Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

13 Little Blue Envelopes
Maureen Johnson
YA Contemporary, Road Trip

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.

I have only ever read 2 other works by Maureen Johnson- Suite Scarlett and a Bane Chronicles story (a colab with Cassandra Clare). I also follow her on Twitter, and yes, she's as funny as her reputation. So needless to say, I really looked forward to reading this and was not disappointed.

Firstly, the book had a distinct feeling that the author had done some this herself. There were some authentic American-lost-in-Britain laughs that only come with experience, and I absolutely loved that. Of course you can't go wrong with a road trip, but this one being all over Europe and the fact that Ginny and the reader have absolutely no idea where they're going next added to the magic and unpredictability of the story.

Character wise, this book was just fascinating! Ginny meets regular people, artists, hermits, tourists, and plain old crazies from all over the world, each of whom could have had their own story. There was lots of depth and development and subplot that made the novel more and more intriguing as you kept going. 

Dialogue and romance were flawless. No insta-love, but some insta-lust- very realistically teenagery. Keith was actually hysterical, but not in the typical bad-boy way. Reminded me a little of Puck from The Sisters Grimm series of The Iron Fey series (Puck seems to have a similar personality wherever he appears:)) I loved how he showed up when he was needed, but ultimately it was Ginny's journey and she did most of it on her own.

Overall, 13 Little Blue Envelopes is a work of art, and I'm really looking forward to reading The Last Little Blue Envelope! Recommended for everyone! Rating: 4.5 stars

Love, Esty