This should have been an awesome book. I've been coveting this one for months. It was one of my most anticipated releases for the year. Then Emily May posted a less-than-glowing review a few days ago. I didn't let this deter me. It was going to be a great book. With that premise and cover, how could it not be anything less than kickass? 
 The Good: 
 The premise is awesome. Time traveling through maps? Any world, even magical fictional ones, can be traveled to if you have an excellent map? Family drama? A diverse cast of characters? Maps included INSIDE the book? SIGN UP ME. If only it had been executed well. 
 The writing was decent. This is a fast and easy read. I finished it in about 5-6 hours. There weren't any glaring inconsistencies or sentences that made me roll my eyes. So there's that. 
 Kashmir is the best character, by far. He's humorous and charming. He's a POC love interest which makes me super happy. He's a thief and a con artist which are character traits I always love. He's slightly under developed, but I can let it slide in comparison to all the other glaring issues. 
 The Bad: 
 So much went wrong with this one. My biggest problem as I was reading it is how slow this plot progresses. I'll get into more specifics throughout the review, but the narration dragged on and on. It got caught up in this little scenes that seemed trivial and pointless. And of course, far too much focus was placed on the stupid love triangle. 
 The world building here left me with way too many questions. I don't understand how this world works at all. Are there other Navigators? How did her dad learn how to Navigate? How the hell did he find a boat or figure out he can travel through maps? Is it magic? HOW DOES ANYTHING WORK HERE? 
 Then the few answers we do get are so ridiculous that I can't take them seriously. (Minor, minor spoiler that doesn't affect the plot). (view spoiler)[ Her dad learns how to Navigate by tripping. I shit you not. He trips and time travels after looking at a map in the library. What the actual fuck. I think she was going for realism but it's so ridiculous. (hide spoiler)] 
 Nix is a bland heroine. Sometimes she's sassy. Sometimes she's intelligent. Most of the time, she's caught between two boys. It was hard to feel sympathy for her during the monologues where she's worried about her future existence when most of the narration is filled with this stupid dribble. I didn't care for her at all. 
 The other side characters are not fleshed out. The rest of the crew is just there. Her relationship with her dad is tense and explored in the most superficial way. Blake is useless both as a character and a love interest. His only contribution to the plot is to create tension between Nix and Kashmir. He has nothing redeemable or swoon worthy about him. He's just an American pretty boy who just so happens to have talents helpful to the plot. (view spoiler)[Unfortunately, now he's part of the crew so we're stuck with him in the next book too (if I even decide to read it). (hide spoiler)] 
 For a book that promises time travel and adventure, we are stuck in Honolulu for a majority of the book. We see three other places: India, New York (why do all time travel stories have to revolve around present day New York?), and China. Don't get too excited; it's only about a chapter or two for each. The rest is Hawaii. I would be more excited with a location that's practically nonexistent in YA literature if the entire supporting cast for that setting (minus like three people) weren't white foreigners. What an absolute waste of an opportunity to show the culture of that area or give native Hawaiians more of a role in a time travel book that takes place in Hawaii. 
 Which leads to my next question as I was reading through this story: isn't language a bit of an issue when traveling across the Earth and all these time periods? You wouldn't think so reading this. Apparently they have no problem acclimating to the culture and language of each time period. That leads to a whole new group of questions about how the hell this whole system works. 
 Add a ball (because every historical YA book has to have a fucking ball), and a few random historical info dumps to show the author did some research, and you have a disappointing mess of time travel (not), pirates (not), and intrigue (nope). 
 I'm not even going to tackle the love triangle because I'm fucking tired of them. I hate love triangles. Most YA readers do now. So why are they still so consistent in YA lit? I can list off maybe three series where I've actually enjoyed the love triangle aspect, and this one is not one of them. 
 1/5 stars and a return to Amazon because I don't want this on my bookshelf.