A Novel Romance (2015) Amy Acker, Dylan Bruce, Charles S. Dutton, Camille Mitchell, Tammy Gillis, Casey Manderson, Milo Shandel, Emily Tennant Movie Review

A Novel Romance (2015)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Amy Acker in A Novel Romance (2015)

A Normal TV Movie Romance

When Liam Bradley (Dylan Bruce - Love's Christmas Journey) wrote his first book it was part of a way to deal with a failed relationship and as such rather than publish it under his own name he took the alias Gabriel August. Now a few books down the line not only is Liam struggling to write a new book but his publisher wants to reveal who Gabriel is to his adoring fans. Deciding to spend some time to think about things on his boat in Portland, Liam meets Sophie Atkinson (Amy Acker - Dear Santa), a Portland journalist who he ends up sitting next to on the flight to Portland. The trouble is that Liam knows that Sophie is a fan of his books except he hasn't told her that he is Gabriel August and after she was lied to by a cheating ex has had trust issues to contend with in getting to know Liam.

I should think in the last month I have watched getting on for 20 Hallmark movies, well it was Christmas and there is always a bunch of new Hallmark Christmas movies to wade through. Anyway I digress and to make my point I think out of those twenty movies maybe one or two had an original idea where the rest only recycled old story ideas. Unfortunately "A Novel Romance" is in the majority and it is one of those movies which recycles an old idea and doesn't do a great job of disguising it.

Dylan Bruce in A Novel Romance (2015)

As such "A Novel Romance" gives us the very familiar cliches of a woman who has trust issues because of a jerk of a previous boyfriend and then we have her handsome new beau who is keeping a secret from her. If you don't realise how "A Novel Romance" is going to play out within minutes of the movie starting then give it a year and I reckon you will have watched at least one other movie which uses the same ideas.

But before you think I am going to say that "A Novel Romance" isn't worth your time and effort it is in fact not that bad and really doesn't take any effort to watch. Despite being obvious and spinning the familiar ideas out to the limit of being bearable it is pleasantly cute with Amy Acker and Dylan Bruce as Sophie and Liam coming across quite sweet together. Yes the over indulgently sweet music gets on your nerves a little and the lack of realism when it comes to Sophie's sudden plans to become a book blogger are borderline comical but in that typical easy to watch Hallmark movie kind of way "A Novel Romance" works.

What this all boils down to is that "A Novel Romance" is nothing new as it takes a couple of well used old ideas and uses them again. But for fans of Hallmark movies, who probably have watched quite a few movies which use the same ideas, it is a pleasant enough romantic distraction.


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