"Classic Holiday Romance"
Reviewed by RaMonda Horton
Posted September 27, 2010
Women's Fiction
THE SNOW GLOBE will make for a good holiday book for readers
who like simple and classic tales of romance. Kylie Gray is
a woman who has not had a great year. She was jilted
by her longtime boyfriend, who now proclaims his love for
her younger sister, and she just lost her job. If there was
ever anyone in need of some Christmas magic, it is
definitely Kylie. In an attempt to take her mind off of her
troubles Kylie and her best friend Allison head out for some
Christmas shopping and find themselves in an antique shop
where she is drawn to one of the items in the store, an
antique snow globe. The snow globe is believed to be a
magical gift that transforms the life of the person who owns
it during Christmastime. This Christmas, it will transform
the lives of Kylie and her two best friends Suzanne and Allison.
The SNOW GLOBE offers its readers the classic fairy tale
endings and an inspiring nod to the power of friendship.
Kylie gets her happily ever after in a Cinderella fashion.
Suzanne gains insight into her heart's desires via a
Dicken's Christmas Carolesque epiphany, and Allison learns
the value of gratitude in appreciating what was already
present in her own little Oz moment complete with a good
witch guiding her along the way. Robert's SNOW GLOBE is an
enjoyable holiday treat.
SUMMARY
On a blustery afternoon, Kylie 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
that 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 Kylie shares the story with her
best friends--two women with troubles 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.
ExcerptFawn Island, Pacific Northwest
Something drew Kiley Gray to the antique shop. It could
have been the carousel horse in the window or the sight of
tables and shelves beyond, crammed with cast-off treasures.
Whatever was in there calling to her, she knew she had to
go in. She was a big believer in that sort of thing.
Actually, Kiley was a big believer. Period. She’d been
sure Santa was real until she was ten and even after waking
up on Christmas Eve to discover her father hanging her
filled stocking on the mantel, she kept pretending for
another two years. She’d believed in Prince Charming and
Mr. Right clear through college. She’d even believed in
happy endings until just this October when her boyfriend
Jeremy Horne dumped her at her own Halloween party (how was
that for tacky?), announcing that he couldn’t fight his
attraction for her sister any longer.
It had been a very scary Halloween.
A bell chimed over the door as Kiley entered the shop
and her nose twitched as she caught a whiff of dust.
Another shopper, a portly older woman in a stylish wool
coat, stood at the counter, raving over the pink Depression
glass pitcher she’d found. "And just in the nick of time,"
she added. "I’m going to have to dash to make that ferry."
With hurried thanks, she took the piece the shop owner had
carefully wrapped and hurried to the door, stuffing bills
in her wallet as she went.
One fluttered to the floor and Kiley scooped it up. It
was a fifty, maybe not a lot for this woman, who was well
dressed and obviously had money to burn, but to Kiley it
was a fortune. "Wait. You dropped this."
"Oh. Thanks," said the woman, barely looking at it. She
stuffed it in her purse and hurried out the door.
The shopkeeper smiled at Kiley. "People get in too big
of a hurry."
"I can’t afford to be in that big of a hurry," she said.
She probably couldn’t afford to be in here at all. But
browsing didn’t cost anything, she told herself as she
drifted to where the carousel horse stood frozen in mid-
prance. Who had owned this and how did it end up
languishing here? Kiley gave it a comforting pat; then
wandered away to the far side of the shop.
That was when she saw the snow globe. Tucked behind a
clock with a brass horse and a chipped crystal vase, she
might never have noticed it except for a stray sunbeam that
managed to slip past the gray clouds outside and in through
the window.
She picked up the snow globe and shook it, creating a
blizzard around a scene of a toyshop in the center of an
Alpine village. The storm swirled around the little angel
standing guard in front of the shop. It was simply too
charming not to buy. Anyway, purchasing treasures was an
integral part of any girls’ getaway weekend so in a way,
she was almost obligated.
She took it up to where the shop owner sat behind his
cash register, now reading a book. "I didn’t see a price
tag on this. I’m just wondering what you want for it."
She gulped when he told her. Not exactly the kind of
inexpensive purchase for a girl who was now unemployed.
Maybe purchasing treasure wasn’t such an integral part of a
girls’ getaway weekend. At least not this treasure, not
this weekend.
The man was somewhere in his fifties, with gray hair and
the beginnings of a paunch. He looked over his reading
glasses at her and smiled. "But, I think, for the right
buyer, I could come down in price a little."
"Oh? What does the right buyer look like?" Hopefully, a
skinny woman about to turn thirty with long, brown hair,
hazel colored eyes, a fashionably full mouth, and a nose
she hated.
"It’s not exactly about looks," the shop owner
said. "It’s more about where you are in life. You see, this
little snow globe has quite a story to tell."
"I like stories," said Kiley, leaning her elbows on the
counter.
"This one starts back when snow globes were first being
made. Nobody knows the exact date, but the first one
appeared at the Paris Exposition in 1878, and by 1879 at
least five companies were producing snow globes and selling
them throughout Europe. This was one of them, so you can
see it’s very valuable. But its age isn’t the real reason
why." He removed his glasses and set aside his book. "Would
you like to hear more?"
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