I can't decide whether or not I should be spoilery in my reviews.. I'm thinking I might, but I promise if I ever do get spoilery, I will give you a heads up & make it the last thing in the post! Sound good? Okay!
"When Ginny receives thirteen little blue envelopes and instructions to buy a plane ticket to London, she knows something exciting is going to happen. What Ginny doesn't know is that she will have the adventure of her life and it will change her in more ways than one. Life and love are waiting for her across the Atlantic, and the thirteen little blue envelopes are the key to finding them in this funny, romantic, heartbreaking novel."
I'm just going to go right out there and say it. I love Maureen Johnson. She's freakin' awesome. Not just as a writer, but as a person. I know what you're thinking, you know Maureen Johnson? No, I don't.** But I feel like I do! Without purposely trying to sound stalker-esque, I feel like following authors I really enjoy on Twitter give me a better idea of who they are. And if Maureen is anything like she is on Twitter***, she's truly one of a kind. Funny as hell. Quirky. Smart. Opinionated (in the good way). I just love her, alright? So sue me.†
*Ahem* Maybe I should actually review the book now.
13 Little Blue Envelopes was perfectly timed for me, I think. It's been in my TBR†† pile for far too long, so I finally picked it up on Thursday night at 10 PM. I wanted to read the first chapter (seeing as though I just downloaded it for free on my eReader†††) to help me decide which book I was going to bring to work Friday. Big mistake. It's always a bad idea when I pick up a book thinking I'm going to put it down and be able to walk away from it. I don't think I've ever really done this before. It causes me physical pain to separate myself from a book once I've started it.‡ And if there's sequels? Psh, I'm in trouble.‡‡ The thing is, I know better. I did this not too long ago with Kimberly Derting's, The Body Finder. One chapter and I'm hooked. It's so sad.
ANYWAY-- BACK TO THE REVIEW!
I needed this book because I've been reading a lot of urban fantasy lately, to keep myself in the right mindset for my own book, but I needed a break desperately. I wanted to read a fun, light book that would distract me from my current writer's woes. Something that I would read and enjoy, not read and dissect, as I've been doing. Maureen's book was just the thing.
Ginny is a great MC‡‡‡. She made a lot of decisions and said a lot of things I wouldn't have, and that's what I loved so much about her. It wasn't easy for me to lay my personality onto her, she wasn't flat. I'm sick of reading flat characters. They bore me.§
I also quite enjoy novels that take me to new and unknown places, and this was definitely one. So many places! The book starts off in New York, where Ginny has gone to complete her first task of thirteen. From there she takes us to London, briefly to Scotland and back, then Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Greece and then back again to London for the finish of the novel. It was quite the ride! Don't get me wrong, though. This book was not just a story of a girl bopping from place to place in exploration on a treasure hunt of sorts. The whole story was tinged with a great sadness. The 13 letters instructing her what to do were from her aunt Peg who had died very recently. Someone whom she had always looked up to. Even from the afterlife, her aunt seems to be able to teach her a great lesson. In just the few short weeks Ginny grows so much. She learns how to live without her aunt, the woman who she had always accounted for any fun or cool times she had in her life. Ginny learns she can actually be the person she wants to be on her own.
All throughout her journey she meets all sorts of amazing characters. We first meet Richard, a kind man we learn a lot more about towards the end of the book. I won't say much else here, to save this whole review from being spoilery! Next, we meet Keith, a klepto-theater performer/writer/director of sorts, whom I totally love, as well as his flatmate David. Keith wasn't the average, run-of-the-mill love interest. I found it quite refreshing! Upon her arrival in Amsterdam she ends up falling in with a strange family called the Knapps, who scheduled everything about their trip right down to their Knapptime§§-- and in Copenhagen, a lovely danish man named Knud and later a group of students from Australia that follow her to Greece.
I'm still getting the hang of this review thing -- to spoil or not to spoil, that 'tis the question -- so forgive me if I did a terrible job!
In short: I loved it. Buy it. Read it. 5/5 stars. §§§
I can't wait to get my hands on The Last Little Blue Envelope this Tuesday! The first two chapters (or was it the prologue and chapter one?) were placed at the end of the free 13 Little Blue electronic copy, and I am just dying to see how it all plays out! You see, at the end of the first book the thirteenth envelope gets stolen, and you're left thinking that all is good and that she actually figured out exactly what it said. As it turns out, I might have been completely wrong in that assumption. I'm very excited to see what the rest of the letter says!#So, it's safe to expect another book review from me on Tuesday night. :)
Happy writing!
I blame the amazing Robin McKinley for my footnote addiction:
* I know, I know. Holy links, Batman! I'm nothing, if not helpful. :)
** Psh. I WISH.
*** Click that link!
† Please don't.
††TBR= To Be Read list, for the acronymically challenged.
††† Yes, I said FREE! The book is free this week to promote the new release on Tuesday
‡ Don't even get me started about the time I was forcibly removed from my copy of DEATHLY HALLOWS. On the day it came out. At the end. I can't even think about it.
‡‡The week I picked up the first Sookie Stackhouse book was a grim one, folks. There's about 10 of 'em now, but there were about 8 at the time. My family thought I had died in my room. I almost did. You see, I forget to eat when I'm reading...
‡‡‡ MC= Main Character, again, for the acronymically challenged.
§ Dear lord, please do not ever let me slip up and actually create one of these. I hate looking like a hypocritical ass.
§§ Maureen's joke, not mine. See? I told you she was funny!
§§§ Hell, you don't even have to buy it! It's FREE right now! Therefore, you have no excuse as to why you're not downloading it as we speak (or as you read this, rather).
# In the chapter they included, the letter is stopped right in the middle. Before all of the interesting stuff! Can you imagine? The nerve!
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