Its a Wonderful Movie - Your Guide to Family and Christmas Movies on TV: March 2023

Hallmark will be premiering NEW MOVIES in MAY! A musical movie celebrating moms and new rom-coms will premiere on the Hallmark Channel, while two mysteries are set to premiere on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. See all the details below...

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HALLMARK CHANNEL
All premieres are at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

When Love Springs

Starring: Rhiannon Fish and James William O'Halloran

Premieres: Saturday, May 6, 2023

Storyline: When Rory arrives at a quaint B&B on the lake for the vow renewal of her parents, she runs into her ex who broke her heart. Panicked, she pretends the B&B owner is her new boyfriend.

Movie Reviews:

🌸 'When Love Springs' was a fun movie. Rhiannon was great as usual and I loved the relationship she had with her sweet family. Plus, the scenery was spectacular and she had wonderful chemistry with the B & B owner. The message, written in the fan, made my heart stop. Life is so precious and goes by way too fast. Anyway, I recommend the movie. :-) ~Joan

🌸 Hmmm...I seem to have a minority opinion on a few movies lately! :( And that may be the case here. I watched about 20 minutes of When Love Springs and then turned it off. Rhiannon's character was so childish, and the plot so ridiculous (suuure, people will believe that this guy that she just met is her boyfriend), that I couldn't bear to watch anymore. I was really hoping I would enjoy her as much as I enjoyed her in A Picture of Her, but unfortunately, not even close. ~Mark 25

🌸 When Love Springs – After my family and I completed this movie it was a consensus with us, which is rare these days, that “When Love Springs” is one of the most delightfully entertaining movies we’ve seen this year! Sure Rhiannon Fish is quirky, eccentric, and outlandish, at times, but that’s just part of her adorable, comical charm. We were certainly never bored one minute while watching and the chemistry between Rory (Rhiannon Fish) and Noah (James O'Halloran) was off-the-charts! Noah is the owner of Lily Lake, the Bed & Breakfast where Rory, her sweet sister, mother, and father are staying for the parents’ vowel renewal. Everything, at first, is going according to plan, until Rory’s ex, Jason, unexpectedly shows up with his new girlfriend. On a whim, Rory ropes Noah into pretending to be her boyfriend in exchange with helping him with his B&B before an important reviewer comes to visit. I loved the long glances Rory and Noah would give one another, as they worked together and tried to navigate their new friendship while attempting to figure out what was fake and what was real. There’s also a beautiful message in the movie about how we choose to spend our time and living each moment to the fullest. This family-friendly film from Nicely Entertainment gave me a feel of “Love in Bloom” and “Moonlight in Vermont.” “When Love Springs” is a definite keeper for me – and my family! I thoroughly enjoyed the time we shared watching this movie together, and I’ll look forward to watching encore airings! ~Net

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Dream Moms

Starring: Tamera Mowry-Housley, Chelsea Hobbs, Roger Cross and Andrew J. Hampton

Premieres: Saturday, May 13, 2023

Storyline: Danielle (Mowry-Housley), a one-time off-Broadway performer and former backup singer, and Claire (Hobbs), a once-aspiring dancer, both had dreams of making it to the Broadway stage. Many failed auditions and years later, Danielle is married Mark (Cross), a successful lawyer, and has a ballerina daughter, who is positioned for NYC ballet, living in the Upper East Side. Claire is a single mother raising two sons and working as a bookkeeper in the Garment District. Now consumed with motherhood, they no longer have time for themselves and have deferred their own dreams. Danielle’s brother RJ (Hampton) introduces the two after Claire begins taking classes at his dance studio. He is impressed with Claire’s dance technique and wants to bring the women together to compete in a nationally televised talent contest. As they start practicing for the show, Danielle and Claire begin to regain their sense of self and passion they once had as performers. When competing priorities arise with their families and cause them to reconsider, the pair ultimately realize they need to show up for themselves and set an example to never give up your dreams. They compete in the talent contest and with the support of their families, Danielle and Claire learn it’s never too late to become what or who you want to be.

Movie Reviews:

🌸 I am not planning on watching Jodi's movie because she does not align with my core values. Sorry, she really did Candace wrong. Anyway, I did watch "Dream Moms". It was kind of cheesy, in some parts, but overall it was a cute movie. Family friendly, strong mom's, recapturing lost dreams, normal family relationships and good values. Plus, not your typical ending for a movie which was refreshing. All in all, worth watching. ~Joan

🌸 Dream Moms- was kinda cute at times and it had its moments but I felt like it jumped around a lot. family-friendly from what I recall. CJ

🌸 Dream Moms is family friendly about a former singer named Danielle & a once-aspiring dancer named Claire regain their passion to perform as they prepare to compete in a nationally televised talent contest called; “Take Two”. Danielle & Claire inspired their Broadway dreams got deferred when they enter a TV talent show competition together after their Broadway dreams end and discover that it's never too late to fulfill your destiny. They’d both trained at RJ’s Dance & Hip Hop Studio. RJ introduces Claire & Danielle to Bruce Tellin for Broadway show. Both Dani & Claire seem so exciting about it ~Anonymous

🌸 Dream Moms-I couldn't finish. I realize I'm in the minority even here, and I'm more conservative than most, but I honestly did not think the dancing was all that family friendly at times. It made me uncomfortable and I decided not to finish it. The story really didn't grab me anyway so I didn't go into it expecting to like it. ~Anonymous

🌸 Dream Moms – I agree with other reviews on this movie. It is kind of cheesy and different from the typical Hallmark rom-com, although, it does include a romantic story with one of the moms, single-mother, Claire, and her friendly neighbor, Sam. For me, that was probably the best part of the movie. The dance instructor (who played Tamera Mowry-Housley’s brother) appeared to be gay, but nothing is ever mentioned regarding that. Some of the acting was stiff from some of the supporting cast and the dancing was… well, (trying to be nice here) not great. I mean… it was fine and all, but basically, it was just average. I’m not sure why the brother thought it was a good idea to pair these two moms up for a dance competition that also included singing. I thought the whole concept was just a little odd. This is definitely one of those movies I would never watch again. ~Net

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Love in Zion National: A National Park Romance

Starring: Cindy Busby and David Gridley

Premieres: Saturday, May 20, 2023

Storyline: Lauren (Busby) is an assistant curator who is out to prove a set of ancient vases belongs with the Pueblo Nation. She journeys to Zion to find what she needs to make her case and along the way meets Adam (Gridley), a native Puebloan park ranger, who helps her on mission.

Movie Reviews:

🌸 Love in Zion National: A National Park Romance is family friendly about There’s spark fly between an Assistant Curator named Lauren Collins & an American In Park Ranger as they explore Zion National Park. Assistant curator named Lauren Collins whose works at National History Museum of Denver is out to prove a set of ancient authentic vases belong with the Pueblo Nation. While in Zion she meets Adam Proudstar is a native Puebloan park ranger, who helps her on her mission to seek out the last vase. They’re at Anasazi Tribal Museum with Milly Tillane. Set of 4 vases are authentic Anasazi Wedding Vases covered with glass at the Anasazi Tribal Museum ~ Anonymous

🌸 Enjoyed the Love in Zion National: A National Park Romance movie. ~dstoutholcomb

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The Love Club: Sydney's Journey

Starring: Lily Gao and Jesse Hutch

Premieres: Saturday, May 27, 2023

Storyline: Former star track athlete, Sydney, is now a successful food blogger who still holds a flame for her college boyfriend whom she hasn’t seen in ten years. After running into him unexpectedly, she discovers he has entered the Valentine 10k Run and doesn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to reconnect. She quickly signs up for the run then recruits The Love Club – four women who made a vow to always be there for one another during times of romantic troubles – to help. After being paired up with a running buddy and also the chef and owner of a struggling local restaurant, it becomes apparent to everyone but Sydney that it is Theo (not her ex) who seems to share a bond with her – especially over their love of food and cooking. As Sydney helps Theo elevate his menu to buzzworthy appeal, Theo helps Sydney reach the finish line.

*Please note: The first movie in this four-film series, The Love Club: Nicole's Pen Pal, is not family-friendly. I have not pre-screened the other three films.

The other films in this series will premiere on Memorial Day...

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The Love Club: Lauren's Dream

Starring: Chantel Riley, Andrew Bushell and Franco Lo Presti

Premieres: Monday, May 29, 2023

Storyline: For years, Lauren put her dream of opening an art gallery on hold while her husband, Peter, moved up in his career. Her resentments eventually overshadowed the love they once shared bringing them to the brink of a split. Faced with divorce papers, Lauren discovers Peter is dating again. She recruits The Love Club to help her get back in the dating game, too. As Lauren comically tries to navigate dating while realizing her dream, it is obvious to The Love Club that Lauren and Peter still have feelings for each other. The ladies set out to remind them why they fell in love in the first place, setting the stage for a heartwarming renewal of the deep connection they share.

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The Love Club: Tara's Tune

Starring: Camille Stopps and Brett Donahue

Premieres: Monday, May 29, 2023

Storyline: A free spirit talented at capturing a live audience with her beautiful voice, TARA has always professed she doesn’t need a partner. After all, she has The Love Club. When Tara decides she is going to marry herself, the ladies show up to plan Tara’s commitment-to-herself party – a task made comically challenging when Tara’s mother arrives unexpectedly expecting an actual wedding. When The Love Club notices an undeniable connection between Tara and a jaded musician, their job of planners turns into matchmakers as they show Tara there is nothing wrong with falling in love – especially with a man who helps Tara finally get the break she needs when they create a hit song together.

*Please note: The first movie in this four-film series, The Love Club: Nicole's Pen Pal, is not family-friendly. I have not pre-screened the other three films. To be honest, I am not fond of the storyline in this movie where the main character, Tara, is initially interested in marrying herself. That is a very woke, liberal idea.

Movie Review:

🌸 The Love Club - Tara's Tune - As usuual Florence seems to be marching to a different drumbeat from everyone else. The Love Club Movies especially Nicole's Story was just about panned by everyone but I loved Tara's Tune the fourth and final instalment - in fact,imo, it was much better thab 2 of the 3 Wedding Veil sequels. Tara is a free spirit and determined to stay clear of commitment because of her past while Noah was an interesting lead being a struggling musician living in a type of car, camper van.

Basically the plot was typical of a Rom.Com, iffy first meeting, feelings growing between the two as they perpetrated a fake engagement for the sake of Tara's mother, had the "obligatory" misunderstanding and wrote a song together which earned them a record contract. Yes you've heard it all before but it was the interaction and superb chemistry between the two leads which carried this. The plot was well constructed and begging Net's pardon it was great to have a family-friendly Hallmark movie. I can understand her feelings of Tara's declaration at the start of the movie to marry herself and on paper it does seem weird but, keep an open mind, putting it into the context of the movie I don't regard this as too bad,more rather amusing.However, there was one downside - one of the great assets of The Wedding Veil trilogy was the amazing frienship and love between the three friends - here I really didn't feel much empathy and deep connection between the four "friends". This was my introduction to both Camille Stoops and Brett Donihue - I didn't watch Luckless In Love because Brett's character had a teenage son and presimably had been married before - I thought he was amazing in this. I see he stars in two of the 4 or 5 dozen (you're not misreading this number) ROE Rom.Coms currently showing on their site and deperately hope that these will appear at some stage but with UPtv and GAF not showing anything from this source the position doesn't look good. Anyway one of the most enjoyable movies to date this year for me. Florence's rating 7.5 - sadly had to mark it down a bit for the lackkustre "friendship" ~Florence

🌸 For the love club movies Tara’s tune has a gay coworker that shows him looking for a date on a website and then he has a date at the end. The other 2 love clubs are family friendly. ~Anonymous

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HALLMARK MOVIES & MYSTERIES
All premieres are at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

The Jane Mysteries: Inheritance Lost

Previous Title: A Jane Da Silva Mystery: Case of the Broken Song

Starring: Jodie Sweetin and Stephen Huszar

Premieres: Sunday, May 12, 2023

Storyline: Singer Jane DaSilva (Sweetin) inherits the family foundation which is a non-profit detective agency that helps people who aren’t able to help themselves. Jane’s Aunt Sadie (Paris Jefferson) and Detective John Cameron (Huszar) act as her mentors as she takes on her first case surrounding a mother’s untimely death years before. As Jane investigates a multi-level marketing company that took advantage of her client’s (Danielle Smith) fragile mom, she realizes that digging up the past can be dangerous...

Movie Reviews:

🔎 I just watched the Jane Mysteries Inheritance lost. They put together actors/tresses and make a big mishmash! That is what it is long and a big mishmash some of this and that. Long and drawn out. It's definitely not what it used to be. ~Anonymous

🔎 By the way I watched the Jane Mysteries and it was clean (unless I missed something). Unfortunately I thought it was pretty boring. ~Anonymous

🔎 Jane Mysteries: Inheritance lost... I enjoyed this film. It was kind of weak, but I enjoyed it. Jodie was cute with her different wigs with her disguises and Stephen wasn't uptight like he was in Ruby Herring. I did think her outfits were too revealing for my brother to watch and I didn't like the mention of crystals over and over again. ~Abigail

🔎 Jane Mysteries: Inheritance Lost - Someone brought up how crystals were discussed in the movie. They were part of a sham business so nothing positive about them was said (from what I remember) which is good. ~Anonymous

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Carrot Cake Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery

Starring: Alison Sweeney, Cameron Mathison and Barbara Niven

Premieres: Sunday, May 19, 2023

Storyline: The discovery of a skeleton amid the rubble of a building undergoing renovation reveals that one of Lake Eden’s beloved citizens is not who he claimed to be. Much to the dismay of her fiancé, Detective Mike Kingston (Mathison), Hannah (Sweeney) begins to investigate the case on her own. As she tries to piece together the events that led to the murder and tries to learn the victim’s true identity, Hannah even calls on her mother Delores (Niven) as she works to bring the killer to justice and uncover the truth.

Movie Reviews:

🔎 Hannah Swenson Mysteries: Carrot Cake Murder... I was really, really enjoying the Hannah Swenson Mystery. It was family friendly, funny(I loved seeing her mother play detective, and she was good!), and it was good seeing Hannah and Mike happy together, and they mystery side of it was good as well. Even Michelle was growing on me. I don't want to give it away, but the way it ended made me upset. I don't understand why they did that, especially after Mystery101, apparently Hallmark didn't learn from their mistakes. Also why should Hannah be bothered by Norman dating someone else when she's engaged?! No wonder why they made that announcement about future movies, they were afraid of losing viewers.

Also, remember how they changed to "Lake Eden?" Made me laugh but of and on they would say both Eden Lake/Lake Eden, and it was the same for signs. ~Abigail

🔎 Hi Abigail, I also got a chuckle out of the mix of Lake Eden/Eden Lake. And, like you, I was really enjoyed the movie up until the last five minutes. I screamed out loud, at the TV! They better FIX that in the next movie or I will be so mad. I am really wondering where the writer's were thinking. Seriously not cool. :-( ~Joan

🔎 Yeah, that ending was rough. Now it makes sense why they announced this sequel movie so early after the Mystery 101 backlash. ~Anonymous

🔎 Hannah Swensen (AKA still Murder She Baked to me) was great besides all the back and forth tension between Hannah and Mike. If this was a standalone movie, it would be plain awful. Thankfully, they are filming another. ~Allie B

🔎 Not sure who wrote this last Hannah Swensen, but I don’t think they had in mind what the fans are wanting ~ Anonymous

🔎 So I watched the newest Hannah Swensen movie and it is family friendly. However if you read the books this movie is so far off of the book it's not even funny. I don't know which book this was suppose to be but the only elements from Carrot Cake is they mention the cat is acting weird. Like everyone else I didn't like the fight with Mike & Hannah and how it ended. Don't know how I feel about another movie coming. I liked Michelle a little better than in the previous movie but I still miss Andera and Bill. ~ Anonymous

🔎 I might be the odd ball here, but I do not like the Hannah Swenson series as good as Murder She Baked. Not even close! Just doesn't have the same warm fuzzy feel. Too many changes overall. Very disappointed with the series. Carrot Cake was a total disaster to me. Seeing way too much of Norman. Not letting Mike do his job. The ending was horrible and very childish to me on Hannah's part. The show is beginning to have a soap opera feel. It's too Hollywood! I have to say I believe this is Alison's doing because she owns the books now. Triangle should be long gone and Delores appears to have a crush on Norman herself. Can't help but compare to Garage Sale Mysteries. They have a health family relationship without all the drama! ~Joyce in Carolina

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I'm happy to see they are still continuing the "Hannah Swensen" mysteries for now. I sure hope whenever it ends, we have a satisfactory send-off.

Interesting to see Jodie Sweetin's opposite in her new mystery movie is Stephen Huszar, who starred alongside Taylor Cole in Ruby Herring Mysteries, and he was also Candace Cameron Bure's first love interest in the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries series.

Please share your thoughts in comments below.

Happy movie watching, Net

The Blessing Bracelet, seen in the new Hallmark movie on actress Amanda Schull, was inspired by the uplifting, inspirational jewelry brand, Made As Intended by founder Dawn Sprong. According to the brand's website, the Blessing Bracelet began as a gift to friends, a reminder of the power of gratitude. Today, over 1 million Blessing Bracelets have been shared around the world, and you can own one (or more) and gift them to family and friends, too.

Each Blessing Bracelet includes this encouraging, thought-provoking message:

“This is a Blessing Bracelet. Whenever you wear it, acknowledge one blessing in your life for each pearl on the bracelet. Each time you are drawn to the bracelet, silently find four people or things you can be grateful for.

Be grateful for: Your children, a flower, your dog, a perfect cup of coffee, a roof over your head – just find something. The more you wear the bracelet and the more blessings you find, the more you will be blessed. In one year, if followed, you will be aware of a profound change in your life.”

I personally love that there's a deeper message in this faith-based film, The Blessing Bracelet, which is a DaySpring Presentation. DaySpring is a well-known greeting cards and gifts company whose mission statement is "to bring you resources that are biblically true, spiritually relevant, and life-giving." The blessing bracelet reflects that same mission in being more than simple jewelry; it's a wonderful, beautiful reminder to look for and seek out all of the blessings in our lives, big or small, which in turn, will deepen our faith and spiritual journey.

The Blessing Bracelet storyline: Dawn Spencer (Amanda Schull) approaches the Easter holiday trying to balance being a single parent while working to get out of the debt left behind by her ex-husband. Feeling overwhelmed, Dawn unearths a bracelet she made years earlier and stored away. She created it using four beads with the intention of using each one as a reminder to count the blessings in her life. As Dawn begins to focus on the good, her faith is renewed, and her life takes a positive turn. Thanks to the support of Dawn’s church community and the encouragement by Ben (Carlo Marks), who recently came into her life, the blessing bracelets help take her down a path she never could have imagined.

The bracelets come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, so you can personalize what style suits you!

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Friday, March 31, 2023

Happy Palm Sunday This Weekend! See Inspirational, Faith-Based Programming and More...

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

🌸 Hallmark Announces MAY 2023 Movie Schedule 🌸 SEE DETAILS:

Monday, March 27, 2023

🌼🌸 Where to Find * The Blessing Bracelet * Seen in the New Hallmark Faith-Based Easter Movie! 🌸🌼 Details Here: