I liked the first one in this series better. This one focuses too much on the romance - which already sucked to start with - it didn't get better. The mystery was a bit too ridiculous for my tastes - there were lots of little plot twists that just irritated me. So not as good as the first book, 2 stars. ( )

First, it's best to read at least the two books in this series in order. This is book #2, and it mentions (several times!) who the killer in book #1 is. Snowglobes play a very small role in this book. It's set in an antique store that specializes in snowglobes, but the book could be set in any kind of store. I think the connected coffee shop is more fleshed out than the protagonist's store. There's very little physical description. The characters are okay. Somehow I did find it engaging, but I can't really say why. I liked a couple of the suspects, and the amateur detective's attitude toward them, I guess. The protagonist has a very complicated backstory. The recent backstory does figure into the plot; not so much the character's childhood. Not sure I'm interested enough to read the other books to see if the childhood backstory pays off. ( )

This is the second in the Snow Globe Shop mystery series, but the first one I’ve read. Cami Brooks has returned to her home town from Washington DC to help her parents with their Curio Finds shop while her mother recovers from a serious illness. She’s also fleeing a scandalous episode that involves the Senator from Minnesota. Her good friend Pinky runs the coffee shop next door and the two help each other out during busy periods. With the Christmas season approaching the two friends consider hiring some additional help. Their former high school classmate Molly Dalton isn’t what they had in mind, but she practically begs for the job. At the end of her first day on the job, Cami is stunned to find Molly dead in the bathroom – apparently poisoned.

Well this is just all over the place. There’s the whole drama with the Senator. The little old lady with a criminal past. A strangely unemotional husband. A long-lost stepbrother. An unexpected confession of a murder no one ever suspected. A strange man with a suitcase. Several “customers” who are behaving oddly. And a possible ghost who keeps turning the bathroom light on when no one is there…. Or maybe it’s an electrical short.

It seemed to me that Husom was trying too hard to confuse and confound the investigators (and the reader) in order to have a mystery plot with some twists and turns. Nothing seemed to work for me. Cami behaved like a junior-high tween more often than a professional woman. I didn’t feel any spark between her and her apparent love interest (except that she seems to melt in his arms when he kisses her). And the whole resolution of the mystery seemed rushed. ( )

With a shop filled with snow globes, the Minnesota and Christmas setting, it was pretty much a win for readability this time of year. Camryn Brooks and her friend Pinky, (their businesses share an open wall) decide to haphazardly hire a little holiday help for their shops. There was so much going on--a lot of red herrings plus the story of Cami's DC downfall, it kind of detracted from the small town cuteness of the story. ( )