From the moment I picked up Natural Born Charmer and turned it over to read the excerpt on the back, I was hooked: It wasn't everyday a guy saw a headless beaver walking down the side of the road. I knew this book would be a winner; true to form, I was laughing until the very last page.
Dean Robillard is a quarterback for the Chicago Stars, taking a break thanks to his injured shoulder and
on a road trip when he happens along said beaver walking down the road. Too intrigued to pass by, Dean decides to stop and offer a lift to the mascot
(which just happens to be the mascot of my college, Oregon State).
Blue Bailey has had to live life the only way she knew how. Shipped from one home to the next
as a child, she has found that life as a adult is not that much better as she sits in the passenger seat of Dean's Aston Martin with her hair flying in the breeze. It seems that no one stays by her side, except the one person she is afraid to let too close.
Interwoven throughout this funny and touching book is the story of Dean's younger stepsister, Riley, and her own search for
a sense of place, and a family's struggle to come together again after a lifetime apart. You will cry, you will laugh, you will sigh, but you will definitely agree that the cast of characters charms and captivates. Dean and Blue's story is so touching and heartfelt that long after I turned the last page and laid the book on the shelf, I was wondering if they had made it work and had a happily ever after.
Those are the kind of books I love to read, the ones that touch your heart and leave you wondering even though you know the characters are fictional.