Title: The Girl from Everywhere
Author: Heidi Heilig
Series: The Girl from Everywhere #1
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Narrator: Kim Mai Guest
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Length: 10 hours and 9 minutes
Source: Library
Rating: ⭐
Find it Here: Amazon // Audible // Goodreads

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.

My Review:

I really thought I was going to love The Girl from Everywhere because everything in the synopsis appeals to me and it right in my reading wheelhouse. We have time-travel, fantasy, a story taking place in the late 1800's, probably very little romance (but you never know until you read it) and a girl who is going on this awesome adventure! What could I not love about a story about maps that all people to time-travel to when the map was drawn? Turns out, a lot.

I actually did enjoy probably the first half of the book. It started off really great and interesting. Nix and the crew come into 2016 from some far away time in the hopes that her father can acquire a map of Hawaii of 1868, believed the be drawn in the year of 1868. They get the map and go back to when Hawaii had it's own king, but as soon as they get there, they realize that the map was not drawn in 1868 and therefore, they are not in 1868 Hawaii. The map was a trap and now Nix's father in on a mission to figure out how he is going to get to 1868. 

After a while, the story just got boring. The audio book narrator was great, I just found that the story was just not interesting anymore. I also felt like it was going completely off path of what had been set up in the beginning. As things are happening, I'm thinking to myself, "why are they doing this and why is this happening." 

I literally listened to 90% of the book until I just couldn't do it anymore. I had had enough of this story that was seemingly going who knows where and I was completely lost because it had become so boring that I found myself tuning it out. Needless to say, The Girl from Everywhere was disappointing and poorly executed when it sounded like it could really be a great YA fantasy series. 

Book Review: Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

Title: Ink and Bone

Author: Rachel Caine

Series: The Great Library #1

Publisher: NAL

Release Date: July 07, 2015

Genre: Dystopian/Fantasy

Source: Purchased

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Find it Here: Amazon // Goodreads

Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.

Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service.

When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn…

My Review:

I'm pretty sure I bought Ink and Bone when it was first released two years ago. I picked it up to read it not long after but I just wasn't feeling the first chapter. So I put it down and it took me another two years to finally pick it back up and give it a chance. And I'm so glad I did because once I really got into it, I really loved it!

I think the world building in Ink and Bone is very interesting. I never would have imagined a world where traditional governments like kings and presidents no longer exist but the library is the governing force for a united world order. And it's all very fascinating how actual book and paper are illegal and everyone has a blank, which I imagine is something like a Kindle, where they can call up almost any novel that has been archived by The Great Library. Because book are illegal, they become part of the black market and Jess, our main character, grows up in a family that deals in the trade of rare books. His whole life he's always tried to stay out of the eye of the Great Library but when his father ask him to become a student of the library in the hopes of getting a job to have someone on the inside, he begins to realize how much he loves being a part of what his think is preserving information.

I also loved the fantasy element to Ink and Bone. They can teleport halfway across the world (even though it's very painful) and they can teleport books they find in raid back to The Great Library. They have things called auto bots that are protectors of the library and they most come in different animal forms. There are so many fun little details to this world that were really well thought out. All the characters have a lot of depth and layers that you keep discovering throughout the novel.

I couldn't imagine living in a world where books are illegal. Holding a book and reading on a Kindle is just not the same thing at all. I really hope this turns out to be a great series because I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!