Natural Born Charmer

April 30, 2007
Veteran narrator Anna Fields (whose real name was Kate Fleming) died recently, and this audiobook—one of her final performances—shows just what a loss her passing is to the industry. This quirky romance full of eccentric, colorful characters is a perfect showcase for her talent. She creates distinctive, believable voices that bring the characters to life: the slow, deep drawl of football star Dean Robillard and the feisty, sarcastic tone of Blue Bailey, the down-on-her-luck wanderer he picks up on the road. There’s also the timid, innocent, anxious-to-please quaver of 11-year-old Riley, whose irresponsible rock star dad also fathered Dean, and the crotchety, elderly, Brooklyn-tinged voice of Nina, the mean-spirited old woman who owns the small town they all end up in. Field’s wonderful performance elevates the material and makes this romance even more entertaining on audio than it is in print. Simultaneous release with the Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 6).

November 6, 2006
In this latest installment in Phillips's romance series starring the Chicago Stars football players (This Heart of Mine
; Nobody's Baby but Mine
), the bestselling novelist delivers a love story wrought with delicious sexual tension and charged banter. When debonair starting quarterback Dean Robillard, on a soul-searching road trip after a serious shoulder injury, happens across Blue Bailey, walking alongside the road wearing a beaver costume, he stops to help her. Blue is far from a Barbie-esque football groupie, but broke and stranded, she needs both a ride and a job, and the football all-star (driving a sexy Aston Martin) poses an interesting opportunity. As the two travel from Colorado to Dean's new farmhouse in east Tennessee, Blue resists his advances, and both athlete and vagabond struggle with deeply rooted trust and familial issues that are soon exacerbated by the unexpected presence of Dean's mother at the farm. While the verbal sparring in this textbook case of opposites attracting feels stagy at first, the rough edges come together in an alluring way.

During an era when romantic comedies and sports heroes were considered antithetical, Susan Elizabeth Phillips became a star combining the two. This book is the latest jewel in her crown. Superstar quarterback Dean Robillard takes a road trip to figure out why his glamorous life is no longer making him happy. Along the way, he encounters artist Blue Bailey, wearing a beaver costume and trudging down the highway. She's bent on finding and murdering her ex-fiancé, and that's just the beginning. Anna Fields keeps things simple, letting Phillips's peerless comic dialogue and array of quirky characters, including Dean's aging rock-star father, alcoholic ex-groupie mother, and teenaged half-sister, do the heavy lifting. It works like a charm. C.E.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine