13 Little Blue Envelopes (#1)
Published December 21st, 2010
“Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy 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.”
The Last Little Blue Envelope (#2)
Published April 26th, 2011
“Ginny Blackstone thought that the biggest adventure of her life was behind her. She spent last summer traveling around Europe, following the tasks her aunt Peg laid out in a series of letters before she died. When someone stole Ginny’s backpack—and the last little blue envelope inside—she resigned herself to never knowing how it was supposed to end.
Months later, a mysterious boy contacts Ginny from London, saying he’s found her bag. Finally, Ginny can finish what she started. But instead of ending her journey, the last letter starts a new adventure—one filled with old friends, new loves, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Ginny finds she must hold on to her wits . . . and her heart. This time, there are no instructions.”
Review:
13 Little Blue Envelopes: The first thing I thought when I read this book was: “Where are her parents?”. I understand the concept of not having contact with anyone from America because the notes from her aunt said so. However, I know that if I didn’t keep in contact as a seventeen year old going across to a completely different country without knowing their language or anything, my parents would be calling and texting every minute. Okay, now that I have that off my chest, I think this book was good, but depressing. 13 Little Blue Envelopes is about how Ginny’s aunt sent her these letters after she disappeared for years. It turns out that Ginny’s aunt was very sick and wanted to show her what she did when she disappeared. Ginny takes the letters and flies to England where her journey starts. I’m not so sure I really liked Ginny that much in the first book. I think she was way in over her head. However, I commend her for getting out there and doing something she would never have the chance to experience again. Maybe I’m just nervous, but I could never see myself doing that. Next, she meets Keith who is a good/bad boy. He was just an okay character. You’ll find to not really like him in the sequel. Overall, I think this story was pretty good and had a nice family message along with it, but I feel like it was just missing that wow moment. Rating: 4/5 stars.
The Last Little Blue Envelope: Okay, so it’s pretty clear by the sequel that something happens to the last envelope in the first book. If you read the synopsis above, you will find out what happened to it. I think that this is one of those funny cases where I liked the sequel better than the original. This time around I was flying through the pages to see what was going to happen next. Of course, the first book is a scavenger hunt type of novel, and it kept me interested, but not as interested as this book. There is a new character named Oliver and you hate him right off the bat. Like I stated before, you will hate Keith, too. Ginny got much better in this book than she did the first. By the end, it’s all great and leaves you with a sense of accomplishment for Ginny. It does seem to leave a little bit of a cliffhanger, but you can use your imagination to figure out what will happen next. Rating: 5/5 stars.
Lacey's Library 