The Girl from Everywhere

If you don't follow Heidi Heilig on twitter (@heidiheilig), you should. Not only is she funny and smart, but she posts the most amazing book-inspired fashions for all the 2016 debut authors.

I wasn't at all surprised to find that Heidi's debut, THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE, is as delightful and detail-conscious as she is. Sixteen-year-old Nix was born in 1868 Hawaii, but she hails from, well, everywhere. Her father is a Navigator, able to travel across time in his ship, so long as he has an accurate map of his destination. His current obsession is returning to 1868 Hawaii, to save Nix's mom before she dies giving birth to Nix. But much as Nix has loved traveling with her father, much as she likes the idea of meeting her mother, this is one destination she wants to avoid at all costs: if her father succeeds, it might wipe out Nix's very existence.

While much of the book deals with Nix's wrestle with her father's obsession, there's so much more. When they arrive in 1884 Hawaii in search of the much-sought-after map, she meets a range of new characters who challenge her in new ways, and she falls in love with the island that might be the closest thing she has to home.

The characters in Heilig's debut are charming, from strong-willed, smart-mouthed Nix, to her friend Kashmir, a talented thief; to the more-straight laced American-Hawaiian boy she meets in 1884. But what really sold me on the story was the details: the deftness with which Heilig throws in a casual reference to the Arabian tales cheek by jowl with the sky-herring who light the lamps of the Temptation (her father's ship). The story itself is interesting, complex, and fast-paced, but it was the attention to wonderful historical details that made me fall in love with this story.