Cathy Reviews: The Girl From Everywhere

My mother in law Cathy is back today sharing her latest review!

THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE
The Girl From Everywhere #1
Heidi Heilig
Young Adult/Time Travel
464 pages
Greenwillow Books
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Nix has spent her entire life aboard her father’s ship, sailing across the centuries, across the world, across myth and imagination.

As long as her father has a map for it, he can sail to any time, any place, real or imagined: nineteenth-century China, the land from One Thousand and One Nights, a mythic version of Africa. Along the way they have found crewmates and friends, and even a disarming thief who could come to mean much more to Nix.

But the end to it all looms closer every day.

Her father is obsessed with obtaining the one map, 1868 Honolulu, that could take him back to his lost love, Nix’s mother. Even though getting it—and going there—could erase Nix’s very existence.

For the first time, Nix is entering unknown waters.

She could find herself, find her family, find her own fantastical ability, her own epic love.

Or she could disappear.

CATHY'S THOUGHTS 
The Girl from Everywhere is Heidi Heilig's debut YA novel, one combining myth, time travel and historical fiction together in a single story. The book is packed with descriptive information and a compelling plotline. Our heroine is 16 year old Nix who travels through time and space aboard the ship, Temptation, with her father and a motley crew that they have collected over the centuries.
 
In this first book, the main plot is centered on Nix's father's desire to go back in time to when her mother was still alive. This causes contention between the two because Nix is unsure if this trip might literally be her last. There is plenty of angst between the pair even if they are time travelers and Nix secretly plots to run away. 

What is unique in this novel is the use of maps. For the Temptation to travel anywhere, there is lots of wheeling and dealing and historical intrigue in order to get a map. While the concept of the maps is very clever, it was also the most challenging aspect of the story for me personally. I wasn't quite sure exactly how all the time travel and transporting worked. It was a little confusing, but at the back of the book Ms. Heilig included an author's note that gave all the details of the myths and history that she had researched and incorporated. I wish I had known this was there and read it first, as I think it might have made some of the plot flow more smoothly.
 
Ms. Heilig does develop the characters with enough depth that we like and care about them. She has included a possible love interest for Nix, Kashmir. He is the best friend, but there are feelings there and we know there is more to come, which is great because this is the first book in the series. As the Temptation sails from Hawaii, we have to wait to see where the next map will take them.

Rating: 3.5/5

Find Heidi:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher  free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my, or in this case Cathy's, honest opinion.