Books › Natural Born Charmer
Natural Born Charmer
First published 2007 · 409 pages
A hilarious, chaotic road trip blossoms into a deeply touching story about misfits finding their home in each other.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like rolling the windows down on a chaotic, sun-drenched road trip that unexpectedly leads you exactly where you need to be. It opens with a burst of sheer absurdity and razor-sharp banter, pulling you in with its snappy dialogue and the sheer friction between a golden-boy athlete and a fiercely guarded, unconventional heroine. But beneath the laugh-out-loud antics and sassy exterior lies a surprisingly tender core. The narrative gradually slows its pace to explore the quiet, aching spaces of childhood neglect and the profound relief of finding your people. It is a warm, deeply satisfying experience that delights readers who love watching a makeshift family of stubborn, broken misfits slowly knit themselves together into something beautiful and permanent.
- Mood
- chaotic
- warm
- sunlit
- tender
- Tone
- witty
- sassy
- heartfelt
- playful
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- found family · healing childhood wounds · opposites attract · the burden of fame · unexpected belonging
- The writing
- Snappy and dialogue-driven, the prose balances sharp comedic timing with sudden, striking moments of emotional sincerity.
- The arc
- The journey shifts from a shield of sarcastic, defensive banter into a tender, vulnerable surrender to love and unexpected family.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave laugh-out-loud romantic comedies where quirky, fiercely independent heroines and golden-boy heroes accidentally build a family of misfits.
Content notes
- parental abandonment
- childhood neglect
- toxic family dynamics
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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