I am so excited to announce that Grand Ridge (Big Sky Lake #3) will finally be in your hands in mid-2026!
The Top Hallmark Christmas Movies of 2025
I’m busy writing the third novel in the Big Sky Lake series, so I didn’t dedicate myself to fully reviewing every Hallmark Christmas movie this year, but I did catch 18 of the 24. I mean, I was at least dedicated to watching them! Overall, the 2025 crop of movies was “meh” with plenty of background noise, middle of the road, forgettable movies and a few absolute stinkers that Hallmark should have buried.
I highly recommend Christmas Baby (so sweet) and Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper (so funny), and to the remaining movies I say “Thank you for filling the void when I should have been writing.”
Below is my ranking of the Top Hallmark Christmas Movies of 2025
#1 Christmas Baby
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
When a baby is unexpectantly given to Erin and Kelly just before Christmas, the married couple must confront their own feelings of motherhood and family while caring for the child and preparing themselves for an unknown future. This movie is by far the best Hallmark has to offer in 2025’s holiday season, and that’s not a statement on the quality of this year’s offerings. It’s a heartwarming, representative story of real love. Love between our leads, their family and of this child. I found myself feeling for these characters in ways I did not expect.
I was pleased this story didn’t follow the Hallmark formula. The two leads were women (thank you). The leads were already very much in love (plot twist). But by God, this was one heck of a love story, which saw these people fall more in love with each other and the baby.
Ali Liebert (Erin) and Katherine Barrell (Kelly) are deserving of praise for their work. Real acting—yes, I said it—on Hallmark Channel, no less. They were so good. I can’t recommend this movie enough. It’s sweet and wonderful. Watch it with your parents and bring the tissues.
#2 Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
My second favorite movie of the year is about as different from Christmas Baby as it can be. Weatherman Ted Cooper (Robert Buckley) has a habit of experiencing disasters over Christmas. He’s beloved, but goofy. He heads home for Christmas, gets injured, and meets long-lost love Hope (Kimberly Sustad). It’s a comedy that allows for some real character development. It’s not just “oh, we’re supposed to fall in love” but they have issues to work through, that aren’t just contrived and that’s great (to watch). Super funny. I hope we see this one back on repeats again next year.
#3 Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
Football and love. Haven’t we seen this before? Yes, but the Bills Mafia really brought it hard in this movie compared to the Chiefs version in 2024. The quest or objective of this story was weaker than a third-string kicker, but the production of the movie was great. Really liked seeing parts of Buffalo and not just Hallmarkian Canada.
#4 A Suite Holiday Romance
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
There were probably three movies going on at once inside this hotel set, flashback, reconnection movie about children’s books, royalty, ghost writing, art (sort of) and butlers. It was fun, but man, there was a lot going on.
#5 Oy to the World!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
Christmas and Hanukkah co-existing in peaceful harmony? A Christian church invites members of the neighboring synagogue to host joint holiday celebrations. The choir directors, childhood friends, fall in love and completely sing over the top of the kids in the final show. Still fun.
#6 An Alpine Holiday
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
Ashley Williams and her sister (in the movie), head to the Alps on a crazy journey that no grandmother would ever have actually designed to take place after she died. She definitely would have wanted to see the outcome. Gorgeous sets.
#7 Single on the 25th
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
I’ll watch all the Lyndsey Fonseca movies you make, period. This was OK. Two single people, neighbors find that being single really sucks and decide to change that over one holiday season in Chicago (or wherever in Canada they filmed it).
#8 We Met in December
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
Simply saying, “Hey, can I get your number?” would have made this movie about 15 seconds long. Alas, the whole movie hinges on the fact that they never exchanged numbers, despite being head over heels in love in one evening.
#9 She’s Making a List
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
So, Santa outsourced the Naughty-or-Nice List making to a company based in California. And Lacey Chabert spends one season trying to figure out one girl’s designation. Absolutely no twists occur. This provided an odd dose of reality that imagines a world where Santa actually learns a lesson. OK, so one twist.
#10 Christmas Above the Clouds
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
Scrooge meets airplane travel. Extra star provided for Tyler Hynes alone.
#11 A Newport Christmas
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
I love a time travel story. And I don’t even mind a really, really bad green screen, but combined together you get this Christmas Star-inspired jumble that wastes a good idea and location with a middling story.
#12 A Keller Christmas Vacation
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
More advertisement for a European river cruise than an actual holiday movie. Siblings all have issues and dad has a secret. Some people fall in love and take some photos.
#13 A Make or Break Holiday
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
Don’t buy a house with someone you’re not engaged or married too. That’s the lesson here. Even if one of those people is Hunter King.
#14 Three Wisest Men
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
We didn’t need this one. I applaud the effort at doing a trilogy, but I got nothing out of this one.
#15 Melt My Heart This Christmas
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
Can we make glass-blowing a thing? No. The answer is no. In the big finale the live stream shows 20,000 live viewers or some crazy number watching to see if the Christmas Market gets some award. Yeah, I can suspend my belief for a Hallmark movie, but even this was a stretch. Maybe the glass-blowing artists loved it? Is that a big demographic?
#16 Christmas on Duty
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
A road trip story with two rival military members, saving Christmas for their base. The basics of the story tell you that packages won’t be delivered because of the snow. The road’s closed! Weird that they had no issues with the roads in or out, and had time for snacks and watching a parade in another town. Huh?
#17 A Royal Montana Christmas
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 10
I’m a big Montana fan—please see my series Big Sky Lake—but this was a dud. Oh, and working on a ranch is actually hard. Who knew?!
#18 The Christmas Cup
⭐️⭐️/ 10
The worst of the year by a country mile. This movie is disrespectful of the US military like you couldn’t imagine. The storyline is absolutely ridiculous, and not in a funny, let’s go along with it kinda way. We know these movies are filmed in Canada, but if we’re supposed to believe that this is a military member in the US, you gotta hire some Americans, or at minimum some Canadians who don’t sound like they’re straight from the Yukon. Awful, awful. Not even worth a hate watch.
The rest of the pack
I couldn’t find the time to watch these movies, so there might be some awesome shows in here, but I can’t fairly rank them if I didn’t watch. Maybe next year! A Christmas Angel Match; Tidings For the Season; The Snow Must Go On; The More the Merrier; A Grand Ole Opry Christmas; Christmas at the Catnip Café
Big Sky Lake - series
If you’re looking for something to occupy your time until the next Hallmark Christmas movie season starts again, I’d be honored if you would check out my latest book series, Big Sky Lake. Book one—Big Sky Lake and Book two—Fire Canyon are out now.
In Big Sky Lake you’ll find clean small town romance stories, a bit of drama and a happy romantic ending you can count on. If you enjoy Hallmark movies, you should love this series.
Goodreads Book Giveaway - Fire Canyon
We’re giving away 100 Kindle copies of Fire Canyon to celebrate the release!
Video: Preview of Big Sky Lake
Book review: Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy
Goodnight Beautiful is a superb domestic thriller that will smack you in the face if you’re not paying close enough attention. And you’ll deserve it, too.
There were more “what the heck?” moments in Aimee Molloy’s Goodnight Beautiful that I can possibly recall. More than once I found myself stopping and re-reading a section to make sure that the twist Molloy just nailed me with was deserved or just a shady sleight of hand. It turns out each time was well deserved.
I’ve said it before—I love to be fooled and Molloy got me with this one. No spoilers here because you should experience it too.
Psychotherapist Sam Statler goes missing after recently returning to his hometown of Chestnut Hill, New York. Sam is recently married, something he and his wife of 13 or so weeks celebrate every single week. Newlyweds, right?
Sam is back in town to help care for his ailing mother and sets up a practice in town in the basement of a beautiful old home with some special quirks.
The journey to find Sam and who we as the reader are trusting, are the driving elements of this exceptionally crafted work of art. There are moments where some of the narration may seem needlessly tedious, but it’s certainly all done for effect and often with a sarcastic wit. One of our unreliable narrators is a real gem.
Some reviewers have (wrongly) compared this novel to one of Stephen King’s most famous works. Again, no spoilers, so figure it out yourself. I will say, King doesn’t own this idea any more than Molloy, who has definitely staked a claim for queen of this genre.
4/5 stars, recommended
Playing with gender norms
Release day is around the corner; I'm pumped
I’m super excited to introduce you to my buddy, James Bell, next week in my new novel An Agreement We Made. James is a stay-at-home dad just trying to keep his three kids on the straight and narrow. Life isn’t so bad, if you don’t count his workaholic wife Tina, who earns a bundle, but physically and emotionally absent. When Tina suddenly dies, my guy’s life is turned upside down. Money – gone. Security – gone. But why? James sets off to figure out why his wife left him and the kids with nothing. The more he digs about his wife, the further he gets from answers.
This is a story about a modern marriage, the lies we tell ourselves to get through the day and the secrets we keep from everyone.
Book Review: Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown
I’m definitely late to the game in reading Janelle Brown’s Watch Me Disappear, and shamefully late to my complete adoration of Brown’s other works entirely. Her latest Pretty Things was my favorite book of 2020, so I couldn’t help but start on the backlist. Watch Me Disappear is a can’t miss, even if it’s been out since 2017 and I’m painfully behind a million other people having read this book first. Add it to your list if you haven’t already.
Read the first two chapters of An Agreement We Made
New novel coming June 2, 2021
I’m very excited to announce that on June 2, 2021, I will release my fifth novel, An Agreement We Made. This family life fiction novel has been in the works for nearly three years, and I’m overjoyed to release it on paperback and ebook this summer. Kindle pre-orders are up now on Amazon.
An Agreement We Made
James is a stay-at-home dad, with a comfortable life of dance recitals and school volunteer work, despite his complicated marriage to workaholic Tina. When Tina suddenly dies, James struggles as a single parent to his three children, without the safety net and sizable income his wife once provided. For the sake of his family, he’s forced to return to a past he’d much rather leave alone.
As James’ world crumbles, he begins to question if he ever really knew his wife. Why did she want him to be the primary parent, while she stayed on the fringe of their marriage? And now that she’s gone, will he ever learn why she drained their bank accounts before her death?
An Agreement We Made is an examination of a modern marriage, the lies we tell ourselves to get through the day, and the secrets we keep from everyone.
What I’m Reading in 2020 - updated
I was recently asked about the books I've read during the pandemic. I typically read on my Kindle or the Libby app from my local library. When the weather is nice, I'll grab an audiobook to listen to when I exercise. I don't read as much when I'm writing, so my list is a bit thin, but here's what I've read and enjoyed in 2020.
Reply to this post and share your list!
The Loop, Jeremy Robert Johnson
All Our Wrong Todays, Elan Mastai
Leave The World Behind, Rumaan Alam :(
-This one is not recommended, sorry-
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green
The Last Flight, Julie Clark
Trust, Pete Buttigieg (non-fiction)
Oona Out of Order, Margarita Montimore
The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley
The Reckoning, John Grisham
Pretty Things, Janelle Brown
Camino Winds, John Grisham
Summer of '69, Elin Hilderbrand
Chronicles of The One (1-3), Nora Roberts
The River, Peter Heller
Fractured State, Steven Konkoly
Shelter in Place, Nora Roberts
The Dog Stars, Peter Heller
The Wall, John Lanchester
Replay, Ken Grimwood (re-read)
