to chase breaking news stories to the far corners of the earth over her. No matter how good they used to be or how combustible their chemistry still burns.
It’s up to Roman to convince Charlotte he’s a changed man and here to stay.
In honor of THE BACHELOR’s 20th Anniversary all three books have been updated and will be reissued with gorgeous NEW covers with the same content but modernized for your reading pleasure. The BACHELOR was the first book that Kelly Ripa chose for her Reading with Ripa Bookclub.
Dear Reader;
Dreams can come true and I’m living proof. I’m a soap opera watcher and proud of it. Always have been, always will be. But I never expected that love to boost my beloved career in unimaginable ways or that the actress who I always admired, Kelly Ripa, would make my dreams come true.
Back in the 1990’s, while watching All My Children and in the process of beginning to write romance, I loved the character of Hayley Vaughan played by the then unknown actress, Kelly Ripa. When Kathie Lee Gifford announced she was leaving her co-host role with Regis Philbin on LIVE with Regis and Kathie Lee, I remember Kelly Ripa sitting in and I thought, wow they have chemistry. When she got the co-hosting job, I was so excited because I felt like I knew her. Then, one morning, Regis and Kelly were joking around about Kelly doing her own bookclub. But, she said, if she did one it would be sexy. I kid you not, bells went off in my head.
I called the publicist I’d hired at the time for my very first single title with what was then Warner Books (now Hachette) and I suggested we send in a copy of my book to Kelly. There was more to the package and much more behind the scenes work but wasting no time, she sent in a copy. And I honestly forgot about it because in what lifetime would my idol, Kelly Ripa, choose my book for a bookclub she hadn’t even officially announced yet?
Fast forward to one late May afternoon when I was rushing to go out to dinner with my kids, age 10 and 6, and the phone rang in the house. My editor at Warner Books was calling to tell me that THE BACHELOR had been chosen as the first book in Kelly Ripa’s Reading with Ripa Bookclub on LIVE with Regis and Kelly. Can you hear me screaming? My kids came running. They asked what was going on and I told them. At which point my editor said, YOU CAN NOT TELL ANYONE prior to the LIVE! Show in August. Try explaining to children mommy’s going to be on television but it’s a secret. And keeping that secret for over 2 months.
Meeting Kelly Ripa was as big a highlight for me as the recognition of the book. Being on live national television was terrifying. Somehow I managed it all with the help of my then publicist Theresa Meyers and my still best friend, Janelle Denison (aka Erika Wilde) and my long time friend and co-conspirator, Shannon Short. The book tied at #4 on The NY Times Bestseller list with Nora Roberts (another idol) and spent weeks on USA Today. Nothing in my career has come close to that experience and I am ever so grateful for the doors it opened and the people I’ve met along the way.
I will always be grateful to my parents for raising me to believe in myself because otherwise I’d never have sent in that book. I love my husband and daughters for the support they’ve given me for the last twenty years as I navigated this publishing universe. And now let’s finally get to the point.
Welcome to The Bachelor, the book that launched my
