L'aroma dell'amore

Riley Finn returns from the secret mission he left Buffy for all those years ago, to find Sunnydale much more Christmassy and Buffy to be replaced by Audrey, a local coffee shop owner and generally the nicest person on the planet!

Okay, so it is Marc Blucas but he plays Staff Sergeant Matt Evans and he still reminds me of Riley and if he appears in uniform then he is Riley and will forever be! Matt has been getting letters from one of his soldiers' sisters for the last year (not sure if his friend new about this or approved but let's not worry about that!) and when he is sent stateside, he goes to see here. Audrey(Melissa Claire Egan- an American daytime TV star turned Hallmark heroine), the letter writing sister runs a local coffeeshop and wants to expand but in the meantime she is trying to give a Happy Christmas to as many servicemen and women as she can, but is having problems getting the venue and money to do it. Her and Matt get on fantastically well, even better in person than in ink but she's busy and he's trying to decide what to do with his life, so we are going to have some bumps before the end. But it is a Hallmark movie and one that is based on returning soldiers and love and Christmas, so I'm not worried, it will all be alright in the end and Riley might not get his Buffy but honestly Audrey is nicer and less likely to stab him with a stake.

Homecoming for heroes, Christmas, love story, Hallmark you're crying, I'm not, it's you. You just think I'm crying through the tears in your own eyes!

This was such a good movie!! I love the Christmas movies on Hallmark and Lifetime every year. Each year they have some hits and some duds and this one, for me, was definitely a hit. It was just the right amount of sentimental, has great chemistry between the characters, and a really good storyline. Sometimes their military movies are overly sappy, but this one was perfect. Again, in my opinion. Definitely recommend!!

It's so nice to see one of these films that concentrates on the forces element, rather than the trite little references thrown in here and there in other ones.

I actually cried at the end, because it was easy to get behind the cause and I'm not usually one to get soppy about the forces, because I believe that they have chosen their job as have the tinker and the tailor, but you can really see here how important these celebrations are to those left at home and how important the homecomings are for both parties.

Marc Blucas is natural and lovely again and the female lead (Moley, moley, moley) is not one of the annoying ones.

A great cast all around really and a lovely story delivered appropriately and with style.

6/10 - sweet Hallmark flick will be one to come back to in future years

Hallmark movies can only be judged against other Hallmark movies. They are a special genre. I wished I lived in Hallmarkland.