Natural Born Charmer (A-/B+)
by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

This is one of the books that I was looking forward to this 2007. Been pestering FullyBooked Promenade for my reserved copy since its schedule of release was last February. My pestering finally paid of and I got my copy two weeks ago.

Ever since I’ve read about Dean Robillard in Match Me If You Can, I totally fell in love with him. He’s too adorable and charming for his own good. And that explains my anticipation of this book.

The book started out fun. Seeing the heroine in a beaver mascot walking down the road and how she wrestles with her tail gave me the giggles. Dean and Blue’s travel to the farm was pretty hilarious sometimes too. Once they reached the farm though, I sorta lost interest with the heroine since there were other characters introduced who I found more interesting, ie. Riley, April and Jack. I liked them better than Blue… though not as much as I like Dean. But then that’s maybe because I’m biased with him. XD She picked up again about three-fourths into the book when she and Nita got together. Their banterings were fun. But all in all, Blue didn’t do it for me. There’s something about her that I’m looking for to be able to keep up with my love for Dean.

As a book, though this is a classic SEP book, light, romantic and fluffy, it didn’t lived up to how much I like her other books in the Chicago Stars series, more specifically Match Me If You Can, since that’s where we first meet Dean. MMIYC made me cry, particulary in that cliff scene. The setting, the dialogue and the over-all atmosphere at that one set the mood for it to be one of the most romantic scenes I’ve ever read. That’s what I was looking for in NBC. It wasn’t there. At the end of NBC, I felt that everything was just rushed. I didn’t see the supposedly love that Dean has for Blue since it built up too fast. Or how they proved to each other their love for one another for that matter. It was like Bam Kablam, they’re married. That’s the main reason why I’m giving it an A-/B+. Or maybe because I was expecting too much more, it being a Dean story, that I’ve really raised up my hopes.

Compared to the other SEP books I’ve read last year (since it was only last year that I discovered her), this is lower. Her average grading in my book is A/A-. Anyway, grading’s still pretty high just because even after finishing the book, I still am totally liking Dean and his charm. Still, I’ll pretty much keep this in my bookcase since I would really like to reread it and see if I will like Blue better the second time around. And just to visit Dean and his farm. Dean. Dean. Dean. Dean. It’s all about Dean… XD Can you tell, I really like Dean?

tags: books, susan elizabeth phillips