Book Banter Café

Hallmark Style Romance  If you chain-watch Hallmark Christmas movies during the holiday season and suffer withdrawal when they are over, Starry Night is the book for you. A few of Debbie Macomber's Christmas novels have been adapted to Hallmark movies, and even though this isn't one of them, it has all the markings of the brand. Unlike other holiday novels, Macomber purposely left "Christmas" out of the title to make her work stand out from the rest, but it does take place during the Christmas season. Plot Summary Carrie Slayton loves writing for a Chicago newspaper, but her talent is wasted covering the society page.  She craves a challenge and more meaningful assignments.   Carrie's editor begrudgingly offers her any position she wants, with one stipulation--she has to find and interview Finn Dalton, the best-selling author of Alone, a book about living in and loving the Alaskan wilderness.   No one has ever seen a picture of Finn...

Image:  Crown Media, United States LLC Hallmark Challenge Cheesy, predictable, and unrealistic as they are, I'm a huge fan of Hallmark Christmas movies.  How about you? In Hallmark land, it's impossible to find offense.  Not only do these movies provide escapism entertainment, a white glove test will fail to detect dirt.  They are squeaky clean.  Hallmark is very intentional about capturing the best moments of the season and filtering every scene and spoken word to guarantee they provide only a wallop of holiday cheer.  Despite the benign story lines, they are never ho-hum, which is an absolute paradox.     Too many networks use their programming to push a social and political agenda.  Not Hallmark.  You can grab your cuddliest blanket and let every muscle relax because a Hallmark movie is as smooth, warm, and cozy as a cup of hot cocoa.   After watching scores of these feel-good, festive flicks, I dec...