A review of "The Snow Globe" [89]

The Snow Globe by Shelia Roberts
St. Martins Press, ISBN 978-0312594480
October 26, 2010, 176 pages

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The holiday season is wonderful, but for those dealing with some problems, it can be difficult. As three friends gather for a 'girls' day of some pre-Christmas shopping, each is facing her own challenges.

The first, Kiley, has lost her job, which is bad enough but then she loses her fiance...to her sister. Yes, the family Thanksgiving dinner is going to be a little tense. Then there is Suzanne. She seems to have it all. A handsome, sweet husband, a beautiful daughter, a successful career as a realtor, a showcase beautiful home. But below the surface, she has lost sight of what is most important perhaps. Obsessed with success, with perfect appearances, too busy for her friends or family, she may be, as her mother warns her, in danger of losing it all.
And finally there is Allison facing a lonely Christmas without her beloved grandmother, the only family member she really shared any values with.

But a little Christmas magic is about to enter each of their lives in the form of a beautiful snow globe that Kiley finds in an antique shop. Not only is it beautiful, with a scene of a lovely old toyshop in the Bavarian mountains with an angel standing outside, but it comes with a heartwarming story. Decades ago, it foretold of hope and love to a toymaker who thought happiness in his life was gone forever.
It seems that when the right person gazes into the globe what they see inside changes to hint at the path their future will take. Kiley looks into it and no longer see the old toyshop and angel inside but instead a modern toystore in her Seattle hometown. And can that man standing outside be someone who will bring new love to her life? When magic touches her life, she decides to pass the globe on to her friends, in hope that their lives too can be changed as her has been by what they see in the snow globe.

This is a sweet book, and the perfect book to read, cozily wrapped in a throw, in your favorite chair on a cold winter day. A couple of feet of snow outside, as there was when I read it, and you are all set. At 178 pages it is a quick read, but a very nice one, at least if you can suspend your disbelief and accept the idea of a little Christmas magic. Rather than a novel, it is really three interconnected short stories and my only complaint is that I did not think the third story, Allison's, and the ending, was quite up to the first two stories. Kiley's is rather predictable but I really thought that Suzanne's was the most heartwarming and the one that will stick in your mind.

So make some hot chocolate, grab the afghan and settle in for a nice cozy read with "The Snow Globe".

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My thanks to St. Martins Press for a copy of this book.

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