This story has it all: humor, suspense, & romance!

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The Trouble with Christmas is a delightful book written by Debbie Mason. It is the first book in the Christmas, Colorado series and I can't wait to listen to the rest of the series. This story has it all - humor, a bit of suspense, and of course, romance.

The story centers around Madison Lane who works for a New York development company contemplating bringing a resort to the economically depressed community in Christmas, Colorado. After crunching the numbers and determining that a resort is not feasible for either the company or the town, Madison ends the negotiations with the mayor of Christmas. However the owner's son throws her under the proverbial bus and feeds fuel to the media outrage. In an attempt at damage control on behalf of the company, Madison travels to Colorado to smooth the town's feathers. After a parade of very comical unfortunate events, Madison is forced to stay a month in Christmas, during which time she falls in love with the small town and it's people, and in turn, the town's folks fall in love with her too. The best part of this story are the well developed secondary characters - especially Nell McBride, the meddling senior citizen.

I listened to the Audible version of this book narrated by Becket Royce, who did a fantastic job. She clearly differentiated between male and female voices and really brought the characters to life. I especially enjoyed her portrayal of disgruntled teenagers, and the busybody Nell, which made me laugh out loud several times. Simply put, I highly recommend this audiobook!

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4 people found this helpful

Satisfying

I almost did not read/listen to all of this. I'm used to sweet Christmas romances where lust is not mentioned, but in this book there is a lot of "...what else he could do with those hands..." and "...watching her tight pants as she walks away..." kinds of stuff. Most of it is pretty tame and I'm no prude, but normally in a Christmas story I don't think we need that. That said, I bet there is an audience for that, folks that want a little bit of spice in their eggnog, and for them, feel free. And again, this is still pretty tame, not graphic, but folks want to know what they're getting.
This book is not perfect. Many times I felt like I must have skipped parts because there seemed to be gaps in the descriptions, but when I backed up to look, no, just gaps in the writing. And there was a last minute scene or two that seemed forced and just kind of thrown in.
But, in the end, I read these romances hoping to feel happy tear jerky, and in several places, this book took me there. So for me, it was ultimately satisfying.

***Update: I listen to my small collection of Christmas romance books every season, this title included. I stick with my original review, however, I really like this book. I just now looked to see if the next title in the series was available on audible and was disappointed to find that it wasn't. Some of the later books were available, but not book 2 or 3. (Print versions are.) Come on, Audible, give us whole series!

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2 people found this helpful

Pure Joy

I really enjoyed this story from start to finish. The characters were easy to relate too and I could really picture this town as I listened to the story. Also, good character development. I enjoy a sweet and clean romance.

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light holiday read!

easy to listen to, good for the holidays, somewhat predictable story but in a fun way

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Started out cute then just dragged on...

What would have made The Trouble with Christmas better?

I thought the narration was pretty bad, so a good narrator would have really improved the experience, but aside from that, the story line just kind of fizzled out and went on too long. The "excitement" at the end was pretty anticlimactic too.

What was most disappointing about Debbie Mason’s story?

I liked the classic make the Grinch love Christmas thing the story had going on, but I was kind of annoyed by the main character and how she was supposed to be all feisty but every time she got mad or frustrated w/ the situation with her love interest he made everything seem like she was being unreasonable and she just accepted it.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator just didn't have much variation with the different characters voices and she was a little nasal.

What character would you cut from The Trouble with Christmas?

None, I didn't any issues with the characters to that point.

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Awesome

Awesome books. Getting ready to read the rest of the series. Everyone should this.

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