ARC Review: The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Author:  Heidi Heilig

Genre: Young adult, historical, fantasy

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Publication Date: February 16, 2016

464 pages, hardcover

Check out the full synopsis on Goodreads.

NOTE: I was provided with an e-ARC of this book via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Greenwillow Books for letting me read this!

This book, you guys. Heart eyes all the way over here. The Girl from Everywhere is full of magic and myths and beautiful writing. It’s got fantastic, strong, swoony characters and so much life. It’s magical – the story, the characters, the places, the actual magic. So so good.

I’ve got to start by talking about the world building which is utter perfection. Heidi is able to beautifully describe each of the (many) settings in such a way that they are all distinct. You can actually picture each of them, and this is a big feat. We’ve got New York, Hawaii, ancient China, a version of Africa only seen in myths.

And the characters are just as wonderful. Nix is independent and smart, and I was rooting for her the whole time. I loved following her on this journey, and I really appreciated her growth. I really loved all of the characters in the book (and I think that every single one of them was well-developed – like, seriously. I could picture them all), but after Nix, my favorite character is hands down Kash. You guys, Kash is bae. He’s from a fictional version of Arabia (it’s kind of impossible to not think of him as Aladdin), and he’s wonderful and swoony. But the best part to me? The romance wasn’t really the focus in this story. It’s there, sure, but not in the foreground, and I really appreciated that.

My favorite part though has just got to be the idea of travel like this – through time and space and myths and legends. It was absolutely fascinating, and I could read 100 more books like this and never get bored. There are so many places they could travel. I’m excited that this is the start of a series!

If I had to voice a small complaint, it would be that the book is a bit confusing once or twice because of the vast amount of information and stories we’re given. But it all makes sense in the end, and it obviously didn’t hinder my enjoyment much.

The bottom line: Read this if you like fantasy books. Read it if you like magical, amazing worlds and characters. Read this if you like great writing and fantastic stories. You know what?  Just read it, okay?

Rating: 8 – freaking fantastic