Christmas magic, but make it messy

⭐⭐⭐ 

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about Pining for You by Stef Ferrari. Bennie is a high school senior who works at...some sort of Christmas tree-type emporium in Connecticut. She encounters Eve, who lives in Brooklyn, and she and her friends decide to go into the city to try to find her so Bennie can capitalize on Christmas magic and have her first kiss.

That description makes it sound a lot lighter than it is. Bennie and her friends are pretty much all dealing with fairly weighty issues--as is Eve. It's pretty much all family issues, but Bennie and her friends are also facing down the end of high school and all of the change that comes with that. It's a hard, transitional time of life, to be sure. But that's all heavier than the Hallmark Christmas movie description makes it out to be.

The story itself is pretty cute, and I enjoyed Bennie's group of friends and how much they were there for each other. (I didn't need as much explicit "We're a found family, yay!" exposition as there was, but this is YA, so I should probably give it a pass.) Bennie herself could be a bit annoying at times, though in a way that was fairly realistic for a teenager from Connecticut. She wants to go to film school and so keeps recording on a Camcorder as the group traipses about New York, but doesn't realize that not everyone wants to be recorded and is hurt when she's told so. I could also very much relate to her frustration at not being able to participate in a number of her normal Christmas traditions--because this is a Hallmark-esque story (Bennie's goal is to make queer Christmas rom-coms), Bennie is all about the magic of Christmas, and throughout the book has to confront that not everything is magical, that Christmas can be hard for people. She also finds Christmas magic in unexpected places and moments, so it does even out.

Also, Bennie and Eve's relationship is great (though the third act crisis seemed...off). As someone who also had my first kiss later than many others (though my friends were never this invested in making sure I got it), I could relate to Bennie's feelings about it.

Unfortunately, I wasn't particularly enamored of Ferrari's writing; I'm not sure whether it was trying to sound Zoomer or what, but it was a bit cringe-inducing to me, a Xennial. At times, it was a bit of a slog, oddly enough, and there were chunks I wound up skipping--particularly at the end, where there was a multi-page speech spelling out the lessons of the book. Good for Bennie for learning them, and I guess theoretically young people reading the book might need them spelled out, but it felt a bit like it was underestimating the audience.

Still, would 100% watch the tv movie adaptation. And as such, I'll include my Hallmark movie checklists.

Trope(s):
    Royalty
    Alternate reality
    Small town ✔
    Fake relationship
    Family business getting sold/going bankrupt 
    Enemies-to-lovers
    Best friends-to-lovers
    Second chance
    Stranded ✔

Meet Cute: 
Eve and her Christmas Carol-obsessed younger brother show up at the Christmas place in Connecticut where Bennie works. Bennie's trying to get a tree to surprise her mother with, but is entranced enough to spend some time getting to know Eve. But she gets called off before getting Eve's contact info; she's just left with a few snippets of information and some cookies from Eve's family's bakery.

Rundown:
    Dead parents ✔
    Montage(s)
    Christmas-related name(s) ✔
    Animals
    Returns to hometown
    Is Santa a character? 
        Secretly or overtly?
    Cookie baking 
    Tree decorating ✔
    Somebody hates Christmas
    Christmas festival in a small town ✔
    A literal competition 
    Child plays matchmaker
    All work, no romance/life 
    Kiss before the end of the movie ✔
    Interrupted kiss ✔
    Flashback to childhood
    The leads literally run into each other
    Gratuitous shirtless scene
    Big Secret
    Wacky misunderstanding
    Just. Talk. To. Each. Other. ✔
    Someone pushing the leads together ✔
    Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic
    Learns the meaning of Christmas
    Stranded by snowstorm ✔
    Hot chocolate ✔
    Ice skating 
    D-list celebrity
    Enemy-to-friend storyline
    The love interest is an ex
    Career change
    Lying to each other
    Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
    Christmas pageant 
    End with a flash-forward

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.  

Hallmark Movie Roundup: Absolutely Devoted to You

Title: Absolutely Devoted to You (2026)

Actor(s) You Know: 
Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives, John Tucker Must Die, Hallmark movies and tv shows), Kimberly Sustad (many Hallmark movies, of which The Nine Lives of Christmas is one), Barry W. Levy (various things; totally a Hey! It's That Guy! guy)

Plot:
Kaitlin is a segment producer for a NY morning show. Her boss tells her that Kaitlin can get 90s one-hit wonder Absolutely Yeah to perform on their end-of-the-summer show, Kaitlin will become the executive producer. Three of the four members of Absolutely Yeah are all-in, but Derrick is now working at a community center on Long Island and doesn't want to be back in the spotlight again. Meanwhile, the community center is putting on a variety show to pay for the next year's programming, because that's completely how that kind of facility gets funding. (Well, maybe now it is. /sobs/)

Trope(s):
    Royalty
    Alternate reality
    Small town 
    Fake relationship
    Family business getting sold/going bankrupt ✔ (Kind of; the community center will go out of business if the variety show doesn't do well)
    Enemies-to-lovers
    Best friends-to-lovers
    Second chance
    Stranded

Meet Cute: 
Kaitlin tracks down Derrick in the community center, with help from his former bandmates. Kudos to her, she never tries to hide who she is or what she's doing, and she gets Derrick to say that if she helps make the variety show a hit, he'll participate in the reunion.

Rundown:
    Dead parents
    Montage(s)
    Christmas-related name(s) 
    Animals
    Returns to hometown
    Is Santa a character? 
        Secretly or overtly?
    Cookie baking 
    Tree decorating
    Somebody hates Christmas
    Christmas festival in a small town 
    A literal competition
    Child plays matchmaker
    All work, no romance/life
    Kiss before the end of the movie
    Interrupted kiss 
    Flashback to childhood
    The leads literally run into each other
    Gratuitous shirtless scene
    Big Secret
    Wacky misunderstanding
    Just. Talk. To. Each. Other.
    Someone pushing the leads together ✔
    Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic
    Learns the meaning of Christmas
    Stranded by snowstorm
    Hot chocolate 
    Ice skating
    D-list celebrity
    Enemy-to-friend storyline
    The love interest is an ex
    Career change
    Lying to each other
    Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
    Christmas pageant 
    End with a flash-forward

Did I actually like/root for the heroine? How do the lead(s) annoy me?
I will always root for Kimberly Sustad. They had a good balance with Kaitlin; she's ambitious and good at her job, but still vulnerable. And, of course, connects with everyone. Derrick is harder to accept. He doesn't want the attention of being a celebrity, but I wanted more of a backstory, more of his motivations.

Is it in any way not completely generic? 
I mean, he works at a community center trying to raise money via talent show. No.

Is the BFF actually the best? Do they need their own movie?
I 100% would watch the sequel about Sara, the morning show's costume person, who winds up dating one of the other boy band members. She and the boy band member both seem fabulous and I want to spend more time with them.

How is the romantic alternative wrong for the heroine? 
N/A. No romantic alternatives for anyone.

Thoughts/Other Notes:
First of all, why did they even MAKE this movie if they weren't going to include the original 90s music video for their song (which was, I admit, a bit of a bop)? I spent the whole movie waiting for the flashback and it never came. So here's the video of "PoP Goes My Heart" from Music & Lyrics:

Anyway. The movie is fine. Sustad and Metcalfe had basically no romantic chemistry. I did like the other boy band members and the group of teenage boys Derrick works with were a good bunch. I always appreciate when characters are good at their jobs. I'm just a bit disappointed, because I felt that this movie had potential that it just didn't meet.

Rating:
🧀🧀

Hallmark Movie Roundup: Winter in Vail

Title: Winter in Vail (2020)

Actor(s) You Know:
Lacey Chabert, Queen of the Hallmark Movies (also known from Party of Five and, if you're me, Les Mis--I saw her as Young Cosette on Broadway in 1994), and Tyler Hynes, also from a million Hallmark movies

Plot:
Chelsea quits her job as an LA event planner after inheriting a chalet in Vail from her uncle. She arrives in Vail to find that the chalet is mid-reno, and also that a number of businesses in town--including a local German restaurant--are failing. (Apparently this universe's Vail isn't full of rich people.) Owen, the contractor/son of the German restaurant's owner, helps Chelsea Realize What's Important in Life. Also, they throw StrudelFest to save the town. (Because the German restaurant is failing because of the lack of Chelsea's uncle's famous strudel.)

Trope(s):
    Royalty
    Alternate reality
    Small town ✔
    Fake relationship
    Family business getting sold/going bankrupt ✔
    Enemies-to-lovers
    Best friends-to-lovers
    Second chance
    Stranded

Meet Cute: 
Chelsea arrives in Vail and parks illegally. Owen points it out in a less-than-friendly way...though it does prevent Chelsea from getting towed. Then he shows up to help fix up her uncle's house.

Rundown:
    Dead parents
    Montage(s)
    Christmas-related name(s) 
    Animals
    Returns to hometown
    Is Santa a character? 
        Secretly or overtly?
    Cookie baking ✔
    Tree decorating
    Somebody hates Christmas
    Christmas festival in a small town 
    A literal competition ✔
    Child plays matchmaker
    All work, no romance/life ✔
    Kiss before the end of the movie
    Interrupted kiss 
    Flashback to childhood
    The leads literally run into each other
    Gratuitous shirtless scene
    Big Secret
    Wacky misunderstanding
    Just. Talk. To. Each. Other.
    Someone pushing the leads together 
    Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic
    Learns the meaning of Christmas
    Stranded by snowstorm
    Hot chocolate ✔
    Ice skating ✔
    D-list celebrity
    Enemy-to-friend storyline
    The love interest is an ex
    Career change
    Lying to each other
    Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
    Christmas pageant 
    End with a flash-forward

Did I actually like/root for the heroine? How do the lead(s) annoy me?
They're both perfectly fine. There's not much in the way of conflict--Chelsea and Owen put aside their differences basically immediately--and all the characters are reasonably likeable. I'm mostly annoyed by them being like, "We can throw a Strudelfest to get into local guidebooks that come out next month!" That's definitely how that works, yes. Also, Owen is possibly too supportive.

Is it in any way not completely generic? 
Nope, not really. 

Is the BFF actually the best? Do they need their own movie?
Chelsea's coworker/BFF seems pretty cool but doesn't get enough of a personality to make me think she needs her own movie. Also, she's suckered by their boss to go to Vail and try to get Chelsea to come back.

How is the romantic alternative wrong for the heroine? 
n/a. No romantic alternatives for anyone.

Thoughts/Other Notes:
I put this movie on while on a business trip to have on while I was doing some work. This was pretty perfect background noise. In retrospect, I am unsure how this movie even filled up 2 hours, as again, there was basically zero conflict until the very end (Will Chelsea go back to her event-planning life in LA? and you can guess how that worked itself out).

Rating:
🧀🧀🧀🧀

Hallmark Movie Roundup: The Way to You

Title: The Way to You (2026)

Actor(s) You Know: 
Leads Kim Matula and Aaron O'Connell have both been in a bunch of Hallmark movies, but nobody really recognizable outside the Hallmark Cinematic Universe.

Plot: 
New Yorkers Emma and Conrad each have meet-cutes on the New York subway during a blackout. Conrad places an ad to try to find the woman he was talking to, but Emma is the one who answers the ad. She realizes she can probably help him find his missing lady, and he agrees to help her try to find a date amongst his coworkers. (They work in finance, so the script makes Conrad extra nice to make up for it.)

Trope(s):
    Royalty
    Alternate reality
    Small town 
    Fake relationship
    Family business getting sold/going bankrupt
    Enemies-to-lovers
    Best friends-to-lovers
    Second chance
    Stranded

Meet Cute: 
The cutest meet is Conrad and the woman he meets on the subway--she drops her copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, he returns it to her, and they chat on the subway.

Rundown:
    Dead parents
    Montage(s) ✔
    Christmas-related name(s) 
    Animals
    Returns to hometown
    Is Santa a character? 
        Secretly or overtly?
    Cookie baking ✔
    Tree decorating
    Somebody hates Christmas
    Christmas festival in a small town 
    A literal competition
    Child plays matchmaker
    All work, no romance/life
    Kiss before the end of the movie
    Interrupted kiss 
    Flashback to childhood
    The leads literally run into each other
    Gratuitous shirtless scene
    Big Secret
    Wacky misunderstanding
    Just. Talk. To. Each. Other.
    Someone pushing the leads together 
    Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic
    Learns the meaning of Christmas
    Stranded by snowstorm
    Hot chocolate 
    Ice skating
    D-list celebrity
    Enemy-to-friend storyline
    The love interest is an ex
    Career change
    Lying to each other
    Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
    Christmas pageant 
    End with a flash-forward

Did I actually like/root for the heroine? How do the lead(s) annoy me?
Both Conrad and Emma are pretty likable. Conrad is perhaps a bit too perfect (unless you count being an early bird a flaw); Emma is a bit more balanced, but still likable.

Is it in any way not completely generic? 
I thought they did the new-friends-who-grow-to-like-each-other plot quite well; the progression worked. Good side characters. That said, Emma works in an art gallery. However, working in finance didn't make Conrad evil, so there's that. (His parents got caught in a Ponzi scheme, so he's a Good Finance Guy.) (Note that my father also worked in finance, so I don't default to finance guys = evil, but I get the stereotype.) But no bad finance bros. Even the guy Emma winds up dating a bit isn't bad; they just don't click as a couple.

Is the BFF actually the best? Do they need their own movie?
Emma's sister and brother-in-law are adorable and I love them. Would 100% watch their movie. Probably also one about Conrad's boss Lance and his wife.

How is the romantic alternative wrong for the heroine? 
Emma goes on a date with one of Conrad's coworkers and there's no spark; after Conrad finds his Mysterious Subway Lady, she gives dating the coworker another guy. He's totally fine! (Except something of a lack of sense of humor.) But it's nicely realistic! Sometimes people are OK but you just don't have that spark.

Thoughts/Other Notes:
This was cute! I liked that there were some good book discussions in there and I liked Conrad getting interested in art. Good chemistry, good side characters. Recommend.

Rating:
🧀🧀🧀🧀

Hallmark Movie Roundup: The Weekend of Hallmark Movies

A friend and I got an Airbnb for the weekend and pretty much spent the entire time just watching Hallmark movies (and snacking). It was glorious and I highly recommend it to everyone. I don't have the energy to do full posts about each movies, but obviously I must share some thoughts.

For Love & Honey (2024): Andrew Walker is an archaeology professor in Malta, looking for something mentioned in an old manuscript. The treasure is bees, which he discovers with the help of a local beekeeper who runs a successful apiary. Whatever money the Malta tourism board paid for this movie was well worth it; Malta looked gorgeous. And Andrew Walker looks hot in sunglasses, so it's a win-win.
Dead Mother: Yes 

The Magic of Lemon Drops (2024): Lolly works at a restaurant with her father, who won't let her alter the menu in literally any way. Her aunt, who is #LifeGoals, gives Lolly four magic lemon drops--she can use three to see what her life could be and the fourth to choose to stay in one of those lives. The moral of this story is that if you manage to save one of your parents by a wish, the other will be dead in the alternate timeline. I appreciate that she rejected one timeline because it meant stifling her love interest's goals. That said, the logistics of the movie were confusing (the love interest worked for the Columbus Blue Jackets but was moving to a "cottage" in upstate Michigan). 
Dead Mother: Yes

The Snow Must Go On (2025): Isaiah had starred in an original Broadway production unspecified years ago, but he's now down on his luck, so agrees to spend Christmas with his sister and niece upstate...and then agrees to write and direct his niece's Christmas pageant in hopes of catching the eye of a Broadway producer. I kept going back and forth on whether I thought Isaiah was the worst and they dropped a subplot with a kid that I thought was going somewhere, but they did hire an actual Broadway actor and allowed him to sing.
Dead Mother: It probably mentioned the siblings' parents, but I don't remember the details. I'll just assume dead. Or retired in Florida. But probably dead.

Beverly Lewis' The Reckoning (2015): It turned out this was the third movie in a trilogy, but we just powered through. Katie/Katherine was raised Amish, fell in love with Daniel, was supposed to marry a bishop but didn't after she thought Daniel died, found her (non-Amish) birth mother, inherited her mother's many money and huge house, got shunned from the Amish, and is now running a charitable foundation with boyfriend Justin...when Daniel returns from the dead. This movie was nuts and Katie just needed a lot of therapy and to choose herself, but naturally that isn't what happened, even though Daniel came off as a creepy, incel stalker. Also, her household staff were probably a bit too overly involved in her life.
Dead Mother: Yes

Cozy Hallmark-watching vibes.

The Professional Bridesmaid (2023): Maggie is a professional bridesmaid (do we ever learn how she became one? No. Did it bother me the whole time? Yes. At least in Stacy Birchall's The Secret Bridesmaid, you get the full backstory) who gets hired to be a bridesmaid for the daughter of the mayor of Columbus, so she has to juggle fairly normal professional bridesmaid stuff with trying to keep a reporter covering the wedding from questioning the mayor about his views on a proposed condo development. Honestly pretty cute and enjoyable except for my annoyance at not having her backstory and the usual annoyance at writers not really thinking about what scaling her business would actually look like.
Dead Mother: Yes

Blind Date Book Club (2024): Meg runs a bookstore on Nantucket that's become known for doing a book club that uses that "wrapped in brown paper so you don't know the title, just a pithy description" method. Again, we have no idea what the logistics of this are--it honestly makes no sense how it's presented in the movie--and they also somehow seem to have multiple book clubs a week, and those book clubs involved free food and alcohol and activities like flower arranging or painting. Anyway, she's featured on NPR and YA bestselling author Graham Sterling decides to try to get the club to read his new book, which is a historical romance. I quite liked the discussion of what makes a book successful, and Meg was able to point to Graham why his books worked even though she herself wasn't particularly a fan. Also, Meg is debating whether she actually wants to run the bookstore; she was good at selling real estate in Boston, and she enjoyed it. I mean, obviously she's going to keep the bookstore on Nantucket, but the movie made her questioning believable. My other quibble is how much they were outside in a Nantucket winter.
Dead Mother: Yes

The Wedding Cottage (2023): Vanessa runs a wedding...guide...website...thing? and has published a wedding guidebook. To promote her site/service/thing, her company has a contest for a free wedding; the winners want to have their wedding a cottage in Vermont that has hosted weddings for generations. Only problem is that it closed 5 years ago, and the current owner, Evan, a Fancy New York Artist Who's Hiding, has let it go to pot and has no interest in reopening. But naturally he does. The Vermont location was cute, the third-act conflict was annoying, and the vagueness of what Vanessa's business actually is was beyond frustrating. Too twee, all around.
Dead Mother: Unclear, but since Evan inherited the cottage from his grandparents, I can only assume his parents are dead

3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost (2023): Anna and Elliot broke up and dissolved their business, so now Anna is trying to be a real estate agent in her dad's agency while Elliot works to get a local building designated as being historic. Anna's first listing is a 100-year-old house that's been uninhabited since the 1950s and is haunted by the owners' daughter, Ruby, who died in 1923. The relationship between Ruby and Anna was honestly fun, but Anna was frustrating to watch. It's clear she shouldn't be a real estate agent, but it isn't clear what she should be, and I get that's how life is for a lot of people, but I don't really feel the movie handled her journey well. Elliot was great, though.
Dead Mother:Again, I can only assume. Anna's mother isn't around and wasn't mentioned that I remember.

The Wish Swap (2025): Casey and Henry have the same birthday; at a restaurant, they wind up blowing out their birthday candles into each other's faces and then the other's birthday wish comes true...for them. So Casey, an executive recruiter, winds up inheriting a farm (with goats!), while Henry gets cast on a television dancing competition. Kudos for executing the set-up; they quickly realize what's happened and Casey having Henry run the inherited farm and Henry agrees to partner with Casey. The dancing contest premise doesn't really make sense, nor does the timeline, nor do some of the details of Casey's job (and the distances between places and also where is the dancing show filmed?), but it was cute. I may have been swayed by the choreographed dances.
Dead Mother: Yes

Hallmark Movie Roundup: Twelve Dates 'Til Christmas

Title: Twelve Dates 'Til Christmas (2025)

Actor(s) You Know:
Mae Whitman (Parenthood, Arrested Development, Independence Day), Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman;  The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Plot:
Kate is an American who lives in a cute English village and was traumatized by her mother leaving her father when she was a teenager. She works in textiles in London and is single enough that her friends sign her up for a "12 Dates of Christmas" service. Based on a Jenny Bayliss book that I read a few years ago, enjoyed, and remembered little of except who Kate winds up with.

Trope(s):
    Royalty
    Alternate reality
    Small town ✔
    Fake relationship
    Family business getting sold/going bankrupt
    Enemies-to-lovers
    Best friends-to-lovers ✔
    Second chance ✔
    Stranded ✔

Meet Cute: 
Kate has a few in the series, but the primary one is with Richard, who was supposed to be Date #1 but couldn't make it. The other primary love interest is Callum, one of Kate's best friends. They kissed once as teenagers, but nothing came of it.

Rundown:
    Dead parents
    Montage(s)
    Christmas-related name(s) 
    Animals
    Returns to hometown
    Is Santa a character? 
        Secretly or overtly?
    Cookie baking 
    Tree decorating
    Somebody hates Christmas
    Christmas festival in a small town 
    A literal competition
    Child plays matchmaker
    All work, no romance/life
    Kiss before the end of the movie ✔
    Interrupted kiss ✔
    Flashback to childhood ✔
    The leads literally run into each other
    Gratuitous shirtless scene
    Big Secret
    Wacky misunderstanding
    Just. Talk. To. Each. Other. ✔
    Someone pushing the leads together ✔
    Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic
    Learns the meaning of Christmas
    Stranded by snowstorm
    Hot chocolate 
    Ice skating
    D-list celebrity ✔
    Enemy-to-friend storyline
    The love interest is an ex
    Career change
    Lying to each other
    Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
    Christmas pageant 
    End with a flash-forward

Did I actually like/root for the heroine? How do the lead(s) annoy me?
Kate was frustratingly believable. She has a hard time trusting people after her mother left her father. At times I got annoyed with her for her self-involvement but I generally understood where she was coming from. She ultimately was a lot more understanding toward her mother than I probably would've been in her situation.

Is it in any way not completely generic? 
Well, it is a (limited) series, so there was a lot more depth than what we get in a normal movie. Kate's father's relationship with Jane Seymour was also given a lot of space, and there was also a decent amount about Kate's career that I don't remember being in the book at all. Callum also has a bit of an arc with his pub/restaurant/bakery, as does other best friend Laura.

It still ends up exactly as you'd expect, though. 

Is the BFF actually the best? Do they need their own movie?
I loved how supportive Laura's husband was; their relationship was super cute. I actually totally would watch a movie/show about Laura after the end of this show.

How is the romantic alternative wrong for the heroine? 
I really liked that I found Richard to be a solid option for Kate for the vast majority of the series; I was actually a bit annoyed at his portrayal in the last episode because it didn't match up for me with his actions in the rest of the series. And I wish the Kate/Callum relationship was handled differently. I'm always a sucker for best-friend-turned-lover, and God knows I have my own issues with thinking people should be able to read my mind and act accordingly, but Callum's attitude and behavior was pretty off-putting. I was honestly rooting for Richard for most of the series, and wish the last episode had been rewritten to strengthen the reconciliation of Kate and Callum.

Thoughts/Other Notes:
I quite enjoyed this. I liked the book, and I liked the series. Opinion on Hallmark Movie Reddit seems mixed, largely because it doesn't entirely feel like a Hallmark production. It was a good binge watch for the end of the year for me. 

I do also kind of wish they had spent more time in Blexford. In the book, Kate only goes to London occasionally, where the series is very much split between the two (to the point that I joked to my husband that the series was produced by British Transport, given the amount of time spent on trains). And I also appreciated, as in the book, the variety of dates the service sets up.  

Rating:
🧀🧀🧀🧀

Hallmark Movie Roundup: Three Wisest Men

Title: Three Wisest Men (2025)

Actor(s) You Know: 
My Boyfriend Paul Campbell, Tyler Hynes, Andrew Walker (all three from a million Hallmark movies), Lochlyn Munro (Lucky 7), Margaret Colin (Independence Day)

Plot:  
This is the last entry in the Hallmark Wise Men trilogy about the Brenner brothers: Stephan (Campbell), Taylor (Hynes), and Luke (Walker). Stephan is overthinking wedding decisions for his upcoming nuptials, Luke's wife is pregnant with twins, and Taylor has been offered a job in San Francisco. Plus, their mother wants to sell the family home.

Trope(s):
    Royalty
    Alternate reality
    Small town 
    Fake relationship
    Family business getting sold/going bankrupt
    Enemies-to-lovers
    Best friends-to-lovers
    Second chance
    Stranded

Meet Cute: 
n/a

Rundown:
    Dead parents
    Montage(s)
    Christmas-related name(s) 
    Animals
    Returns to hometown
    Is Santa a character? 
        Secretly or overtly?
    Cookie baking 
    Tree decorating
    Somebody hates Christmas
    Christmas festival in a small town 
    A literal competition
    Child plays matchmaker
    All work, no romance/life
    Kiss before the end of the movie
    Interrupted kiss 
    Flashback to childhood
    The leads literally run into each other
    Gratuitous shirtless scene
    Big Secret
    Wacky misunderstanding ✔
    Just. Talk. To. Each. Other. ✔
    Someone pushing the leads together 
    Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic
    Learns the meaning of Christmas
    Stranded by snowstorm
    Hot chocolate 
    Ice skating
    D-list celebrity
    Enemy-to-friend storyline
    The love interest is an ex
    Career change
    Lying to each other
    Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
    Christmas pageant 
    End with a flash-forward

Did I actually like/root for the heroine? How do the lead(s) annoy me?
I wasn't too bothered by any of the brothers, particularly. I did get annoyed at their various love interests for not understanding pretty basic stuff. When Stephan's father-in-law-to-be Bob shows up uninvited,  fiancée Susie takes her dad's side on everything; she's clearly annoyed at how wedding planning is going, which shouldn't be a surprise for her--Stephan's indecisiveness is one of his key character traits. Bob is awful and Susie should apologize to Stephan.

(Also, side note, Bob is played by Lochlyn Munro, who played one of Patrick Dempsey's friends in Lucky 7, which is an AMAZING MOVIE. Anyway, he is only thirteen years older than My Boyfriend Paul Campbell, and I kept being upset by this throughout the movie.)

Meanwhile, Taylor's girlfriend doesn't understand why he doesn't immediately leap at a job offer he's given; she's convinced that he might be hesitant about their relationship when it's clear that the issue involves moving from Seattle to San Francisco. This is a man who lives in his mother's (very nice) basement. 

Is it in any way not completely generic? 
This is very much not a generic movie--it focuses on family, and it's the third in a trilogy (and yes, we did have issues only vaguely remembering details from the first two movies). Christmas is very much a theme, with trying to make this the Best Christmas Ever Before Everything Changes, but there's a signature zaniness to the series that's absent in the generic Hallmark Christmas movie.

Is the BFF actually the best? Do they need their own movie?
n/a

How is the romantic alternative wrong for the heroine? 
n/a

Thoughts/Other Notes:
A cute end to the trilogy. Campbell, Walker, and Hynes are the key to the series and they really are a delight; they do give off brother energy. If you like any of the leads, you'll probably like the movie. 

Rating:
🧀🧀🧀

Holiday Rom Com Roundup: Lovelight Farms

Title: Lovelight Farms (2021)
**This is actually a book, but it read just SO much like a Hallmark movie, I had to review it this way.

Actor(s) You Know:
n/a

Plot:
Stella owns a Christmas tree farm and has entered an influencer's contest to be featured on her channels...and win $100,000. The only problem is that she said on the entry form that she owns the farm with her boyfriend. Who doesn't exist. Naturally she had to ask her best friend Luka, whom she's in love with, to be her fake boyfriend. 

Trope(s):
    Royalty
    Alternate reality
    Small town ✔
    Fake relationship ✔
    Family business getting sold/going bankrupt ✔
    Enemies-to-lovers
    Best friends-to-lovers ✔
    Second chance
    Stranded

Meet Cute: 
Ten years ago, Stella had recently lost her (single) mother. Leaving the hardware store in her little town on Maryland's Eastern Shore, she literally runs into Luka, who promptly invites her for grilled cheese. They've been best friends ever since, even though he lives in New York City. (His Italian mother is a teacher in the small town, so he has an excuse to be around a lot.)

Rundown:
    Dead parents ✔
    Montage(s)
    Christmas-related name(s) 
    Animals ✔ (A very cute litter of kittens is found and adopted by one of the other employees)
    Returns to hometown
    Is Santa a character? 
        Secretly or overtly?
    Cookie baking 
    Tree decorating ✔
    Somebody hates Christmas
    Christmas festival in a small town 
    A literal competition ✔
    Child plays matchmaker
    All work, no romance/life
    Kiss before the end of the movie ✔
    Interrupted kiss 
    Flashback to childhood
    The leads literally run into each other ✔
    Gratuitous shirtless scene
    Big Secret
    Wacky misunderstanding
    Just. Talk. To. Each. Other. ✔
    Someone pushing the leads together ✔ (The entire town)
    Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic ✔
    Learns the meaning of Christmas
    Stranded by snowstorm
    Hot chocolate  ✔
    Ice skating ✔
    D-list celebrity
    Enemy-to-friend storyline
    The love interest is an ex
    Career change
    Lying to each other
    Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
    Christmas pageant 
    End with a flash-forward ✔

Did I actually like/root for the heroine? How do the lead(s) annoy me?
I found Stella incredibly frustrating. Her (married-to-another-woman) father left her mother before she was born, and Stella's mother was a nomad who then died when Stella was in her early 20s, so she has an understandable fear of abandonment. And I totally get her being afraid to admit her feelings to Luka. But she's one of those Rory Gilmore-esque characters where the entire small town is overly invested in her life, and isn't aware of it.

Is it in any way not completely generic? 
Umm. I mean, at least Stella realized she was in love with Luka the whole time, even if actually doing anything about that was terrifying.

Is the BFF actually the best? Do they need their own movie?
This is the first in a series; there are books about the two other Lovelight Farms co-owners (which I'm kind of tempted by? At least the one about Beckett, the tree expert).

How is the romantic alternative wrong for the heroine? 
n/a

Thoughts/Other Notes:
I enjoyed the book less the more I read it. I think the ultimate problem is that the fake relationship was done for this social media contest, and the influencer didn't show up until about 75% into the book...and then was barely there. There was a LOT of time where it's like, "Let's just fake date...in private, too" and where it's just incredibly obvious how Luka feels. Solid premise that needed tightening up.

Rating:
🧀🧀🧀

Hallmark Movie Roundup: Christmas at the Catnip Café

Title: Christmas at the Catnip Café (2025)

Actor(s) You Know:
My Boyfriend Paul Campbell (many Hallmark movies, Battlestar Galactica)

Plot:
Olivia, who works in marketing in California, inherits half-ownership of a cat café in New York State. The other half is owned by Ben, the local vet. Olivia wants to sell the café so she can have a down payment for a condo. In Oakland.

Trope(s):
    Royalty
    Alternate reality
    Small town ✔
    Fake relationship
    Family business getting sold/going bankrupt
    Enemies-to-lovers ✔
    Best friends-to-lovers
    Second chance
    Stranded

Meet Cute: 
Olivia first notices Ben in his vet clinic as she walks down the street; then he pops up at the cat café, where she's arranged to meet the other owner. Ben immediately susses out that Olivia wants to get rid of the café; Olivia is bewildered that he doesn't want to get rid of what seems like a bustling business. And then is again bewildered when the café employee overhears their discussion and takes away the coffee she had ordered.

Rundown:
    Dead parents
    Montage(s)
    Christmas-related name(s) 
    Animals ✔
    Returns to hometown ✔ (Kind of; Olivia isn't from the town, but her aunt lived there and she spent time         there growing up)
    Is Santa a character? 
        Secretly or overtly?
    Cookie baking 
    Tree decorating ✔
    Somebody hates Christmas
    Christmas festival in a small town ✔
    A literal competition
    Child plays matchmaker
    All work, no romance/life
    Kiss before the end of the movie ✔
    Interrupted kiss ✔
    Flashback to childhood ✔
    The leads literally run into each other
    Gratuitous shirtless scene
    Big Secret
    Wacky misunderstanding
    Just. Talk. To. Each. Other.
    Someone pushing the leads together 
    Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic
    Learns the meaning of Christmas
    Stranded by snowstorm
    Hot chocolate 
    Ice skating
    D-list celebrity
    Enemy-to-friend storyline 
    The love interest is an ex
    Career change
    Lying to each other
    Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
    Christmas pageant 
    End with a flash-forward

Did I actually like/root for the heroine? How do the lead(s) annoy me?
Olivia is THE WORST. She comes into town, looking to force Ben to sell the cat café, and doesn't seem to understand why he and the café employees aren't happy about this. She's all, "There's a developer who wants to buy this, isn't it great?!" She seemingly wasn't in touch with her aunt at all because everything about the café seems to be a surprise to her. She just...doesn't seem bright. Paul Campbell is too nice to her. You can do better, Paul Campbell.

Is it in any way not completely generic? 
There were many many adorable cats. 

Is the BFF actually the best? Do they need their own movie?
Olivia's friend seemed fine. Ben's sister also seemed cool. I don't know that I need to spend more time with either.

How is the romantic alternative wrong for the heroine? 
There is no romantic alternative, sadly. Otherwise I'd be rooting for her to get together with him.

Thoughts/Other Notes:
In addition to Olivia being the worst, the timeline in the movie makes no sense. Olivia is trying to buy a condo and wants the money from the café sale for a down payment, but we're supposed to believe that the condo is still available after the 3+ weeks she's in New York. At one point, we see an event is "December 21," but multiple days seem to pass and it's still not Christmas. I just don't know. This movie was frustrating. But I still love you, Paul Campbell.

Rating:
🧀🧀(mostly for the cats and Paul Campbell, who is very likable in this)