The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig. Published by Hot Key Books on March 3. 2016. Received for review from Hot Key Books. 

I've been seeing The Girl from Everywhere everywhere on the interwebs so when I was contacted by the publisher I knew I had to read it! And I have to admit, it's one of the best books of 2016!

The Girl from Everywhere is about Nix Song, Nix can time travel through maps, or rather, navigate through time using maps. It has to be handmade maps though and you're transported to the maker's version of that time and place! They obviously can't travel to the future then, and they can only use every map once! I love how specific that is!
You don't have to be on a ship to navigate through time using maps, but that way you can take everything you want with you.

The Girl from Everywhere really surprised me. I had high expectations and most were met! I haven't read anything like this, usually time travel is just 'I want to go to ______' and they're suddenly transported there. The best way to explain it is probably that it is more believable - even though we know it can't happen. I love that they have to search for maps and the fact that they can't just use any map! It's detailed and very thought through - so intriguing and interesting!

I haven't read a lot of books featuring pirates, to be honest I can only name Tiger Lily and Peter Pan, so this was quite different - even though they're technically not pirates, I get a pirate-y feel from the book. I wish there were more books like this out there because this is definitely one of the special ones you see once, or maybe less, a year.

Nix is quite the character and her upbringing is nothing to brag about! Her mother died not long after she was born and her father, Slate, sought after her, found her and took her with him. He hasn't been the most loving and caring father but she loves him all the same and while it's not apparent at first - he loves her too. Nix has never had many friends since they don't stay in a place too long, she has the crewmates and Kashmir - a persian guy who jumped on the ship a few years back.
Kashmir is Nix's best friend and well, you know what happens between best friends in YA novels, right? I loved the two of them together and I love their friendship to a degree I can't express! Too many YA novels focus on romance and The Girl from Everywhere doesn't! There's some romance in there but it stays in the background and let the story run it's course. So thank you for that Heidi Heilig!

MAP, OAHU 1884

 I absolutely love the details of the maps in this books, and yes, there's a bunch of different maps! They're all completely different in style and shape and I love that amount of details! There's so much effort that has gone into the making of The Girl from Everywhere and it just deepens my love for the book.

ONE MORE LOOK AT THE GORGEOUS COVER

The Girl from Everywhere is one of the most special, and just plain different, books I've read this year and definitely one of the best. I'd expected a bit more which is why I've given it a 4.5 rating and not the whole 5 stars. I highly recommend it!