13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Summary (via the author's website): "Here’s the deal: Aunt Peg, the New York artist and the person Ginny Blackstone depended on to make her life interesting, took off to Europe without a word three years ago. Aside from a few postcards, Ginny hasn’t heard much. Then she gets a horrible phone call that changes everything.

But the story is only beginning. Soon after, Ginny receives one little blue envelope from Aunt Peg containing a thousand dollars and some very strange instructions…

And with that, she is sent off to pick up a package containing twelve similar envelopes, which she can open one by one, as instructed. Each letter contains a task that Ginny must perform.

Soon, the mild-mannered and quiet Ginny (who’s barely made it out of New Jersey before) finds herself running from London to Paris to Rome, and beyond. Along the way, she collects a number of new friends, including: a manager from Harrods department store who runs errands for the rich and famous, a handsome but maddening thief-turned-playwright, a celebrity painter who tattoos the names of her dead pets on her body, and the angriest vegetable salesman in all of France.

As time goes on, Ginny realizes that her aunt has sent her on a mission, and that there is something big waiting for her in the thirteenth envelope. All she has to do is make it from place to place and complete all of the tasks that have been set before her.

As if life is that easy."

Review: So now I understand why Maureen Johnson is considered one of the Queens of YA. And now I have to read all of her books.

What I liked:
-Seeing Ginny come out of herself and learn to do new things. She stayed true to her personality, so it was still realistic, but she managed to make some pretty exciting things happen in her life. And I liked that.
-Keith. He was a pretty cool dude.
-Aunt Peg's personality really came through the letters. You could understand what she was all about, some.
-Um, that whole Amsterdam thing was just funny.
-In fact, a lot of the book made me laugh.

What I didn't like:
-I... can't really think of anything. I'm trying to even think of a plot point that was predictable, and maybe it's just the fact that I'm SUPER-oblivious when I read, but I didn't really see any of it coming. So way to go, Maureen Johnson!

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, bechdel-test, fluffy, funny, is-or-would-be-a-good-movie, is-this-a-kissing-book, my-kind-of-woman, nook-ya

Rating: