Have you ever volunteered for a Christmas charity event?

When Darcy returns home for a much-needed Christmas vacation, she ends up assisting her mom with the Pemberley League Auction. She also finds herself working with Luke, her nemesis from high school. Luke is a chef, and he’s recently purchased his own restaurant – he just needs to come up with a name for his new establishment.

I loved reading about Luke and his cooking. In the romance novels that I write, I always mention food, cooking and desserts! I’ve had folks to tell me that reading my novels makes them hungry! I’m not kidding!

Luke and Darcy find that beneath their rivaling personalities, there’s a spark of interest – well, more than a spark, more like a roaring flame! They keep skipping kisses underneath the mistletoe (until the very end)!

They also have to work through issues – like Carl, Darcy’s old boyfriend who appears to be the perfect match for her. After all, he shares the same occupation, he works for her dad, too.

Luke and Darcy both have doubts about their relationship, after all, Darcy lives in New York, and that’s a far cry from her hometown. Plus, she’s a partner in her financial company – a partnership that’s very tenuous right now since the other partners are trying to stab her in the back! How awful!

I loved how everything came together at the end! The singing kids was a nice, added touch! I loved how everybody worked together for the Pemberley League Auction!

This movie was based upon the book, Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa De La Cruz! Come show the author some Christmas cheer and buy her book! When you read it, please let me know how it compares to the movie!

Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe is a re-telling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I’ve never read either of these books (Pride and Prejudice, nor Pride Prejudice and Mistletoe).

So, have you ever volunteered for a Christmas charity event? What kind of event was it? Did you enjoy working on it?

Have you ever visited a palace or castle?

San Senova – when I see this wonderful, mystical foreign land, a land with a king, queen, princesses…royalty, I want to know more about it. I want to see it with my own two eyes. I think it’s a nice touch, that the scriptwriters for this movie created a land that was founded on Christmas Eve!

Alex is known as being the Grinch king. He’s a modern-day Scrooge, at least, that’s what the San Senova residents think. I didn’t think that Alex was Scrooge-like at all. He reminded me of someone who doesn’t necessarily embrace Christmas, but, he wasn’t mean or anything. His daughter convinces him to commission the local visiting ice skaters to prepare, practice, and present a Founders’ Day Ice Skating Pageant on Christmas Eve (San Senova was founded on December 24th).

Alex has lost his wife and his dad over the last decade. His daughter is still grieving over losing her relatives and she’s hard on herself. She needs to let loose and have fun!

Katie is attracted to Alex but she has apprehensions. I mean, after all, he is a king! Would he really be a good match for her, a commoner and she’s not a resident of San Senova. Can a romance between them really work?

I’ve noticed that Hallmark has cookie-making scenes in most of their Christmas movies! Alex, the Grinch of Christmas, looks quite nice making cookies with Katie and his daughter for the Christmas Tea! I also loved the hot chocolate scene with Alex and Katie.

Overall this was a sweet, endearing movie. I thought it was a bummer when Katie abruptly left so that she could go and look at the ice rink in New Jersey that she was considering buying. I think Katie should’ve told Alex she was leaving – she didn’t even alert him or say goodbye, which was strange, but, everything worked out in the end, which is a good thing. The Founders’ Day Pageant was beautiful and Alex and Katie made their way back to one another since Katie returned. Also, Katie’s friend Jessica found romance via the palace as well.

So, have you ever visited a palace or castle? If so, in which country was it located?

Have you ever reconnected with an old boyfriend/love interest?

When Vanessa returns home for Christmas, she’s in for a big surprise. The first surprise occurs when she lands at the airport. The person picking her up is Mitch, her old boyfriend. She’s stunned to see him since she was expecting her dad to pick her up. The meeting between them is awkward since it’s obvious that they’ve not seen each other in years. To me, there appeared to be unresolved feelings between them – this was apparent (at least it was apparent to me) when they first reconnect at the airport.

Wait a second…do you like sweet emotional romance novels? Try one of my bestselling books! You will love them! Now, back to the movie….

Vanessa is stunned to discover that her father is closing the beloved clinic. Well, her dad is getting older and he wants to travel with his wife. The town’s people really depend on his support.

I couldn’t believe that Mitch waited ten years to give Vanessa a gift! Can you imagine waiting for ten years to give somebody a Christmas present? He’d bought it for her initially, but, never had the right opportunity to present it to her. This is just another example of the unresolved feelings between the two of them. Although Mitch has been engaged, well…it’s obvious that he’s never forgotten about Vanessa. After all, they’ve been friends since they were kids – Vanessa made him feel welcome. Mitch was a shy child and he needed help connecting with other kids and Vanessa was right there to help him. They’d developed a deep bond as children and, from what I could gather, that bond was always there, way into adulthood.

But, as luck would have it, they broke up when Vanessa went to college – the long-distance relationship just didn’t work for them.

I really liked how this couple re-connected, even though they’d not seen one another in years. I also liked the side story about Vanessa’s brother falling for the girl from his class. It was sweet when he tried to make her cookies – he really wanted to impress her since he felt bad about spoiling the surprise ending for a book she was reading.

It was nice seeing actor Patrick Duffy. I recall seeing him acting when I was kid/teenager. He was in Man From Atlantis as well as the famous series, Dallas. It’s always nice to re-connect with actors that I’ve “known” from a long time ago.

Have you ever reconnected with an old boyfriend/love interest? What happened? Were you able to make your romance work the second time around?

#Christmas #ChristmasinJuly #CountdowntoChristmas #HallmarkChannel #Hallmarkies #Hallmarkmovie #Hallmarkmovies #podcast #Holiday #Hallmark #romance #happilyeverafter #HEA #CeceliaDowdy #lovestories #romancenovels

My sister shared this Good Morning America video with me! These three guys are determined to review all thirty-seven Hallmark Christmas movies! Can you imagine that! Have you ever watched their podcasts? Looks like they’re having fun! If you’ve seen any of their reviews then please let me know what you thought about them! I’m going to take a peek to see what they’re saying about the wonderful Hallmark Christmas movies!

Have you ever worked in a bakery?

Ellie is a talented wreath maker. She makes beautiful wreaths…but, she doesn’t sell them. She says that it’s her hobby. Her full-time job is working at the White Deer branch of Carlingson Bakery!She seems to enjoy her job. She also works on the floor making Kringles. Kringles sure do look delicious! Each Kringle is shaped like a snowflake and all are originally designed – there are no two Kringles that look alike. Can you imagine that? Every Kringle is cut, layered and filled by hand! My mouth watered when I saw those Kringles!

Nick breezes into the town of Deer Park. He’s from the corporate office of Carlingson Bakery. Everyone thinks he’s simply there to see how the business operates and to learn how to work in the bakery. However, little do they know that Nick is hiding a secret, a big secret. He’ll soon be the head at Carlingson and he’s determined to streamline the process. After all, you don’t need people to cut a Kringle, machines can do that, right?

Wrong! Nick is drawn to the town and to the people. He’s also swooning over Ellie.

Ellie is still feeling awkward whenever she’s around Carl, her former boyfriend. Carl works in the fire department and he has Ellie’s best interests at heart.

Ellie needs to learn to spread her wings and do what she loves to do – making homemade wreaths. She needs to learn that just because she got rejected for one big-city job, doesn’t mean that she’s not suitable for another.

Nick realizes that Ellie is talented and he agrees to help her in the business world.

I really liked Nick. Yes, he basically lied when he came into town by not revealing that he was a Carlingson, but, he’s young. I think a lot of young folks who are business minded don’t necessarily think about people. He just wants the bakery to continue to be a success and he has some big shoes to fill when he takes over as head of the company.

Ellie is a great woman, too. She just needs a little nudge to help  her realize just how talented she is. She needs to bank on her skills and do something that’ll make her happy. At one point, she tells Nick that not all people experience passion, success and big dreams. Sometimes things are just “pretty good.” Pretty good? Ellie needs to shoot for the stars and go after those big dreams!

I really enjoyed this sweet, emotional romance! I also LOVED the bakery scenes. I really liked those Kringles, too! I also thought it was very thoughtful of the White Deer Carlingson Bakery to donate their leftover Kringles to the local food bank. I write about bakeries in my romance novels quite a bit, and in my stories, I have the bakers to donate their leftovers to the food bank or homeless shelter. I just think it’s a great thing to do – helping others instead of wasting food.

This was a sweet, tasteful romance movie, which again prompts my question:

Have you ever worked in a bakery? If so, what did you like/dislike about it?