Review: The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

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.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

Rating:  3.75 Stars

There seem to be a lot of pirate themed novels coming out this year. I can't recall any I've ever read, with perhaps the exception of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Princess Bride (sort of), but The Girl From Everywhere was a good place to start among the many offerings in 2016

I enjoyed the concept of time travel by pirate ship. Time travel alone is a cool concept, one I very much like (big Doctor Who fan), but by pirate ship?

Heidi included some intriguing things involved with the travel of The Temptation (Nix's father's ship). He pilots, but only she can read the map. It brought up the very real question, in terms of the story, of possible paradoxes. If he succeeds in his goal, will she still exist? It's a question that had me wondering throughout the book (I tend to overthink time travel and the whole step-on-a-butterfly theory).

Kasmir was one of my favorite "secondary" characters. He reminded me, in terms of mannerisms, a bit of Gambit from the X-men (yum!).

As a fairly thick novel, I liked that there was a lot of story to go through (the bigger the book the better in most cases), but this felt a bit heavy at times. The beginning was a bit slow to get through and I could see why other readers might have had trouble with the pacing.

I do think the story is rewarding, though. If you stick with it, you're treated to a grand adventure through space and time (doo wee ooo...).

My only regret is that, as this was an ARC, I'm going to have to wait such a long time before the next book in the series.

Music Recommendation

Once I thought of the tune, I couldn't get it out of my head and I can think of no better song for a time travel song that this.

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