With A Novel Romance, we run deep into the world of romance book writers and bloggers, a world filled with drama and suspense. I fully admit that I follow several romance book blogs (Dear Author, Smart Bitches, even The Cultural Gutter’s romance section). I don’t even read romance books (except a few Urban Fantasy books that cross over), but reading about romance books is addicting. So watching movies about romance books is also of interest to me, even if it follows the standard “someone’s lying about who they are” plot, complete with someone who has given up on love. And there is a book reviewing journalist, which it will be hilarious if she does that as a full time job and not as a write for hire deal as media companies cut content generators in favor of trying to get people to write for free. Not that I’m going to start a rant about that, but 2014 was RIP several awesome sites and lots of people got fired from other places, making the good content out there even more harder to find. That’s pretty much why I read mostly blogs now, as that’s where the good writers are.

Anyway, about the movie:

Romance novelist Liam Bradley (Dylan Bruce) has already found massive success with three books written under the pen name Gabriel August, but he’s mysteriously unknown to his legions of readers. With his first book written as a way to heal after a broken relationship, Liam has slowly become disheartened with writing strictly for romantic fantasy, something evident to a sweet, but honest, journalist who reviews books, Sophie Atkinson (Amy Acker), whom he meets by chance on a plane. The two begin a tentative relationship in Sophie’s home town of Portland, Maine, where Liam has come to find inspiration for his newest entry.

Liam’s agent puts him on the spot with a long-planned reveal of Gabriel August’s true identity, but Sophie doesn’t know of his public persona. The longer Liam avoids telling her the truth, the deeper a hole he digs for himself. Will their romance survive once his true identity comes to light?

A Novel Romance stars Amy Acker (Person of Interest) as Sophie Atkinson, Dylan Bruce (Orphan Black) as Liam Bradley, Camille Mitchell (Smallville) as Jackie Billick, Tammy Gillis (Blood Brothers: Reign of Terror) as Nina Gibson, Emily Tennant (Battle of the Bulbs) as Tabitha Weeks, Casey Manderson (Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever) as Drew Clayton, Milo Shandel (Zapped) as Phil Berkman, Chris Shields as Ted Gordon, and Charles S. Dutton (Roc) as Michael Harris.

It’s directed by Mark Griffiths, who directed Hardbodies 1 and 2, the Au Pair trilogy (Yes, it’s a trilogy now with Au Pair 3: Adventure in Paradise!) The story is by Beverly Nuako (her first film) and Hanz Wasserburger (High School Possession), and Wasserburger did the teleplay.

A Novel Romance premieres Saturday, January 10th on Hallmark Channel!

Photo via Hallmark/Bettina Strauss