Tag: Maureen Johnson

Review: The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson.

Posted April 26, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments


Main Character: Ginny Blackstone
Love Interest: Oliver (highlight if you really want to know)
Series: Sequel to Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

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.

This review will be a bit spoiler-y so this is your warning. If you’re not a fan of spoilers then please don’t read this review, come back when you’ve finished the book and feel free to discuss with me. It’ll be fun.

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This book follows Ginny from Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes that came out in 2005. In that book, Ginny’s backpack gets stolen along with the last little blue envelope that her Aunt left behind for her. Her journey was over and done with …until she received an email from some guy who bought her backpack and found the letters that Ginny’s Aunt left behind.

I liked this book more than I liked the first book. I thought the first book was good but there were things that ticked me off and put a damper on my enjoyment of the book but that wasn’t the case with this book. Ginny at times was a bit indecisive but it didn’t bother me much in this book. I enjoyed her character and I enjoyed getting to know her again. Reading this book was like catching up with old friends and it was just a total treat!

Ginny is on her way back to England after returning home without finishing the journey her Aunt sent her on. Her back pack was stolen and Oliver bought her backpack, emailed her after finding out about the last envelope and then wants in on fulfilling the last task in the last letter which will make Ginny a pretty penny. Oliver wants in on that pretty penny.

Right from the very beginning, it was hard not to like Oliver. Even when I was still firmly in the Keith camp, I liked Oliver. I knew that something wasn’t quite right with Keith and throughout the entire book, Keith kept slipping lower and lower on my like meter. The way that he treated Oliver, even though Oliver deserved it at first, got really old, really fast. I wanted to slap him upside his head more than a few times and even though he got on my hot dang nerves, I enjoyed the book.

Johnson does a fantastic job of sucking the reader into Ginny’s world and she does a fabulous job of making the reader feel as though they’re apart of Ginny’s adventures in Europe. Like Oliver, it was hard to not like Ellis because she was just great all around and totally understandable (more than I would ever be) and I really enjoyed getting to know the new characters and see what the old characters were up to.

I really enjoyed Ginny’s character and saw the changes (and not changes) that she went through since her last trip across the pond and overall the story was enjoyable and the characters were charming (well most of them were) and the small bit of romance made the book just that more enjoyable. I would totally recommend this book.

For all my Moms out there, I’d give this book a rating of:

It’s a mature book with some language and adult goings on.

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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Review: Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.

Posted February 10, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments


Main Character: Ginny
Love Interest:
Series: Little Blue Envelope, Book 1
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

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.

It boggles my mind to think that someone would send a teenager on an adventure to another country. I know that none of my Aunts would have done it but that’s just my inner hater peeking out because I would have loved to have had someone send me to Europe when I was 17 so that I could follow the little blue envelope road to finding out what happened to my Aunt.

So Ginny’s Aunt sends her on this once in a lifetime journey and of course Ginny goes and she follows the instructions in all of those little blue envelopes in hopes of getting to know her Aunt all over again since her Aunt took off for Europe without looking back and without keeping in touch.

Every time I read this book is annoys me so much that the Aunt just took off the way she did without a word to those who cared about her. Without so much as a word or thought to her family. I hated the way that Ginny found out that her Aunt died, I hated the way that she found out that her Aunt was married to the guy who housed her while she was in Europe and I hate the way that she sent Ginny on an adventure all over the place so that she could what? Get some perspective on the Aunt? Why couldn’t she have done that while she was alive? I mean, there had to have been a funeral but she robbed her family of going to it because none of them knew where she was or what had happened.

Ugh, while that part of the story always gets me all fired up, I still enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the people that Ginny met and I enjoyed when she chased Keith’s drunk friend down the street and the piece of crap play that he was in. Overall, it was a good book but it wasn’t the great book that I was expecting. I was expecting more of a connection with Ginny and I didn’t get that. When I finished the book, I felt like I didn’t really know much about Ginny and that was kind of a bummer.

I am, however interested in reading the next book that’s coming out soon. I’ll, of course, review it here on the blog just as soon as I finish it.

..and that’s your scoop!

Buy the book: B&N|Borders|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com


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Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.

Posted April 22, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Rowena’s review of 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.

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.

This was a really quick read for me. It was one of those books that you picked up, got sucked in and then put down because you were done with it. The fantasy of going on a trip like Ginny did in this book had me excited and ready to live vicariously through Ginny. I mean, it’s the summer and you find out that the crazy Aunt you’ve always loved is dead and left behind 13 little blue envelopes with instructions on what she wants you to do in each of those envelopes. Everything that she has to do for her Aunt is in Europe. Can you imagine going to England all by yourself when you’re not even 18 yet? I can’t. It would have never happened…and let’s forget about the simple fact that when I was 17, I was pregnant with Brenna.

Still, my aunt (any of them for that matter) would never have sent me on a trip to Europe all by myself but that’s okay because this book was still cool because of it. So we have Ginny on an adventurous journey to England traveling all over Europe, following her Aunts instructions in the little blue envelopes. All of these things gave Ginny the kind of adventure she’d never in a million years have had if left to her own devices and while I did enjoy the book, it wasn’t exactly spectacular.

After putting the book down, I didn’t feel completely satisfied with the story as a whole. I mean, the story was fine but I didn’t feel as if I completely knew who Ginny was and as great as going on a trip to England and then traveling to all of those different European countries would have been, like Keith, I was pissed off at her Aunt. So her Aunt takes off and just disappears off the face of the earth. She doesn’t tell her family, the people who love, care and worry about her anything. She doesn’t tell them that she packed up her life and moved to Europe, she doesn’t tell them that while she was in Europe, she was homeless and then got sick and then died. I mean, she had to have known for a while that she was dying since she had time to write all of those letters and then prepare Ginny’s trip for her. So she’s been sick, she got married and then she dies, all without letting her family know.

I thought that was completely selfish of the Aunt because the family, Ginny especially thought that she was off somewhere, being the independent artist that she is, healthy and alive…only to find out that she’s dead. She finds out by reading these letters that she left behind. I mean, alls well that ends well but still, I thought that was a pretty shitty way to tell the niece that loved the hell out of you everything that you should have told her when she was alive.

Overall, the book had some good parts in it that had me cracking up, like when we first meet Keith and he’s acting in this total shit play and then when Ginny chases down Keith’s friend while he’s piping drunk and it was good to get to know Ginny while she ran around Europe but for me, it lacked the emotional attachment that I usually get with the main characters in any story that I read. So yeah, it was good but it’s not a book that I’d pick up to re-read again.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Harper Teen. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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