The Girl from Everywhere

By: Heidi Heilig

Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

Heidi Heilig's debut teen fantasy sweeps from modern-day New York City to 19th-century Hawaii to places of myth and legend. 

Sixteen-year-old Nix has sailed across the globe and through centuries aboard her time-traveling father's ship. But when he gambles with her very existence, it all may be about to end. 

The Girl from Everywhere, the first of two books, blends fantasy, history, and a modern sensibility. Its witty, fast-paced dialogue, breathless adventure, multicultural cast, and enchanting romance will dazzle readers of Sabaa Tahir, Rae Carson, and Rachel Hartman. 

Nix's life began in Honolulu in 1868. Since then she has traveled to mythic Scandinavia, a land from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, modern-day New York City, and many more places both real and imagined. As long as he has a map, Nix's father can sail his ship, the Temptation, to any place, any time. But now he's uncovered the one map he's always sought - 1868 Honolulu, before Nix's mother died in childbirth. 

Nix's life - her entire existence - is at stake. No one knows what will happen if her father changes the past. It could erase Nix's future, her dreams, her adventures...her connection with the charming Persian thief, Kash, who's been part of their crew for two years. If Nix helps her father reunite with the love of his life, it will cost her her own. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2016 Heidi Heilig (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Great Story, Dismal Hawaiian Pronunciation

The story was simply wonderful and the performance was good, until the Hawaiian words were introduced. I was appalled by the lack of preparation by the reader for proper pronunciation of the language. Living in Hawaiʻi and working with the language daily made me more frustrated. I would have stopped listening if the story was poor. Please, take this review to performers and make sure they understand that they are performing. It only a story, but honoring a culture.

Engrossing adventure

I'm not the target audience for this book. I downloaded it because the author was a friend of a friend and listened to it during a semi-cross country trip. With most audible books, I take a break and check out other work. This story was too intriguing for me to stop. The character relationships are believable, the locales exciting, and the plot unique and enjoyable. I strongly recommend this book to lovers of travel, adventure, romance, and an exploration of addiction and strained family ties. In short- pick it up!

Great concept, boring execution.

If you were thinking that the exploits of a time traveling ship would be about imaginative adventure, I just your expectations down. Well there is some interesting use of the fantasy plot device, mostly we get a pallid love triangle mostly sat in the 1800s Hawaii. The author seems totally uninterested in creating set rules are mechanics for how the travel works. I will say that I thought the book was performed very well.

Good time travel story

I really enjoyed this- finished it in one go & it really helped distract me from a hip & leg in excruciating pain today. I’m definitely interested to see how the story continues in book two!

More Twilight than swashbuckling

If you're looking for a teen novel love story than this is it. Characters were good but it book was more about angsty love than I was hoping for. Good performance. Not a bad time waster.

Disappointed

I was really hoping for a more adventurous story. I wanted to come aboard the ship & go to lands & times not known to me. No Bueno. To be honest, the book was a bore.

Good story, HORRIBLE reader.

Would you try another book from Heidi Heilig and/or Kim Mai Guest?

This reader should have consulted with the author or someone knowledgable of the Hawaiian language, because her enunciation sucked! Seriously, it was difficult to listen to.

Blends ships and time travel seamlessly!

I quite enjoyed The Girl from Everywhere. I’m fascinated with time travel and ships, and Heidi Heilig blended them together beautifully. She didn’t just imagine a ship that travels through time, but she incorporated old navigational maps into the story. It wasn’t just a ship that happened to also be a time machine, it actually sailed across time to historic destinations depicted on maps, which you can’t get to otherwise. I also like how the mechanics of time travel are constant in this book. It’s not just a chaotic, “anything goes” type of time travel that makes your head spin because you can’t keep up with what is and isn’t possible. (Take notes Marvel Cinematic Universe…) The time travel actually makes since. Heidi Heilig used the self-consistency principle, where the events in one character’s future can affect the course of another character’s past, even before the first character’s future happens. She could have explained the complete timeline at the end of the book a little better, but as a time travel author myself I can definitely sympathize with the extreme difficulty of explaining the complicated timeline of a time traveler.

Interesting premise, but did not draw me in

The narration was clear and expressive. Though I did not like the tone used for the main protagonist, the other tones and variations used for the other characters were great.

The story itself was a bit boring. This is very much the introduction to a series since there is little adventure until the end of the book. I understand that the world needs to be built, but it could have been done with perhaps more missions or flashbacks to missions, instead of just mentioning them.

The magic or fantasy element of the story is unique to me; I've never read anything similar. Even though the way the world works is puzzling to the reader as well as the characters, what we find out is fascinating and sparks more interest and questions into how their story continues in the next book.

Fantastic Adventure!

The detail of the ship and Nix's surroundings put me directly into the story. And having ready some of the legend/myths that had been woven into the story made it even more intriguing. Heidi made me want to jump on a boat and sail to places I haven't been, especially Hawaii. And having a touch of romance didn't hurt, but I promise light. I definitely recommend this story.