Happy Top Ten (and More) Tuesday! Here, you will find a list of all the movies I watched and books I finished in April.
MOVIES
Letterboxd allows for half star ratings for movies, but I'm sticking to whole instead of sliced mushrooms. The heart indicates when the movie had the "it" factor, that something special that makes it a favorite of mine. It's probably one I would re-watch. It does not have to earn five mushrooms in order to earn a heart. There could be plot holes, etc., but if it was still immensely enjoyable, it earned a heart.
The number on the left is the date in April when I watched the movie. Most of the time, I watch half a movie in the morning while having breakfast and the second half in the afternoon while having lunch. Hallmark movies, which are mostly what I watch, are all less than 90 minutes long without commercials, so via DVR, I can easily watch one per day most days.
1 An Easter Bloom (2024)🍄
2 Just My Type (2020)🍄🍄🍄🍄💖
3 Timeless Love (2019)🍄🍄🍄🍄
5 Once Upon a Prince (2018)🍄🍄🍄🍄💖
8 Blind Date Book Club (2024) 🍄🍄🍄🍄💖
9 One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery (2024) 🍄🍄🍄🍄💖
10 Recipe for Love (2014) 🍄🍄🍄🍄
11 Hailey Dean Mysteries: Murder, With Love (2018) 🍄🍄🍄🍄
12 A Wish Come True (2023)🍄🍄🍄🍄💖
15 Legend of the Lost Locket (2024)🍄🍄🍄🍄
16 From Friend to Fiancé (2019)🍄🍄🍄🍄
18 The Memory Book (2014) 🍄🍄🍄🍄
19 Home by Spring (2018) 🍄🍄🍄🍄
30 Falling in Love in Niagara (2024)🍄🍄🍄🍄
All are these are Hallmark movies. Some were 2024 premieres and others are from years past. Except for the first one, it was a pretty good month of movies. At least I got the bad one out of the way early.
An Easter Bloom is probably my least favorite Hallmark movie ever (of the ones I've seen). It was so poorly shot, especially the outdoor scenes. I also did not like the way they handled disability (mis)representation. I consider myself a spiritual person, but I always cringe when people are led to believe that prayer can heal disability. It doesn't always work that way. It can help us cope, but it doesn't always heal. This movie also gave the impression that people with disabilities can't do great things. They didn't outright say that in the movie, but it was implied through the story. Hallmark usually does disability representation really well, so I was disappointed that this movie was so poorly done.
I'm going to eventually give Blind Date Book Club a second watch. This was a really good movie with all the cozy vibes of a Cabot Cove-like setting. I didn't give it five stars because I didn't understand how the book club worked. After discussing it with some others who watched it, I now have a much better understanding of it. So I want to watch it again, with that understanding.
I watched the first Hailey Dean Mystery. At the time, that was all I had recorded from this series. I have more on the DVR now, but I have not yet watched them. The first one was pretty good, but I can tell this won't be a favorite mystery series of mine unless the rest of them have a different vibe. I will eventually watch all nine and review the series as a whole.
I enjoyed One Bad Apple, even though I identified the culprit early on. I'll have to review that one too. This is my favorite Hallmark series.
BOOKS
I don't give hearts for books like I do for movies because I rarely re-read books. When I do, it's usually because I haven't reviewed it yet and I need to refresh my memory before I do or because it's part of a book club and I need to refresh my memory for that reason. Otherwise, there are too many books that I want to read and it would take too much time to re-read them. Also, many of them are part of a series, of which I have so much catching up to do.
Here's what I read and listened to in April. Reviews are linked to the titles. Some are full reviews, while others are brief ones on my Sunday Posts.
📱= e-book
🎧 = audiobook
📖 = physical book
🍄🍄🍄🍄📱
🍄🍄🍄🍄🎧
🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🎧
🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🎧
🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🎧
🍄🍄🍄🍄📖
🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄📱🎧 (Started with e-book, finished with audiobook)
Even Hallmark makes a stinker once in so often, it seems.
ReplyDeleteI like most of their movies, but yes, sometimes their movies just aren't good. :)
DeleteI can't wait to read book 4 in the Grilled Cheese series. I loved books 1 and 2 but didn't care for 3. I have high hopes that book 4 will be another winner.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it as much as I did! :)
Delete