The Kari AnnAlysis

It’s back to Jersey for Ginny and the college application deadline is looming. But how can you ever get back to how life used to be after a life altering trip to Europe? Following in the footsteps of your eccentric aunt? And finally making her the famous artist she always wanted to be?

Well, normalcy is now a thing of Ginny’s past. And just when she’s getting ready to finally start that application, she gets an email from a man in London who says he has her bookbag, you know, the one that was stolen on her previous trip? Which also means the last little blue envelope has been found. So, of course, Ginny must go fulfill her aunt’s final, dying wish.

So, back to London for Ginny, which she isn’t complaining about. Please tell me you haven’t forgotten about Keith. Well let’s just say there’s more than few surprises in Ginny’s future including one from Keith and a whole armful from the guy who has her precious letter.

Ginny is about to embark on another Euro trip, but can the last one be topped?

I absolutely love these books! Yes, it’s probably bad for my health to want to jump on a plane at any moment and head to London, Paris, well, anywhere this group goes, but that’s what Maureen Johnson will do to you. Use this as an “I told you so” for these books.

The adventure that Ginny went on in the first book was amazing and magical, but this second trip takes the cake. In the first one, she’s just kind of going around, walking in her aunt’s footsteps. This one is more of a treasure hunt of sorts, with Ginny in charge of the final piece of artwork in her aunt’s name.

Johnson did a fantastic job of painting these pictures of the cities as clearly as she did the last book, which I thought would be hard to top. I thought even beating the plot of the last book would be impossible, but I loved this one even more.

I really liked how Johnson incorporated the characters and places from the previous book into this one. There were people we met in the first book I wanted more from and someone we didn’t catch up with that I really wanted to. I was glad to have them back.

When I first started these books, I wasn’t sure how much I would like Ginny. I was afraid within the first few pages that she may not be mature enough for the trips, but she proved me wrong. Ginny is definitely an awesome character who is very strong, mature and learns a lot about herself in her European journies.

The one thing I am going to bring up in this review, as I did the last one, is the fact that Ginny’s parents are quite absent. Yes, it’s fiction and I understand you don’t have to account for reality when you don’t write about it. But even if my parents would let me jet set to another country, by myself, I can almost guarentee they wouldn’t let me do it at Christmas! But, I do understand that this meant a lot to this family, fulfilling the wishes of the eccentric aunt, so maybe that was the rationale, but still!

But that alone is not enough to change my opinion about this book and I wish I could give more than 5 bookmarks. I gave 13 Little Blue Envelopes 5 bookmarks, not that I’m regretting it, but I liked this one even better. Maybe I can give it a 5+ bookmarks!

ISBN: 9780061976797
Published: April 26, 2011
Author Website
Kari got this book from Netgalley