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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  GeniusJen | Oct 14, 2009 |  NATURAL BORN CHARMER is the third book I've read by Susan Elizabeth Phillips and I'm so glad it's not the first, because I may have been persuaded to not try her again. I'm giving it three stars, which in all in all is not that bad I guess, but I will definitely not ever be rereading this book and honestly, if I hadn't read HEAVEN, TEXAS and MATCH ME IF YOU CAN and loved them so much I would probably be giving it a lower rating. It's really unfortunate, because the book started off well, there are a number of interesting characters - including the two main ones, and there were some wonderful scenes ... but it was just a labor to get through after the first third or half of the book. I'm finally done now though, so (thankfully) back to the library it goes! (  ) julianapwk | Sep 24, 2009 | I'm not into slapstick or silly stupid humor. That's why when I read the opening scene I felt a momentary urge to hurl this book (OK, it was a library book, so I wouldn't actually hurl it). Blue Bailey is walking down the road in a beaver costume when Dean Robillard drives by and stops to help her. Reminded me of one of those comedy skits from the old Carol Burnett Show. Turns out this book was not as light as I first thought. It is a romantic comedy but with an underlying edge of dark. Dean and Blue both have serious abandonment and trust issues. And for good reasons. Dean is a sports superstar as the quarterback of the Chicago Stars. His father was a huge rock star (think Bruce Springsteen or someone like him) who didn't know how to be a father and pretty much ignored him. His mother was a drugged out groupie who didn't know how to be a mother but gives him up to be raised by someone who is responsible and grows to love him. He is still seriously angry at both of his parents. His mother has gone straight and is trying to get back into his life but he wants nothing to do with her. Blue's mother was an activist who is out to save the world one cause at a time but really should not have been a mother because she sucked at it. Blue took second place in her mother's life while she was passed from foster home to foster home. Recalling those memories made some heartwrenching scenes. She eventually learned not to become attached to anyone because she would eventually lose them. Phillips' signature of great dialog and sexy banter was in full swing here. I loved how good Dean and Blue were together and how they had to work through their issues and grow as people before their happy ending is possible. As usual her characters are very well drawn and unique. This is a story about families and forgiveness and trust as well as a great love story. However, I thought Dean should have groveled a bit more at the end when he ... well, I won't spoil it. I liked Match Me If You Can a little more than NBC but it was still very enjoyable. (Grade: A-) (  ) reneebooks | Sep 6, 2009 | I wasn't sure it was possible for a Sophie Kinsella-type book to be more predictable than they are... apparently, they can -- Kinsella writes them under her real name! Pleasant enough, I suppose, when it is not entirely annoying. ( ) stephaniechase | Aug 31, 2009 | Love it! I have read this book so many times I had to rebuy it. (  ) Aliwave12 | Jul 31, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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Chicago Stars quarterback Dean Robillard is the luckiest man in the world: a bona-fide sports superstar and the pride of the NFL with a profitable side career as a buff billboard model for End Zone underwear. But life in the glory lane has started to pale, and Dean has set off on a cross-country trip to figure out what's gone wrong. When he hits a lonely stretch of Colorado highway, he spies something that will shake up his gilded life in ways he can't imagine. A young woman . . . dressed in a beaver suit.
Blue Bailey is on a mission to murder her ex. Or at least inflict serious damage. As for the beaver suit she's wearing . . . Is it her fault that life keeps throwing her curveballs? Witness the expensive black sports car pulling up next to her on the highway and the Greek god stepping out of it.
Blue's career as a portrait painter is the perfect job for someone who refuses to stay in one place for very long. She needs a ride, and America's most famous football player has an imposing set of wheels. Now, all she has to do is keep him entertained, off guard, and fully clothed before he figures out exactly how desperate she is.
But Dean isn't the brainless jock she imagines, and Blue—despite her petite stature—is just about the toughest woman Dean has ever met. They're soon heading for his summer home where their already complicated lives and inconvenient attraction to each other will become entangled with a charismatic but aging rock star; a beautiful fifty-two-year-old woman trying to make peace with her rock and roll past; an eleven-year-old who desperately needs a family; and a bitter old woman who hates them all.
As the summer progresses, the wandering portrait artist and the charming football star play a high-stakes game, fighting themselves and each other for a chance to have it all.
Natural Born Charmer is for everyone who's ever thought about leaving their old life in the dust and never looking back. Susan Elizabeth Phillips takes us home again . . . and shows us where love truly lives.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400)
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With unrealistic situations (what woman would hitchhike with a stranger in this day and age, even if you knew, technically, who he was -- and then go off with him to his vacation home) that made me dislike the main character, I had to work to get into this story. Once involved, though, I did enjoy the plot, but not nearly as much as I have in the past.
This isn't a bad book, but it's by no means SEP's BEST work. (