The Heartbreaker

August 18, 2003
Of all the bars in Washington, D.C., Sloane Carlisle happens to walk into the hole-in-the-wall where Chase Chandler is nursing a Miller draft. Avowed singleton Chase needs a cold one after overdosing on the marital bliss of his younger brother, Roman, and Roman's pregnant wife, Charlotte. (Roman and the third Chandler brother, Rick, starred in Phillips's paperback bestsellers The Bachelor
and The Playboy.) Sloane has come in search of scotch straight up to recover from shocking news: she's not the biological daughter of Sen. Michael Carlisle, whose dead first wife, Sloane's mother, grew up in Yorkshire Falls, N.Y., where Chase is publisher of the local paper. Furthermore, Sloane has learned, two Carlisle staffers may be plotting to kill her real father. Chase knows none of this—only that here is "a vision in a dress so pink, so short, so bare, it ought to be illegal." And Sloane has no idea that Chase has come to Washington hoping for a scoop on Senator Carlisle. Nevertheless, one smoldering glance is enough to seal the couple's fate. The ensuing sex scene is vintage Phillips: uninhibited lubricity made responsible (condoms) and romantic (champagne). While the characters busily tell themselves and each other that it's just for tonight, readers have the bonus thrill of certainty that tonight is the beginning of forever. Whether between soft covers or hard, Phillips loves to get her hero and heroine in bed—or up against a pool table, surrounded by salivating louts, in the book's kinkiest passage. But family values so dominate the interstitial scenes, it's a safe bet that Senator Carlisle is a Republican. And that Phillips's fans will make the leap to hardcover in droves. Featured alternate selection of the Doubleday Book Club, the Literary Guild, Rhapsody and Venus Book Club.

August 1, 2003
In the latest installment in Phillips' successful Chandler brothers series, Chase prides himself on being the rock in his family. When his father died, he was there for his mother, he became a father figure to his younger brothers, and he took over his father's newspaper in Yorkshire Falls, New York. Now that his younger brothers are happily married, Chase's mother wants him to settle down, but Chase cannot imagine giving up bachelorhood. Meanwhile, Sloane Carlisle has just uncovered a family secret that changes everything she knows to be true. Seeking solace in a bar, she meets Chase and shares a passionate, unforgettable night with him before sneaking out at dawn. But fate soon brings Sloane to Yorkshire Falls and back into Chase's arms. As they let down their guards, they fall deeply in love. But when the dangerous secrets of Sloane's past emerge, Chase recognizes that Sloane deserves more than just a boyfriend as, once again, Phillips keeps her fans speculating until the very end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)