Customer Reviews
Sadly not worth the praise - By: Ms. Lisa Woodall, 11 Sep 2008 
I'd heard many good things about this book but unforunatley none of them were true. The idea was good but badly researched, the main character travels through countries the author has obviously not researched very well, it is just full of incorrect facts. The content of the story is dull & predictable & the ending is utterly unsatisfying, the main character seems unphased by events that she should be deliberating for hours. Not worth it.
A Grand Tour, But No Ordinary Tourist - By: Ms Alex, 25 Apr 2008 
These little blue envelopes have been carefully prepared for Ginny by her aunt who has disappeared from her New York life & who is next heard of setting Ginny this amazing challlenge to fly from New York to London with one backpack, the money in the first envelope & no idea what the other twelve envelopes contain...
Ginny is seventeen so this is a book aimed at a younger audience but I reallly enjoyed it for a lighthearted, enjoyable read. There is a wicked sense of humour that surfaces in places & if there are a few too many coincidences then I was willing to forgive them. I loved the idea of the envelopes & it got me thinking what I would want to pass onto a younger niece... :)
Some quotes & memorable moments:
Envelope 6 which involves Rome, sex & cake.
'She was standing in the airport of Copenhagen, staring at a doorway, trying to figure out if it was (a) a bathroom & (b) what kind of bathroom it was. The door merely said H.
Was she an H?
Was H "hers"? It could just as easily be "his". Or "Helicopter Room:Not a Bathroom at All".'
'Pack snacks. This is a good rule to follow in alll aspects of life.'
'A quiet London street - the kind of quiet that whispers wealth, tradition, & the presence of lots of high-tech security systems.'
If you shy from fairytales, don't get a kick out of kaleidoscopes & think student aged travellers are a blight on society then you'll probably do yourself an injury gnashing your teeth attempting this. If however you are young & hopeful that someone will surprise you with an adventure like this one or you are willing to be nostalgic about what adventures you might have had then you should enjoy this nice fluffy book. 8/10. The sort of book you read & then start planning who to buy a copy for... :)
Courtesy of Teens Read Too - By: TeensReadToo.com, 25 Oct 2006 
When Virginia Blackstone (Ginny) receives the first blue envelope from her Aunt Peg in the mail, it sends her on an exciting, funny, & sometimes poignant adventure that readers will be delighted to join. The envelope contains $1,000 in cash, & the instructions to pick up a package of envelopes that start Ginny on a trip around Europe, tracing the steps of her eccentric Aunt. The instructions are specific; no cell phones, no maps, & Ginny can only open one envelope at a time, after she's completed each task in the previous letter.
Through the letters, Ginny learns more about what drove her Aunt to flee to Europe in pursuit of her art, & about her Aunt's last year of life, since Aunt Peg has passed away from a brain tumor by the time the first envelope arrives--and Ginny never got to say good-bye. Through her adventures, Ginny learns a lot about herself. Her own strength & ingenuity, her ability to forgive, & that she, too, can be an interesting person.
Some of the tasks seem impossible; find the one cafe in alll of Paris where her Aunt spent a month sleeping behind the bar & decorating the cafe to pay her rent. Others are easier, at least on the surface; find a starving artist & be his mysterious benefactor. Readers will both laugh at some of Ginny's mishaps & cringe at some of her mistakes as the envelopes lead her around Europe.
Peopled with a strong cast of supporting characters--the cute playwright she meets in London, the annoying family of Americans with a "schedule" in Amsterdam, the crazy artist friends of her Aunt--the novel unfolds at a fast pace, while never losing its poignancy as Ginny retraces the steps of the Aunt she loved. Ms. Johnson has written an excellent & entertaining novel that I highly recommend.
Reviewed by: Dena Landon
