3.5 Stars-Not my Fav RVD Book

As a huge fan of Rachel Van Dyken and having only read one book in this series, it wasn't the best thing I have read from her. While you can see some of Rachel's humor creeping out of the pages, it was a little heavier than I am use to with her writing.

Brant was a tough character to like. He came across as a poor, rich boy, wah wah wah, my life is a mess somebody fix it for me type. I didn't like him right off the bat, now Cole was a different story. Brant is being forced to get his S together by his grandmother, no less and ends up face to face with his beautiful ex-wife he abandoned long ago.

Nikki, said ex-wife has been living the last four years fine on her own, or at least that's what she tells herself. Things are different, very different now and work seems to be her best outlet to get her mind off of him. Cole, her best friend, but who wants to cross the friend-line so bad he can taste it, helped Nikki with her heartbreak. Cole was a dream, with a wonderful sarcastic wit I could appreciate.

I'll admit, for about the first 20% of the book, I wasn't even sure what was going on with the bidding and the job. Once Brant got to the resort where Nikki worked, things got a little clearer. Even still, I had a hard time getting into these characters for some reason.

The book is well written and can be read as a stand alone. Brandt seems to have quite an interesting family that I might go check out next.

Reviewed for Renee Entress's Blog.

I really didn't like this. I didn't like either main character. Brant was a major jerk, with the drinking and sleeping around... that's not a guy I would ever find myself liking in real life, so I will obviously not like him in a book. Just not my thing.

The bachelor contract is the third installment within this series. Brant and Nikki have been through so much, both together and while they have been apart. Its a bit of a heavy book and hit a little close to home for me. Overall its a great read and enjoyed reading about previous characters within this book.

Tenacious and determined Brant can't get Nikki out of his mind. Four years he's thought she was ok but was she ready to leave him for good?

A horrific event will pull them apart but can they both find love again? A second-chance romance that has all the feels. Sizzle, heart and tons of chemistry..

Don't miss this must read

I received this book free from the author, I haven't read it yet, I cannot give feedback at this time.

Love turns to hate and passion turns to anger in this second chance romance.

When Brant and Nikki fell in love years ago, they believed it was forever and weren’t they heart achingly wrong. For four years they didn’t speak, lived separate lives, and tried to move on from the tragedy and soul ripping pain they had endured. Four years apart and the pain and suffering is still as raw as it was the day they broke each other in two. A meddling family friend with a small amount of arm bending places Brant and Nikki on a collision course.

The first third part of this book was like a multi car pile up; blood, debris and glass scattered for as far as the eye can see. Brant was so far down the rabbit hole of misery and pain he bled alcohol. Nikki lived from day-to-day trying to forget and move on from her past. Brant is business savvy and smart when not hiding at the bottom of a bottle. Nikki makes him crazy and makes his head swirl with memories, some he wants and others he would rather forget. Nikki blames him for an awful lot of her bad history, but try as she might she can’t seem to shake her feelings for the man.

‘Maybe it wasn’t the man’s job to chase; maybe the woman needed to choose to fight too. choose to fight for them when tragedy hits the man in the knees and keeps him down.’

This is the third book in the series and I didn’t feel like I missed much not reading the first two, however, after reading this book I so badly want to read Bentley and Brock’s stories. Each of the Wellington brothers is broken in a way that I simply can’t understand. They were raised by their grandfather, a man who is so rigid and unbending, but so full of love for his grandsons it’s heart wrenching to witness. The story has more downs than ups in the first half and I’d suggest a box of tissues. The pain and suffering is palpable and intense. Deep breaths are required at certain points and I even had to walk away a time or two. The pain that Nikki and Brant share is tragic and unfathomable. How could two people go through that kind of trauma and not end up where they did?

‘Death had a way of breaking the living. and maybe that was why they didn’t survive. Because they were both halves of a whole that didn’t make it. Maybe that was their destiny, to always be in each other’s lives but never get the happy ending.’

***3.5 Stars***

This one was a rough one for me, one that I came quite close to DNF’ing if I’m absolutely honest. I hate to admit that, because I never want to DNF a book, especially one that I have been looking forward to reading (even if it did take me a long, LONG time to get to). But there was that one ‘thing’ that kept me reading, which I’ll get to in a bit) and in the end I’m happy I stuck it out to see how everything worked out for Nikki and Brant.

So, the ‘thing’, or really ‘things’, that kept me reading were Cole and Nadine. I’ve loved Nadine since first being in her presence and kinda want to be her when I grow up. But Cole was pretty amazing. Had there not been a “Cole” in the mix, I wouldn’t have kept going. He was sweet, protective, snarky and I absolutely adored him.

Now for Nikki and Brant. It’s really hard to truly dislike either of, especially after all that they had gone through in a very short amount of time. Nikki, I really liked from the start and after finding out all that had happened I couldn’t help but admire how she found a way to pick herself up and at least attempt to have some semblance of a life. Brant, I obviously had many, many moments where I wanted to do way more than Gibbs smack him, even after finding out the full story. I swear my heart bled for both of them, but his self loathing went to a level that I couldn’t handle. But, as they both FINALLY communicated with each other ~ truly communicated, I started to root for them and ended up very happy with where they were at in the end.

This one put me through the ringer and the honest truth is that if Cole, or a character like him, hadn’t been a part of the story I would have DNF’d, so this really goes to show how secondary/supporting characters can help to make or break a book for me. I waffled a bit on my rating and if I should round down or up, I picked up because by the end I was all in. So, if you like OTT angst, then this one is definitely for you.

Man this was one awesome series and each Wellington man was delicious to read especially Brants We finally see what happened to this sweet guy to make him what he is now. Rachel Van Dyken sure has a way of making things complicated yet with a tinge of second chances anything is possible. As a reader who loves second chance love stories this one was perfect in every way.

“I received an eBook copy from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own.”

What an amazing story this was my heart went out to Brant and Nikki. I loved all the Characters especially Grandma Nadine! It will have you glued to your kindle dying to know what's going to happen next.

Brant and Nikki are soul mates and madly in love with eachother until tragedy strikes them. Things are said and done that they can't take back. Fast forward 4 years and Brant is thrown back into Nikki's life. Brant and Nikki face some hard descion's one being forgiveness.

With every story I read by Rachel I fall more in love with her story's and have many of times found myself laughing hysterically and the next crying or even routing for the fool to redeem himself.

Second chance / exes romance. This one is kind of heavy. Brant and Nikki became exes for a reason. There was quite a bit of tragedy, heartache, and pain between them. Their relationship is emotional, turbulent with ups and downs. Brant is all broody and Nikki is standoff and distant. Given their history it was hard for them to jump back into the relationship. Even soulmates need time to heal. I don’t love the couple but I like them toward the end. The book is well written though and I would read more from this author.

A wonderful story about second chances, filled with side-splitting laughter. A quick-paced romance brought them together, followed by a heart-wrenching divorce. After four years, Nikki and Brant are thrust into each others lives on a daily basis, and somehow they have to try and make it work. This is the third in the Bachelors of Arizona series, but can definitely be read as a stand alone.

Review: The Bachelor Contract is the third book in the Bachelor of Arizona series and it was nice to be back with the Wellington brothers and their family. This is another second chance romance book and this time it is Brant and Nikki’s story. They were married but parted ways four years earlier, after two tragedies hit. When they are reunited again at the Bachelor Auction, and I use that term loosely, things get interesting fast. He’s not happy that she was the highest bidder for him and she’s not happy that she could have lost her job if she didn’t win. When they don’t take advantage of fulfilling the requirement of the winning bid things take on an interesting twist and there’s a lot of darkness involved in both of their lives but some laugh out loud moments too.

Nikki has had it hard the last four years since he walked out of her life and Brant has no one to blame but himself, or does he? He has no idea what Nikki has had to endure and he doesn’t like her best friend, Cole, who always hopes for more than friendship with her. When Cole and Brant are in close proximity there are fireworks each and every time. They don’t see eye to eye on anything and definitely don’t like each other. It doesn’t help that Brant is now the new boss of the hotel where they work. There were vivid descriptions of the hotel and the spa that made me feel that I was there.

It was nice to see the interactions with his brothers, his grandfather and some of the staff since there was a lot of non communication going on! Brant was a hard guy to like but he did finally earn some respect. Nikki had a big support system that Brant had a hard time getting through at times. Nikki and Brant were thrown together often and things between them were either very hot or very cold. There were laughter and tears, heartache, sadness, hurt, arguments, physical altercations, lots of history revealed along with loving and love. The story flowed nicely and the ending was unexpected but gave nice closure. I would love to return to this series even with a Christmas novella to see how each of the brothers lives turned out.

Van Dyken is an author whose books I’ve enjoyed and I look forward to reading more of her writing.

I love this series and couldn't wait to read Brant's story.

As you know from The Bachelor Auction, all three brothers were put as auction items - a "win a date with".

Brant's winning bidder is his ex wife. The woman he was madly in love with against his families wishes. Tragedy upon tragedy befell them and with no where to turn, Brant turned to booze.

He's been so lost, and feels so guilty for everything that happened between him and Nikki, he struggles to surface. But when the two of them are "stuck together" there is no denying that the attraction is still there.

Can Brant get his act together? Can Nikki forgive him from the past?

Definitely one click for this series conclusion.
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This series has become one of my favs by RVD. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the Broody drunken Brant.. because we all knew he had some serious shadows from his past haunting him and I am so happy to finally have all his layers opened up. I would give this book a 4 stars and highly recommend to others. This is sort of a stand-alone but I would highly recommend reading the other 2 books in the series- The Bachelor Auction and The Playboy Bachelor.

This book although it was the end for the Wellington brothers, was so worth getting the final words and the ending it deserved. The thing I most enjoyed in this book is the banter between the characters, everything they did and said flowed together so well. I am sad to see it end but can't wait to see what RVD has in store for us next.

Brant and Nikki have a past that they tried to escape alone, but when fate brings them back together can Brant let go of the guilt he harbors? Can Nikki learn forgiveness and move forward with Brant?

Get to one clicking to see what happens! You don't want to miss it!

An adorable addition to the Bachelors of Arizona series!

I abandoned this book one third of the way through. I couldn’t stand the male lead, he was obnoxious, rude and downright awful. It was easy to predict how this book was going to go. It was just not for me. I will not be rating or reviewing this book. Thank you.

I loved all of the Bachelors. But Brant ... Brant may very well be my favorite. He was the most broken of them all and oh my golly was it fun to see him fall! Packed with emotion and a ton of mishaps The Bachelor Contract will have you glued to the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next. I loved the Wellington family and the Titans just rounded them out. There were so many emotions in this book. I was crying one moment and then laughing soon after. 5 stars for the third Bachelors of Arizona!

Reviewed on behalf of The Book Boyfriend Addict (www.bookboyfriendaddict.com). A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

No matter where she went, she was still a part of him, a beautiful reminder of his ugly past.

Brant Wellington has been a shell of his former self ever since his entire life fell apart four years ago. He’s managed to keep the pain at bay via an endless parade of meaningless hookups and plenty of alcohol. But now that he’s forced to not only see his ex-wife, but also work beside her every day, all the feelings he’s tried to keep buried are fighting their way to the surface. When Nikki was coerced into bidding on her ex-husband at his family’s charity auction, she wasn’t sure what she expected to get out of the deal. At the very least she was hoping to get closure, but being around Brant again is proving more difficult than she ever expected. With a past as painful as theirs, will they be able to find a way to move forward or will this finally be the goodbye that they missed out on the first time around?

“It’s a bit terrifying.”
“My ability to romance you?”
“Or maybe just my ability to fall for it.”

The first two books have hinted at Brant’s painful past but they left us wondering what exactly happened to put him in such a bad way. Well, now we finally got to find out and it was a doozy! It was pretty horrible what happened to him and Nikki several years ago and it’s no wonder that things fell apart between them. There probably aren’t a lot of couples that could make it through that kind of trauma. In light of that, this book had plenty of emotional moments, but overall the story wasn’t too heavy thanks to the frequent comic relief in the form of Nikki’s best friend, Cole, and the rest of the Wellington crew. This meddling crew was back in full force throughout this book and Cole was a welcome addition to the madness. It really was a team effort to get Brant and Nikki back on the right path, even if some of the antics were a little over the top. As far as second chance romances go, though, this was a good one and it was nice seeing the last Wellington find his way back to happiness. I’m not sure if there will be more books in this series since all the Wellingtons are now spoken for (perhaps Cole??) but it’s been fun reading about this slightly dysfunctional, albeit well-intentioned, family finding their perfect matches!

“Nik, I’ve spent the last four years numbing the pain. Seeing you again makes me believe that maybe the best way to live isn’t to ignore it but to learn how to survive it with the ones you love by your side.”

A heartbreaking series of events and miscommunications eventually lead into a second chance years later. I loved this story - the conniving family working to get the two of them together, their willingness to try again, and the romance!