It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide

today’s book: A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide

Last week I started my annual blog series spotlighting new and recently-released Christmas reads! (Over 50 this year – And I’m SO EXCITED about it!)

Christmas is only 27 days away (YAY!!!) and I think we all could benefit from some extra Christmas cheer this year, right? Continuing through just before Christmas, I’m going to spotlight several new/recent Christmasy releases. So… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and start your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

Today’s next featured book is the perfect guide for everyone who lives for holiday movie season!

A VERY MERRY HOLIDAY MOVIE GUIDE
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: Love Inspired
RELEASE DATE: October 1, 2020
PAGES: 224

The Movie Lover’s Guide to Yuletide

Are you a holiday film fan? If so, you’re in good company. Fellow made-for-TV movie buff Rachel McMillan invites you to skip the office Christmas party, put on your coziest pj’s, and crash on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and your remote in the other to watch the movies that have become the “hallmark” of the holiday season.

This one-of-a-kind illustrated guide features 15 themed celebrations featuring customized viewing lists, fun suggestions for starting new traditions, and festive facts about the happiest season of all. From baking to books, romance to royalty, and more, Rachel has put together a picture-perfect selection of holiday films to suit any interest.

A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide is an ideal gift or stocking stuffer for the Christmas movie lover in your life or a welcome addition to your family’s holiday traditions.

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There are few things in the world I love more than Made for TV Christmas movies; which is why writing A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide was an absolute delight.  I was able to create themed chapters that speak to every holiday movie lover in your family or friend circle: from booklovers to bakers to royal watchers all while including examples of some ways to create new traditions around your favourite films from Hallmark, Lifetime ,UP TV, Netflix and more.

And while a lot of people ask me to list my favourites, I thought I would mix it up with some fun categories.

My Favourite Hallmark Heroes:

Mark Wiebe in Very Merry Mix-Up (which, incidentally, is my all time favourite TV Christmas movie—as you can tell by my book title). This hero works with his hands, recreates a magical moment in his Grandpa’s life by gifting him a music box and makes antique benches out of historic church pews! This is all my catnip! He and the heroine share a love of history and antiques ( and laughter)  that bring them together

Tom Cavanaugh in Trading Christmas:  the crotchety grumpy hero with the heart of gold is a favourite archetype of mine in books and the way this sarcastic bespectacled hero slowly melts to the magic of Christmas (and the unexpectedly cheery heroine ) gets me every time

Graham Abbey in Angels and Ornaments: owns a music store. Quotes Shakespeare. Writes poetry. Pines for the heroine from afar:  I love this guy!

Best Kiss:

This has to go to Nine Lives of Christmas.  Many people remark that the first kiss in a TV Christmas movie is often JUST as it fades to the credits; but one of the reasons Nine Lives is an all-time favourite is a perfect mistletoe kiss (between two actors who sizzle with fun chemistry—Kimberley Sustad and Brandon Routh) during a home renovation.

Best Hair:

So many TV Christmas movie heroines have the perfect girl-next-door flowing locks (think Erin Krakow) or the sleek coiffed marketing star haircut than can go from severe at the office to soft when she finds true Christmas love (like Jen Lilley in Mingle All the Way). I enjoy Chyler Leigh’s adorable pixie cut in Window Wonderland

Best Cookie Making Scene:

Is it TRULY A TV Christmas movie if someone isn’t making cookies at midnight with their true love while magically having all of the right ingredients and cookies looking like they came straight from that British Baking Show everyone loves?  I think that Andrew Walker and Bethany Joy Lenz own this in Snowed Inn Christmas

Best Literary References:

My friend Allison Pittman and I often watch these together ( she from San Antonio and I in Toronto) and chat about them together (we love them so much we wrote a novella duology called Starring Christmas that is set during Made for TV Christmas filming season) One night we watched Love at the Christmas Table together and were struck by how often it references Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and even has a Miss Havisham-like heroine in Lea Thomson’s character (note: Luke from Gilmore Girls is also in this one as is the vet from Schitt’s Creek  and Danica McKellar! It’s a great cast!)

Best Tearjerker: 

The Christmas Secret: this is a story all about a community rallying around a single mother and a wonderful kind-hearted (with the charm of Bill Pullman in While You Were Sleeping) man who keeps missing her until they discover each other’s true identities.

Best His Girl Friday Vibe:

I love Snow Bride!  It features an undercover reporter who finds love in the most unexpected places and the banter is to die for! I love the madcap screwball comedy feel of this unlikely enemies to lovers offering.

Best Candace Cameron Bure:

She is in so many of these that I know EVERYONE has their favourite but is there anything better than having TWO Candace Cameron Bures AT THE SAME TIME? In Switched for Christmas she plays twins who swap lives and find love and romance beyond their wildest Christmas dreams.

Best Lipstick:

Anyone who knows me knows that I am all about a bold shade of red lipstick and so I was so delighted that in a genre of film that is about the light pinks and peaches, Jaime King breaks out some daring reds in The Mistletoe Promise.

Best Original Twist:

When my favourite Hallmark actress Alicia Witt is a gender-swapped department store Santa Claus, my heart begins to race! She’s also re-paired with the actor who played her love interest in Christmas List and they seem to be having a great time!

Best Bookish Movie: 

We have to, of course, say Karen Kingsbury’s The Bridge because it’s only right. But right after, I love Mistletoe Inn. There’s no way in the world such a luxurious romance writer getaway happens just before Christmas, but if it did ! Sign me up! I love David Alpay as a writer who thinks he knows best and Alicia Witt who just wants to find the right home for her manuscript!

Best Feature of a Broadway Star:

More and more my worlds collide as the broadway actors and actresses I love fill the small screen with snow and cheer; but I have to give this one to Jeremy Jordan in this year’s Holly and Ivy. He was unbelievably charming and good-hearted in a story that tugs at the heart-strings.

Rachel McMillan is the author of The Herringford and Watts mysteries, The Van Buren and DeLuca mysteries and The Three Quarter Time series of contemporary Viennese romances. Her next work of historical fiction, The London Restoration, releases in Summer 2020 and takes readers deep into the heart of London’s most beautiful churches. Dream, Plan, Go (May, 2020) is her first work of non-fiction. Rachel lives in Toronto, Canada and is always planning her next adventure.

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Rachel McMillan is offering a print copy of A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide to one of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide by Rachel McMillan? What are some of your faves in these categories?