Love by the Book (2015 TV Movie) User Reviews

Strong cast supporting the hopeless hapless heroine.

[rebekahrox · 5/10 · 28 January 2015]

Not one of the better Hallmarks, made even worse by Leah Renee who plays the heroine, Emma Graham, the totally clueless bookstore owner. This Kate Upton lookalike talks in a little girl breathy mincing way which actually kinda fits with her character who is so dumb she does not even know her business is failing, has zero business sense, and does not even know what the internet is for. She seems to regard her bookstore as a fun cute way to indulge her romantic fantasies instead of a business that the community and her employees might find valuable to their lives and livelihoods. When the son of her major investor (what...why?) sent to save her business offers a 20 % discount on the book she is reading to the kiddies during story hour, she is horrified. Imagine! A retailer having the crassness to actually try to (gasp!) sell something! Why is she in retail? Please tell me. She just should have been a librarian. One little tidbit that I found quite amusing was all the fake book titles used in creating this bookstore romance.

Of course she hates the guy who is pointing out all of her obviously stupid business decisions (excuse me, scratch the word "business") about her store and falls for an over-fed smarmy cornball who checks all of the boxes of her "Prince Charming". Halfway through she finally gets hit with a cluestick and climbs out of her ivory tower and starts to see some sense in business and in romance. Kristopher Turner who plays Eric the smarty whose business it is to save failing businesses was a doll and I enjoyed the character and his performance. He was very cute and kind of nerdy (that's a good thing). He managed to bump this treacle up at least 2 stars. Stephanie Powers is in this playing an employee of the bookstore and she looks amazing. Why they have her married to an overweight old goat who looks like he has one foot in the grave is beyond me. They should have hooked her up with getting better and better with age John Schneider who plays the rich investor. As with many Hallmarks, there is a secondary romance with Emma's sister and her fiancé which was more interesting than the primary romance. The capable actress who played her sister, looked like a slightly less stunning Scarlett Johannson. I wish the two actresses would have changed roles. That would have bumped it up another two stars. Though the script pretty much locked her in too being an idiot in business and love, it was Leah Renee's delivery which made her eyerollingly infantile and weak. Cherilyn Wilson who played her sister Jane seemed much more suitable to the lead role

A novel romance

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 20 April 2023]

My main reason for seeing 'Love by the Book' was for Hallmark completest sake, started watching their work as undemanding escapism (or at least that was the intent) back around 2019. Focusing solely on their Christmas output for a while and then watching overtime their other seasonal blocks. Have seen Leah Renee in other things, and she is rather take and leave for me depending on how her character is written. Am less familiar with Kristopher Turner.

'Love by the Book' did sound charming, have seen Hallmark films centered around literature and romance before and in some cases quite well and even very well in the best cases. 'Love by the Book' is one of the films that didn't execute the formula very well at all. Hallmark did do quite a lot of good films in 2015 and most of the most that year was watchable, but this was one of the misses and actually one of the worst examples. A few good things, but a lot of bad with the worst aspects done pretty awfully.

Am going to start with the good. It looks nice, with the scenery being lovely.

It has two good performances, Turner as an easy going and likeable leading man and Cherilyn Wilson as the very charming and spirited sister that she attacks with gusto without over-compensating. Her subplot is much more interesting than the main one and would have liked to have seen more of it.

However, Renee is really quite terrible in a very affected performance, which sees a lot of hamminess and very breathy line delivery that all got really irritating when the film went increasingly overboard with her negative traits. Which far outweigh her virtues and make the further mistake of being ridiculously exaggerated, which made her character absolutely impossible to like or root for. The supporting cast are undistinguished at best, with only Wilson standing out, with very little to work with. There is no chemistry between Renee and Turner, what he saw in her the shallower and more selfish she got requires some suspension of disbelief.

In fact the chemistry between the entire cast is barely existent and only Turner and Wilson's characters are likeable or interesting. The others are dull or/and annoying to an over-bearing degree, especially Renee's. The script is very stilted and sophomoric and is full of cringe worthy cheese and cavity inducing sentiment, and the story has no energy, is very predictable and emotionally is very bland in every way, wit, charm, emotion, tension are completely absent. It also ends too neatly.

Summing up, very mediocre effort. 4/10.

Beautifully teaches a lesson with a quirky, romantic typical Hallmark twist

[lexiereilly · 9/10 · 3 August 2015]

It's an enchanting, quirky film about real life and real decision and relationships. Before you judge this movie, take in consideration of little girls who grew up watching Disney fairytale a their entire lives, hoping and dreaming that they would actually find their Prince Charming. Is he really going to ride up on a white horse? Of course not. These girls as they grow up realize that, but the idea of Prince Charming with all his bells and whistles still captures their thoughts. Love by the Book allows that fairytale to come to life in a completely different light: that is not about the romantic things a guy does, but his support and love to help you become a better person. We see Emma grow through the story as Eric helps her. And we also see Eric grow as well.

As Phil declared after Emma read her first blog post, "this one gets an A."

I couldn't even finish...

[jillian-owens · 2/10 · 18 July 2015]

I'm a sucker for a good Hallmark/Lifetime/ABC Family movie. I've have never, to this point, left one unfinished. I'm one of those people that never leaves a book unfinished or stops a movie early because I always want to know how it ends.

That said.. this is the worst acting I have seen so far; and I'm comparing this to other made-for-TV-moves. I think I am at the 13 minute mark and Leah Renee and the character she plays is like a knife to my stomach. Maybe the director was trying to make her seem like a hard up Disney princess type... but the voice, the hesitations in her acting (?)...horrible. I. Just. Can't.

nice

[Kirpianuscus · 11 October 2019]

A Hallmark movie. Pink sauces, mountains of cliches, simple to childish story, a sort of acting from the lead actress.And the so familiar romance . The frame for love troubles and business difficulties, not a restaurant or family shop but a bookshop. A dreamer young woman, The Charming Prince and the version of Shrek. Enough for something who can be defined as nice. The consolation prize- for me, the presence of John Schneider. Is it enough ? Off course, when the expectations are far to be high.

That was painful to watch

[mchthom · 2/10 · 16 October 2021]

I should have listened to the other reviewers and skipped it. The on reason I continued watching it was because Kristopher Turner was so cute. Stephanie Powers and John Schneider looked great.

Horrible Portrayal of A Young Business Owner

[jarvisa-75846 · 2/10 · 23 October 2016]

I have no idea why this actress was chosen. Is her acting really this terrible or did the producers make her into this awful character?

As if the high pitched, whining, little girl voice wasn't enough, the female protagonist in capable of holding a logical thought or a reasonable conversation. Unable to see past her bias against the only person genuinely trying his best to improve her business. Is this how people see women? As completely closed minded (even in the face of evidence - the guy improved book sales) and done in by fantasy and whims?

No wonder she couldn't finance her bookstore on her own. The only reason this receives 2 stars instead of 1 is because some of the other actors showed some skill.

Absolutely atrocious portrayal of a young woman. I like romance as much as the other woman, but I couldn't stomach more than 20 minutes of this trash.

Skimming

[boblipton · 2/10 · 25 January 2015]

Let's get out the checklist. Pretty leading lady with a squeaky voice and a rigid way of looking at the world, running an improbably successful business in an undefined town? Check. Handsome leading man to make her hate him until the inevitable moment when he turns out to be right about everything? Check. Handsome other man who sweeps her off her feet but who, we know, will turn out to be a phony? Check. Tweedly, intrusive musical score that tells you how you must feel about this particular moment whether there's anything else to raise emotions? Check. Plot proceeding almost entirely via dialogue? Check. No jokes or gags? Well then, the form book tells us we must be looking at a Hallmark Channel romantic comedy.

And a particularly dire example of the beast it is. Leah Renee seems to be under orders to act like a four-year old in a Princess tutu having tea with her stuffed animals. I'd urge you to not look at it, but it doesn't show up under the title it plays on the Hallmark Channel.