282 pages, Kindle Edition
Finished in Sept. 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Adventure, Romance, Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age
Synopsis via 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.Motivation to Read It: My school started a new program this year called Reading Scholars, so that influenced me a little bit. Plus I've been wanting to read this one since I finished 13 Little Blue Envelopes.
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.
Review: It took me two whole months to find time to finish this book, but school didn't keep it from being an awesome sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes. I'm glad that I got a chance to read this series! It's like travelling to Europe with Ginny instead of just reading about her and her friends going. I also learned some things from Ginny's experiences.
Ginny left us in teh last novel with her backpack being stolen and all the letters, including the unread 13th letter, being in the bag as well. Now Oliver, an Englander, contacts her saying that they should meet so he can give her the letter. She goes and discovers that the last letter requires her to travel across Europe once again. This time, however, she brings along Oliver, Keith (remember him?), and Keith's new girlfriend Ellis. Talk about some good reading!
The characters were even better this time around than they were in the first book. Ginny isn't paranoid anymore, and Keith's mixed feelings are enough to keep anyone interested. Oliver had his moments where he seemed as if he actually cared, but at other times he was just being a smart-alick. Even though, at first, I wanted Ginny and Keith to further their "kind-of-something," Ellis was such a sweetheart. She admired Ginny from the stories Keith had told about her and always tried to be as helpful as she could be the entire time they traveled.
The plot was, to me, more fast-paced than the first book. They went to the European countries so fast, and the trips were pretty much a paragraph long, then they explained what happened while they were there. Not that this was a bad thing of course. I'm not too fond of books that move super slow, so it was nice to travel at top speed. Maureen describes the settings, actions, and characters very well. The way they all interacted with each other and their surroundings was definitely entertaining.
Hopefully -- just maybe -- Johnson will decide to write a third book following Ginny. I'm not sure how she could continue the series with the same concept, but I'm sure she'd come up with something truly spectacular!
Satisfying eBook
