13 Little Blue Envelopes

13 Little Blue Envelopes
Maureen Johnson
336 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Free NookBook!
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

After her aunt's untimely death, Ginny is given a package her aunt put together before she died.  It includes thirteen little blue envelopes and Ginny must open them one at a time and complete the mission within before opening the next envelope.  The mission takes her all over Europe, where her aunt spent the last weeks of her life.

I loved the plot!  It was great to go along with Ginny, reading about far away places and excitedly reading each successive letter to see what she must accomplish next.  Along the way Ginny met some interesting characters, a couple love interests and lots of new friends.  It was great to see Ginny transform during her journey from shy, boring girl, to a little more outgoing and carefree.

What I didn't like at all was Keith, Ginny's main love interest in the novel.  I don't understand why Ginny likes him!  He doesn't sound that attractive, he has a criminal record but lacks the traditional "bad-boy" appeal, he doesn't dote on her at all, doesn't have much of an aspiration for the future except to write plays (not that there's anything wrong with that, but not many people can succeed doing that and he doesn't have a back-up plan!), and I didn't feel any sexual tension between them... I just don't get it.  Maybe you had to be there, which isn't helpful because it's fiction!

Other than Keith, I enjoyed the novel.  I definitely stayed up an hour and a half past my bedtime last night just to finish it up.  It was a very cute YA story and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, The Last Little Blue Envelope, eventually.