Dinca’s review of The Snow Globe by Sheila Roberts
Paranormal Romance published by St. Martin’s Press 26 Oct 10

Sheila Roberts has written a delightful story about three girlfriends in need of a little magic in their lives.

On a weekend getaway with her two best friends after losing her job and her boyfriend to her younger sister of all people, Kiley buys a snow globe from an antique shop.  The gentleman shop owner tells her the miracle tale associated with the snow globe about a toy shop owner who lost his wife and baby and during his grief he is about to lose his toy shop too. He receives this snow globe in the mail as a Christmas gift and his life magically changes.

Kiley needs some magic this holiday season. She has to show up for Thanksgiving dinner at her parents’ home where her younger sister will be bringing her ex-fiancé. Yippee! As the snow settles after Kiley shakes the globe, she sees a different toy shop than the original one when she bought it. She searches the internet, finds it’s a real place, and decides to go visit the shop.  There Kiley finds her dream guy and a job and then wants to spread the magic by passing the snow globe on to her friend Suzanne.

Suzanne is a neat freak and a workaholic. . .but she has her reasons.

Her daughter and husband want a puppy for Christmas, but all she sees is the mess she will have to clean up. When the snow globe is passed on to her, she is devastated. She does not believe in its magic, and when her daughter and husband see a puppy in the globe for Christmas, she puts it on the mantel out of reach of her daughter, to no avail, however.  Suzanne ends up breaking her ankle while trying to save the curious girl from a fall off a tilting chair with the globe in hand. Having to slow down after the injury, the angel from the snow globe helps Suzanne get her priorities in order.

On Christmas Day she gifts the snow globe to her friend Allison.

Allison is a mess. Well, not a total mess. She comes from a dysfunctional family and has go back home for Christmas dinner. She misses her grandmother terribly and is devastated by her loss this holiday season. When she shakes the snow globe, it shows her a grandmotherly image. Not her grandmother but someone else’s. After a bad Christmas and New Year’s Day, she continues to shake the globe and the results are the same. The image never changes.

Thinking the globe has run out of magic by the end of January, the friends decide to seek out the lady who gave the globe to the antique shop owner, and Allison discovers she’s the same lady in the snow globe, and they become fast friends with a lot in common.

If you are looking for a book of dreams that come true this holiday season, this is the book for you. Sit back and relax and have a good read. Don’t forget the brownies and hot chocolate. I could just taste them as I read about them in the story.

Grade: A

Summary:

On a blustery afternoon, Kiley Gray wanders into an antique shop and buys a beautiful snow globe. “There’s a story behind that snow globe,” the antique dealer tells her, and explains the original owner lost his wife and son right before Christmas. When he received the handcrafted snow globe as a Christmas present, the grieving widower saw the image of a beautiful woman beneath the glass—a woman who would eventually come into his life, mend his broken heart and bring him back to the world of the living. For years, the snow globe has passed from generation to generation, somehow always landing in the hands of a person in special need of a Christmas miracle.

When Kiley shares the story of the snow globe with her best friends—two women with problems of their own—they don’t believe it. But they’re about to discover that at Christmastime, sometimes the impossible becomes possible and miracles really do come true.

Read an excerpt.