Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Title: 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Author: Maureen Johnson
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 29th January 2009
Series: Little Blue Envelopes #1
Source: Own Kindle Copy

When Ginny receives thirteen little blue envelopes and instructions to buy a plane ticket to London, she knows something exciting is going to happen. What Ginny doesn't know is that she will have the adventure of her life and it will change her in more ways than one. Life and love are waiting for her across the Atlantic, and the thirteen little blue envelopes are the key to finding them in this funny, romantic, heartbreaking novel. - From Goodreads

A literary shout out to my hood!! This may be a common occurrence for some people who live in London or New York, but I come from an area in Edinburgh that has a less than stellar reputation. It is unusual to see Leith mentioned (in a good way), so I actually clapped for joy when Ginny travel to Leith as part of her journey.

Leith Gang Graffiti

I am not a huge fan of the Journey style story, as I like to get a good feel for where the character is and constantly changing scenery makes that trickier, but I felt like I was travelling alongside Ginny through this adventure and I enjoyed all of the twists and turns.

Ginny has lost her Aunt so when a package of 13 letters arrives from her Aunt in the post she feels that she has to follow the directions left on the letter left for her. This letter leads her to a flat in London where her Aunt used to live and from there 13 letters, in beautifully decorated envelopes take her on a Trip around Europe. During her travels Ginny meets some amazing people and learns to know who she is.

Ginny was a likeable character who goes from being quite nervous and unsure of herself to a strong, confident girl, ready for anything. I enjoyed seeing the progression of the character through the story and seeing how she handles the hurdles that life throws at her differently at the beginning and at the end of her story. There was a rotating support cast with this book. Since Ginny travelled so much there were a few characters who were consistent, but most of the people we met came into Ginny's life and left just as fast. These characters helped to enrich the story and add a warmth to a story that could have been a little lonely.

The story itself was interesting and fun with little twists along the way. The locations that Ginny travels to are interesting and fun much like the people she meets. The end of the story genuinely made me cry, but it was a good type of heartbreak and I was completely fine with the ending. I did not feel like I was missing anything, and I finished the book satisfied. I don't feel that I need a sequel to this, but I will read it as I am interested in seeing what Ginny is up to in the future.

Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Published: 24th April 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Series: Blood of Eden #1
Source: eARC thanks to NetGalley and publisher

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.
Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.
Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.
Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.
But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for. - From Goodreads

I had heard very little about this book and had blown it off as "just another vampire story". The reason I decided to read the book was Julie Kagawa. I have not read the Iron Fey series, it is one of those series I keep meaning to read, but I have heard so many good things about them. So with this series under her belt, I was hoping that Julie Kagawa would bring something different to the genre.

Allie lives in a future where society as we know it has totally broken down. A plague known as Red Lung has killed a massive number of humans, and in the search for a cure rabids were born. Now humans live in Vampire Cities protected from the rabids in walled cities, but there is a cost. Registered humans get food, but are kept as pets and willing blood donors. Allie is unregistered and this means that every day for her has been about surviving. Her whole world is turned on it's head when she is turned into a vampire and sent out to fend for herself.

I like Allie, she is quite a closed off character and at the start of the story when she was scavenging for survival I found her a little difficult to relate to. I began to warm to her, the internal struggles she had while discovering herself as a vampire were well written and made me like her even more. There are a number of other characters in the book that appear and then disappear. I liked Zeke, he made a great counterpart to Allie. All of the characters she encounters on her journey, from a human surviving in New Covington and on to a Vampire searching for Eden, were great. Don't get too attached to anyone though, this is an apocalyptic vampire book after all! 

We are all quite familiar by this point and some of them were beginning to feel really familiar. However the pairing of a broken society run, in the most part, by vampires made an interesting read. The story is a journey and there were a couple of times when the pace felt a little slow, but I always wanted to know what was coming next. The book is split into parts and these felt like they were well defined sections and I really enjoyed the change in tone or feeling that a new section brought.

I really enjoyed this book. The only thing I had a problem with was the cover. From the start we are told that Allie is a short Asian girl, but this does not fit with the girl on the cover. Details like this are a little annoying, how hard would it have been to find a model that looked like the description of Allie? Putting this aside, I will be reading the next book in the series, I need to know where Allie will be going from there!