Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Natural Born Charmer
    Natural Born Charmer
    Natural Born Charmer
    Audiobook12 hours

    Natural Born Charmer

    Written by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

    Narrated by Anna Fields

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    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. New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips takes us home again . . . and shows us where love truly lives

    Editor's Note

    Opposites attract...

    Opposites attract in this Audie Award-winning romance. The late Anna Fields, in one of her final performances, makes all the quirky characters—from the sexy star NFL quarterback to the old, cranky neighbor—shine.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 6, 2007
    ISBN9780061262418
    Author

    Susan Elizabeth Phillips

    Susan Elizabeth Phillips is a #1 New York Times bestselling author whose books have been published in over thirty languages. Guided by the motto, “Life is better with happily-ever-afters,” she loves writing about love in all its forms. Among her accomplishments, Susan created the sports romance with her novel Fancy Pants. She is best known for her Chicago Stars and Wynette, Texas series, as well as multiple stand-alone books. Visit Susan’s website at www.susanelizabethphillips.com.

    More audiobooks from Susan Elizabeth Phillips

    Related to Natural Born Charmer

    Titles in the series (8)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Running Away

      Feb 22, 2021

      Leaving London behind her, Millie drove faster, picturing thousands of crazed fans in pursuit, desperate for what – a lock of her hair? Or Julian; except after the last gig, somehow she knew he wouldn’t follow. She knew from bitter experience that di

      5 min read

    • Article

      Epithalamium

      Jun 1, 2023

      Epithalamium
      16 min read

    • Article

      Watch Your Step

      Nov 19, 2020

      Watch Your Step
      5 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2023 Whiting Award Winners

      Mar 29, 2023

      The 2023 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Here are excerpts from their work.

      18 min read

    • Article

      Water Under The Bridge

      Nov 10, 2022

      The sound of water coursing over rocks filled my ears. The creek banks reached out with lush green vegetation as if to grab and hold me, and the warm June air was sweet with the smell of honeysuckle. The creek was small. Four good jumps and I could g

      26 min read

    • Article

      Righteous

      Jan 22, 2019

      Righteous
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Jun 18, 2015

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Aug 8, 2013

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      A summons FROM AUNTIE

      Jan 25, 2023

      ‘I know a fat old policeman, he’s always on our street,’ sang Mr Dear at the top of what I suppose we must call his voice. ‘A large and jolly red-faced man, he really is a treat.’ Then, suddenly, the only sounds were the gentle hum of the engine, th

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Emperors of Existence

      Dec 28, 2018

      The Emperors of Existence
      9 min read

    • Article

      Dirtnap

      Dec 15, 2019

      I was staying at Jean’s apartment in LA for two months to escape an especially dire Oregon winter and to test how much weight our relationship could bear. We had been conducting a long-distance romance for nearly a year then, back-and-forth visits an

      24 min read

    • Article

      The July War

      Sep 8, 2020

      In summer, our neighborhood quiets in phases. The quieting begins in May. Schools give their older kids, the seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds, a month off to prepare for the baccalaureate exams. Following a ritual as old as our parents, the students

      21 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Say

      Oct 7, 2022

      I magine a sticky, early August morning, around three o’clock. It is dark, the moon blocked by clouds, no streetlights, a siren in the distance, medics running to a heart attack. Imagine a man out on a bike or walking a sick dog, or maybe a woman who

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Missing Limousine

      Sep 28, 2021

      The Missing Limousine
      21 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      What Say You?

      Feb 16, 2022

      What Say You?
      8 min read

    • Article

      Michael Caine On Brexit, Boris Johnson And Big Breaks: ‘I’ve Done 150 Movies. I Think That’s Enough’

      Oct 18, 2021

      Michael Caine is 88 and walks with a stick. He has a gammy leg and a dodgy spine and reckons the only time he leaves the house these days is when his wife has the time to take him out for a drive. The other week he was sent a screenplay that had his

      8 min read

    • Article

      FAST, FAMOUS & FURIOUS!

      Mar 10, 2022

      IT WON’T surprise anyone who has ventured out on the highways and byways of Britain recently to learn that Road Rage statistics are on the UP. Pressures of a global pandemic, the economic downturn and massive hikes in the cost of living have transfor

      9 min read

    • Article

      Hollywood, Ending

      Feb 13, 2018

      Hollywood, Ending
      7 min read

    • Article

      Royal Hotel, Mt Hope

      Nov 14, 2018

      Royal Hotel, Mt Hope
      6 min read

    • Article

      What Say You?

      Aug 19, 2021

      What Say You?
      5 min read

    • Article

      On Through The Night

      Oct 11, 2022

      On Through The Night
      7 min read

    • Article

      Restless Souls

      Mar 6, 2018

      Restless Souls
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Lame Joke

      Nov 5, 2020

      A Lame Joke
      7 min read

    • Article

      Get Into The Sea, He-karens

      Dec 17, 2020

      Get Into The Sea, He-karens
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Conversation

      Nov 1, 2023

      The Art Of Conversation
      4 min read

    • Article

      Hello, Grim Reaper

      Dec 15, 2021

      She was a babe. A fully paid-up, card-carrying babe. There was absolutely no doubt about it, and she was heading straight for me. She was almost sprinting towards me across the recently reimagined lobby of Claridge’s. She looked up, her scarlet-anoin

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Natural Born Charmer

    4/5

    652 ratings41 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Life is but a dream...

      Natural Born Charmer is a beautiful story about a famous, ridiculously handsome, not to mention rich, superstar NFL quarterback?whom, by the way, also has a lucrative side career as a billboard model for End Zone, a fancy sports underwear manufacturer?meeting and falling madly in love with an unlikely companion: A woman walking along the side of a road ... Dressed in a beaver suit.

      (Laughs)

      Susan Elizabeth Phillips is phenomenal!

      Blue Bailey, our beloved protagonist, is out on a mission to murder her ex ... Or to at least beat the living crap out of him. For Blue is truly a woman scorned. And she's just about at her wit's end, when, while out walking along the side of a road, she spots the expensive sports car, which slows to pull up alongside of her. Unbeknownst to Blue, the driver is none other than Chicago Stars quarterback Dean Robillard. So, after some small talk and a few jokes (from Dean in response to the beaver suit) Dean offers Blue a ride; she accepts...

      From there on, the plot gets greater ... And funnier ... And exciting ... And gripping. The rest of the hilarious cast of characters include an aging rock star, a fiftyish-year-old former rock and roll groupie, an eleven-year-old lovable girl who turns out to be Dean's long lost sister, and an old woman, embittered and loathesome.

      Natural Born Charmer is a perfect read for any season. It has style, character, and personality to long for. Beautiful novel.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      One of my favorite books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. The opening of this book was one of the best I've ever read. Anna Fields narrated this story so well. Really miss her.
    • 5/5
      Great story! I Loved it and the Laugh out Loud parts were awesome.
    • 5/5
      Great story and the sassiness of the characters is hilarious and so cool. Some scenes where a tiny bit silly or forced to link all the characters together but it’s quite a good book with lots of nice romance. Total thumbs up!
    • 5/5
      i loved this book becuase it was so relateable the characters where real with real quorks and fualts
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      Just one remark: go and read it!
    • 3/5
      Books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips are hit or miss for me. This one was luckily pretty good.

      I usually have problems with SEP's characters. Her heroines are too silly and naive and I rarely like her heroes, too. And even though Blue is not my favourite romance heroine, it wasn't that bad this time. Both, she and Dean have some serious depth. And the whole story isn't so strongly on romantic comedy, in my opinion, which is good. I think I liked Dean slightly more than Blue.
    • 5/5
      I have never given 5 stars but the narrator brought it up. A little too "feel goody" for my taste but that's the world we live in now; destruction , death and cynicism.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book! I loved match me if you can and this one was just as good if not better!!
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book. It was performed by Anna Fields, who did a fantatsic job!
      I loved the characters. This had a wonderful storyline too!
      I recommend you pick this one up.
    • 4/5
      A witty and humorous romance with two couples of different generations. A feel good volume that was a perfect distraction from life.
    • 5/5
      One of the best opening scenes ever.
    • 5/5
      Natural Born Charmer is a delightful contemporary fictional story, filled with funny situations and witty dialog. The characters in this book will win your heart, stir your emotions, and make you laugh.Thirty-year-old Blue Bailey learned from a very young age that people could not be trusted. Everyone she has ever loved left her. She decided that it was easier to feel the heartache of loneliness, than to suffer the stinging pain of betrayal and rejection. So Blue Bailey hid herself behind a smart mouth, oversized tee shirts, combat boots, and a badass attitude.Pro football player Dean Robillard smiled when he spotted a woman dressed in a beaver suit, stomping alongside the highway, blazing with anger. Intrigued, he pulled his car over. He had no idea that his life was about to change forever. Blue Bailey on the other hand had no idea that she was about to let in a self-centered, selfish man who would crack her inner fortress, and break her heart.Blue Bailey marched along the Tennessee Highway, furious and fit to be tied. Her bank account had been ransacked, her car rendered useless, and if she didn’t get out of her beaver suit soon she was going to drop from heat exhaustion. So when Pro football star Dean Robillard stopped to offer her a ride, she took it.Dean was used to women falling all over him. So when Blue Bailey refused his charms, he was stunned. Who was this girl? She certainly wasn’t a beauty queen dressed in men’s clothing and combat boots. She should feel lucky that he even acknowledged her presence at all. But the more time Dean spent with Blue, the more he discovered that her thick sarcastic exterior was just a cover for the insecure beautiful girl who lived beneath it.Blue couldn’t understand why she even cared about Dean. He was a conceited jerk and treated his mother as if she were dead. Blue got it though; he had been abandoned, but so had she. Maybe her mother wasn’t a druggie like Dean’s, but at least his mother was trying to be there for him now. That was more than she could say about hers. Blue had to get away from Dean Robillard. She was playing with fire, and her heart was about to be broken. So Blue took a job painting a portrait for a mean-spirited, hateful woman, who would end up befriending her.Natural Born Charmer is a well written, funny and emotional read, crafted with several subplots. Susan Elizabeth Phillips does a fabulous job developing her secondary characters. She depicts for the reader the overwhelming guilt that hits a parent when they realize, that their self-indulgent lifestyle has left permanent scars upon their children. Each character in Natural Born Charmer pulled at my heartstrings, except Dean Robillard. He never won me over. I love the character of Blue Bailey though; she’s sassy, smart and funny and has a beautiful, loving heart.The common thread in Natural Born Charmer is about relationships, the pain of them, the joy of them, and how some relationships are just worth fighting for, no matter what. I loved this book, it moved me emotionally and made me laugh. It’s unrealistic, but it’s so enjoyable that it really doesn’t matter. I read the book in one day.I highly recommend Natural Born Charmer. Be prepared to laugh and ride a roller coaster of emotions. Smart mouth, badass Blue Bailey is going to win you over. I guarantee it.~5 out of 5 stars~ Review by Peg Glover
    • 5/5
      Oh, I'm so sad that it came to an end. This book is on my top 3 of this incredible series, only losing for Nobody's Baby but Mine or Dream a Little Dream, which made me cry a lot. I was a little unsure about this one because Dean didn't make much of an impression on me in the previous book, but here I grew to be crazy about him and I loved every single second of it. Blue is on a whole other level of cuteness and badassness. She is freaking incredible. And it was amazing to see how everybody had their time in the spotlight and nobody was left behind.
    • 4/5
      I know a lot of people didn't like Blue and Dean, but I adored them. The more times I read this story the more I fall in love with them. Riley, April and Jack were all excellent secondary characters. SEP is a natural talent.
    • 4/5
      Another great one by SEP on audio, I'm sorry to finish the last of the Chicago Stars series for I simply loved it. Dean Robillard, natural born charmer and quarterback to the Stars meets fate in the shape of a petite woman wearing a beaver costume on the side of the road. He picks her up and so begins his unusual courtship with Blue Bailey as they make their way to his farm in Nashville. Things aren't exactly what he thought they'd be like while there. He unexpectedly meets up with his estranged parents: his gorgeous 52 year old ex-groupie mother whom he wants nothing to do with and his aging rock star father, Jack Patriot. In addition there's his 11 year old stepsister who has run away from home and a mean old lady who own the town of Garrison, Tennessee where his farm resides. It's one great story and I loved it! Loads of laughs, but heartwarming parts too as only SEP can do. Great characterizations, I loved everybody, especially Dean and Nita Garrison and the late great Anna Fields was amazing as narrator! Loved, loved the way she did Nita especially!
    • 3/5
      Natural Born Charmer is actually a pretty decent book, but...how shall i put it?...its eyes are bigger than its stomach. It's this light, frothy, contemporary romance between a quirky itinerant painter, Blue, and an all-star football player, Dean, with maybe a dozen sub-plots. There's Dean's relationship with his mother, Dean's relationship with his father, the relationship between Dean's mother and father, Dean and his half-sister, the half-sister and Dean's parents (individually and as a pair), Blue and the crotchety old lady who runs the town, Blue and her mother.

      Some of these sub-plots are pretty heavy; when Dean was very young, for example, his mother was a drug addict who did a pretty poor job of raising him. Now she's clean and wants to make up for her poor parenting. Phillips makes an effort to keep the light, funny tone, the witty repartee, and wrap everyone's story up at the end with a neat little bow...as a result, there's no way she can give each of her sub-plots the treatment it deserves. All the subplots, and the main romance as well, suffer from being squeezed into Phillips' allotted word count.

      I had one other problem with the book, which probably won't bother anyone else. We know Blue is a painter but it's not until the end that we find out how Blue paints. She gets the opportunity to let her creativity run wild and, apparently, she produces a lot of sentimental schlock. I'm sure plenty of people will be thinking, "Yes, march to the beat of your own drummer, Blue! Modern art is stupid, Blue!"...but not me. Finding out that she made silly paintings depressed me, so the book ended on a sour note for me. .
    • 4/5
      This is the best SEP I've read...so far, at least. I loved it (4.5 stars) and I'm still thinking about giving it five stars. The only thing I didn't love was the Thomas Kinkade vibe I was getting from the descriptions of Blue's painting-style.
    • 5/5
      Loved, loved, loved this book. The repartee is witty and the characters are charming and flawed and I loved going into their world.Dialogue is sassy and sharp and is sure to keep you on your toes. The heroine is not your glamourous beauty but she steals the heart of our hero and we want them to get it all together soooo much. I love the setting in Tennessee and the wanderlust of our heroine as she battles the fear of giving her love and accepting love after a lifetime of disappointments. We can all overcome and hope springs eternal when we read this charmer. Oh, and the hero is awesome in this book.
    • 5/5
      Superb.I was never one of those who didn't like Blue in the book - she always reminded me a bit of Gracie Snow from Heaven, Texas. Great on paper or in audio.
    • 3/5
      As much as I love the author , this story didn't really come up trumps or me. There was to much indecision from both Blue and Boo as to how their friendship was going, but I liked the sub characters, better, Boo's divorced parents, Jack and April, had a little thing going on their own. 
    • 4/5
      Just ignore the cover. The main character is first seen in a beaver suit for crying out loud and believes clothes should be more for comfort than style and I loved her. While she did compromise for him, she remains quite true to herself throughout and in fact he brings out the best in her, like she does with him. The two of them don't have it easy because they both have trust issues but they do create an interesting relationship and friendship.Would recommend it in a heartbeat. There are some very predictable parts but overall it was a great fun read.
    • 3/5
      I love the quirky characters that the author creates throughout all her books. As a lover of architecture, I saw the farm house as it's own character and fell in love with the gypsy caravan wagon.
    • 4/5
      This was actually a very good book.The storyline was fairly typical for a romance novel.The characters were all very well developed with surprising twists.I am not a romance reader but I am glad I read this one!
    • 4/5
      I have this thing about romance books -- a thing I look for that pretty much decides how much I'm going to like the book as I read it. That thing is what they called the "meet cute" in old movies, i.e. how the two main romantic couple meets. If that first meeting doesn't touch me somehow -- be it, make me laugh, make me interested, send chills down my spine, whatever -- then I pretty much give up on the book going from that point forward.This book SO did not mess up the "meet cute." My GOD did it not mess it up. Blue's (the main female character) first words to Dean after he's inquired whether he could be of some help to her? "Do you have a gun?" And when he says he doesn't, Blue's response, "Then I have no use for you." Perfect. And from Dean's point of view, he sees her walking down the road in a beaver costume....well, most of one anyway. How could it get any better than that? (And of course, I'm paraphrasing the quotes there...I don't remember the exact words used.)I love these characters, and not just the main ones, either. Every one of the characters that show up in this book are fantastically crafted and flawed and perfect. I can tell you, I am now a Susan Elizabeth Phillips fan. I don't think I've had this much fun with a book since I read "Agnes and the Hitman" by Jennifer Crusie. And by the way, Dean's father? Totally Keith Richards in my head.
    • 4/5
      Another excellent book by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Main Character Dean from "Match me if you can" has matured and lost his sense of humor from when we last saw him. Blue is a free spirit that complements Deans new attitude.
    • 4/5
      This is the final book in SEP's Chicago Stars series. I enjoyed this book and read it easily in a weekend. It wasn't my favorite of SEP's books, however. I'm not even really sure why. I liked Blue and Dean. They were funny and their story was plenty hot enough for me. I also liked the side characters. I especially loved Nita Garrison, the crotchety old woman who Blue befriends. I guess maybe for me the story was just a little bit too far fetched. Dean is an extremely good looking professional quarterback. His dad is a famous rock and roll artist. His mother is a groupie turned teetotaler. Blue's mother is a famous activist. Don't get me wrong, I like reading stories that take me out of my every day life into a dream world but only up to a point. Everybody was too rich, too good looking, and all of the reconciliations were too easy. It made the book a bit too predictable and kind of spoiled some of the fun. I still enjoyed it, however. I am a fan of Susan Elizabeth Phillips and her witty/sarcastic characters and in that regard, this book did not let me down.
    • 5/5
      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-)
    • 4/5
      I have never been a big fan of romance novels per say. I generally like my romance novels to be laced with a mystery or have a bit of an edge to them. This book however was recommended to me by the librarian on duty based on my other selections. I ended up liking it quite a bit. The story opens on a totally bizarre note. I found myself wonder what in the heck was going on. I stuck with it and things became clear rather quickly. Stick with it, it gets better.Susan Elizabeth Phillips manages to weave some complex layers into this novel. I haven't read any of her other books, so I am not sure if it is exclusive to this book or if she always writes this way. I love her insights on the complexities of family relationships. It was a joy to read and I feel that she was able to give the reader good insight into the characters motivations. Blue is the leading lady in this novel. She is always on the move, afraid to settle down. When she meets Dean, a QB out of Chicago, she ends up traveling to his cottage with him for lack of anywhere else to go. The two characters spar comically throughout the novel which helps make the novel light and entertaining.Will Blue be able to open herself to a relationship? Will Dean be able to open himself to his family? Find out in this Natural Born Charmer of a book!