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Christmas Movies and Why We Watch Them

By on Thursday, Dec 8, 2016 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

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This post is part of a Christmas blog hop initiated by my friend, historical author Marin McGinnis! Read an excerpt of my brand new release CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU on her Dec. 8th blog and check it out every day this month to discover some great new authors! Thanks for including me, Marin!hot-chocolate-1875870_1280

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The other night, I was watching the end of a Hallmark channel movie when my husband walked into the room.

“Don’t ruin it,” I said. (He can’t help himself. His urge to say something, usually sarcastic, is too great.)

“Are they about to live happily ever after?” he asked, sitting down beside me.

“Shh,” I said. “Don’t talk. Just watch.”

joy-1823939_1280The heroine was climbing up a ladder, her job to place the star atop the community center Christmas tree. (The community center that was saved from the wrecking ball, of course.)

“She’s going to fall, and the hero is going to catch her,” he predicted. (That’s the other thing he does. Tries to guess everything that’s going to happen. Anyone need a spare husband?)

“The hero is across the room,” I said. “She’s not going to fall. Please go away.”

At the top of the ladder, the cute German Shepherd that was in the movie nudged the ladder, causing the heroine to wobble precariously. The hero bolted across the room and was there in a flash!

Sure enough, she fell right into his arms, creating a beautiful moment where they shared a Christmas kiss. (No tongue. Because it’s Hallmark!) The movie ended.

snow-man-1872164_1280

“I should’ve been a romance writer,” my husband said, complimenting himself on his ability to predict things.

Honestly, I did not see that coming. Know why? Because I was under the magic spell of Hallmark Christmas movies. Sometimes (okay, often) sappy, always emotional, they bring out everything we love and hate about Christmas. But in general, they are about love. About mending fences. Facing up to your past. Correcting past wrongs. Finding someone who loves you for who you are and brings out the best in you (never the rich guy with lots of money and terrible parents).

“Let’s watch another one,” my husband said, putting his arm around me and settling in. Because secretly, he can’t resist the pull either. Now if only I could get him to watch in silence!

 

About CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU:

 Lovers of romance understand that these stories, both on the screen and between the pages, touch longings deep within us to reconcile our own pasts, forgive ourselves for mistakes, and experience our deepest hopes and dreams for a loving relationship and family. Things are often far from perfect in a lot of these story worlds. But we latch onto the hope of things getting better for the hard-working but flawed heroine and the sincere, heart-of-gold hero. We want them to find happiness just like we want ourselves and our loved ones to find peace and a good, loving life.Can't Stop Loving You by Miranda Liasson

The couple in my new release, CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU, truly have a lot of fence mending to do. Separated by a tragedy in their teenage years, they haven’t really spoken in twelve years. The story is about love, loss, friendship, family, and the idea that you have to confront your past in order to move on to the future.

Arabella D’Angelo worked hard to escape her past and move on—not an easy feat in her small town—until one day it returns in the form of her 6’2” darkly handsome, enigmatic first love, Roman Spikonos, who is settling back into town to take over his grandfather’s orchards, right next to her traditional Italian family’s garden center.

Arabella fell in love hook line and sinker with Roman Spikonos in high school. Their love was explosive, wonderful, and all-consuming…until she found herself pregnant, causing her to leave her private high school and give up her scholarship to the out-of-state she’d dreamed of attending. Yes, she was that girl in high school. And just like that, all her dreams fell apart. The life she’d imagined was nothing near the life she was suddenly forced to live.

And because of the anger of her traditional Italian father, she had to make an awful, heartbreaking choice that cost her everything. And then she had to somehow find the strength to move forward with her life.

My heroine undergoes a tremendous amount of growth as she is forced to confront feelings she’s swept under the rug for years, not only with Roman but also with her very supportive friend Ethan, and last but not least, her own father. CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU is a romance, and is told from both the hero and heroine’s points of view, but I consider it first and foremost Bella’s story.

I hope the end result is an emotional but hopeful read and a beautiful love story that took a very bumpy path to come full circle.

 

Buy CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU at these retailers!

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble

Books a Million

 

Bio:miranda-liasson-2-2

Miranda Liasson loves to write stories about courageous but flawed characters who find love despite themselves, because there’s nothing like a great love story. And if there are a few laughs along the way, even better! She’s a former Golden Heart winner who writes contemporary romance for Montlake Romance, Entangled, and soon for Grand Central. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, three kids, and Posey, a rescue cat with attitude.

 

Find me on Social Media here:

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Lastly, check out my release week tour with Rafflecopter giveaway here.

 

2 Comments

  1. Marin McGinnis

    Thursday, December 8, 2016

    Post a Reply

    Aww. My husband would rather pull out his fingernails one by one than watch a Hallmark Christmas movie–you should hang onto yours! 🙂 But you are so right about the allure of movies like that–they give us hope in an otherwise unpredictable and scary world. Merry Christmas, Miranda, and thanks for joining me on the hop!

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