"Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars, points of light and reason. ...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason, for anything."

~ Edward Cullen

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes


Title: 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Author: Maureen Johnson
Pages: 320
Rating: 4/5

Would you follow the directions?

Would you travel around the world?

Would you open the envelopes one by one?

Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1000 and instructions to by a plane ticket.

In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat.

The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist.

Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/bloke-about-town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous - though utterly romantic - results. But will she ever see him again?

Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it's all because of the 13 little blue envelopes (Cover Blurb).

I've been hearing great things about this book, all over blog land, for years and just never got around to picking up the book. When I was at Borders a few weeks ago, I just happened to see this book on the summer reading shelf and grabbed it. I'm really glad I finally took the time to read this.

Ginny is one of the best characters I've encountered in a young adult book in a long time. She was shy, quiet, and totally not the girl that you would picture back packing all over Europe. But Maureen Johnson made it work. Also, I loved Ginny's crazy Aunt Peg. She had such a creative mind, and she was so independent. I've often thought of what it would be like to just pack up and leave someday (not that I would...I'm not nearly that adventurous).

Another thing I loved about the book is how it was split up by the 13 blue envelopes. Each letter was a new adventure with new people and new friends. It truly was a journey in itself. The only reason why I didn't give the book a solid 5 out of 5 stars is because I felt like the ending was missing something. I just didn't think it held up as well as the rest of the novel, but that's just my opinion. Others may love it.

So if you're looking to travel a bit outside of the US on your reading adventures this summer, I'd grab this book. You'll be all over Europe and never have to leave the comfort of your favorite reading chair!!

3 comments:

Sassy Brit @ Alternative-Read.com said...

This intrigues me, I do like the sound of it, even though you felt like there was something missing at the end - I guess it's just a good premise for a story.

Thanks for sharing

Sassy
:)

Angela said...

I read this book a few years ago and I thought it was pretty good. It would make a good beach read. Thanks for the review.

Unknown said...

hey i had 2 do this book as a summer reading thing but i jsut go information of f the internet and i wish i read it but how does the book end?? i wanna know .. so if your reading this can you put how the book ends because i already know all about the book so.. if you could thanks =]

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