Product Description

It wasn't every day a guy saw a headless beaver marching down the side of a road, not even in Chicago Stars quarterback Dean Robillard's larger-than-life world. He slammed on the brakes of his brand-new Aston Martin Vanquish and pulled over in front of her.

The beaver marched right past, her big, flat tail bouncing in the gravel, and her small, sharp nose stuck up in the air. Way up. The beaver looked highly pissed . . .

She was definitely a girl beaver because her beaver head was missing, revealing sweaty, dark hair pulled into a scraggly ponytail. He'd been praying for a little distraction from his own depressing company, so he threw open the door and stepped out onto the shoulder of the Colorado road . . .

Funny, sexy, and touching—Natural Born Charmer is the unforgettable love story of a golden boy who might be losing his luster and a spirited woman who's learned never to depend on anyone but herself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #321825 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this latest installment in Phillips's romance series starring the Chicago Stars football players (This Heart of Mine; Nobody's Baby but Mine), the bestselling novelist delivers a love story wrought with delicious sexual tension and charged banter. When debonair starting quarterback Dean Robillard, on a soul-searching road trip after a serious shoulder injury, happens across Blue Bailey, walking alongside the road wearing a beaver costume, he stops to help her. Blue is far from a Barbie-esque football groupie, but broke and stranded, she needs both a ride and a job, and the football all-star (driving a sexy Aston Martin) poses an interesting opportunity. As the two travel from Colorado to Dean's new farmhouse in east Tennessee, Blue resists his advances, and both athlete and vagabond struggle with deeply rooted trust and familial issues that are soon exacerbated by the unexpected presence of Dean's mother at the farm. While the verbal sparring in this textbook case of opposites attracting feels stagy at first, the rough edges come together in an alluring way. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
After her ex-boyfriend Monty insists that she is the only person he ever loved, Blue Bailey packs up everything she has (which isn't much) and moves from Seattle to Colorado to be with him. But once Blue arrives, she discovers Monty has found love again with a younger, blonder new girlfriend. With few job options and practically no money, Blue thought she might be stuck in Colorado for a long time, until Dean Robillard drives through on his way to Tennessee. The last person Blue wants to ask for a favor is a way-too-gorgeous-for-his-own-good stranger who annoys her to no end. And who turns out to be the quarterback for the Chicago Stars. But Dean is Blue's only ticket out, even if it means she is stuck with him all the way to Tennessee. RITA Award-winner Phillips creates yet another classic romance in her loosely connected Chicago Stars series with this splendidly satisfying tale of love, family, and redemption. Generously seasoned with plenty of tart humor and snappy dialogue, and graced with a delightfully amusing pair of protagonists trying desperately not to fall in love, Natural Born Charmer is simply irresistible. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Award-winning New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips has found fans all over the world with her warm and wonderful contemporary love stories that manage to touch hearts as well as funny bones. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and has two grown sons.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable contemporary romance
I liked smart mouthed heroines and I understood Blue's motivations. She understood herself well enough to know that falling for Dean Roubillard would be disastrous. She uses everything that she can think of to ward him off, to turn away his natural born charm. Her best weapon is her brain and her mouth.

Yet, for all her knowing, like many romance heroines, she fails to see that her being a challenge is the best way to attract him. Dean knows women and he is pretty sure that Blue is attracted to him, after all he's rich, famous and gorgeous. That's enough to make any girl's heart rate rise. On the other hand, he's a little disconcerted that she doesn't fall easily into his hands. As a super competitive person, Dean becomes challenged. Soon everything between Dean and Blue becomes a contest. Who can give the most witty retort. Who can confuse the other the most. Who can be the most frustrating.

The story would have been good just watching Blue and Dean spar, but this more than a love story, its a story about families and their capacity to love, betray, hurt and forgive. It's about second chances and who deserves them. What you have to do in order to deserve them? Does a mother who spent her time high and floating from one man to another in search of a better hit deserve forgiveness and a chance at a relationship with her son. Does a father who wanted nothing to do with his son except when the son becomes famous deserve the same? The problem that this book has is that because of the mostly lighthearted overtones, the chance to explore the deeper themes of love and betrayal is missed. Those parts are glossed over. They maybe be glossed over because neither Dean nor Blue really want to explore their past, but their methods of coping can't continue to work if they are to grow as characters.

Where I felt really cheated was that the patterned behavior of abandonment learned by Dean is re-enacted against Blue, Dean doesn't really come to see the truth of his own actions. In fact, I thought there was a point of great betrayal by Dean to Blue that is simply explained away with a sentence or two. There needed to be groveling. Lots of it and publicly done. The lack of the good grovel after the humiliating event coupled with the superficiality of some themes cast a minor pall over the end pushing the grade of this book down to a B.

Hmmm, Very Familiar... But in a Good Way
I must preface by saying I am a huge SEP fan. She is the only romance novelist that I will buy in hardback without question. Her writing is a cut above her peers by being smart and funny and the characters have depth. Furthermore, her books always work toward that satisfying "ahhh" moment where her characters reach the break through that has eluded them throughout the story. (i.e. Isabel standing on a castle wall holding a fertility idol, Alex taking a knee in the center ring, etc.) Charmer has all those elements. But there were also some unwanted similarities.

There were many scenes that were more than simply reminiscent of previous novels but actual replicas. For example, if you trade out the beaver costume for an ugly southern dress you have the opening of Fancy Pants. The reasons Blue gives for traveling with Dean were also said by Gracie Snow in Heaven, Texas. The "coincidences" continue throughout but I don't want to spoil anything. The overall effect was that I had difficulty seeing the story on its own. Dean and Blue were a bit overshadowed by their predecessors.

That said, I loved this novel. It centers around Dean Robbilard, the stars QB introduced in Match Me If You Can. He is thankfully sans earrings and has an ability to laugh at himself that is very endearing and refreshing by comparison to most romance leading men. Blue Baily is witty to the razor's edge of caustic which I could not get enough of. I truly connected with their quirks and vulnerabilities and I know this is the first of many times I will read the novel.

On a side note, the printing was a bit messed up. Some of the words were faded and on one page I had a big black ink stain. Since it is a hard cover I expect a bit better. I have no idea if mine was unique or if it effected an entire run. I could read everything, so no harm done.

One True Note
SEP has done it again. In Blue Bailey, she's created another terrific female character you'll never forget and hate to let go, like Phoebe and Sugar Beth and Isobel. Someone touched on the darker themes in this book and SEP doesn't shy away from these: abandonment, drug abuse, etc. But as an author, SEP always writes with a non-judgmental approach to her characters and through her talent, she peels away layers until she finds that one true note that explains her characters' motivation. And suddenly you understand. SEP writes comedy with human drama mixed in and although she touches on these darker themes, she doesn't allow them to steal the story. It takes a deft touch to handle these themes the way she does because the stories could so easily become humorless. As usual, there's the great dialogue, the funny one-liners, the peerless descriptions that make SEP one of a kind, and the love for her flawed characters that sparkles on every page. I wish we could clone Susan, or just compel her to write faster.