Finding Love in Mountain View

Finding Love in Mountain View is a 2020 Hallmark Channel romantic movie filmed and set in Mountain View (Stone County). The movie was inspired by the 2010 book Love Finds You in Bridal Veil, Oregon (republished in 2015 as Finding Love in Bridal Veil, Oregon by Miralee Ferrell).

Margaret Garvey (Danielle C. Ryan) is a big-city architect whose boyfriend, Nathan Jeffries (John-Paul Lavoisier), is going to China on a business trip for a few weeks. While he is away, she learns that her cousin Susan and Susan’s husband Hank recently died in a car accident. She had not spoken to them in years, but their will leaves custody of their children Joel (Luke Loveless) and Samantha “Sammie” (Skyler Elyse Philpot) to her, provided that she live with them in the family home in Mountain View. There is an alternative guardian, an uncle of the kids who is a Navy SEAL currently on assignment. Margaret plans to stay for the month until the uncle is available.

She arrives at the house to find her Aunt Bertha (Natalie Canerday) helping to take care of the kids before returning to Florida, as well as Andrew (Myko Olivier), her high school boyfriend who is now an elementary school counselor with master’s in child psychology. Margaret instantly starts to fumble on the caretaking side of things, encountering problems with breakfast the next day, and calls Andrew, who solves things effortlessly. The two begin to warm back up to each other.

Trying to figure out how to connect with Joel, Margaret enlists Sammie to help Joel audition for the choir. Sammie wants to try out for basketball. Things are going well, but Nathan surprises Margaret by showing up suddenly. Andrew drives up just as Nathan is kissing Margaret. The kids take a dislike to Nathan. When the lawyer calls to say that the uncle will not be able to take the kids but that Aunt Bertha is willing to adopt them, Nathan urges Margaret to give up the children. He issues the ultimatum—she can choose either the kids or him. Sammie overhears the conversation, but not the conclusion, when Margaret rejects Nathan. The kids then run away.

Margaret calls Andrew, who leads a group in a search for the children. Margaret finds them and tells them that she is staying. Afterward, Joel sings at a school talent show. The movie ends with Margaret, the kids, Bertha, and Andrew having Thanksgiving dinner. Margaret announces that she wants to adopt them formally and plans to continue her architectural practice from Mountain View. As Margaret and Andrew wash dishes, they share regrets over losing touch and breaking up when they were younger, and she kisses him.

Dove.org, a website reviewing movies from a Christian perspective, described the film as a “true love-of-family story for anyone who has ever had a child in their lives and is a true accounting of upholding family values for all the right reasons with a little bit of refreshing romance tossed in for good measure!”

For additional information:
“Finding Love in Mountain View.” Dove.org. https://dove.org/review/21614-finding-love-in-mountain-view/ (accessed June 10, 2026).

“Innamorarsi a Mountain View.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11399362/ (accessed June 10, 2026).

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas