The Trouble with Christmas

The Trouble with Christmas is Debbie Mason's 2013 debut and the first book in the Christmas, Colorado series. Madison Lane is a resort development consultant who has just talked her firm out of a deal that would have turned a struggling mountain town into a ski destination. The town's nickname for her — the Grinch Who Killed Christmas — sticks, and her company sends her to Christmas, Colorado to repair the damage.

Sheriff Gage McBride has no interest in being repaired. He is raising two daughters, holding a fragile town together, and is certain that whatever Madison is selling will cost Christmas more than it pays. Their standoff is the engine of the book, and it goes about where you expect it to.

Warm, comic small-town romance with a large supporting cast of townspeople who carry into later books. It was the basis for the Hallmark film Welcome to Christmas.