2021 Beat the Backlist challenge
ARC Review: The Girl from Everywhere (The Girl from Everywhere #1) by Heidi Heilig
10:00
Series: The Girl from Everywhere #1
Author: Heidi Heilig
Published March 3rd 2016 by Hot Key Books
Goodreads Synopsis
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.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
For Nix, her entire life has been spent on The Temptation. With her father and the other crewmates, they travel the globe, using hand drawn maps to visit far flung sites, across the centuries, and even delving into mythology at times. She was born in Hawaii in 1868, and when her mother died, her father became obsessed with finding a way to return and save his beloved, to the detriment of Nix herself. Now on a hare-brained scheme to recover enough money to buy a map to the correct time, Nix needs to use all of her wits to ensure the safety of herself, and protect her friends.
I’ve had this book on my tbr since 2016, when I was sent a review copy, and for some reason, I just haven’t got around to reading it, until now. I liked the book, don’t get me wrong, but I think that I may have enjoyed it more if I’d read it at the time. The time travelling aspect, and especially the addition of mythology – like 1001 Nights, The Emperor’s Tomb and terracotta army, etc. – was refreshing, but very much similar to another time travelling series I enjoyed. I think part of my issue was with Nix, who I never really warmed too, or liked all that much. For me, she was too blah, and I felt like her character could’ve been so much better, if there was more development. Being a historian, seeing 19th Century Hawaii was lovely, as were all of the places The Temptation travelled to, but I was just left wanting something – nothing I can put my finger on, but still missing. I will be reading the sequel – partially because I want to improve my NG ratio, but also I want to see what happens. Maybe Nix will developed further now she’s at the helm?
Dates Read:
February 1-4, 2021
Rating
3 Stars
