Review: The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

The Girl From Everywhere
Author: Heidi Heilig
Series: The Girl from Everywhere #1
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Time Travel
Release Date: March 3rd 2016

Book Length: 464 pages
Publisher: Hot Key Books

It was the kind of August day that hinted at monsoons, and the year was 1774, though not for very much longer.

Sixteen-year-old Nix Song is a time-traveller. She, her father and their crew of time refugees travel the world aboard The Temptation, a glorious pirate ship stuffed with treasures both typical and mythical. Old maps allow Nix and her father to navigate not just to distant lands, but distant times - although a map will only take you somewhere once. And Nix's father is only interested in one time, and one place: Honolulu 1868. A time before Nix was born, and her mother was alive. Something that puts Nix's existence rather dangerously in question...

Nix has grown used to her father's obsession, but only because she's convinced it can't work. But then a map falls into her father's lap that changes everything. And when Nix refuses to help, her father threatens to maroon Kashmir, her only friend (and perhaps, only love) in a time where Nix will never be able to find him. And if Nix has learned one thing, it's that losing the person you love is a torment that no one can withstand. Nix must work out what she wants, who she is, and where she really belongs before time runs out on her forever.

Goodreads / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble

Review

Nix is a time-travelling pirate, she's a crucial member of her father: Captain Slate’s crew. Together they magically travel through maps all over the world and to different times. However their adventures are coming to a close, Nix’s father is finally closing in on the one map he needs, a map that will take him back to Honolulu 1868; the year his wife died giving birth to Nix. The Captain is fueled by his love and loss of his wife, but Nix is worried about her own fate, if the Captain manages to save her mother, just what will happen to her?

            Nix, her father and the crew embark on a impossible adventure in order to retrieve this magical map, they must travel through time, steal a royal treasury and quite possibly irrevocably change the future of Hawaii. Nix was a nice protagonist but I felt she was outshone by so many extraordinary character's, especially the incredible Kashmir, however this didn’t ruin my reading experience it only made my love for Kash grow and look forward to his and Nix’s interactions more and more.

There’s a wonderful and thrilling sense of adventure with this debut, I could have followed these pirates around the world and back again, they’re such a unique crew and I loved getting to know them and their backgrounds and how they came aboard The Temptation. Nix has a strained relationship with her father, which was interesting to read about, I could really see why they clashed but I also understood why they had such strong convictions.

            Romance only plays a very small part in TGFE, there was a love triangle and I didn’t really care for it, partly because I am already in love with Kashmir but also because I felt no chemistry with the other love interest and Nix. Furthermore the love triangle wasn’t resolved in this book so I can only hope it doesn’t drag too much into the sequel. Let’s just hope that said love interest disappears….

Overall I really enjoyed this book although the last 25% confused the hell out of me, I had little-to-no idea what was going on or what happened but regardless of this, TGFE was fantastic debut. This book was beautifully written and the slow introduction of myths and magic only heightened my interest and enjoyment. Ultimately time-travelling pirates just sound all types of awesome and badass right?